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

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything it is open to everything.
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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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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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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.
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If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
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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 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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You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. [...] Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else.
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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.
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It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
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When you sit, everything sits with you.
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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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A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.
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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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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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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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Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
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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.
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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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