Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

It's no wonder human beings are so narcissistic. The way our ears are constructed, we can hear only what is right next to us or else the internal monologue inside.

Of nothing but me I sing, lacking another song.

Inward is not a direction. Inward is a dimension.

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings.

My ability to notice that kind of thing, the sanctity of the bubble that you create, has not been so good in a way, in that I notice it concurrently with actually doing the thing. I always notice it in retrospect.

Let us look at our own faults, and not other people's. We ought not to insist on everyone following in our footsteps, nor to take upon ourselves to give instructions in spirituality when, perhaps, we do not even know what it is.

Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone

The uninvestigated life is not worth living. I don't want to live that way.

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.

It is difficult to see ourselves as we are. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have good friends, lovers or others who will do us the good service of telling us the truth about ourselves. When we don't, we can so easily delude ourselves, lose a sense of truth about ourselves, and our conscience loses power and purpose. Mostly, we tell ourselves what we would like to hear. We lose our way.

Attitude is an accurate monitor of where we fall on the spectrum of pride and humility.

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.

Think... of the world you carry within you, and call this thinking whatever you want to: a remembering of your own childhood or a yearning toward a future of your own - only be attentive to what is arising within you, and place that above everything you perceive around you. What is happening in your innermost self is worthy of your entire love; somehow you must find a way to work at it.

Every time feels like my first time. And I just find that the process of it feeds into one's own self-obsession.

How can you spend hours every day trying in small ways to figure out who you are, then have a near-stranger give you a sentence of yourself that says it better than you ever could?

Everyone has understood me in his own way. But I would have to understand myself first in order to judge - and so far, I haven't.

I'm curious about everything, except what people have to say about me.

Through love and sincerity continuously beautify your inner life in every way, by daily looking into the mirror of introspection.

To know one’s own state is not a simple matter. One cannot look directly at one’s own face with one’s own eyes, for example. One has no choice but to look at one’s reflection in the mirror. Through experience, we come to believe that the image is correct, but that is all.

Those questions - when you think about a thought, when you're believing a thought or concept and you question it - you realize that it changes things. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry.

We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are.

I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?

I turn my gaze inward. I fix it there and keep it busy. I look inside myself. I continually observe myself.

I hadn't traveled with the intention of learning about anything except myself. And the real point of all this travel was not what I had come to believe or disbelieve about the wider world, but what I had learned about myself.

I don't want to be so analytical of my own life, because if I start to be analytical of my own life, maybe I'll choose not to believe anything that's going on. But, the fact of the matter is, I've experienced both sides of it now. Sides where you have a great time with people on set, and then you do just step away. And it's not malicious. It's just that people go back and live their lives and do whatever.