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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.

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
Freedom
Usual
Kind
Concentration
Buddhist
Excitement
Simplicity
Everyday
Kindness
Meditation
Routine

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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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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In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
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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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How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
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Take care of things, and they will take care of you.
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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.
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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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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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Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.
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For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
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Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.
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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
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If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.
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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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When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.
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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
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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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