Shunryu Suzuki

Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you can not eat.

The world is its own magic.

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. – Shunryu Suzuki

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.

A mother’s yearning feels the presence of the cherished child even in the degraded man.

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.

Surrender is faith that the power of love can accomplish anything… even when you can not foresee the outcome.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

They say that history repeats itself, so if you don’t learn from the past you will make the same mistakes. So I have become an archaeologist of my own history. Digging up what has long since been buried, exhuming those forgotten fragments. Trying to distinguish what is real from folklore, trying to gain understanding, rather than relying on myths.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

A vow is a snare for sin.

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.