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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
Anything
Everything
Mind
Always
Empty
Meditation
Ready
Open

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
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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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Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
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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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You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. [...] Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else.
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
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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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To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or to cook for yourself it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time.
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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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Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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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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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
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To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else.
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If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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Time goes from present to past.
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The world is its own magic.
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A flower falls, even though we love it and a weed grows, even though we do not love it....In this way our life should be understood. Then there is no problem.
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The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness.
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