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
I think you're all enlightened, until you open your mouths.
People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.
Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.
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.
The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.
It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.
In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves.
When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.
In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.
The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thursty.
To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.
The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.