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Shunryu Suzuki

Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

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Famous Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

“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. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, 'Oh, this pace is terrible!' But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself.”

IfsKnowsTryingMindMayLittlesIdeasHardDifficultProgressTerribleWalkingDryPaceWetGoing OutShowersFog
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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“There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love...Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self-love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.”

LoveTryingSelfHateUniverseNamesAwarenessSelf LoveCallingOneselfConvictionConvincedFrustrationWarmthFormulasImpossibilityCondemnationLove Everyone
Author:Shunryu Suzuki
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“The Zen way of calligraphy is to write in the most straightforward, simple way as if you were a beginner, not trying to make something skillful or beautiful, but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writing.”

IfsWayWritingTryingFirstsBeautifulTimeNatureSimpleAttentionFirst TimeDiscoveringStraightforwardSkillfulBeginnersSimple WaysCalligraphy
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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“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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“Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.”

PeopleWayWantGivingTryingFirstsWatchesImpossibleWorstPolicyBest WayCowsSheepMeadowsMischievous
Author:Shunryu Suzuki
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“When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way. But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves; we try to order things outside us. But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order. When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized.”

IfsWayTryingMindBodyOrderImpossibleOrganizationOrganizedOrganizeRight WayRight TimeMind And BodyRight Place
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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“When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer.”

IfsThinkingTryingMindMeanLongWaveLet It GoBotheredCalmerNot Bothered
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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