Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
MATSUO BASHOGo 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.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
MATSUO BASHO -
The moon is brighter since the barn burned.
MATSUO BASHO -
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
MATSUO BASHO -
When I speak My lips feel cold – The autumn wind.
MATSUO BASHO -
I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
MATSUO BASHO -
Do not resemble me-Never be like a musk melon Cut in two identical halves.
MATSUO BASHO -
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 -
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 -
Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
MATSUO BASHO -
Don’t imitate me / we are not two halves / of a muskmelon.
MATSUO BASHO -
The basis of art is change in the universe.
MATSUO BASHO -
How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers.
MATSUO BASHO -
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 -
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 -
Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps’ nest.
MATSUO BASHO