Suzuki Roshi Quotes
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1904-1971), founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, played a crucial role in establishing Zen Buddhism in America. His book "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" remains a fundamental text for Western Buddhist practitioners.
When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.
Suzuki Roshi
The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.
Suzuki Roshi
Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.
Suzuki Roshi
When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.
Suzuki Roshi
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.
Suzuki Roshi
When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
Suzuki Roshi
The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.
Suzuki Roshi
Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.
Suzuki Roshi
The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.
Suzuki Roshi
Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
Suzuki Roshi
When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.
Suzuki Roshi
We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.
Suzuki Roshi
Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.
Suzuki Roshi
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
Suzuki Roshi
What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.
Suzuki Roshi
Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.
Suzuki Roshi
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.
Suzuki Roshi
The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.
Suzuki Roshi