The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk Quotes

“To see into the meaning of Zen is not enough; it must be thoroughly assimilated into every fibre of one's existence; and to do this fourteen years' constant application cannot be said to be too arduous a task. In fact, the Zen monk has to pass about that length of time in the Zendo before he is fully qualified as a Zen master.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The trouble with our social life is that we are always seeking for a reward, and more frequently for one enormously out of proportion to the merit of the deed itself. When this is not forthcoming, we are dissatisfied, and this dissatisfaction causes all sorts of trouble in our daily walk of life.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“Institutions like the Zendo are becoming anachronistic and obsolete; its tradition is wearing out, and the spirit that has been controlling the discipline of the monks for so many hundred years is no more holding itself against the onslaught of modernism.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“Naturally, there are not many graduates of the Zendo life, and this is indeed in the very nature of Zen; for Zen is meant for the élite, for specially gifted minds, and not for the masses.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“In the Zendo no books are allowed except when they are absolutely needed, for instance, when the monks have to look up a passage expressive of their understanding of a koan.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The monks are not idling away their precious time in the monastery. They are trained here in a peculiar way to develop their moral and spiritual energies and also to see into the mysteries of their being. When all this is appraised in the proper light, we can appreciate the real significance of the Zendo life, which goes on in a.way so contrary to modern trends of thought and actual living.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The period called "Great Sesshin" lasts one week. Sesshin means "to collect thoughts," and during this period the monks are exempt from work and practise zazen from early morning (3.30 a.m.) till evening (9.30 or 10 p.m.), except when they eat and when they attend the kōza which now takes place once every day.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“What properly constitutes the study of Zen in the Zendo life is to study on the one hand the writings or sayings or in some cases the doings of the ancient masters and on the other to practise meditation. This practising is called in Japanese to do zazen, while the studying of the masters consists in attending the discourses given by the teacher of the Zendo known as Rōshi.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“How much sleep is needed for a man to keep himself healthy, strong, and always capable for work is a great problem; it cannot be decided without considering various incidental circumstances besides his own hereditary constitution. But sleep seems to be something that permits much latitude, and discipline or habit can do much to reduce it to its lowest terms.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“Even in trying to become an expert athlete, daily training involving a great deal of self-denial and asceticism is absolutely needed.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“To regard Zen as a form of asceticism and nothing more will be a grievous mistake. What Zen aims at is to reduce the claims of the body to a minimum in order to divert their course to a higher realm of activities. To torture the body is not its object, nor is it its object to gain merit and thereby to lay one's fortune in heaven.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The bedding given to each monk is one broad futon or quilt wadded with cotton-wool, which is about six feet square in size. He wraps himself in this only, even in the midst of the cold winter, and sleeps from 9 p.m. till about 3.30 in the morning. For the pillow he uses a pair of small cushions, each about two feet square, on which during the daytime he sits and keeps up his meditation. As soon as he wakes, the bedding is put up to the common shelf overhead.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The Sūtras most commonly used in the Zen monastery are (1) The Prajñāpāramitā-hridaya-sūtra, known as Shin-gyō, (2) The Samantamukha-parivarta, known as Kwannon-gyō, which forms a chapter of the Pundarīka Sūtra, and (3) The Vajracchedikā Sūtra or Kongō kyō in Japanese. Of these three, the Shingyō being the simplest is recited almost on all occasions.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“With Zen Buddhists prayer is more in the form of self-reflection and vow or determined will than asking for an outside help in the execution of desires.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“Human life is not always governed by economic principles: there is something more in it, and the peace and happiness we all are seeking is attained only when this "something more" is understood.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“As Zen is a discipline and not a philosophy, it directly deals with life; and this is where Zen has developed its most characteristic features.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“In the use of the materials, natural or artificial, which are the common possessions of the Brotherhood, the monks are taught to be scrupulously careful about not wasting or abusing them. Water is everywhere obtainable in this part of the earth, especially in the mountain monastery; but they are strictly instructed not to use it too freely, that is, beyond absolute necessity. An attendant monk to a Zen master was one day told to change water in the wash-basin as it had stood too long in it. The attendant carelessly threw it out on the ground. The master was indignant and said, "Don't you know how to make it work usefully?" The monk confessed ignorance, whereupon the master advised him to pour the water around the root of a tree which was evidently in need of moisture.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“Properly speaking, the Zen monks are supposed to eat only twice a day after the fashion set up by the Buddha in India. The evening meal is, therefore, called yaku-seki, "medicinal food.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“One of the principles governing the life at Zendo, as was elsewhere alluded to, is not to waste. This applies with special emphasis to cookery where the vegetables or grains of rice and barley are always liable to be thoughtlessly thrown away.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The meaning of service is to do the work assigned ungrudgingly and without thought of personal reward material or moral.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“To serve as a cook in the Zendo life means that the monk has attained some understanding about Zen, for it is one of the positions highly honoured in the monastery, and may be filled only by one of those who have passed a number of years here.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“However high and soaring to the sky our ideas may be, we are firmly fixed to the earth; there is no way of escaping this physical existence.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The bowl the monks carry has figured very much in the history of Zen. Together with the "robe" it symbolises priestly authority.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“While there is no doubt that the chief means of supporting the Zendo life is begging, as was in the ancient days of the Buddha, begging has, besides its economic value, a twofold moral signification: the one is to teach the beggar humility and the other is to make the donor accumulate the merit of self-denial.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The worst passion we mortals cherish is the desire to possess. Even when we know that our final destination is a hole not more than three feet square, we have the strongest craving for accumulation, which we cannot ourselves make any use of after death. The monk mutely protests against this human passion by limiting his possessions to the last degree.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The Zendo life may be roughly analysed into (1) life of humility, (2) life of labour, (3) life of service, (4) life of prayer and gratitude, and (5) life of meditation. After his initiation to the Brotherhood, the monk is to be trained along these lines.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The life at the Semmon Dōjō, which, by way of abbreviation, will be later spoken of as the Zendo life, is something altogether out of keeping with modern life. We can almost say that anything modern and many things ordinarily regarded as symbolic of a pious life are absent here. Instead of labour-saving machinery, what may appear as labour-wasting is encouraged. Commercialism and self-advertisement are banned. Scientific, intellectual education is interdicted. Comfort, luxury, and womanly kindness are conspicuous for their absence. There is, however, a spirit of grim earnestness, with which higher truths are sought; there is determined devotion to the attainment of superior wisdom, which will help to put an end to all the woes and ailments of human life, and also to the acquirement of the fundamental social virtues, which quietly pave the way to world-peace and the promotion of the general welfare of all humankind. The Zen life thus aims, besides maturing the monk's spiritual development, at turning out good citizens as social members as well as individuals.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk

“The training of the Zen monk takes place at the Semmon Dōjō which is the "seat of perfect wisdom" (bodhimanda) specifically built for the purpose. While Dōjō has lost its original meaning and is nowadays used to designate any place of training, it still retains its primary connotation when it is applied to the Zen monastery. Attached generally to all the principal Zen temples in Japan we find such a training station for the monks. A Zen monk is no Zen monk unless he goes through at least a few years of severe discipline at this institute.”
― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, The Training Of The Zen Buddhist Monk