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

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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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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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When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.
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For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
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We do not slight the idea of enlightenment, but the most important thing is this moment, not some day in the future. We have to make our effort in this moment. This is the most important thing for our practice.
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Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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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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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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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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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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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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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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
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Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going on in that world, and that is, you might say, enlightenment. When you see plum blossoms or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.
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