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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.

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
Wells
Winding
Without
Runs
Well
Settings
Time
Perfectly
Life
Clock
Like
Setting
Running
Tell

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
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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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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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For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
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Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
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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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In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood
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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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People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
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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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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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To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or to cook for yourself it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time.
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.
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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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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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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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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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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki