Quote

The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.

Shunryu Suzuki

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Secret
Words
Two
Always

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

Image
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
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Time goes from present to past.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If you were not born in this world, there would be no need to die. To be born in this world is to die, to disappear [laughing].
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
We try, and we try, and we fail and then we go deeper.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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.
Shunryu Suzuki