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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.

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
Everything
Mind
Always
Empty
Meditation
Ready
Open
Anything

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In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner - not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are.
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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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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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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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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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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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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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Christopher McCandless:I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.
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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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For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
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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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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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There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment
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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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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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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
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If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
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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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