D. T. Suzuki - Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934)

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The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man's own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within.

D. T. Suzuki
There are in Zen no sacred books or dogmatic tenets, nor are there any symbolic formulae through which an access might be gained into the signification of Zen. If I am asked, then, what Zen teaches, I would answer, Zen teaches nothing. Whatever teachings there are in Zen, they come out of one's own mind. We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.

D. T. Suzuki
Zen professes
itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all
religions and philosophies,

D. T. Suzuki
Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water.

D. T. Suzuki
The discipline of Zen consists in opening the mental eye in order to look into the very reason of existence.

D. T. Suzuki
Zen has nothing to teach us in the way of intellectual analysis; nor has it any set doctrines which are imposed on its followers for acceptance.

D. T. Suzuki
Zen abhors repetition or imitation of any kind, for it kills. For the same reason Zen never explains, but only affirms. Life is fact and no explanation is necessary or pertinent. To explain is to apologize, and why should we apologize for living? To live—is that not enough? Let us then live, let us affirm! Herein lies Zen in all its purity and in all its nudity as well.

D. T. Suzuki
Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one's own rules-this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.

D. T. 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
Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Whatever is superadded or violently torn away, injures the wholesomeness of the spirit. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism.

D. T. Suzuki
Zen wants us to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature. This is because Zen has come to the definite conclusion that the ordinary logical process of reasoning is powerless to give final satisfaction to our deepest spiritual needs.

D. T. Suzuki
Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism... We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task.

D. T. Suzuki
Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only borrowed plumage.

D. T. Suzuki
Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit. And where is the spirit? Seek it in your everyday experience, and therein lies abundance of proof for all you need.

D. T. Suzuki
Personal experience, therefore, is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

D. T. Suzuki