Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Life is like stepping into a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink. - SHUNRYU SUZUKI ROSHI A ~ Pema Chodron

When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We die, and we do not die. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

You may say that things happen just by chance, but I don't feel that way. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything ... if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

More important than any stage which you will attain is your sincerity, your right effort. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner."
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"When you are sitting in the middle of your own problem, which is more real to you: your problem or you yourself? The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact. "
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"Knowing that your life is short, to enjoy it day after day, moment after moment, is the life of "form is form and emptiness is emptiness."
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"You may feel as if you are doing something special, but actually it is only the expression of your true nature; it is the activity which appeases your inmost desire. But as long as you think you are practicing zazen for the sake of something, that is not true practice."
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"The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We should not attach to some fancy ideas or to some beautiful things. We should not seek for something good. The truth is always near at hand, within your reach. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When your life is always a part of your surroundings - in other words, when you are called back to yourself, in the present moment - then there is no problem. When you start to wander about in some delusion which is something apart from you yourself, then your surroundings are not real anymore, and your mind is not real anymore. If you yourself are deluded, then your surroundings are also a misty, foggy delusion. Once you are in the midst of delusion, there is no end to delusion. You will be involved in deluded ideas one after another. Most people live in delusion, involved in their problem, trying to solve their problem. But just to live is actually to live in problems. And to solve the problem is to be a part of it, to be one with it. So ~ Shunryu Suzuki

It is necessary to remember what we have done, but we should not become attached to what we have done in some special sense. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

TRANSIENCY We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another ... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The way that helps will not be the same; it changes according to the situation. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

enjoy your problems ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In your big mind, everything has the same value ... In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood ~ Shunryu Suzuki

It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or for yourself; it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time; you should work on it with nothing in your mind, and without expecting anything. You should just cook! ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.
In our scriptures (Samyuktagama Sutra, volume 33), it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one does, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn how to run! ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. There is no distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman; sometimes a woman bows to a man. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master; sometimes the master bows to the disciple ... In your big mind, everything has the same value. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world" but actually, There is just one whole world. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

But as long as you have some fixed idea or are caught by some habitual way of doing things, you cannot appreciate things in their true sense. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Although Buddhism is unattainable, we vow to attain it.If it is unattainable, how can we attain it? But we should! That is Buddhism. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If you are not concerned about what you do, you will not say so. When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat. That is all. If you say, "It doesn't matter," it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: "What is the First Principle?" Bodhidharma said, "I don't know." "I don't know" is the First Principle. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Even in zazen you will lose yourself. When you become sleepy, or when your mind starts to wander about, you lose yourself. When your legs become painful - "Why are my legs so painful?" - you lose yourself. "
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"You just sit in the midst of the problem; when you are a part of the problem, or when the problem is a part of you, there is no problem, because you are the problem itself. The problem is you yourself. If this is so, there is no problem."
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"When you start to wander about in some delusion which is something apart from you yourself, then your surroundings are not real anymore, and your mind is not real anymore. If you yourself are deluded, then your surroundings are also a misty, foggy delusion. Once you are in the midst of delusion, there is no end to delusion. You will be involved in deluded ideas one after another. Most people live in delusion, involved in their problem, trying to solve their problem. But just to live is actually to live in problems. And to solve the problem is to be a part of it, to be one with it. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We say, "To hear the sound of one hand clapping." Usually the sound of clapping is made with two hands, and we think that clapping with one hand makes no sound at all. But actually, one hand is sound. Even though you do not hear it, there is sound. If you clap with two hands, you can hear the sound. But if sound did not already exist before you clapped, you could not make the sound. Before you make it there is sound. Because there is sound, you can make it, and you can hear it. Sound is everywhere. If you just practice it, there is sound. Do not try to listen to it. If you do not listen to it, the sound is all over. Because you try to hear it, sometimes there is sound, and sometimes there is no sound. Do you understand? Even though you do not do anything, you have the quality of zazen always. But if you try to find it, if you try to see the quality, you have no quality. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Everything you do is right, nothing you do is wrong, yet you must still make ceaseless effort. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Many experts lose the creativity and imagination of the less informed. They are so intimately familiar with known patterns that they may fail to recognize or respect the importance of the new wrinkle. The process of applying expertise is, after all, the editing out of unimportant details in favor of those known to be relevant. Zen master, Shunryu Suzuki said, The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. ~ Gavin De Becker

When you try to attain something, your mind starts to wander about somewhere else. When you do not try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here.
In Buddhism it is a heretical view to expect something outside this world. We do not seek for something besides ourselves. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We must exist right here, right now! ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Our way to practice is one step at a time, on breath at a time. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Suppose you recite the Prajna Paramita Sutra only once. It might be a very good recitation. But what would happen to you if you recited it twice, three times, four times, or more? You might easily lose your original attitude towards it. The same thing will happen in your other Zen practices. For a while you will keep your beginner's mind, but if you continue to practice one, two, three years or more, although you may improve some, you are liable to lose the limitless meaning of original mind. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don't serve them tea. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

I think you're all enlightened, until you open your mouths. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We must make some effort, but we must forget ourselves in the effort we make ... So it is necessary for us to encourage ourselves and to make an effort up to the last moment, when all effort disappears. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When we see a part of the moon covered by a cloud, or a tree, or a weed, we feel how round the moon is. But when we see the clear moon without anything covering it, we do not feel that roundness the same way we do when we see it through something else. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being, moment after moment. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Those who can sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen, the actual feeling of Zen, the marrow of Zen. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Sanity and enlightenment ... I've been reading a new book Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries, and it contains a commentary on Genjo Koan by Shunryu Suzuki, the author who wrote Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. He doesn't mention sanity at all but I think that one possible definition of enlightenment would be a kind of profound sanity, where being insane is no longer an option. ~ Brad Warner

Tai Shimano visited Shunryu Suzuki. "How are you feeling these days?" Suzuki replied, "They have a new name for me: Cancer!" ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Without ignoring the objective side of the truth, it has to be subjective as well, Buddha's whole teaching just for you, something you can taste. Not something to believe in but to discover, to experience. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

So even though you have some difficulty in your practice, even though you have some waves while you are sitting, those waves themselves will help you. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In Hinayana Buddhism, practice is classified in four ways. The best way is just to do it without having any joy in it, not even spiritual joy. This way is just to do it, forgetting your physical and mental feeling, forgetting all about yourself in your practice. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Happiness is sorrow; sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty; difficulty in happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different; in essense they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Discipline is creating the situation. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Those who sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

A garden is never finished. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In the beginner's mind there is no thought, "I have attained something." All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. Dogen-zenji, the founder of our school, always emphasized how important it is to resume our boundless original mind. Then we are always true to ourselves, in sympathy with all beings, and can actually practice. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When we hear the sound of the pine trees on a windy day, perhaps the wind is just blowing, and the pine tree is just standing in the wind. That is all they are doing. But the people who listen to the wind in the tree will write a poem, or will feel something unusual. That is, I think, the way everything is. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Enlightenment is not some good feeling or some particular state of mind. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment. If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen, it means your mind is still wandering about. Our body and mind should not be wobbling or wandering about. In this posture there is no need to talk about the right state of mind. You already have it. This is the conclusion of Buddhism. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

You will find the worst horse is the most valuable one. In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind ... But those who find great difficulties in practicing Zen will find more meaning in it. So I think that sometimes the best horse may be the worst horse, and the worst horse can be the best one. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Not to be attached to something is to be aware of its absolute value. Everything you do should be based on such an awareness, and not on material or self-centered ideas of value. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Moment after moment, everyone comes out from nothingness. This is the true joy of life. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In our everyday life we are usually trying to do something, trying to change something into something else, or trying to attain something. Just this trying is already in itself an expression of our true nature. The meaning lies in the effort itself. We should find out the meaning of our effort before we attain something. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Time goes from present to past. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Everything changes. There is nothing to stick to. That is the Buddha's most important teaching. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

To renounce things is not to give them up. It is to acknowledge that all things go away. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Our way is not to sit to acquire something; it is to express our true nature. That is our practice. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Waves are the practice of the water. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Try not to force your idea on someone, but rather think about it with him. If you feel you have won the discussion, that also is the wrong attitude. Try not to win in the argument; just listen to it ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Usually when you practice zazen, you become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. But as I have often said, this is absurd. When you are idealistic, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

You can't make a date with enlightenment. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. In our way the point of the angle is always toward ourselves. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

There is no gap between the ignorant and the wise. A foolish person is a wise person; a wise person is a foolish person. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is.
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Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind. ~ Shunryu Suzuki