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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].

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
Dies
Born
Need
Needs
Would
World
Disappear
Laughing

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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
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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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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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Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.
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Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice there is no other way of life than this way of life.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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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.
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The way that helps will not be the same it changes according to the situation.
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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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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.
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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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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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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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