Quote

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

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
Respecting
Conquer
Instead
Use
Difficult
Things

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

Image
You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Christopher McCandless:I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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
Take care of things, and they will take care of you.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
You can't make a date with enlightenment.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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
Image
The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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
Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice there is no other way of life than this way of life.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
When you sit, everything sits with you.
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