For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
The mind we have when we practice zazen is the great mind: we don't try to see anything; we stop conceptual thinking; we stop emotional activity; we just sit. Whatever happens to us, we are not bothered. We just sit. It is like something happening in the great sky. Whatever kind of bird flies through it, the sky doesn't care. That is the mind transmitted from Buddha to us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and letting go of distractions during meditation.
In this quote, Shunryu Suzuki conveys that during zazen, or seated meditation, one should adopt a state of mind that is free from conceptual thought and emotional turbulence. By likening the mind to the vast sky, he illustrates that, like the sky, we should remain unaffected by the various thoughts and experiences that pass through our awareness, cultivating a serene and detached presence similar to that of the Buddha.
Themes
MindfulnessMeditationZazenBuddhismDetachmentPeace
In practice
Example use cases
During a meditation workshop, I quoted Suzuki to encourage participants to embrace stillness.
More from Shunryu Suzuki
All quotes →If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
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No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.
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When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore.
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