Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection... The eternal exists because of non-eternal existence... We should find the truth in this world, through our difficulties, through our suffering... Pleasure is not different from difficulty. Good is not different from bad.

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

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

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

Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is to be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of your mind.

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.

You and I are just swinging doors.

I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something that has no form and no color - something which exists before all forms and colors appear. This is a very important point. No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea. You strive for a perfect faith in order to save yourself. But it will take time to attain such perfect faith. You will be involved in an idealistic practice. In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing, knowing that there is some reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form and color appears, then at that moment you will have perfect composure.

When you do something, just to do it should be your purpose.

Not to be attached to something is to be aware of its absolute value.

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. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.

Suppose you recite the Prajna Paramita Sutra only once. It might be a very good recitation. But what would happen to you if you recited it twice, three times, four times, or more? You might easily lose your original attitude towards it. The same thing will happen in your other Zen practices. For a while you will keep your beginner’s mind, but if you continue to practice one, two, three years or more, although you may improve some, you are liable to lose the limitless meaning of original mind.

Zen is nothing to get excited about.

But the purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves. When we forget ourselves, we actually are the true activity of the big existence, or reality itself.