Quote

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
Kindness
Meditation
Routine
Freedom
Usual
Kind
Concentration
Buddhist
Excitement
Simplicity
Everyday

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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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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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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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
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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 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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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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Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.
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The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.
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In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.
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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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You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
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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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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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An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
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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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In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
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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.
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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