Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Quotes about:

• As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Saws, Awareness

  79 Copy quote

• The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. 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. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Nature, Practice, Doubt

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.14, Shambhala Publications

  3 Copy quote

• You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Way, Lasts, Forget

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.27, Shambhala Publications

  3 Copy quote

• Leave your front door and your back door open.
  Allow your thoughts to come and go.
  Just don't serve them tea.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Doors, Tea, Comes And Goes

  109 Copy quote

• Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Teacher, Eye, Long

  79 Copy quote

• 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

  Mind, Causes, Calm

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.18, Shambhala Publications

  96 Copy quote

• Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  True Joy, Moments, Joy Of Life

  34 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Yoga, Buddhism, Mma

  94 Copy quote

• How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Ego, Needs, Steps

  63 Copy quote

• If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Gratitude, Flower, Appreciate

  Shunryu Suzuki (1999). “Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai”, p.88, Univ of California Press

  89 Copy quote

• Hell is not punishment, it's training.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Punishment, Training, Hell

  16 Copy quote

• Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Perfect, Rooms, Improvement

  60 Copy quote

• No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Teaching, Direct

  7 Copy quote

• Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Helping, Criticize

  71 Copy quote

• 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

  Easy, Calmness, Inactivity

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.31, Shambhala Publications

  61 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Fun, Rain, Masters

  69 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Reality, Perfect, Imperfection

  "Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen". Book by Shunryū Suzuki. Chapter: "Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There", p. 127, 2002.

  21 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Moving, Doors, Exhaling

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.11, Shambhala Publications

  18 Copy quote

• Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going on in that world, and that is, you might say, enlightenment. When you see plum blossoms or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Communication, Enlightenment, Sound

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Self, Trying, Way

  Shunryū Suzuki, Trudy Dixon, Richard Baker (2006). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.136, Shambhala Publications

  11 Copy quote

• In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.... 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. We can really learn something.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Self, Meditation, Achievement

  70 Copy quote

• Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  6 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  60 Copy quote

• Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Voice, Listening, Moments

  22 Copy quote

• A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it....In this way our life should be understood. Then there is no problem.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Love, Life, Weed

  61 Copy quote

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