Quote

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.

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
Idea
Cannot
Truth
Experiencing
Ideas
Cake
Without
Accept
Like
Paper
Painting
Accepting

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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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We try, and we try, and we fail and then we go deeper.
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If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world.
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Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
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When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.
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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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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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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 secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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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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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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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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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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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
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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.
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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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If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.
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So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
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