Quote

Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.

Shunryu Suzuki

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Activity
Practice
Call
Thing
Life
Everyday

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

Image
When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We must exist right here, right now!
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Time goes from present to past.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki