Quote

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.

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
Think
Attach
Thinking
Expressions
World
Emptiness
Description
Limited
Expression
Mistake
Reality
Descriptions

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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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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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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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When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
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When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
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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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Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.
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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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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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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If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.
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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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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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If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
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Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.
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People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
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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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There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
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