A00251 - Shunryu Suzuki

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Suzuki, Shunryu - A00251

"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."  (07/12/2024)

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"Nothing we see or hear is perfect.  But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality."  (08/12/2022)

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"Renunciation is not giving up the things of the world, but accepting that they go away."  (12/24/2023)

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"Treat every moment as your last.  It is not preparation for something else."  (12/31/2022)

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"We die, and we do not die."  (09/30/2024)

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"We say "inner world" and "outer world," but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door.  The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door.  If you think, "I breathe," the "I" is extra.  There is no you to say "I."  What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.  It just moves, that is all.  When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no "I," no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door."  (10/17/2025) 

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"We say "just sit." What does it mean, "just sit"? When we say "just sit" it includes, actually, all of the activity, all the potential activity which we have; we remain in an inactive state, but we have infinite potentiality.  In this sense our practice includes everything."  (12/28/2024)

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"When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.  That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time."  (04/04/2023)

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"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 that 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."  (11/07/2023)

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"When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.  The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything." (10/22/2024) (12/02/2025)

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"Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see.  You are one with everything.  That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear."  (07/18/2023)

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“You cannot make a date with enlightenment.” (02/22/2025)

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