Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

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.

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

There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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!"

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

We must exist right here, right now!

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

You can't make a date with enlightenment.

The world is its own magic.

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

To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.

To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.

You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.

Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.

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.

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.

We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.

The way that helps will not be the same; it changes according to the situation.

In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves.

When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time.

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.

The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.

When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.