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
Life
Everyday
Activity
Practice
Call
Thing

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

Image
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.
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
There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Time goes from present to past.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
Shunryu Suzuki