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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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Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Much
Ego
Fronts
Front
Step
Steps
Need
Enough
Needs
Bus

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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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.
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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.
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For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
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To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.
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Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.
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The world is its own magic.
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The way that helps will not be the same it changes according to the situation.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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
Shunryu Suzuki
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In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
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If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
Shunryu Suzuki
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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
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To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
Shunryu Suzuki