Book detail: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book presents a series of informal talks by Shunryu Suzuki, a prominent Zen Buddhist teacher, focusing on the practice of Zen meditation and its principles. Suzuki's teachings emphasize the importance of mindfulness and the beginner's mind, encouraging readers to approach their practice with openness and simplicity.
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“So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Time goes from present to past.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world" but actually, There is just one whole world.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“We do not slight the idea of enlightenment, but the most important thing is this moment, not some day in the future. We have to make our effort in this moment. This is the most important thing for our practice.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“If you are ready to accept things as they are, you will receive them as old friends, even though you appreciate them with new feeling.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment. We cannot even study Buddha’s words.”
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“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. Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, “Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“You must force yourself to be patient, but in constancy there is no particular effort involved--there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are. For people who have no idea of emptiness, this ability may appear to be patience, but patience can actually be non-acceptance.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“If we practice hard, concentrate on zazen, and organize our life so that we can sit well, we will find out what we are doing. But you have to be careful in the rules and way you establish. If it is too strict you will fail, if it is too loose, the rules will not work. Our way should be strict enough to have authority, an authority everyone should obey. Thu rules should be possible to observe.
This is how Zen tradition was built up, decided little by little, created by us in our practice. We cannot force anything. But once the rules have been decided, we should obey them completely until they are changed. It is not a matter of good or bad, convenient or inconvenient. You just do it without question. That way your mind is free.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“We have been taught that there is no gap between nighttime and daytime, no gap between you and I. This means oneness. But we do not emphasize even oneness. If it is one, there is no need to emphasize one.
Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (pp. 108-109). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“You and I are just swinging doors.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Although Buddhism is unattainable, we vow to attain it.If it is unattainable, how can we attain it? But we should! That is Buddhism.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Sincerity itself is the railroad track.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“In our practice we have no particular purpose or goal, nor any special object of worship.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Do not be too interested in Zen.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Zen is nothing to get excited about.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“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.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Try not to force your idea on someone, but rather think about it with him. If you feel you have won the discussion, that is the wrong attitude. Try not to win the argument; just listen to it.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“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.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Reality cannot be caught by thinking or feeling mind.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something that has no form and no color - something which exists before all forms and colors appear. This is a very important point. No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea. You strive for a perfect faith in order to save yourself. But it will take time to attain such perfect faith. You will be involved in an idealistic practice. In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing, knowing that there is some reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form and color appears, then at that moment you will have perfect composure.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, "It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. There is no distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman; sometimes a woman bows to a man. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master; sometimes the master bows to the disciple... In your big mind, everything has the same value.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Bowing helps to eliminate our self-centered ideas... The result is not the point; it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable... whether or not it is possible is not the point... Before you determine to do it, you have difficulty, but once you start to do it, you have none.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“A frog is very interesting. He sits like us, too, you know. But he does not think that he is doing anything so special. When you go to a zendo and sit, you may think you are doing some special thing. While your husband or wife is sleeping, you are practicing zazen! You are doing some special thing, and your spouse is lazy! That may be your understanding of zazen. But look at the frog. A frog also sits like us, but he has no idea of zazen. Watch him. If something annoys him, he will make a face. If something comes along to eat, he will snap it up and eat, and he eats sitting. Actually that is our zazen—not any special thing.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“To be aware of the meaning of your life, you practice zazen.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“If someone is watching you, you can escape from him, but if no one is watching, you cannot escape from yourself.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you will reject it or you may not even really hear it.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“So try not to see something in particular; try not to achieve anything special. You already have everything in your own pure quality. If you understand this ultimate fact, there is no fear. There may be some difficulty, of course, but there is no fear.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“Our Soto way puts an emphasis on shikan taza, or "just sitting." Actually we do not have any particular name for our practice; when we practice zazen we just practice it, and whether we find joy in our practice or not, we just do it. Even though we are sleepy, and we are tired of practicing zazen, of repeating the same thing day after day; even so, we continue our practice. Whether or not someone encourages our practice, we just do it.”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice