Top 250 Shunryu Suzuki Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “When we hear the sound of the pine trees on a windy day, perhaps the wind is just blowing, and the pine tree is just standing in the wind. That is all they are doing. But the people who listen to the wind in the tree will write a poem, or will feel something unusual. That is, I think, the way everything is.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

202. “In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

203. “Just as you unreel the thread from a spool, I want the past to become present.” When she said this, actually she made past time present. In her mind the past became alive and was the present.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

204. “Now it is raining, but we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don’t know, let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

205. “Suppose you recite the Prajna Paramita Sutra only once. It might be a very good recitation. But what would happen to you if you recited it twice, three times, four times, or more? You might easily lose your original attitude towards it. The same thing will happen in your other Zen practices. For a while you will keep your beginner’s mind, but if you continue to practice one, two, three years or more, although you may improve some, you are liable to lose the limitless meaning of original mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

206. “Not to be attached to something is to be aware of its absolute value. Everything you do should be based on such an awareness, and not on material or self-centered ideas of value.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

207. “Sincerity itself is the railroad track.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

208. “When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

209. “When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away. There is no distinction between heaven and earth, man and woman, teacher and disciple. Sometimes a man bows to a woman; sometimes a woman bows to a man. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master; sometimes the master bows to the disciple... In your big mind, everything has the same value.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

210. “Concentration is not to try hard to watch something... Concentration means freedom... In zazen practice we say your mind should be concentrated on your breathing, but the way to keep your mind on your breathing is to forget all about yourself and just to sit and feel your breathing.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

211. “It is quite usual for us to gather pieces of information from various sources, thinking in this way to increase our knowledge. Actually, following this way we end up not knowing anything at all... Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true knowledge is already yours.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

212. “There is no gap between the ignorant and the wise. A foolish person is a wise person; a wise person is a foolish person.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

213. “But as long as you think, “I am doing this,” or “I have to do this,” or “I must attain something special,” you are actually not doing anything... when you do not try to do anything special, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

214. “To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or 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; you should work on it with nothing in your mind, and without expecting anything. You should just cook!”

— Shunryu Suzuki

215. “You should not be absent-minded. But to be aware of the movement does not mean to be aware of your small self, but rather of your universal nature...”

— Shunryu Suzuki

216. “The trying to do something is in itself enlightenment. When we are in difficulty or distress, there we have enlightenment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

217. “But if you make your best effort just to continue your practice with your whole mind and body, without gaining ideas, then whatever you do will be true practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

218. “Because your attainment is always ahead, you will always be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

219. “But Buddha was not interested in the elements comprising human beings, nor in metaphysical theories of existence. He was more concerned about how he himself existed in this moment.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

220. “Instead of only criticizing your culture, you should devote your mind and body to practicing this simple way. Then society and culture will grow out of you.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

221. “When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

222. “So if you do something, you should be observant, and careful, and alert.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

223. “Building character is like making bread – you have to mix it little by little, step by step, and moderate temperature is needed. You know yourself quite well, and you know how much temperature you need. You know exactly what you need. But if you get too excited, you will forget how much temperature is good for you, and you will lose your own way. This is very dangerous.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

224. “We should not attach to some fancy ideas or to some beautiful things. We should not seek for something good. The truth is always near at hand, within your reach.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

225. “Another mistake will be to practice for the sake of the joy you find in it. Actually, when your practice is involved in a feeling of joy, it is not in very good shape either. Of course this is not poor practice, but compared to the true practice it is not so good.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

226. “Do not be too interested in Zen.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

227. “A Zen master once said, “To go eastward one mile is to go westward one mile.” This is vital freedom. We should acquire this kind of perfect freedom.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

228. “In our practice we have no particular purpose or goal, nor any special object of worship.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

229. “If you are not concerned about what you do, you will not say so. When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat. That is all. If you say, “It doesn’t matter,” it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

230. “We sit to express our true nature.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

231. “So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

232. “So even though you have some difficulty in your practice, even though you have some waves while you are sitting, those waves themselves will help you. So you should not be bothered by your mind. You should rather be grateful for the weeds, because eventually they will enrich your practice.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

233. “True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another. Zen masters are very straightforward.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

234. “The important thing in our understanding is to have a smooth, free-thinking way of observation. We have to think and to observe things without stagnation. We should accept things as they are without difficulty. Ou mind should be soft and open enough to understand things as they are. When our thinking is soft, it is called imperturbable thinking. This kind of thinking is always stable. It is called mindfulness.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

235. “There is no easy way to be a teacher or a disciple, although it must be the greatest joy in this life.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

236. “Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

237. “Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

238. “Zen is nothing to get excited about.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

239. “After the wand stops I see a flower falling. Because of the singing bird I find the mountain calmness.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

240. “If you are ready to accept things as they are, you will receive them as old friends, even though you appreciate them with new feeling.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

241. “You must force yourself to be patient, but in constancy there is no particular effort involved – there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are. For people who have no idea of emptiness, this ability may appear to be patience, but patience can actually be non-acceptance.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

242. “As long as you have rules, you have a chance for freedom. To try to obtain freedom without being aware of the rules means nothing.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

243. “Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you will reject it or you may not even really hear it.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

244. “Which is more important: to attain enlightenment, or to attain enlightenment before you attain enlightenment; to make a million dollars, or to enjoy your life in your effort, little by little, even though it is impossible to make that million; to be successful, or to find some meaning in your effort to be successful? If you do not know the answer, you will not even be able to practice zazen; if you do know, you will have found the true treasure of life.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

245. “Even though it is midnight, dawn is here; even though dawn comes, it is nighttime.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

246. “Usually when you practice zazen, you become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. But as I have often said, this is absurd. When you are idealistic, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

247. “In the thinking realm there is a difference between oneness and variety; but in actual experience, variety and unity are the same.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

248. “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. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

249. “When we first hear that everything is a tentative existence, most of us are disappointed; but this disappointment comes from a wrong view of man and nature. It is because our way of observing things is deeply rooted in our self-centered ideas that we are disappointed when we find everything has only a tentative existence. But when we actually realize this truth, we will have no suffering.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

250. “It is necessary to remember what we have done, but we should not become attached to what we have done in some special sense.”

— Shunryu Suzuki