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

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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
Quality
State
States
Mind
Something
Concentrated
Prepared
Confidence
Activity

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.
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When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.
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How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
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If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
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There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment
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Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.
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Take care of things, and they will take care of you.
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Christopher McCandless:I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.
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If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world.
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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.
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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
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We must exist right here, right now!
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
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True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.
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So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.
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