D.T. Suzuki > Quotes

“Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture

“The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.”
― D.T. Suzuki

“The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand ; I take a book from the other side of the desk ; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighbouring wood: — in all these I am practising Zen, I am living Zen. No wordy discussions is necessary, nor any explanation. I do not know why — and there is no need of explaining, but when the sun rises the whole world dances with joy and everybody’s heart is filled with bliss. If Zen is at all conceivable, it must be taken hold of here.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“God against man. Man against God. Man against nature. Nature against man. Nature against God. God against nature. Very funny religion!”
― D.T. Suzuki

“Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki

“the intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality... is the highest act of wisdom”
― D.T. Suzuki

“Modern life seems to recede further and further away from nature, and closely connected with this fact we seem to be losing the feeling of reverence towards nature. It is probably inevitable when science and machinery, capitalism and materialism go hand in hand so far in a most remarkably successful manner. Mysticism, which is the life of religion in whatever sense we understand it, has come to be relegated altogether in the background. Without a certain amount of mysticism there is no appreciation for the feeling of reverence, and, along with it, for the spiritual significance of humility. Science and scientific technique have done a great deal for humanity; but as far as our spiritual welfare is concerned we have not made any advances over that attained by our forefathers. In fact we are suffering at present the worst kind of unrest all over the world.”
― D.T. Suzuki, The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

“If there is anything Zen strongly emphasizes it is the attainment of freedom; that is, freedom from all unnatural encumbrances. Meditation is something artificially put on; it does not belong to the native activity of the mind. Upon what do the fowls of the air meditate? Upon what do the fish in the water meditate? They fly; they swim. Is not that enough? Who wants to fix his mind on the unity of God and man, or on the nothingness of life? Who wants to be arrested in the daily manifestations of his life-activity by such meditations as the goodness of a divine being or the everlasting fire of hell?”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“When mountain-climbing is made too easy, the spiritual effect the mountain exercises vanishes into the air.”
― D.T. Suzuki, The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

“We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“When a thing is denied, the very denial involves something not denied.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“The way to ascend unto God is to descend into one's self"; -- these are Hugo's words. "If thou wishest to search out the deep things of God, search out the depths of thine own spirit";”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“the finger pointing at the moon remains a finger and under no circumstances can it be changed into the moon itself.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Zen has nothing to do with letters, words, or sutras.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Taking it all in all, Zen is emphatically a matter of personal experience; if anything can be called radically empirical, it is Zen. No amount of reading, no amount of teaching, no amount of contemplation will ever make one a Zen master. Life itself must be grasped in the midst of its flow; to stop it for examination and analysis is to kill it, leaving its cold corpse to be embraced.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“No amount of wordy explanations will ever lead us into the nature of our own selves. The more you explain, the further it runs away from you. It is like trying to get hold of your own shadow. You run after it and it runs with you at the identical rate of speed.”
― D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism

“However insistently the blind may deny the existence of the sun, they cannot annihilate it.”
― D.T. Suzuki

“How hard, then, and yet how easy it is to understand Zen! Hard because to understand it is not to understand it; easy because not to understand it is to understand it.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he ought to live.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“In Zen there must be satori; there must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for a new life; there must be the awakening of a new sense which will review the old things from a hitherto undreamed-of angle of observation.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Zen perceives and feels, and does not abstract and meditate. Zen penetrates and is finally lost in the immersion. Meditation, on the other hand, is outspokenly dualistic and consequently inevitably superficial.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do so in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“But nothing awakens religious consciousness like suffering.”
― D.T. Suzuki, Buddha of Infinite Light

“There is something rejuvenating in the possession of Zen. The spring flowers look prettier, and the mountain stream runs cooler and more transparent. The subjective revolution that brings about this state of things cannot be called abnormal. When life becomes more enjoyable and its expense broadens to include the universe itself, there must be something in *satori* that is quite precious and well worth one's striving after.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Is satori something that is not at all capable of intellectual analysis? Yes, it is an experience which no amount of explanation or argument can make communicable to others unless the latter themselves had it previously. If satori is amenable to analysis in the sense that by so doing it becomes perfectly clear to another who has never had it, that satori will be no satori. For a satori turned into a concept ceases to be itself; and there will no more be a Zen experience.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Emptiness constantly falls within our reach. It is always with us, and conditions all our knowledge, all our deeds and is our life itself. It is only when we attempt to pick it up and hold it forth as something before our eyes that it eludes us, frustrates all our efforts and vanishes like vapor.”
― D.T. Suzuki, The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind: The Significance of the Sūtra of Hui-Neng

“In Christianity we seem to be too conscious of God, though we say that in him we live and move and have our being. Zen wants to have this last trace of God-consciousness, if possible, obliterated. That is why Zen masters advise us not to linger where the Buddha is, and to pass quickly away where he is not.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

“Perhaps there is after all nothing mysterious in Zen. Everything is open to your full view. If you eat your food and keep yourself cleanly dressed and work on the farm to raise your rice or vegetables, you are doing all that is required of you on this earth, and the infinite is realized in you.”
― D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism

“The idea of Zen is to catch lie as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. [...]. No wordy discussion is necessary, nor any explanation. I do not know why—and there is no need of explaining, but when the sun rises the whole world dances with joy and everybody's heart is filled with bliss. If Zen is at all conceivable, it must be taken hold of here.”
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism