D.T. Suzuki

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life into one of art.

Zen has no business with ideas.

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.

I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. I got the idea from a book by Orlando Smith. Until I discovered this theory I was unsettled and dissatisfied-without a compass, so to speak. When I discovered reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. There was time enough to plan and to create. I wouldn’t give five cents for seeing all the world, because I feel there is nothing in the five continents and on the five seas that I have not somehow seen. Somewhere is a master mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me. We inherit a native knowledge from a previous existence. Gospel of reincarnation is essence of all knowledge. I do not know where we come from or go to but we accumulate experience. Someday it will be possible to measure the soul. We all retain memories of past lives.

Still water has no mind to receive the image of the migrating geese.

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

To be calm is the highest achievement of the self.

Abandon yesterday, tomorrow and today. Cross over to the farthest shore beyond life and death.

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.

Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.

The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It’s universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I’ve learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do.

I dressed the part and slipped into my Sunday best. I peeled open the heavy doors to every church I could find.

In the end, only three things matter: How much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

I think every person should have some faith inside him, in his heart. What matters is not an external display of this faith, but the inner state of the soul.

Each step along the Buddha’s path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.