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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
Empty
Meditation
Ready
Open
Anything
Everything
Mind
Always

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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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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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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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Happiness is sorrow sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty difficulty in happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different, in essence they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us.
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Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.
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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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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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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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Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice there is no other way of life than this way of life.
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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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After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.
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It is a big mistake to think that the best way to express yourself is to do whatever you want, acting as you please. This is not expressing yourself. If you know what to do exactly, and you do it, then you can express yourself fully.
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
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You can't make a date with enlightenment.
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When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.
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You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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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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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Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
Shunryu Suzuki