People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do.… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.” — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
We do not slight the idea of enlightenment, but the most important thing is this moment, not some day in the future.… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else. — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“The trying to do something is in itself enlightenment. When we are in difficulty or distress, there we have enlightenment.” — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
If enlightenment comes first, before thinking, before practice, your thinking and your practice will not be self-centered. By enlightenment I mean believing… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“Even in zazen you will lose yourself. When you become sleepy, or when your mind starts to wander about, you lose yourself.… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves. That is why we have teaching. But the… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“You do not say, “This is enlightenment,” or “That is not right practice.” Even in wrong practice, when you realize it and… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature. — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away? — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself. — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the experts mind, there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground,… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything.… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
“Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
So the secret is just to say 'Yes!' and jump off from here. Then there is no problem. It means to be yourself, always… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want… — Shunryu Suzuki Copy Share Image
