Shunryu Suzuki-roshi - Selected Quotes

Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

Selected Quotes:

- All of you are perfect just as you are and you could use a little improvement.

- Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.

- Take care of things, and they will take care of you.

- In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Then Buddha bows to Buddha, and you bow to yourself. This is the true bow.

- The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing.

- Life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life.

- Renunciation is not giving up the things of the world, but accepting that they go away.

- Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

- We have to study with our warm heart, not just with our brain.

- We should not be just a fan of dragons; we should always be the dragon himself. Then we will not be afraid of any dragon.

- Everything you do is right, nothing you do is wrong, yet you must still make ceaseless effort.

- When you say "Wait a moment," you are bound by your own karma; when you say "Yes I will," you are free.

- There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.

About the blue jay




- If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.

- Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.

- When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time.

- When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.
The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.

More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunryu_Suzuki