Quotes by Shunryu Suzuki

"Each one of you is perfect as you are.
And you all could use a little bit of improvement."
~Shunryu Suzuki~

Renunciation is not giving up the things of the world, but accepting that they go away.

We have to study with our warm heart, not just with our brain.

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

Because we put emphasis on some particular point, we always have trouble. We should accept things just as they are. This is how we understand everything, and how we live in this world. This kind of experience is something beyond our thinking. In the thinking realm there is a difference between oneness and variety; but in actual experience, variety and unity are the same. Because you create some idea of unity or variety, you are caught by the idea. And you have to continue the endless thinking, although actually there is no need to think.
Emotionally we have many problems; they are something created; they are problems pointed out by our self-centered ideas or views. Because we point out something, there are problems. But actually it is not possible to point out anything in particular. Happiness is sorrow; sorrow is happiness. Even though the ways we feel are different, they are not really different; in essence they are the same. This is the true understanding; transmitted from Buddha to us.

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

When he bowed to all those buddhas, the buddhas he bowed to were beyond his own understanding. Again and again he did it.

If you were not born in this world, there would be no need to die. To be born in this world is to die, to disappear [laughing].

Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so....
In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.