Suzuki Shunryu Quotes & Sayings

Another mistake will be to practice for the sake of the joy you find in it. Actually, when your practice is involved in a feeling of joy, it is not in very good shape either. Of course this is not poor practice, but compared to the true practice it is not so good. — Shunryu Suzuki

When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time. — Shunryu Suzuki

When we practice zazen we just practice zazen, without any gaining idea. When we talk about something we just talk about something, ... without trying to express some intellectual, one-sided idea. And we listen without trying to figure or some intellectual understanding, without trying to understand from just a one-sided view. — Shunryu Suzuki

You can't make a date with enlightenment. — Shunryu Suzuki

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 all right. 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 ... This is "dana prajna paramita," to give something, or to create something for ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few — Shunryu Suzuki

We say, "To hear the sound of one hand clapping." Usually the sound of clapping is made with two hands, and we think that clapping with one hand makes no sound at all. But actually, one hand is sound. Even though you do not hear it, there is sound. If you clap with two hands, you can hear the sound. But if sound did not already exist before you clapped, you could not make the sound. Before you make it there is sound. Because there is sound, you can make it, and you can hear it. Sound is everywhere. If you just practice it, there is sound. Do not try to listen to it. If you do not listen to it, the sound is all over. Because you try to hear it, sometimes there is sound, and sometimes there is no sound. Do you understand? Even though you do not do anything, you have the quality of zazen always. But if you try to find it, if you try to see the quality, you have no quality. — Shunryu Suzuki

When we see a part of the moon covered by a cloud, or a tree, or a weed, we feel how round the moon is. But when we see the clear moon without anything covering it, we do not feel that roundness the same way we do when we see it through something else. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions; you should just listen to him, just observe what his way is. We put very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad. We just see things as they are with him, and accept them. This is how we communicate with each other. Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you will reject it or you may not even really hear it. — Shunryu Suzuki

We must make some effort, but we must forget ourselves in the effort we make ... So it is necessary for us to encourage ourselves and to make an effort up to the last moment, when all effort disappears. — Shunryu Suzuki

Waves are the practice of the water. — Shunryu Suzuki

Those who can sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen, the actual feeling of Zen, the marrow of Zen. — Shunryu Suzuki

Each existence depends on something else ... there are no separate individual existences. There are just many names for one existence. — Shunryu Suzuki

So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant. — Shunryu Suzuki

In other restless positions you have no power to accept your difficulties, but in the zazen posture which you have acquired by long, hard practice, your mind and body have great power to accept things as they are, whether they are agreeable or disagreeable. — Shunryu Suzuki

Those who are attached only to the result of their effort will not have any chance to appreciate it, because the result will never come. — Shunryu Suzuki

Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere ... We should forget all about some particular teaching; we should not ask which is good or bad. There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment, in every existence. That is the true teaching. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

Our effort in our practice should be directed from achievement to non-achievement. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. You will have something remaining which is not completely burned out. Zen activity is activity which is completely burned out, with nothing remaining but ashes. This is the goal of our practice. That is what Dogen meant when he said, "Ashes do not come back to firewood." Ash is ash. Ash should be completely ash. The firewood should be firewood. When this kind of activity takes place, one activity covers everything. — Shunryu Suzuki

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry - what am I? - is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

When you sit, everything sits with you. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

To take this posture itself is the purpose of our practice. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

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

Or you may say, "This is bad, so I should not do this." Actually, when you say, "I should not do this," you are doing not-doing in that moment. So there is no choice for you. When you separate the idea of time and space, you feel as if you have some choice, but actually, you have to do something, or you have to do not-doing. Not-to-do something is doing something. Good and bad are only in your mind. So we should not say, "This is good," or "This is bad." Instead of saying bad, you should say, "not-to-do"! If you think, "This is bad," it will create some confusion for you. So in the realm of pure religion there is no confusion of time and space, or good or bad. All that we should do is just do something as it comes. Do something! Whatever it is, we should do it, even if it is not-doing something. We should live in this moment. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so ... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice. — Shunryu Suzuki

Building character is like making bread - you have to mix it little by little, step by step, and moderate temperature is needed. You know yourself quite well, and you know how much temperature you need. You know exactly what you need. But if you get too excited, you will forget how much temperature is good for you, and you will lose your own way. This is very dangerous. — Shunryu Suzuki

We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment. — Shunryu Suzuki

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki

If you are not concerned about what you do, you will not say so. When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat. That is all. If you say, "It doesn't matter," it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. — Shunryu Suzuki

The world is its own magic. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

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

When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

It is necessary to remember what we have done, but we should not become attached to what we have done in some special sense. — Shunryu Suzuki

Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

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

Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. — Shunryu Suzuki

To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or 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; you should work on it with nothing in your mind, and without expecting anything. You should just cook! — Shunryu Suzuki

The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is. — Shunryu Suzuki

Hell is not punishment, it's training. — Shunryu Suzuki

Zen is nothing to get excited about. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha. — Shunryu Suzuki

So even though you have some difficulty in your practice, even though you have some waves while you are sitting, those waves themselves will help you. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

If you receive things just as an echo of yourself, you do not really see them, you do not fully accept them as they are. — Shunryu Suzuki

In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don't serve them tea. — Shunryu Suzuki

We must exist right here, right now! — Shunryu Suzuki

When your mind is wandering about elsewhere you have no chance to express yourself. But if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha nature. — Shunryu Suzuki

In our everyday life we are usually trying to do something, trying to change something into something else, or trying to attain something. Just this trying is already in itself an expression of our true nature. The meaning lies in the effort itself. We should find out the meaning of our effort before we attain something. — Shunryu Suzuki

There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

It is quite usual for us to gather pieces of information from various sources, thinking in this way to increase our knowledge. Actually, following this way we end up not knowing anything at all ... Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true knowledge is already yours. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana. — Shunryu Suzuki

So without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself freely as you are is the most important thing to make yourself happy, and to make others happy ... So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings ... it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. — Shunryu Suzuki

When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha. — Shunryu Suzuki

The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence. — Shunryu Suzuki

It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else. — Shunryu Suzuki

Not to be attached to something is to be aware of its absolute value. Everything you do should be based on such an awareness, and not on material or self-centered ideas of value. — Shunryu Suzuki

This is the mystery. When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you. To — Shunryu Suzuki

When something dies is the greatest teaching. — Shunryu Suzuki

To live is enough. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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

Whether you have a problem in your life or not depends upon your own attitude, your own understanding. — Shunryu Suzuki

You should not be absent-minded. But to be aware of the movement does not mean to be aware of your small self, but rather of your universal nature ... — Shunryu Suzuki

enjoy your problems — Shunryu Suzuki

Discipline is creating the situation. — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thursty. — Shunryu Suzuki

One time Marian showed me some sand. When she gave it to me, she said, "These are very interesting stones." It just looked like sand, but she asked me to took through a magnifying glass. Then those small stones were as interesting as the stones I have in my office. The stones in my office are bigger, but under the glass the sand was quite similar.
If you say, "This is a rock from the moon", you will be very much interested in it. Actually I don't think there is a great difference between rocks we have on the earth and those on the moon. Even if you go to Mars, I think you will find the same rocks.
I am quite sure about it.
So if you want to find something interesting, instead of hopping around the universe like this, enjoy your life in every moment, observe what you have now, and truly live in your surroundings. — Shunryu Suzuki

When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized. — Shunryu Suzuki

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 — Shunryu Suzuki

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. — Shunryu Suzuki

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