Shunryu Suzuki quotes:

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.

Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

Wabi means spare, impoverished; simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion. The spirit of wabi imbues all the Zen arts, from calligraphy to karate, from the tea ceremony to Zen archery.

Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

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.

If your mind is empty, it is ready for anything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.

Everything is perfect and there is always room for improvement.

You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away?

The Zen way of calligraphy is to write in the most straightforward, simple way as if you were a beginner, not trying to make something skillful or beautiful, but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writing.

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.

The best way to control cow and sheep is to give them a big grazing field.

We must exist right here, right now!

But as long as you have some fixed idea or are caught by some habitual way of doing things, you cannot appreciate things in their true sense.

To die is more important than trying to be alive. When we try to be alive, we have trouble. Rather than trying to be alive or active, if we can be calm and die or fade away into emptiness, then naturally we will be all right.

It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.

It is a big mistake to think that the best way to express yourself is to do whatever you want, acting as you please. This is not expressing yourself. If you know what to do exactly, and you do it, then you can express yourself fully.

It must be obvious...that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

Concentration is not to try hard to watch somethingConcentration means freedomIn zazen practice we say your mind should be concentrated on your breathing, but the way to keep your mind on your breathing is to forget all about yourself and just to sit and feel your breathing.

There is no certain way that exists permanentlyMoment after moment we have to find our own way.

Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.

The teaching which is written on paper is not the true teaching. Written teaching is a kind of food for your brain. Of course it is necessary to take some food for your brain, but it is more important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life.

The world is its own magic.

The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.

Even though you have pain in your legs, you can do it. Even though your practice is not good enough, you can do it.

Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.

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.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason.

In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind.

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

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind.

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.

Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, 'Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.'

If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.

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.

A garden is never finished.

A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.

A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.

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.

An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.

And we should forget, day by day, what we have done; this is true non-attachment. And we should do something new. To do something new, of course we must know our past, and this is alright. But we should not keep holding onto anything we have done; we should only reflect on it. And we must have some idea of what we should do in the future. But the future is the future, the past is the past; now we should work on something new.

As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.

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.

Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for.

Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.

Discipline is creating the situation.

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.

Each of us must make our own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.

Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.

Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.

Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.

Even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way.

Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.

Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, 'Oh, this pace is terrible!' But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself.

Everything you do is right, nothing you do is wrong, yet you must still make ceaseless effort.

Faith is a state of openness or trust...In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to the truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.

For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.

From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears

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 essense they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us.

Hell is not punishment, it's training.

How much 'ego' do you need? Just enough so that you don't step in front of a bus.

I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... 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.

I think you're all enlightened, until you open your mouths.

If enlightenment comes first, before thinking, before practice, your thinking and your practice will not be self-centered. By enlightenment I mean believing in nothing, believing in something which has no form or no color, which is ready to take form or color. This enlightenment is the immutable truth. It is on this orginal truth that our activity, our thinking, and our practice should be based.

If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself.

If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything

If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.

If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.

If you think you will get something from practicing zazen, already you are involved in impure practice.

If you try to observe the precepts, that is not true observation of precepts. When you observe the precepts without trying to observe the precepts, that is true observation of the precepts.

If you understand real practice, then archery or other activities can be zen. If you don't understand how to practice archery in its true sense, then even though you practice very hard, what you acquire is just technique. It won't help you through and through. Perhaps you can hit the mark without trying, but without a bow and arrow you cannot do anything. If you understand the point of practice, then even without a bow and arrow the archery will help you. How you get that kind of power or ability is only through right practice.

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.

If you want to read a letter from the Buddha's world, it is necessary to understand Buddha's world.

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.

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].

If your practice is good, you may become proud of it. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.

In Japan we have the phrase, "Shoshin," which means "beginner's mind." Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.... In the beginner's mind there is no thought, 'I have attained something.' All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. We can really learn something.

In the beginner's mind there is no thought, "I have attained something." All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. Dogen-zenji, the founder of our school, always emphasized how important it is to resume our boundless original mind. Then we are always true to ourselves, in sympathy with all beings, and can actually practice.

In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner - not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are.

In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.

Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.

It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now.

It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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.

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.

Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.

Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.

Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

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.

No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.

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.

Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.

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