Quote

True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.

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
Best
Communication
Without
Depends
Way
Saying
Upon
Another
True
Anything
Straightforward
May
Communicate

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There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
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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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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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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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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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If you were not born in this world, there would be no need to die. To be born in this world is to die, to disappear [laughing].
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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.
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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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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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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.
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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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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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Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
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Time goes from present to past.
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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
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