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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

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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
English
Secret
Practice
Words
Three
Two
Always
Japanese

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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Life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life.
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The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached.
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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.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
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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.
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An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
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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].
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Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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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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How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.
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The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: What is the First Principle? Bodhidharma said, I don't know. I don't know is the First Principle.
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If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
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In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
Shunryu Suzuki
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All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.
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We do not slight the idea of enlightenment, but the most important thing is this moment, not some day in the future. We have to make our effort in this moment. This is the most important thing for our practice.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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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Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.
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