Top 250 Shunryu Suzuki Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

103. “So for a period of time each day, try to sit, without moving, without expecting anything, as if you were in your last moment. Moment after moment you feel your last instant. In each inhalation and each exhalation there are countless instants of time. Your intention is to live in each instant.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

104. “After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

105. “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

106. “We do not slight the idea of enlightenment, but the most important thing is this moment, not some day in the future. We have to make our effort in this moment. This is the most important thing for our practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

107. “We must exist right here, right now!”

— Shunryu Suzuki

108. “Real Freedom is to not feel limited when wearing this Zen robe, this troublesome formal robe. Similarly, in our busy life we should wear this civilization without being bothered by it, without ignoring it, without being caught by it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

109. “As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

110. “All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

111. “No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

112. “Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

113. “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.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

114. “There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

115. “Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

116. “The teaching which is written on paper is not the true teaching. Written teaching is a kind of food for your brain. Of course it is necessary to take some food for your brain, but it is more important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

117. “When something dies is the greatest teaching.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

118. “When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world” but actually, There is just one whole world.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

119. “The person who can freely acknowledge that life is full of difficulties can be free, because they are acknowledging the nature of life – that it can’t be much else.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

120. “There is no certain way that exists permanently... Moment after moment we have to find our own way.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

121. “In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

122. “Even though you have pain in your legs, you can do it. Even though your practice is not good enough, you can do it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

123. “No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

124. “The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

125. “Everything you do is right, nothing you do is wrong, yet you must still make ceaseless effort.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

126. “There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

127. “Big mind is something to express, not something to figure out. Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

128. “Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, “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

129. “Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

130. “Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. In our way the point of the angle is always toward ourselves.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

131. “Emotionally we have many problems, but these problems are not actual problems; they are something created; they are problems pointed out by our self-centered ideas or views.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

132. “If you cannot bow to Buddha, you cannot be a Buddha. It is arrogance.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

133. “You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

134. “Try not to force your idea on someone, but rather think about it with him. If you feel you have won the discussion, that is the wrong attitude. Try not to win the argument; just listen to it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

135. “A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits it not open to things as they are.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

136. “I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color – something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

137. “We should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our knowledge.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

138. “You can’t make a date with enlightenment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

139. “An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

140. “Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

141. “If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

143. “Everything changes. There is nothing to stick to. That is the Buddha’s most important teaching.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

144. “Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

145. “Wabi means spare, impoverished; simple and functional. It connotes a transcendence of fad and fashion. The spirit of wabi imbues all the Zen arts, from calligraphy to karate, from the tea ceremony to Zen archery.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

146. “Those who are attached only to the result of their effort will not have any chance to appreciate it, because the result will never come.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

147. “Reality cannot be caught by thinking or feeling mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

148. “If someone is watching you, you can escape from him, but if no one is watching, you cannot escape from yourself.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

149. “To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

150. “If you want to read a letter from the Buddha’s world, it is necessary to understand Buddha’s world.”

— Shunryu Suzuki