When you can laugh at yourself, there is enlightenment.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
“Sitting Like a Frog,” Not Always So [ed. E. Brown] (2002)
Quotations by:
Suzuki, Shunryu
Hell is not punishment. It’s training.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
(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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
(Attributed)
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Not Always So, “Letters from Emptiness” (2002)
Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Not Always So, “Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There” (2002)
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1973)
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Lecture in Los Altos, California (1 Sep 1967)
(Source)
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.
Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Lotus Sutra No. 6 lecture, Tassajara, California (Feb 1968)
(Source)