Quote

Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.

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
Nothing
Hard
Trying
Directing
Mind
Concentration
Something
Keeping
Focus
Open
Comes

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Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.
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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.
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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.
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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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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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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.
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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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When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
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A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else.
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The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
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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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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.
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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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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.
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To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.
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