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

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

On a bare branch a crow is perched – autumn evening.

From all these trees, in the salads, the soup, everywhere, cherry blossoms fall.

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

I felt quite at home, / As if it were mine sleeping lazily / In this house of fresh air.

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

When I speak My lips feel cold – The autumn wind.

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.

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

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

The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, “I shall be unhappy without loneliness,” shows that he made loneliness his master.

Sadly, I part from you; Like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too.

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.

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

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

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.

Always seeing the best in people and choosing to avoid their faults.

Every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.

Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher of poison with milk on top.

The best way to avoid a hangover is to stay drunk.

I’ve told you the four thunderstorms – disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

When we are in doubt whether an action is good or bad, abstain from it.

If there is anything good about nobility it is that it enforces the necessity of avoiding degeneracy.