Matsuo Basho Quotes

Quotes about:

• Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  124 Copy quote

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• Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.

  Matsuo Basho

  Beautiful, Real, Writing

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• Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

  Matsuo Basho

  Water, Enlightenment, Woods

  100 Copy quote

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• Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational, Nature, Healing

  Matsuo Basho (2014). “Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages”, p.31, Stone Bridge Press, Inc.

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• Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.

  Matsuo Basho

  Fall, Rivers, Tree

  83 Copy quote

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• No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.

  Matsuo Basho

  Lying, Passion, Matter

  106 Copy quote

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• There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

  Matsuo Basho

  Flower, Thinking, Moon

  98 Copy quote

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• A flute with no holes is not a flute.

  Matsuo Basho

  Flutes, Holes

  70 Copy quote

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• Operating superficially, the mind is random in its activity and stale in its insights and images. However, with practice and experience the mind is freed from the skull, and the fresh and new can appear as though for the first time. It

  Matsuo Basho

  Time, Practice, Skulls

  Matsuo Basho (2003). “A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen”, p.18, Counterpoint Press

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• In this poor body, composed of one hundred bones and nine openings, is something called spirit, a flimsy curtain swept this way and that by the slightest breeze. It is spirit, such as it is, which led me to poetry, at first little more than a pastime, then the full business of my life. There have been times when my spirit, so dejected, almost gave up the quest, other times when it was proud, triumphant. So it has been from the very start, never finding peace with itself, always doubting the worth of what it makes.

  Matsuo Basho

  Writing, Poetry, Doubt

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• Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance to the whole world?

  Matsuo Basho

  Life, Plums, World

  54 Copy quote

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• Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and you do not learn.

  Matsuo Basho

  Bamboo, Want, Preoccupation

  42 Copy quote

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• Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.

  Matsuo Basho

  Speak

  Matsuo Basho (2006). “Narrow Road to the Interior”, p.17, Shambhala Publications

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• The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

  Matsuo Basho

  Horse, Home, Journey

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• Come, butterfly It's late- We've miles to go together.

  Matsuo Basho

  Butterfly, Together, Miles

  Matsuo Basho (2015). “Lips too Chilled”, p.43, Penguin UK

  72 Copy quote

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• The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.

  Matsuo Basho

  Believe, Silence, Desire

  52 Copy quote

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• From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational Life, Tree, Pine Trees

  68 Copy quote

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• An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.

  Matsuo Basho

  Autumn, Thinking, Night

  66 Copy quote

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• How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers

  Matsuo Basho

  Flower, Moon, Desire

  Matsuo Basho (2006). “Narrow Road to the Interior”, p.172, Shambhala Publications

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• Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.

  Matsuo Basho

  Action, Enough, Plunge

  24 Copy quote

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• The oak tree:
  not interested
  in cherry blossoms.

  Matsuo Basho

  Spring, Tree, Cherry Blossom

  Matsuo Basho, “The Oak Tree”

  42 Copy quote

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• Seek not the paths of the ancients;
  Seek that which the ancients sought.

  Matsuo Basho

  Path

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• the universe and its beings are a complementarity of empty infinity, intimate interrelationships, and total uniqueness of each and every being.

  Matsuo Basho

  Infinity, Emptiness, Empty

  Matsuo Basho (2003). “A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen”, p.18, Counterpoint Press

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• When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization.

  Matsuo Basho

  Wind, Lakes, Water

  Matsuo Basho (2003). “A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen”, p.4, Counterpoint Press

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• With every gust of wind, the butterfly changes its place on the willow.

  Matsuo Basho

  Butterfly, Wind

  Matsuo Basho, “With Every Gust Of Wind”

  32 Copy quote

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