Top 250 Shunryu Suzuki Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “You will always exist in the universe in one form or another.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

52. “Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

53. “Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

54. “Time goes from present to past.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

55. “Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

56. “Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

57. “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.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

58. “When you sit, everything sits with you.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

59. “To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

60. “The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana. Prajna paramita, the true wisdom of life, is that in each step of the way, the other shore is actually reached.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

61. “If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

62. “If you try to observe the precepts, that is not true observation of precepts. When you observe the precepts without trying to observe the precepts, that is true observation of the precepts.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

63. “For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

64. “The true practice to meditation is to sit as if you where drinking water when you are thursty.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

65. “When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

66. “If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

67. “In your everyday life you always have opportunities for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

68. “To renounce things is not to give them up. It is to acknowledge that all things go away.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

69. “The highest truth is daiji, translated as dai jiki in Chinese scriptures. This is the subject of the question the emperor asked Bodhidharma: “What is the First Principle?” Bodhidharma said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know” is the First Principle.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

70. “Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

71. “Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!”

— Shunryu Suzuki

72. “We have to study with our warm heart, not just with our brain.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

73. “When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself. When you are concentrated on the quality of your being, you are prepared for the activity.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

74. “Discipline is creating the situation.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

75. “Because all existence is founded upon the ever-present state of union, everything already exists in a state of tranquility. However, this state of tranquility is masked from us by our assumption that there is a separation, that there is a problem.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

76. “There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

77. “Don’t move. Just die over and over. Don’t anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don’t move.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

78. “To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

79. “We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

80. “Instead of criticizing, find out how to help.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

81. “Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

82. “To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or to cook for yourself; it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

83. “The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

84. “Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

85. “There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

86. “It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live – to exist here and now.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

87. “A Master who cannot bow to a disciple cannot bow to Buddha.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

88. “You may say that things happen just by chance, but I don’t feel that way.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

89. “Even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

90. “As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

91. “If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

92. “When we realize the everlasting truth of “everything changes” and find our composure in it, we find ourselves in Nirvana.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

93. “Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower, watching the sunflower, a cup of sun, and so I tried it too. It was wonderful; I felt the whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

94. “Only when you understand people, they may understand you. So even though you do not say anything, if you understand people there is some communication.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

95. “A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

96. “Happiness is sorrow; sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty; difficulty in happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different; in essense they are the same. This is the true understanding transmitted from Buddha to us.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

97. “It is a big mistake to think that the best way to express yourself is to do whatever you want, acting as you please. This is not expressing yourself. If you know what to do exactly, and you do it, then you can express yourself fully.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

98. “When you say, “Wait a moment,” you are bound by your karma; when you say “Yes I will,” you are free.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

99. “If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

100. “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.”

— Shunryu Suzuki