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
Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.
If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
Each of us must make our own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.
If enlightenment comes first, before thinking, before practice, your thinking and your practice will not be self-centered. By enlightenment I mean believing in nothing, believing in something which has no form or no color, which is ready to take form or color. This enlightenment is the immutable truth. It is on this orginal truth that our activity, our thinking, and our practice should be based.
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
We should not be just a fan of dragons; we should always be the dragon himself. Then we will not be afraid of any dragon.
We must exist right here, right now!
There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.
We die, and we do not die.
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.
It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now.
To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.