Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Notes

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

Author: Shunryu Suzuki

"As long as you have rules, you have a chance for freedom. To try to obtain freedom without being aware of the rulas means nothing"

"Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough."

The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence

"If you lose the spirit of repetition it will become quite difficult, but it will not be difficult if you are full of strength and vitality. Anyway, we cannot keep still, we have to do something. So if you do something, you should be very observant, and careful, and alert."

"The enlightened person is some perfect, desirable character, for himself and for others."

"So we should concentrate with our full mind and body on what we do, and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and specially to our feelings."

"True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another."

"Teaching which does not sound as if it is forcing something on you is not true teaching."

"When you do something, if you fix you mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself. When you are concentrated on the wuality of your being, you are prepared to the activity."

"Real calmness should be found in activity itself."

"It is the readiness of the mind that is wisdom."

"Our mind should be soft and open enought to understand things as they are. When our thinkig is soft, it is called imperturbable thinking. This kind of thinking is always stable. It is called mindfulness."

"Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is ot be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of you mind."

"Ater the wand stops I see a flower falling. Because of the singing bird I find the mountain calmness."

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Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki on Amazon

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