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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.

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
Fall
Problem
Even
Weed
Way
Falls
Love
Flower
Life
Understood
Grows
Though

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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
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The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
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If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.
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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand 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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When you are fooled by something else, the damage will not be so big. But when you are fooled by yourself, it is fatal. No more medicine.
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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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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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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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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
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If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
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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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Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower, watching the sunflower, a cup of sun, and so I tried it too. It was wonderful I felt the whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower.
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Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
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Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
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It is a big mistake to think that the best way to express yourself is to do whatever you want, acting as you please. This is not expressing yourself. If you know what to do exactly, and you do it, then you can express yourself fully.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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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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