Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

by Shunryu Suzuki

The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything. This practice of Zen mind is found throughout the book.

but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writing. This is the way of practice moment after moment.

The results of this in terms of the quality of his life are extraordinary—buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, serenity, joyousness, uncanny perspicacity, and unfathomable compassion.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.

So the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner’s mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, “I know what Zen is,” or “I have attained enlightenment.” This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner’s mind. It is the secret of Zen practice.

When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one.

After some years we will die. If we just think that it is the end of our life, this will be the wrong understanding. But, on the other hand, if we think that we do not die, this is also wrong. We die, and we do not die.

two sides of one coin.

The most important thing in taking the zazen posture is to keep your spine straight. Your ears and your shoulders should be on one line. Relax your shoulders, and push up towards the ceiling with the back of your head. And you should pull your chin in.

Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.

But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves, we try to order things outside us.

So try always to keep the right posture, not only when you practice zazen, but in all your activities.

That is why Buddha could not accept the religions existing at his time. He studied many religions, but he was not satisfied with their practices.

So when we sit we concentrate on our breathing, and we become a swinging door, and we do something we should do, something we must do. This is Zen practice. In this practice there is no confusion. If you establish this kind of life you have no confusion whatsoever.

So when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated on your breathing. This kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. Without this experience, this practice, it is impossible to attain absolute freedom.

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in its wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good; that is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them. The same way works for you yourself as well.

Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control. But this policy is not so easy. It sounds easy, but it requires some special effort.

The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything.

It will take quite a long time before you find your calm, serene mind in your practice.

Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.

You should keep your mind on your breathing until you are not aware of your breathing.

Those who can sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen, the actual feeling of Zen, the marrow of Zen.

Actually the best way to relieve your mental suffering is to sit in zazen, even in such a confused state of mind and bad posture.

power to accept things as they are, whether they are agreeable or disagreeable.

“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.”

When you can do everything, whether it is good or bad, without disturbance or without being annoyed by the feeling, that is actually what we mean by “form is form and emptiness is emptiness.”

In your big mind, everything has the same value.

Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, “It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.”

The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.

The answer is: effort to get rid of something extra from our practice. If some extra idea comes, you should try to stop it; you should remain in pure practice. That is the point towards which our effort is directed.

You are living in this world as one individual, but before you take the form of a human being, you are already there, always there.

Also, it is not possible for something to vanish which does not exist.

So try not to see something in particular; try not to achieve anything special.

The teaching or the rules should be changed according to the place, or according to the people who observe them, but the secret of this practice cannot be changed. It is always true.

The goal of our life’s effort is to reach the other shore, Nirvana.

Dana prajna paramita is the first of the six ways of true living. The second is sila prajna paramita, or the Buddhist precepts. Then there are kshanti prajna paramita, or endurance; virya prajna paramita, or ardor and constant effort; dhyana prajna paramita, or Zen practice; and prajna paramita, or wisdom. Actually these six prajna paramita are one, but as we can observe life from various sides, we count six.

And we should forget, day by day, what we have done; this is true nonattachment.

With your teacher you will correct your practice. Of course you will have a very hard time with him, but even so, you will always be safe from wrong practice.

Whether you have difficulties in your practice or not, as long as you continue it, you have pure practice in its true sense.

“Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.”

Another mistake will be to practice for the sake of the joy you find in it.

If you find some difficulty in your practice, that is the warning that you have some wrong idea, so you have to be careful.

getting tired of practice is itself the encouragement.

If you understand the cause of conflict as some fixed or one-sided idea, you can find meaning in various practices without being caught by any of them. If you do not realize this point you will be easily caught by some particular way, and you will say, “This is enlightenment! This is perfect practice. This is our way. The rest of the ways are not perfect. This is the best way.” This is a big mistake. There is no particular way in true practice. You should find your own way, and you should know what kind of practice you have right now.

But if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha

When we practice zazen we limit our activity to the smallest extent. Just keeping the right posture and being concentrated on sitting is how we express the universal nature. Then we become Buddha, and we express Buddha nature. So instead of having some object of worship, we just concentrate on the activity which we do in each moment. When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat. If you do this, the universal nature is there. In Japanese we call it ichigyo-zammai, or “one-act samadhi.” Sammai (or samadhi) is

People who know, even if only intuitively, the state of emptiness always have open the possibility of accepting things as they are. They can appreciate everything. In everything they do, even though it may be very difficult, they will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.

Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment.

Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, “Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.” That is enough. You should not say, “You made me so!” That is too much. You may say, “Oh, I am sorry. I am so angry with you.” There is no need to say that you are not angry when you are angry. You should just say, “I am angry.” That is enough.