Shunryu Suzuki Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.

Shunryu Suzuki
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.

Shunryu Suzuki
There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.

Shunryu Suzuki
Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

Shunryu Suzuki
To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.

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

Shunryu Suzuki
Even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way.

Shunryu Suzuki
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

Shunryu Suzuki
We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.

Shunryu Suzuki
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.

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

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

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

Shunryu Suzuki
There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.

Shunryu Suzuki
Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

Shunryu Suzuki
An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.

Shunryu Suzuki
People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.

Shunryu Suzuki
If you think you will get something from practicing zazen, already you are involved in impure practice.

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

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

Shunryu Suzuki
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.

Shunryu Suzuki
To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body.

Shunryu Suzuki
When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

Shunryu Suzuki
You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.

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
In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

Shunryu Suzuki
Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.

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
It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.

Shunryu Suzuki
Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.

Shunryu Suzuki