Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

The logs of wood which move down the river together Are driven apart by every wave. Such inevitable parting Should not be the cause of misery.

Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

I saw that nothing was permanent. You don't want to possess anything that is dear to you because you might lose it.

To remember non-attachment is to remember what freedom is all about. If we get attached, even to a beautiful state of being, we are caught, and ultimately we will suffer. We work to observe anything that comes our way, experience it while it is here, and be able to let go of it.

Let come what comes, let go what goes. See what remains.

The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.

I do a lot of reading on Buddhist philosophy, and a Buddhist nun named Pema Chödrön talks a lot about acceptance. It's one of the main tenets of Buddhism - accepting that what is, is. The root of our suffering is when we just don't want to accept a truth. We want something to be different than it is.

Life is a flux, nothing abides. Still we are such fools, we go on clinging. If change is the nature of life, then clinging is stupidity, because your clinging is not going to change the law of life. Your clinging is only going to make you miserable. Things are bound to change; whether you cling or not does not matter. If you cling you become miserable: you cling and they change, you feel frustrated. If you don't cling they still change, but then there is no frustration because you were perfectly aware that they are bound to change. This is how things are, this is the suchness of life.

I miss the grasshoppers much, but suppose it is all for the best. I should become too much attached to a trotting world.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can't achieve. Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter's place. When you handle the master carpenter's tools, chances are that you'll cut your hand.

Meditation is a tool for helping us accept the profound fact that everything changes all the time.

And let its meaning permeate each day. Whatever comes, This too shall pass away.

But if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.

We can't control what thoughts and emotions arise within us, nor can we control the universal truth that everything changes. But we can learn to step back and rest in the awareness of what's happening. That awareness can be our refuge.

That which is impermanent attracts compassion. That which is not provides wisdom. (116)

Never worry about things That you are unable to change. Change your own way Of looking at truth.

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.

The world is impermanent. One should constantly remember death.

Everything has a beginning and an ending. Make peace with that and all will be well...In life we cannot avoid change, we cannot avoid loss. Freedom and happiness are found in the flexibility and ease with which we move through change.

Do not get attatched to the world as it is. Because the world is changing something new is coming.

Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid.

Buddhism teaches you to embrace change.