Quote

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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Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Without
Trying
Mind
Think
Thinking
Ears
Hear
Stop
Practice

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
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All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.
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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.
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When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.
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A flower falls, even though we love it and a weed grows, even though we do not love it....In this way our life should be understood. Then there is no problem.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.
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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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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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There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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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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Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.
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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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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
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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.
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We try, and we try, and we fail and then we go deeper.
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If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki