D.T. Suzuki

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.
― D.T. Suzuki

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?
― D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.
― D.T. Suzuki

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.
― D.T. Suzuki

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality... is the highest act of wisdom.
― D.T. Suzuki

God against man. Man against God. Man against nature. Nature against man. Nature against God. God against nature. Very funny religion!
― D.T. Suzuki

Modern life seems to recede further and further away from nature, and closely connected with this fact we seem to be losing the feeling of reverence towards nature. It is probably inevitable when science and machinery, capitalism and materialism go hand in hand so far in a most remarkably successful manner. Mysticism, which is the life of religion in whatever sense we understand it, has come to be relegated altogether in the background. Without a certain amount of mysticism there is no appreciation for the feeling of reverence, and, along with it, for the spiritual significance of humility. Science and scientific technique have done a great deal for humanity; but as far as our spiritual welfare is concerned we have not made any advances over that attained by our forefathers. In fact we are suffering at present the worst kind of unrest all over the world.
― D.T. Suzuki, The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

When mountain-climbing is made too easy, the spiritual effect the mountain exercises vanishes into the air.
― D.T. Suzuki, The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk

When a thing is denied, the very denial involves something not denied.
― D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.

Emptiness constantly falls within our reach. It is always with us, and conditions all our knowledge, all our deeds and is our life itself. It is only when we attempt to pick it up and hold it forth as something before our eyes that it eludes us, frustrates all our efforts and vanishes like vapor.
― D.T. Suzuki, The Zen Doctrine of No Mind: The Significance of the Sutra of Hui-Neng

However insistently the blind may deny the existence of the sun, they cannot annihilate it.
― D.T. Suzuki