Quotes by D.T. Suzuki

When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon the meaning of life, for life is after all a travelling from one unknown to another unknown.

The right art is purposeless, aimless!  The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

Fundamentally the marksman aims at himself.

The right shot, at the right moment, does not come because you do not let go of yourself.  You are not waiting for fulfillment, but bracing yourself for failure.  So long as this is so, you have no choice but to call forth something from yourself that ought to happen independently of you.

When you come to the lessons in the furure you must collect yourself on the way here.

Zen Makes use, to a great extent, of poetical expressions; Zen is wedded to poetry.

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's hum drum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.

Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water.

The greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality-something approaching the work of God.