Quotes from D.T. Suzuki

Zen in it's essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

When we start to feel anxious or depressed, instead of asking, "What do I need to get to be happy?" The question becomes, "What am I doing to disturb the inner peace that I already have?"

That's why I love philosophy: no one wins.

Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies.

The greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality-something approaching the work of God.

Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only borrowed plumage.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

God against man. Man against God. Man against nature. Nature against man. Nature against God. God against nature. Very funny religion!

You ought to know how to rise above the trivialities of life, in which most people are found drowning themselves.

Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water.

Eternity is the Absolute present.

Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one's own rules-this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.

We can see unmistakeably that there is an inner relationship between Zen and the warrior's life.

Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself.

Let the intellect alone, it has its usefulness in its proper sphere, but let it not interfere with the flowing of the life-stream.

When I say that Zen is life, I mean that Zen is not to be confined within conceptualization, that Zen is what makes conceptualization possible.

We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything. That is to understand Zen.

To Zen, time and eternity are one.

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking.

The meaning of service is to do the work assigned ungrudgingly and without thought of personal reward material or moral.

Zen has no business with ideas.