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You can't make a date with enlightenment.

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
Date
Enlightenment
Make

More quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

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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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From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears
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Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
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Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
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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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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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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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When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
Shunryu Suzuki
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When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.
Shunryu Suzuki
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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
Shunryu Suzuki
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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
Shunryu Suzuki
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The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness.
Shunryu Suzuki
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True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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If you were not born in this world, there would be no need to die. To be born in this world is to die, to disappear [laughing].
Shunryu Suzuki
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
Shunryu Suzuki
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Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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.
Shunryu Suzuki
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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