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

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
Imperfection
Hear
Perfect
Reality
Nothing
Right

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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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.
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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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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.
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When you say, Wait a moment, you are bound by your karma when you say Yes I will, you are free.
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True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.
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Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.
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Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.
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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
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No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.
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All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.
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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 give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
Shunryu Suzuki
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When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
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It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
Shunryu Suzuki
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If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
Shunryu Suzuki