Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.

A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.

Tai Shimano visited Shunryu Suzuki. "How are you feeling these days?" Suzuki replied, "They have a new name for me: Cancer!"

A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?" Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason.

It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.

It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live - to exist here and now.

You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away?