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
A garden is never finished.
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.
Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.
There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.
We die, and we do not die.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.
There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment
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.
If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for.
Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower, watching the sunflower, a cup of sun, and so I tried it too. It was wonderful; I felt the whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower.