Quote

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.

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
Quality
State
States
Mind
Something
Concentrated
Prepared
Confidence
Activity

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

Image
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
Image
Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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
Image
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Discipline is creating the situation.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
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
Image
People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.
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
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
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
Image
From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.
Shunryu Suzuki
Image
When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.
Shunryu Suzuki