D. T. Suzuki

Zen has no business with ideas.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

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

In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.

Music brought me closer to the idea of God.

You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave.

I take the kids to church and Sunday school. They love it. I really think it’s important for a child to feel that there are things that are bigger than your life out there.

It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.

What was never lost can never be found.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

I come to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and stars.

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

A cult is a religion with no political power.

The Zen expression Kill the Buddha!” means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.

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.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.