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The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.

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
Practice
Whatever
Able
Something
Accept
Accepting

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.
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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
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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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We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.
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The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness.
Shunryu Suzuki
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People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
Shunryu Suzuki
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Discipline is creating the situation.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
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.
Shunryu Suzuki