Anju

“On the inhalation you take in some of the suffering—either your own or someone else’s—and on the exhalation you let it go. Repeat this three or four times, receiving and releasing, taking in and letting go. Then you may move from the personal to the universal. That’s it.”
― Jakusho Kwong Roshi, No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen

“In an interview that a Benedictine monk had with His Holiness in Scotland, he asked the Dalai Lama, “Do you think your sitting on the mountain will be of any good to these twentieth-century people?” The Dalai Lama answered him right away, “Of course. Definitely it is good.” It’s good because places of meditation are charged with the feeling and the sound of the cricket, or the breathing of the whale, or just our Zen breathing, and this creates a very powerful life force that affects the life of our environment.”
― Jakusho Kwong Roshi, No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen

“A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"

Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason.”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, Author of "ZEN Mind, Beginner's Mind"

“We should work like the rain.The rain just falls. It doesn’t ask, Am I making a nice sound down below? Or, Will the plants be glad to see me? Will they be grateful? The rain just falls, one raindrop after another. Millions and billions of raindrops, only falling.This is the open secret of Zen.”
― Jakusho Kwong Roshi, No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen