Top 250 Shunryu Suzuki Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “We must exist right here, right now!”

— Shunryu Suzuki

102. “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

103. “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

104. “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

105. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

108. “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

109. “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

110. “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

111. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

114. “The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind. The innocence of the first inquiry – what am I? – is needed throughout Zen practice. 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. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

116. “You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

118. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

120. “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

121. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

123. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

125. “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

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

129. “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

130. “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

131. “Enlightenment is not a complete remedy.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

133. “When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

135. “Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

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

— Shunryu Suzuki

137. “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

138. “We can say either that we make progress little by little, or that we do not even expect to make progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

139. “To be different is to have value. In this sense all things have equal, absolute value. Each thing has absolute value and thus is equal to everything else.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

140. “It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

141. “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

142. “People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

143. “Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen’t tell time.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

144. “In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

145. “We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection... The eternal exists because of non-eternal existence... We should find the truth in this world, through our difficulties, through our suffering... Pleasure is not different from difficulty. Good is not different from bad.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

146. “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

147. “If your practice is good, you may become proud of it. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

148. “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

149. “If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

150. “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