There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
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
-
-
Sadly, I part from you; Like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too.
MATSUO BASHO -
The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
MATSUO BASHO -
Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old – / These fields and mountains!
MATSUO BASHO -
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
MATSUO BASHO -
Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey.
MATSUO BASHO -
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
MATSUO BASHO -
Old dark sleepy pool… Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!
MATSUO BASHO -
Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
MATSUO BASHO -
Old pond, leap-splash – a frog.
MATSUO BASHO -
Between our two lives there is also the life of the cherry blossom.
MATSUO BASHO -
First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
MATSUO BASHO -
The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, “I shall be unhappy without loneliness,” shows that he made loneliness his master.
MATSUO BASHO -
Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps’ nest.
MATSUO BASHO -
Breaking the silence Of an ancient pond, A frog jumped into water – A deep resonance.
MATSUO BASHO -
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHO