Matsuo Basho Quotes

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

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.

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

The journey itself is my home.

Now the swinging bridge Is quieted with creepers … Like our tendrilled life.

Mountain-rose petals Falling, falling, falling now… Waterfall music

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.

At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water

Old pond, leap-splash – a frog.

This autumn- why am I growing old? bird disappearing among clouds.

A flute with no holes is not a flute.

Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey