Quote

Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.

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
Art
Fancy
Reality
Teaching
Live
Special
Way
Effort
Make
Moment
Always
Living
Sense
Moments
Exact

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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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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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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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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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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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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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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower, watching the sunflower, a cup of sun, and so I tried it too. It was wonderful I felt the whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower.
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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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We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
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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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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.
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Take care of things, and they will take care of you.
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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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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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