Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu Suzuki
Shunryu Suzukiwas a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States, and is renowned for founding the first Buddhist monastery outside Asia. Suzuki founded San Francisco Zen Center, which along with its affiliate temples, comprises one of the most influential Zen organizations in the United States. A book of his teachings, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, is one of the most popular books on Zen and Buddhism in the West...
NationalityJapanese
ProfessionLeader
Date of Birth18 May 1904
CountryJapan
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 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.
We try, and we try, and we fail; and then we go deeper.
If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.
The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.
To renounce things is not to give them up. It is to acknowledge that all things go away.
An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.
Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.
If your mind is empty, it is ready for anything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.