Shunryu Suzuki Quotes - Page 3

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• Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Sheep, People, Giving

  37 Copy quote

• It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Pain, Understanding, Causes

  26 Copy quote

• I think you're all enlightened, until you open your mouths.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Thinking, Mouths, Enlightened

  13 Copy quote

• The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Practice, Mind, Purpose

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.16, Shambhala Publications

  46 Copy quote

• The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Buddhism, Purpose, Study

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.63, Shambhala Publications

  23 Copy quote

• In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner - not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Light, Lotuses, World

  19 Copy quote

• A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?" Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Suffering, Students, Emotion

  12 Copy quote

• Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Spiritual, Practice, Ideas

  18 Copy quote

• When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Respect, Thinking, Self

  Shunryu Suzuki (1999). “Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai”, p.32, Univ of California Press

  17 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Compassion, Mind, Beginners

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.2, Shambhala Publications

  14 Copy quote

• When you sit, everything sits with you.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Meditation

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.95, Shambhala Publications

  28 Copy quote

• So the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner's mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. 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. Be very very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner's mind. It is the secret of Zen practice.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Art, Real, Practice

  10 Copy quote

• Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Focus, Mind, Trying

  17 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

  23 Copy quote

• 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 essence they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Buddhist, Understanding, Sorrow

  "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice".

  16 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

  7 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Inspirational, Teaching, Imagination

  Shunryu Suzuki (2010). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.2, Shambhala Publications

  35 Copy quote

• Take care of things, and they will take care of you.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Care, Take Care

  29 Copy quote

• To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Spiritual, Perfect, Midst

  6 Copy quote

• When you are fooled by something else, the damage will not be so big. But when you are fooled by yourself, it is fatal. No more medicine.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Medicine, Damage, Bigs

  27 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Running, Clock, Wells

  12 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Teaching, Direct

  11 Copy quote

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

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Way To Live, Way, Moments

  "Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen". Book by Shunryū Suzuki. Chapter: "Shikantaza: Living Fully In Each Moment", p. 4, 2002.

  54 Copy quote

• We must exist right here, right now!

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Right Now

  Shunryū Suzuki, Trudy Dixon, Richard Baker (2006). “Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind”, p.10, Shambhala Publications

  12 Copy quote

• The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.

  Shunryu Suzuki

  Drinking, Practice, Water

  23 Copy quote

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