For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.
Interpretation
The 'I' is not a fixed entity but a transient experience shaped by our breath and presence.
In this quote, Shunryu Suzuki highlights the transient nature of the self, suggesting that our identity is fluid and ever-changing, much like the ebb and flow of our breath. The idea that 'I' is likened to a swinging door emphasizes that our sense of self is influenced by external and internal factors, and is not a permanent fixture but rather a dynamic experience that fluctuates with each moment.
In practice
In a meditation retreat, this quote can be used to encourage participants to reflect on the nature of their identity.
For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.
Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
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.
Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like, guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting "Gotcha". It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it.' 'Why not?' 'Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end.
Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.
We have been basically persuaded that we should not talk about racism.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.