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Shunryu Suzuki

Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

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Famous Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

“If you understand real practice, then archery or other activities can be zen. If you don't understand how to practice archery in its true sense, then even though you practice very hard, what you acquire is just technique. It won't help you through and through. Perhaps you can hit the mark without trying, but without a bow and arrow you cannot do anything. If you understand the point of practice, then even without a bow and arrow the archery will help you. How you get that kind of power or ability is only through right practice.”

IfsTryingKindRealHardHelpingAbilityPracticeActivityMarkTechniqueAcquireBowsArrowsArcheryBows And Arrows
Author:Shunryu Suzuki
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“When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha.”

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Author:Shunryu Suzuki
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“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.”

IfsThinkingShouldFirstsBelieveMeanSelfFormPracticeColorReadyActivityEnlightenmentBuddhistSelf CenteredBelieving In Something
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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“The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.”

ThinkingTryingMindKindHappensCarePracticeSkyEmotionalActivityHappeningsBirdBotheredLike SomethingWhatever HappensGreat MindsNot BotheredConceptual Thinking
Book:Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai
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