D.T. Suzuki Quotes

Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one's own rules-this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.

Practise only as many times as you have breakfast.

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

The heart that feels music will feel people

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

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

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.

When people get placed upon a pedestal - when they start chasing after that person on the pedestal - they become mannequin-like.

I heard that in the United States the level of baseball was the highest in the world. So it was only natural that I would want to go there, as a baseball player.

The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.

The worst passion we mortals cherish is the desire to possess. Even when we know that our final destination is a hole not more than three feet square, we have the strongest craving

If a musician wants to become a finer artist, he must first become a finer person.

Wrong education and upbringing produces ugly personalities, whereas a fine upbringing and good education will bring forth superior sense and feeling, as well as nobility and purity of mind.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.

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

Tai Shimano visited Shunryu Suzuki. "How are you feeling these days?" Suzuki replied, "They have a new name for me: Cancer!"

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

Beyond reducing individual use, one of our top priorities must be to move from fossil fuels to energy that has fewer detrimental effects on water supplies and fewer environmental impacts overall.

I am mentally preparing myself for the five-year-old mind. I want to come down to their physical limitations and up to their sense of wonder and awe.

You are what you do, not what you say.

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

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

We humans have become dependent on plastic for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction under control.

When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.

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.

We must exist right here, right now!

We have to study with our warm heart, not just with our brain.

I didn't know I hit that way (.625 with runners in scoring position). Maybe not knowing is my secret. If I chased numbers, maybe I wouldn't have as good results.

True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.

Implicity, there should be something mysterious in every day.

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

We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.

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

We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten the Buddha reveals himself before us.

Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.

People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.

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].

The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached.

When you say, "Wait a moment," you are bound by your karma; when you say "Yes I will," you are free.

You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.

You may say that things happen just by chance, but I don't feel that way.

Humans are now the most numerous mammal on the planet. There are more humans than rats or mice. Humans have a huge ecological footprint, magnified by their technology.

Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.

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.

The event of creation did not take place so many eons ago, astronomically or biologically speaking. Creation is taking place every moment of our lives.

When I was a kid, being outside was the norm. Rain or shine, our parents would tell us to get out of the house.

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.

Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. In our way the point of the angle is always toward ourselves.

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

You can't make a date with enlightenment.