As soon as you raise a thought and begin to form an idea of it, you ruin the reality itself, because you then attach yourself to form. D.T. Suzuki More Quotes by D.T. Suzuki More Quotes From D.T. Suzuki The mistake consists in our splitting into two what is really and absolutely one. Is not life one as we live it, which we cut to pieces by recklessly applying the murderous knife of intellectual surgery? D.T. Suzuki knivescuttingmistake Enlightenment is like everyday consciousness but two inches above the ground. D.T. Suzuki enlightenmenteverydaytwo The greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality-something approaching the work of God. D.T. Suzuki qualitymusicart When mountain-climbing is made too easy, the spiritual effect the mountain exercises vanishes into the air. D.T. Suzuki climbingspiritualexercise We can see unmistakeably that there is an inner relationship between Zen and the warrior's life. D.T. Suzuki warrior Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism... We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task. D.T. Suzuki buddhismgratefulunderstanding Art always has something of the unconscious about it. D.T. Suzuki unconsciousart Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit. And where is the spirit? Seek it in your everyday experience, and therein lies abundance of proof for all you need. D.T. Suzuki experienceeverydaylying The meaning of service is to do the work assigned ungrudgingly and without thought of personal reward material or moral. D.T. Suzuki rewardsmoralwork Zen has no business with ideas. D.T. Suzuki ideas Zen has nothing to teach us in the way of intellectual analysis; nor has it any set doctrines which are imposed on its followers for acceptance. D.T. Suzuki doctrineintellectualacceptance Let the intellect alone, it has its usefulness in its proper sphere, but let it not interfere with the flowing of the life-stream. D.T. Suzuki intellectstreamsspheres Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself. D.T. Suzuki enlightenmentsideswork Facts of experience are valued in Zen more than representations, symbols, and concepts-that is to say, substance is everything in Zen and form nothing. D.T. Suzuki experiencesubstancefacts The claim of the Zen followers that they are transmitting the essence of Buddhism is based on their belief that Zen takes hold of the enlivening spirit of the Buddha, stripped of all its historical and doctrinal garments. D.T. Suzuki buddhismhistoricalessence To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience. D.T. Suzuki buddhistteachingenough Prophecy is rash, but it may be that the publication of D.T. Suzuki's first Essays in Zen Buddhism in 1927 will seem to future generations as great an intellectual event as William of Moerbeke's Latin translations of Aristotle in the thirteenth century or Marsiglio Ficino's of Plato in the fifteenth. D.T. Suzuki buddhismplatolatin When I say that Zen is life, I mean that Zen is not to be confined within conceptualization, that Zen is what makes conceptualization possible. D.T. Suzuki conceptualizationconfinedmean
