# Quote — Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

> 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.

- Author: [Shunryu Suzuki](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki.md)
- Book: [Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shunryu_Suzuki#Right_Attitude) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/shunryu-suzuki/zen-mind-beginners-mind/once-i-had

## More from this book

> 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)