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When you sit, everything sits with you.

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
Sits
Meditation
Everything

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
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Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.
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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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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
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Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
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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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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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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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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
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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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Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.
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Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
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It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.
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
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A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.
Shunryu Suzuki
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People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Shunryu Suzuki
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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
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