Zen purposes to discipline the mind itself, to make it its own master, through an insight into its proper nature. This getting into the real nature of one’s own mind or soul is the fundamental object of Zen Buddhism.
D.T. SUZUKIAbsolute faith is placed in a man’s own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within.
More D.T. Suzuki Quotes
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We lose track of the Original Mind and are tormented all the time by the threatening objective world, regarding it as good or bad, true or false, agreeable or disagreeable. We are thus slaves of things and circumstances.
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I am an artist at living – my work of art is my life.
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Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.
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When the identity is realized, I as swordsman see no opponent confronting me and threatening to strike me.
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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.
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Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself.
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Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one’s own rules-this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.
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The fighter is to be always single-minded with one object in view: to fight, looking neither backward nor sidewise. To go straight forward in order to crush the enemy is all that is necessary for him.
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Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground.
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Zen has no business with ideas.
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We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten the Buddha reveals himself before us.
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Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking.
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To Zen, time and eternity are one.
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Eternity is the Absolute present.
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Implicity, there should be something mysterious in every day.
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