Matsuo Basho Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  71 Copy quote

• Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.

  Matsuo Basho

  Flower, World

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  55 Copy quote

• The journey itself is my home.

  Matsuo Basho

  Travel, Home, Adventure

  19 Copy quote

• When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.

  Matsuo Basho

  Writing, Positivity, Hair

  57 Copy quote

• The moon is brighter since the barn burned.

  Matsuo Basho

  Moon, Barns, Burned

  13 Copy quote

• Between our two lives there is also the life of the cherry blossom.

  Matsuo Basho

  Two, Cherry Blossom, Cherries

  Matsuo Basho (2006). “Narrow Road to the Interior”, p.113, Shambhala Publications

  38 Copy quote

• Year by year, the monkey's mask reveals the monkey

  Matsuo Basho

  Years, Monkeys, Mask

  c.1689 On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, no.3 (translated by Lucien Stryk).

  38 Copy quote

• 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, Preoccupation

  29 Copy quote

• Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering.

  Matsuo Basho

  Order, Enough, Plunge

  28 Copy quote

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

  Matsuo Basho

  Inspirational Life, Tree, Bamboo

  75 Copy quote

• Traveler's heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire.

  Matsuo Basho

  Travel, Heart, Fire

  8 Copy quote

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

  Matsuo Basho

  Life, Plums, World

  "A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen".

  64 Copy quote

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

  Matsuo Basho

  Butterfly, Wind

  Matsuo Basho, “With Every Gust Of Wind”

  37 Copy quote

• Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.

  Matsuo Basho

  Winter, Wind, Solitude

  10 Copy quote

• A weathered skeleton
  in windy fields of memory,
  piercing like a knife.

  Matsuo Basho

  Memories, Skeletons, Knives

  Matsuo Basho, “A Weathered Skeleton”

  23 Copy quote

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

  Matsuo Basho

  Autumn, Night, Thinking

  72 Copy quote

• There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores

  Matsuo Basho

  Journey, Clouds, Wind

  6 Copy quote

• The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.

  Matsuo Basho

  Fifty, Tire, Haiku

  "Collected Haiku Theory". Book by Matsuo Bashō, 1951.

  52 Copy quote

• 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

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  34 Copy quote

• Why so scrawny, cat? Starving for fat fish or mice... Or backyard love?

  Matsuo Basho

  Cat, Backyards, Fats

  22 Copy quote

• Winter garden, the moon thinned to a thread, insects singing.

  Matsuo Basho

  Winter, Moon, Garden

  Matsuo Basho, “Winter Garden”

  5 Copy quote

• I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.

  Matsuo Basho

  Morning, Gazing, Breakfast

  7 Copy quote

• My body, now close to fifty years of age, has become an old tree that bears bitter peaches, a snail which has lost its shell, a bagworm separated from its bag; it drifts with the winds and clouds that know no destination. Morning and night I have eaten traveler's fare, and have held out for alms a pilgrim's wallet.

  Matsuo Basho

  Morning, Night, Clouds

  "Anthology of Japanese literature". Book by Donald Keene, 1955.

  42 Copy quote

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