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

Shunryu Suzuki

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Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Teaching
Beginner
Vision
Beginners
Imagination
Expert
Inspirational
Possibilities
Many
Experts
Mind
Innovation
Meditation
Possibility

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood
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If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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
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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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We must exist right here, right now!
Shunryu Suzuki
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After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
Shunryu Suzuki
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When you sit, everything sits with you.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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
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Christopher McCandless:I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.
Shunryu Suzuki
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We try, and we try, and we fail and then we go deeper.
Shunryu Suzuki
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice there is no other way of life than this way of life.
Shunryu Suzuki
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A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.
Shunryu Suzuki
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People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
Shunryu Suzuki
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The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: What is the First Principle? Bodhidharma said, I don't know. I don't know is the First Principle.
Shunryu Suzuki