D.T. Suzuki Quotes

I think you're all enlightened, until you open your mouths.

If you try to observe the precepts, that is not true observation of precepts. When you observe the precepts without trying to observe the precepts, that is true observation of the precepts.

If you want to enjoy the movie, you should know that it is the combination of film and light and white screen, and that the most important thing is to have a plain, white screen.

Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. In our way the point of the angle is always toward ourselves.

If your practice is good, you may become proud of it. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.

You can't make a date with enlightenment.

The world is its own magic.

The best way to control cow and sheep is to give them a big grazing field.

To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.

For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.

Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself.

It is not too late to take another path.

Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.

The voluntary approach to corporate social responsibility has failed in many cases.

Conventional economics is a form of brain damage.

Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable and we can change them.

Just as human activity is upsetting Earth's carbon cycle, our actions are altering the water cycle.

It's time we stopped ignoring the environment. Let's not let another election go by without making this a high priority.

Where love is deep, much can be accomplished.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.

To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.

You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself.

Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.

Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.

A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.

We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.

The way that helps will not be the same; it changes according to the situation.

If America wants to retain its position as a global power, its president must listen to the people and show strong leadership at this turning point in human history.

One has not understood until one has forgotten it.

The meaning of service is to do the work assigned ungrudgingly and without thought of personal reward material or moral.

To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience.

Our choices at all levels-individual, community, corporate and government-affect nature. And they affect us.

Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.

For the first time since life appeared on earth, one species- us- is single-handedly altering the physical, chemical and biological nature of earth. We have become a force of nature

Hydraulic fracturing requires massive amounts of water. Disposing of the toxic wastewater, as well as accidental spills, can contaminate drinking water and harm human health.

Art is not in some far-off place. A work of Art is the expression of a man's whole personality, sensibility and ability

Art Exists for the human species. I think that all of the people who love art, those who teach art, and all of you should burn with the obligation to save the world

In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves.

When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time.

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.

The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.

When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.

Time goes from present to past.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.

An enlightened person does not ignore things and does not stick to things, not even to the truth.

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.

Be aware of yourself and know yourself. No matter how much you have learned and how much you know, if you don't know yourself you don't know anything.

In the environmental movement, every time you lose a battle it's for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.

Zen has no business with ideas.