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

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
Everyday
Activity
Practice
Call
Thing
Life

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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Time goes from present to past.
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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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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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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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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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In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood
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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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We must exist right here, right now!
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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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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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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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An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. [...] Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else.
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Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
Shunryu Suzuki
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No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.
Shunryu Suzuki
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How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Shunryu Suzuki