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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.

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
Mind
Like
Traces
Flowers
Spring
Flower
Free
Past

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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.
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Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move.
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We try, and we try, and we fail and then we go deeper.
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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 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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People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
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Time goes from present to past.
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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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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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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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The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.
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Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.
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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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You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.
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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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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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