QuoteProject
Whereever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.
Shunryu Suzuki
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things in the universe.

Shunryu Suzuki's quote reflects on the profound connection between individuals and the natural world, suggesting that wherever one may be, they share a unity with the cosmos. It encapsulates the idea that our existence is intertwined with the elements around us—clouds, sun, and stars—implying a harmonious relationship with everything that exists, transcending mere words and perceptions.

Themes

InterconnectednessUnityNatureCosmosExistence

In practice

Example use cases

In a meditation class, to emphasize the connection between individuals and the universe.

More from Shunryu Suzuki

For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
No teaching could be more direct than just to sit down.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
Shunryu SuzukiRead
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.
Shunryu SuzukiRead

Similar quotes

I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Genetically influenced behavior is not necessarily good and not necessarily unchangeable. Explanations of bad behavior that appeal to genes do not absolve a person any more than do explanations that appeal to upbringing.
Steven PinkerRead
Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.
Chinua AchebeRead
I like flawed characters, and I like seeing people who are supposed to be not villains but antagonists. There are elements to them, which are really annoying, but you kind of see where they came from. You see the things that caused those inadequacies.
Taika WaititiRead
Philanthropic and religious bodies do not commonly make their executive officers out of saints.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
There is a danger to judicial independence when people have no understanding of how the judiciary fits into the constitutional scheme.
David SouterRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.