Top 250 Shunryu Suzuki Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

Featured in: Buddhist Quotes, Curiosity Quotes

2. “Hell is not punishment, it’s training.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

3. “The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

Featured in: Be Kind Quotes, Buddhist Quotes, Meditation Quotes

4. “In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert there are few.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

Featured in: Mastery Quotes, Zen Quotes

5. “When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

6. “Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

7. “The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

8. “As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

9. “When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, ‘Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.’”

— Shunryu Suzuki

10. “It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

11. “Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

12. “Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

13. “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

14. “We try, and we try, and we fail; and then we go deeper.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

15. “The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

16. “In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner – not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

17. “Take care of things, and they will take care of you.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

18. “Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

19. “I think you’re all enlightened, until you open your mouths.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

20. “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

21. “Concentration comes not from trying hard to focus on something, but from keeping your mind open and directing it at nothing.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

22. “Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

23. “Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

24. “How much ‘ego’ do you need? Just enough so that you don’t step in front of a bus.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

25. “In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

26. “Each of us must make our own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

27. “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.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

29. “When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

30. “The best way to control cow and sheep is to give them a big grazing field.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

31. “A garden is never finished.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

32. “Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

33. “The world is its own magic.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

34. “When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

35. “It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

36. “To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

37. “Whereever 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.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

38. “To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

39. “What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

40. “When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

41. “From True Emptiness The Wondrous Being Appears.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

42. “You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away?”

— Shunryu Suzuki

43. “The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

44. “The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the experts, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all possibilities.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

45. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

46. “So the secret is just to say ‘Yes!’ and jump off from here. Then there is no problem. It means to be yourself, always yourself, without sticking to an old self.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

47. “When you are fooled by something else, the damage will not be so big. But when you are fooled by yourself, it is fatal. No more medicine.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

48. “For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

49. “Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

50. “Moment after moment everything comes out of nothingness. This is the true joy of life.”

— Shunryu Suzuki