Quote

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

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
Power
Body
Great
Agreeable
Mind
Disagreeable
Things
Posture
Accept
Accepting
Whether

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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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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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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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So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
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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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When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
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Discipline is creating the situation.
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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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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
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Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
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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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When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself. When you are concentrated on the quality of your being, you are prepared for the activity.
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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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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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True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.
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If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
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