Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki (Book Summary)

This is a book summary of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki (Amazon).

Premium members have access to the more comprehensive and more organized companion post: 🔒 How to Practice Zen with “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” by Shunryu Suzuki (+ Infographic)

Quick Housekeeping:

All content in “quotation marks” is from the author (otherwise it’s paraphrased).
All content is organized into my own themes (not the author’s chapters).
Emphasis has been added in bold for readability/skimmability.

Book Summary Contents:

About the Book
Religion, Buddhism, & Zen
Buddha Nature & Enlightenment
Beginner’s Mind & Who/What am I?
Small Mind & Big Mind

**Zen Meditation & Practice: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki (Book Summary)**

About the Book (Intro by Richard Baker)

“Zen mind is one of those enigmatic phrases used by Zen teachers to make you notice yourself, to go beyond the words and wonder what your own mind and being are.”

“This is the purpose of all Zen teaching—to make you wonder and to answer that wondering with the deepest expression of your own nature.”
“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.”
“The editing (of the book) is further complicated by the fact that English is thoroughly dualistic in its basic assumptions and has not had the opportunity over centuries to develop a way of expressing nondualistic Buddhist ideas, as has Japanese.”

“WhenShunryu Suzuki first saw a published copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, he looked it over for a minute and commented, ‘Good book. I didn’t write it, but it looks like a good book.'” — David Chadwick

“‘No mind’ is Zen mind, which includes everything.” —Shunryu Suzuki

Religion, Buddhism, & Zen

“Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. But our way is not like this. In our way the point of the sharp angle is always towards ourselves, not away from ourselves. So there is no need to worry about the difference between Buddhism and the religion you may believe in … Our practice has nothing to do with some particular religious belief. And for you, there is no need to hesitate to practice our way, because it has nothing to do with Christianity or Shintoism or Hinduism. Our practice is for everyone.”

What is religion?

“The teaching which is written on paper is not the true teaching. Written teaching is a kind of food for your brain. Of course it is necessary to take some food for your brain, but it is more important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life.”

“Usually religion develops itself in the realm of consciousness, seeking to perfect its organization, building beautiful buildings, creating music, evolving a philosophy, and so forth. These are religious activities in the conscious world.”
“No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea. You strive for a perfect faith in order to save yourself.”
“Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere.”
“In the realm of pure religion there is no confusion of time and space, or good or bad.”
“We should forget all about some particular teaching; we should not ask which is good or bad.”
“Teaching is in each moment, in every existence. That is the true teaching.”
“We must exist right here, right now!”

What is Buddhism?

“Because Buddha was the founder of the teaching, people tentatively called his teaching ‘Buddhism,’ but actually Buddhism is not some particular teaching. Buddhism is just Truth, which includes various truths in it … The original teaching of Buddha includes all the various schools. As Buddhists our traditional effort should be like Buddha’s: we should not attach to any particular school or doctrine.”

“If you want to understand Buddhism it is necessary for you to forget all about your preconceived ideas.”
“Our understanding of Buddhism should not be just gathering many pieces of information, seeking to gain knowledge.”
“We are not so concerned about a deep understanding of Buddhism.”
“To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.”
“To feel something about Buddhism is not the main point. Whether that feeling is good or bad is out of the question. We do not mind, whatever it is. Buddhism is not good or bad. We are doing what we should do. That is Buddhism.”
“The purpose of Buddhist teaching is to point to life itself existing beyond consciousness in our pure original mind.”
“Buddhist philosophy is so universal and logical that it is not just the philosophy of Buddhism, but of life itself.”
“Through the study of Buddhism, you will understand your human nature, your intellectual faculty, and the truth present in your human activity. And you can take this human nature of yours into consideration when you seek to understand reality.”
“Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense.”
“We do not emphasize anything. All we want to do is to know things just as they are. If we know things as they are, there is nothing to point at; there is no way to grasp anything; there is no thing to grasp.”
“To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.”
“Buddhism emphasizes the world of unconsciousness.”
“The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth, and all the teaching of Buddhism is condensed within it.”
“Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind.”
“When you study Buddhism, you should have a general house cleaning of your mind. You must take everything out of your room and clean it thoroughly. If it is necessary, you may bring everything back in again. You may want many things, so one by one you can bring them back. But if they are not necessary, there is no need to keep them.”
“Not by reading or contemplation of philosophy, but only through practice, actual practice, can we understand what Buddhism is.”

What are Zen and zazen?

“To understand reality as a direct experience is the reason we practice zazen, and the reason we study Buddhism.”

“Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.”
“There is no need to know what Zen is intellectually.”
“When young people get excited about Zen they often give up schooling and go to some mountain or forest in order to sit. That kind of interest is not true interest.”
“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”
“Zen is not concerned about philosophical understanding. We emphasize practice.”
“If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice.”
“The best way to develop Buddhism is to sit in zazen—just to sit, with a firm conviction in our true nature. This way is much better than to read books or study the philosophy of Buddhism.”
“How to sit is how to act. We study how to act by sitting, and this is the most basic activity for us.”
“In zazen practice we say your mind should be concentrated on your breathing, but the way to keep your mind on your breathing is to forget all about yourself and just to sit and feel your breathing.”
“If you are concentrated on your breathing you will forget yourself, and if you forget yourself you will be concentrated on your breathing. I do not know which is first. So actually there is no need to try too hard to be concentrated on your breathing. Just do as much as you can.”
“You should keep your mind on your breathing until you are not aware of your breathing.”
“The purpose of zazen is to attain the freedom of our being, physically and mentally.”
“A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits is not open to things as they are. That is why we practice zazen: to clear our mind of what is related to something else.”
“To find the meaning of your life in the zendo is to find the meaning of your everyday activity. To be aware of the meaning of your life, you practice zazen.”
“What is true zazen? When you become you! When you are you, then no matter what you do, that is zazen.”
“When you are you, zazen becomes true zazen. So when you practice zazen, your problem will practice zazen, and everything else will practice zazen too.”
“When you practice Zen you become one with Zen. There is no you and no zazen.”
“The purpose of practice is to have direct experience of the Buddha nature which everyone has. Whatever you do should be the direct experience of Buddha nature. Buddha nature means to be aware of Buddha nature.”
“When we ask what Buddha nature is, it vanishes; but when we just practice zazen, we have full understanding of it. The only way to understand Buddha nature is just to practice zazen, just to be here as we are. So what Buddha meant by Buddha nature was to be there as he was, beyond the realm of consciousness.”

Buddha Nature & Enlightenment

“Buddha could not accept the religions existing at his time. He studied many religions, but he was not satisfied with their practices. He could not find the answer in asceticism or in philosophies. He was not interested in some metaphysical existence, but in his own body and mind, here and now. And when he found himself, he found that everything that exists has Buddha nature. That was his enlightenment.”

Buddha nature:

“It is absolutely necessary for everyone to believe in nothing. But I do not mean voidness. There is something, but that something is something which is always prepared for taking some particular form, and it has some rules, or theory, or truth in its activity. This is called Buddha nature, or Buddha himself. When this existence is personified we call it Buddha; when we understand it as the ultimate truth we call it Dharma; and when we accept the truth and act as a part of the Buddha, or according to the theory, we call ourselves Sangha. But even though there are three Buddha forms, it is one existence which has no form or color, and it is always ready to take form and color.”

“If we accept ourselves as the embodiment of the truth, or Buddha nature, we will have no worry.”
“If you understand yourself as a temporal embodiment of the truth, you will have no difficulty whatsoever. You will appreciate your surroundings, and you will appreciate yourself as a wonderful part of Buddha’s great activity, even in the midst of difficulties.”
“When your life is always a part of your surroundings—in other words, when you are called back to yourself, in the present moment—then there is no problem.”
“No matter what the situation, you cannot neglect Buddha, because you yourself are Buddha.”
“To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature. Thus even though you do not do anything, you are actually doing something. You are expressing yourself. You are expressing your true nature.”
“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 nature.”
“To do something, to live in each moment, means to be the temporal activity of Buddha.”
“When you become one with Buddha, one with everything that exists, you find the true meaning of being.”
“Buddha nature is our original nature; we have it before we practice zazen and before we acknowledge it in terms of consciousness. So in this sense, whatever we do is Buddha’s activity. If you want to understand it, you cannot understand it. When you give up trying to understand it, true understanding is always there.”
“There is no need to intellectualize about what our pure original nature is, because it is beyond our intellectual understanding.”
“In the Parinirvana Sutra, Buddha says, ‘Everything has Buddha nature,’ but Dogen reads it in this way: ‘Everything is Buddha nature.’ There is a difference. If you say, ‘Everything has Buddha nature,’ it means Buddha nature is in each existence, so Buddha nature and each existence are different. But when you say, ‘Everything is Buddha nature,’ it means everything is Buddha nature itself.”
“The reason everything looks beautiful is because it is out of balance, but its background is always in perfect harmony. This is how everything exists in the realm of Buddha nature, losing its balance against a background of perfect balance. So if you see things without realizing the background of Buddha nature, everything appears to be in the form of suffering.”

Enlightenment:

“You may say ‘universal nature’ or ‘Buddha nature’ or ‘enlightenment.’ You may call it by many names, but for the person who has it, it is nothing, and it is something.”

“When you try to attain enlightenment, then you have a big burden on your mind. Your mind will not be clear enough to see things as they are.”
“If our practice is only a means to attain enlightenment, there is actually no way to attain it!”
“Enlightenment cannot be asked for in your ordinary way of thinking. When you are not involved in this way of thinking, you have some chance of understanding what Zen experience is.”
“You cannot practice true zazen, because you practice it; if you do not, then there is enlightenment, and there is true practice. When you do it, you create some concrete idea of ‘you’ or ‘I,’ and you create some particular idea of practice or zazen. So here you are on the right side, and here is zazen on the left. So zazen and you become two different things.”
“When your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life itself is enlightenment.”
“If you continue this practice, more and more you will acquire something—nothing special, but nevertheless something.”
“It is a kind of mystery that for people who have no experience of enlightenment, enlightenment is something wonderful. But if they attain it, it is nothing. But yet it is not nothing.”
“Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special.”
“It is just you yourself, nothing special.”
“The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment comes, our practice forgets all about it. Then it is ready for another enlightenment. It is necessary for us to have enlightenments one after another, if possible, moment after moment. This is what is called enlightenment before you attain it and after you attain it.”
“Even before we practice it, enlightenment is there. But usually we understand the practice of zazen and enlightenment as two different things: here is practice, like a pair of glasses, and when we use the practice, like putting the glasses on, we see enlightenment. This is the wrong understanding. The glasses themselves are enlightenment, and to put them on is also enlightenment. So whatever you do, or even though you do not do anything, enlightenment is there, always.”
“Realization of the truth is salvation itself. We say, ‘to realize,’ but the realization of the truth is always near at hand. It is not after we practice zazen that we realize the truth; even before we practice zazen, realization is there. It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live—to exist here and now. So it is not a matter of understanding or of practice. It is an ultimate fact.”
“Dogen-zenji said, ‘Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.'”

Beginner’s Mind & Who/What am I?

“Zen mind is one of those enigmatic phrases used by Zen teachers to make you notice yourself, to go beyond the words and wonder what your own mind and being are … 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.” — Richard Baker

Beginner’s Mind:

“In Japan we have the phrase shoshin, which means ‘beginner’s mind.’ The goal of practice is always to keep our beginner’s mind … 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.”

“Our ‘original mind’ includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. 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.”
“We must have beginner’s mind, free from possessing anything, a mind that knows everything is in flowing change.”
“The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.”
“In the beginner’s mind there is no thought, ‘I have attained something.’ All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something.”

Who/What am I?

“When you are sitting in the middle of your own problem, which is more real to you: your problem or you yourself? The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact … Because you lose yourself, your problem will be a problem for you. If you do not lose yourself, then even though you have difficulty, there is actually no problem whatsoever. You just sit in the midst of the problem; when you are a part of the problem, or when the problem is a part of you, there is no problem, because you are the problem itself. The problem is you yourself. If this is so, there is no problem.”

“According to the traditional Buddhist understanding, our human nature is without ego. When we have no idea of ego, we have Buddha’s view of life. Our egoistic ideas are delusion, covering our Buddha nature.”
“Something apart from Buddha nature is just a delusion. It may exist in your mind, but such things actually do not exist.”
“Once you are in the midst of delusion, there is no end to delusion. You will be involved in deluded ideas one after another. Most people live in delusion, involved in their problem, trying to solve their problem.”
“To realize pure mind in your delusion is practice. If you have pure mind, essential mind in your delusion, the delusion will vanish.”
“When you just observe the delusion, you have your true mind, your calm, peaceful mind.”
“True mind is watching mind.”
“Before you see Buddha nature you watch your mind.”
“To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being, moment after moment.”
“If you think, ‘I breathe,’ the ‘I’ is extra. There is no you to say ‘I.’ What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no ‘I,’ no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.”
“When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.”
“There is no gap between the ‘I’ before you know something and the ‘I’ after you know something.”
“There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment; there is no connection whatsoever.”
“When we repeat, ‘I create, I create, I create,’ soon we forget who is actually the ‘I’ which creates the various things; we soon forget about God. This is the danger of human culture. Actually, to create with the ‘big I’ is to give; we cannot create and own what we create for ourselves since everything was created by God.”
“Every existence in nature, every existence in the human world, every cultural work that we create, is something which was given, or is being given to us, relatively speaking. But as everything is originally one, we are, in actuality, giving out everything. Moment after moment we are creating something, and this is the joy of our life. But this ‘I’ which is creating and always giving out something is not the ‘small I’; it is the ‘big I.’ Even though you do not realize the oneness of this ‘big I’ with everything, when you give something you feel good, because at that time you feel at one with what you are giving. This is why it feels better to give than to take.”
“We ourselves are the big activity. We are just expressing the smallest particle of the big activity, that is all. So it is all right to talk about ourselves, but actually there is no need to do so.”
“When we forget ourselves, we actually are the true activity of the big existence, or reality itself. When we realize this fact, there is no problem whatsoever in this world, and we can enjoy our life without feeling any difficulties.”
“Each existence is another expression of the quality of being itself.”
“There are no separate individual existences. There are just many names for one existence.”
“We are actually one and the same being. We are the same, and yet different. It is very paradoxical, but actually it is so.”
“When you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings. There is your true self.”
“Only when you are you yourself can you bow to everything in its true sense.”
“When you become you, Zen becomes Zen.”
“‘No mind’ is Zen mind, which includes everything.”
“Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self. In fact, the self-nature of each existence is nothing but change itself, the self-nature of all existence. There is no special, separate self-nature for each existence. This is also called the teaching of Nirvana.“
“When we realize the everlasting truth of ‘everything changes’ and find our composure in it, we find ourselves in Nirvana.”
“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer. So the cause of suffering is our non-acceptance of this truth. The teaching of the cause of suffering and the teaching that everything changes are thus two sides of one coin.”
“Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way. This is the mystery. When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.”

Small Mind & Big Mind

“The true purpose (of Zen) is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. This is to put everything under control in its widest sense. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. So concentrating is just an aid to help you realize ‘big mind,’ or the mind that is everything.”

Small Mind:

“If your mind is related to something outside itself, that mind is a small mind, a limited mind.”

“Relative mind is the mind which sets itself in relation to other things, thus limiting itself.”
“Thinking which leaves traces comes out of your relative confused mind.”
“It is this small mind which creates gaining ideas and leaves traces of itself.”
“If you say, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. It means you are attached to some particular thing or way. That is not what we mean when we say, ‘Just to sit is enough,’ or ‘Whatever you do is zazen.’ Of course whatever we do is zazen, but if so, there is no need to say it.”

Big Mind:

“Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called ‘mind-only,’ or ‘essence of mind,’ or ‘big mind’ … ‘Essence of mind,’ ‘original mind,’ ‘original face,’ ‘Buddha nature,’ ’emptiness’—all these words mean the absolute calmness of our mind.”

“Nothing comes from outside your mind. Usually we think of our mind as receiving impressions and experiences from outside, but that is not a true understanding of our mind. The true understanding is that the mind includes everything; when you think something comes from outside it means only that something appears in your mind. 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.”
“Do you understand the difference between the two minds: the mind which includes everything, and the mind which is related to something? Actually they are the same thing, but the understanding is different, and your attitude towards your life will be different according to which understanding you have.”
“The point is whether you have big mind or small mind. In short, when you do everything without thinking about whether it is good or bad, and when you do something with your whole mind and body, then that is our way.”
“The activity of big mind is to amplify itself through various experiences. In one sense our experiences coming one by one are always fresh and new, but in another sense they are nothing but a continuous or repeated unfolding of the one big mind.”
“With big mind we accept each of our experiences as if recognizing the face we see in a mirror as our own.”
“Because we enjoy all aspects of life as an unfolding of big mind, we do not care for any excessive joy.”
“A mind with waves in it is not a disturbed mind, but actually an amplified one. Whatever you experience is an expression of big mind.”
“You should be able to appreciate things as an expression of big mind.”
“Big mind is something to express, but it is not something to figure out.”
“If we appreciate whatever problem we have as an expression of big mind, it is not a problem anymore.”
“Whether you have a problem in your life or not depends upon your own attitude, your own understanding. Because of the double or paradoxical nature of truth, there should be no problem of understanding if you have big Mahayana mind.”
“For us there is no fear of losing this mind. There is nowhere to come or to go; there is no fear of death, no suffering from old age or sickness.”
“It is with this imperturbable composure of big mind that we practice zazen.”
“Big mind is something you have, not something to seek for.”
“You must put confidence in the big mind which is always with you.”
“When everything exists within your big mind, all dualistic relationships drop away.”
“If your mind is not related to anything else, then there is no dualistic understanding in the activity of your mind. You understand activity as just waves of your mind. Big mind experiences everything within itself.”
“Big mind and small mind are one. When you understand your mind in this way, you have some security in your feeling. As your mind does not expect anything from outside, it is always filled.”
“We say ‘inner world’ or ‘outer world,’ but actually there is just one whole world.”
“In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is Buddha himself. You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.”