Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Although Buddhism is unattainable, we vow to attain it.If it is unattainable, how can we attain it? But we should! That is Buddhism.

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.

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

...just the impact of meeting a personal-
ity so developed can be enough to change another's whole
way of life.

Just as you unreel the thread from a spool, I want the past to become present.” When she said this, actually she made past time present. In her mind the past became alive and was the present.

Zen practice is to open up our small mind.

Which is more important… to make a million dollars, or to enjoy your life in your effort, little by little, even thought it is impossible to make that million; to be successful, or to find some meaning in your effort to be successful?

"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."

But the way of practice is just to be concentrated on your breathing with the right posture and with great, pure effort.

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

Now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now.

You know how to rest physically. You do not know how to rest mentally.

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.

Usually we think of our mind as receiving impressions and experiences from outside, but that is not a true understanding of our mind. The true understanding is that the mind includes everything; when you think something comes from outside it means only that something appears in your mind.

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