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

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.

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.

If you try to observe the precepts, that is not true observation of precepts. When you observe the precepts without trying to observe the precepts, that is true observation of the precepts.

The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

The more you practice zazen, the more you will be able to accept something as your own, whatever it is.

To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.