WIST

When you can laugh at yourself, there is enlightenment.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
“Sitting Like a Frog,” Not Always So [ed. E. Brown] (2002)

Hell is not punishment. It’s training.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
(Attributed)

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 Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
(Attributed)

For Zen students a weed is a treasure. [...] You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in you mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, ch. 1 “Right Practice” (1973)

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; in the expert’s mind, there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Prologue (1973)

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1905-1971) Japanese Buddhist scholar
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1973)