D. T. Suzuki Quotes

Some primitive people were once visited by an American scientist, and when they were told that Western people think with their heads, the primitive people thought that the Ameri¬ cans were all crazy. They said, “We think with the abdomen.” People in China and also in Japan—I do not know about India —when some difficult problems come up, often say, “Think with your abdomen,” or simply, “Ask your belly.” So, when any question in connection with our existence comes up, we are advised to “think” with the belly—not with any detachable part of the body. “The belly” stands for the totality of one’s being, while the head, which is the latest-developed portion of the body, represents intellection.

The Mahayana Buddhists offer a doctrine complementary to that of karma, in order to give a more satisfying and more human solution to our inmost religious needs. The Mahayana doctrine of Parinamana, therefore, must go side by side with that of karma; for through this harmonious co-working of the two, the true spirit of Buddhism will be more effectively realized. In this phase of development, Mahayana Buddhism must be said to be profoundly religious. p 9

The scientifically minded West applies its intelligence to inventing all kinds of gadgets to elevate the standard of living and save itself from what it thinks to be unnecessary labor or drudgery. It thus tries hard to “develop” the natural resources it has access to. The East, on the other hand, does not mind engaging itself in menial and manual work of all kinds, it is apparently satisfied with the “undeveloped” state of civiliza¬ tion. It does not like to be machine-minded, to turn itself into a slave to the machine. This love of work is perhaps characteristic of the East.

We may sometimes ignore the claims of reason and rest satisfied, though usually unconsciously, with assertions which are conflicting when critically examined, but we cannot disregard by any means those of the religious sentiment which finds satisfaction only in the very fact of things. If it ever harboured some flagrant contradiction in the name of faith it was because its ever pressing demands had to be met with even at the expense of reason.

Karma cannot be denied, it is the law; but the human heart is tender and loving, it cannot remain calm and unconcerned at the sight of suffering, in whatever way this might have been brought about. It knows that all things ultimately come from the one source; when others suffer I suffer too; why then should not self-renunciation somehow moderate the austerity of karma? This is the position taken by Mahayana Buddhists in regard to the doctrine of karma. p 12

The inflexibility of karma is more than poor mortal can endure.

The bodhisattva would revolve the identity-wheel of opposites or contradictions: black and white, dark and bright, same¬ness and difference, the one and the many, finite and infinite, love and hate, friend and foe, etc., etc. While in the midst of clouds and dust, infinitely variegated, the bodhisattva works with his head and face all covered with mud and ashes. Where the utmost confusion of passions rages in its indescribable furies, the bodhisattva lives his life in all its vicissitudes, as the Japanese proverb has it, “seven times rolling up and down, and eight times getting up straight.” He is like the lotus flower in flame, whose color grows brighter and brighter as it goes through the baptism of fire.

Somebody asked Joshu, “Buddha is the enlightened one and teacher of us all. He is naturally entirely free of all the passions (klesa), is he not?” Joshu said, “No, he is the one who cherishes the greatest of all the passions.” “How is that possible?” “His greatest passion is to save all beings!” Joshu answered

The Dharmakaya is now conceived by the human heart as love and wisdom, and its eternal prayer is heard to be the deliverance of the ignorant from their self-created evil karma which haunts them as an eternal curse. The process of deliverance is to awaken in the mind of the ignorant the Samyaksambodhi, or most perfect wisdom, which is the reflection of the Dharmakaya in sentient beings. This wisdom, this Bodhi, is generally found asleep in the benighted, who are in a spiritual slumber induced by the narcotic influence of evil karma, which has been and is being committed by them, because of their non-realization of the presence in themselves of the Dharmakaya. p 8

The Zen master is a strange sort of man. He will not listen to you and to what you may tell him about sciences modern or ancient. He knows his business better from his experience.

Western people often wonder why the Chinese people have not developed many more sciences and mechanical contriv¬ ances. This is strange, they say, when the Chinese are noted for their discoveries and inventions such as the magnet, gun¬ powder, the wheel, paper, and other things. The principal reason is that the Chinese and other Asiatic peoples love life as it is lived and do not wish to turn it into a means of accomplish¬ ing something else, which would divert the course of living to quite a different channel.

Basho was a nature poet, as most of the Oriental poets are. They love nature so much that they feel one with nature, they feel every pulse beating through the veins of nature. Most Westerners are apt to alienate themselves from nature. They think man and nature have nothing in common except in some desirable aspects, and that nature exists only to be utilized by man. But to Eastern people nature is very close. This feeling for nature was stirred when Basho dcovered an inconspicuous, almost negligible plant blooming by the old dilapidated hedge along the remote country road, so innocently, so unpretentiously, not at all desiring to be noticed by anybody. Yet when one looks at it, how tender, how full of divine glory or splendor more glorious than Solomon's it is!

Tennyson’s plucking the flower and holding it in his hand, “root and all,” and looking at it, perhaps intently. It is very likely he had a feeling somewhat akin to that of Basho who discovered a nazuna flower by the roadside hedge. But the difference between the two poets is: Basho does not pluck the flower. He just looks at it. He is absorbed in thought. He feels something in his mind, but he docs not express it. He lets an exclamation mark say everything he wishes to say. For he has no words to utter; his feeling is too full, too deep, and he has no desire to conceptualize it. As to Tennyson, he is active and analytical. He first plucks the flower from the place where it grows. He separates it from the ground where it belongs. Quite differently from the Oriental poet, he does not leave the flower alone. He must tear it away from the crannied wall, ”root and all,” which means that the plant must die.

Deliverance or enlightenment, therefore, consists of making every sentient being open his mental eye to this fact. It is not his ego-soul that makes him think, feel, desire, or aspire, but the Dharmakaya itself in the form of Bodhicitta or “wisdom-heart” which constitutes his ethical and religious being. Abandon the thought of egoism, and return to the universal source of love and wisdom, and we are released from the bond of evil karma, we are enlightened as to the reason of existence, we are Buddhas. p 8

The head is conscious while the abdomen is unconscious. When the master tells his disciples to “think** with the lower part of the body, he means that the koan is to be taken down to the unconscious and not to the conscious field of consciousness.