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In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.

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
Many
Mind
Beginner
Beginners
Expert
Possibilities
Experts
Possibility

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.
Shunryu Suzuki
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We must exist right here, right now!
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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.
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The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thirsty.
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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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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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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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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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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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
Shunryu Suzuki
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There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.
Shunryu Suzuki
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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
Shunryu Suzuki