# Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Author: [Shunryu Suzuki](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki.md) - Quotes: 16 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind ## Quotes > Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/without-accepting-the.md) > The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism but to study ourselves. You are not your body. You are the Big Activity. You are just expressing the smallest particle of the Big Activity. That is all. But when you become attached to a temporal expression of the Big Activity, it is time to talk about Buddhism. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/the-purpose-of-studying.md) > After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/after-you-have.md) > Eyes only see things outside, objective things. If you reflect on yourself, that self is not your true self any more. You cannot project yourself as some objective thing to think about. The mind which is always on your side is not just your mind, it is universal mind, always the same, not different from another's mind. It is Zen mind. It is big, big mind. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/eyes-only-see.md) > You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/you-should-rather.md) > The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/the-true-purpose.md) > Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. Even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to. After we bow to the floor nine times. By bowing we are giving up ourselves. To give up ourselves means to give up our dualistic ideas. So there is no difference between zazen practice and bowing. …, the founder of the , committed (ritual suicide by disembowelment) in 1591 at the order of his lord, Hideyoshi. Just before Rikyu took his own life he said, "When I have this sword there is no Buddha and no Patriarchs." He meant that when we have the sword of big mind, there is no dualistic world. The only thing which exists is this spirit. This kind of imperturbable spirit was always present in Rikyu’s tea ceremony. He never did anything in just a dualistic way; he was ready to die in each moment. In ceremony after ceremony he died, and he renewed himself. This is the spirit of the tea ceremony. This is how we bow. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/bowing-is-a-very.md) > Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/zazen-practice-is-the.md) > Once I had left Eiheiji and been away for some time, coming back was different. I heard the various sounds of practice—the bells and the monks reciting the sutra—and I had a deep feeling. There were tears flowing out of my eyes, nose, and mouth! It is the people who are outside of the monastery who feel its atmosphere. Those who are practicing actually do not feel anything. I think this is true for everything. When we hear the sound of the pine trees on a windy day, perhaps the wind is just blowing, and the pine tree is just standing in the wind. That is all that they are doing. But the people who listen to the wind in the tree will write a poem, or will feel something unusual. That is, I think, the way everything is. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/once-i-had.md) > In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/in-the-beginners.md) > The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth and all teaching of Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/the-basic-teaching.md) > Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. This is the fundamental teaching expressed in the forms we observe. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/doing-something-is-expressing.md) > Practice does not mean that whatever you do, even lying down, is zazen. When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice…. > > When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat…. If you say,”It doesn’t matter,” it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. It means that you are to some particular thing or way. That is not what we mean when we say, “Just to sit is enough,” or “Whatever you do is zazen.” Of course, everything you do is zazen, but if so, there is no need to say it. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/practice-does-not.md) > If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/if-you-take.md) > It is all right to talk about ourselves, but actually there is no need to do so. Before we open our mouths, we are already expressing the big existence, including ourselves. So the purpose of talking about ourselves is to correct the misunderstanding we have when we are attached to any particular temporal form or color of the big activity. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/it-is-all.md) > We must have beginner's mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change. Nothing exists but momentarily in its present form and color. One thing flows into another and cannot be grasped. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/we-must-have.md)