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Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Shunryu Suzuki
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
“Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.”
“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.”
“What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.”
“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.”
“We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.”
“When something dies is the greatest teaching.”
“The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.”
“While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gain ing ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.”
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Book Keywords:
life-philosophy, phlilosophy, zen-buddhism, bowing, meditation, philosophy, way, inspirational, buddhism, zazen, zen