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

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
Leaving
Completely
Effort
Something
Good
Like
Bonfire
Trace
Burn

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.
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If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.
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Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
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Take care of things, and they will take care of you.
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The way that helps will not be the same it changes according to the situation.
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Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
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You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
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To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.
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To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else.
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The world is its own magic.
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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
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When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
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An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
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Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
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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.
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Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.
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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.
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Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.
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Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
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