Quote

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

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
Time
Spirituality
Step
Steps
Practice
Spiritual
Idea
Gaining
Ideas
Breath
Way
Breaths

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Time goes from present to past.
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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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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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So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
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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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Life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life.
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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.
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We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
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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.
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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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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You can't make a date with enlightenment.
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Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
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Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.
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The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached.
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In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
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We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
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