Torao Suzuki Quotes

Zen has nothing to do with letters, words, or sutras. ~ D.T. Suzuki

Well it's always been an interesting area for me. In referencing something I just reread from Dogen it says, "Enlightenment doesn't break the person anymore than the reflection breaks the water" and Suzuki in his commentary is saying you don't lose your personality once you acquire some sort of Buddhist understanding. ~ Brad Warner

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

Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours. ~ 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

The way we've set up corporations, even a majority vote of stockholders cannot demand that a corporation's policies reflect the public good or preserve the environment for future use. That's because profit is the one and only motive. It's up to government and it's up to people to protect the public interest. Corporations are simply not allowed to. ~ David 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

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

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

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

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 we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us. ~ David Suzuki

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, 'Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.' ~ Shunryu Suzuki

It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Everybody in the states is so relaxed, and everybody in Japan is so uptight. ~ Ichiro Suzuki

Art always has something of the unconscious about it. ~ D.T. Suzuki

We should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our knowledge. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

I have come to the definite conclusion that musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which can be developed. ~ Shinichi Suzuki

I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of this desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring woods:-in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No worldly discussion is necessary, or any explanation. ~ D.T. Suzuki

So without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself freely as you are is the most important thing to make yourself happy, and to make others happy ... So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings ... it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Trees for which there is no commercial value are referred to as "weeds" that interfere with commercial harvesting. That's what alders were called until a method to make high-grade paper from them was developed, but you'd never know that alders play an important ecological role. They are the first trees to grow after an opening is cleared in a forest, and they fix nitrogen from the air to fertilize the soil for the later-growing, longer-lived, bigger tree species. Yew trees have tough wood with gnarled branches and were called weeds and burned until a powerful anti-cancer agent was found in their bark. ~ David Suzuki

Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Just continue in your calm, ordinary practice and your character will be built up. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We try, and we try, and we fail; and then we go deeper. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

You must learn to look at things without preconceptions. Trust nothing. ~ Koji Suzuki

Beyond reducing individual use, one of our top priorities must be to move from fossil fuels to energy that has fewer detrimental effects on water supplies and fewer environmental impacts overall. ~ David Suzuki

I learned many things from Professor Brown, including his philosophy toward research, but there is one thing he said that I recall with particular clarity: 'Do research that will be in the textbooks.' It is not easy to do such work, but this has remained my motto. ~ Akira Suzuki

Whether you have a problem in your life or not depends upon your own attitude, your own understanding. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit. ~ David Suzuki