Quote

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

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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
Upon
Become
Swinging
Everything
Purely
Time
Dependent
Door
Independent
Truly
Doors

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.
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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
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The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.
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Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
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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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The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: What is the First Principle? Bodhidharma said, I don't know. I don't know is the First Principle.
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Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
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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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If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
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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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Discipline is creating the situation.
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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
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Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.
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If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.
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Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.
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