From R.H. Blyth: “Does not the sun scorch to death, and floods drown the good and bad with equal lack of discrimination? Do not the lilies of the field choke one another to death in their wild struggle for existence? This is true enough, but after all, not so staggering as it appears. In ZenContinue reading “Quote of the day 05/19/25”
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Quote of the day 05/18/25
From R.H. Blyth: “The willow bends for me, gives her pliancy to me. I yield my heart to the willow, I give up my life to it. The willow and I are one. There is no giving and receiving at all. Life appears there, in the form of a willow, here, in the form ofContinue reading “Quote of the day 05/18/25”
Quote of the day 05/17/25
From R.H. Blyth: “The important but usually overlooked part of Christ’s short sermon, is the words ‘how they grow.’ The point is not the beauty of the flower, not the beauty of a Bach fugue but, how it grows. How does it grow? Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Bach attempted the task of explaining howContinue reading “Quote of the day 05/17/25”
Quote of the day 05/16/25
From R.H. Blyth: “…what Roshi is urging us to lose is such things as self-respect, our immortal souls, our wish to live, our pleasure in life, and so on. Of course, we shall get them all back again, but changed out of all recognition.”
Quote of the day 05/15/25
From Roshi: “He who studies gains something every day: he who follows the Way loses something every day.”
Quote of the day 05/14/25
From Patmore: To have nought Is to have all things without care or thought
Quote of the day 05/13/25
From Kikaku: The beggar! He has heaven and earth For his summer clothes.
Quote of the day 05/12/25
From R.H. Blyth: “What then is the function of poverty in life, reality, poetry? Poverty means the closest possible approximation of these three things which in our ordinary manner of living are separated.”
Quote of the day 05/10/25
From Ryokan: You say my poems are poetry? They are not. Yet if you understand they are not,- Then you see the poetry of them!
Quote of the day 05/09/25
From R.H. Blyth: “Roshi, speaking of the man who follows the Way, says, ‘He is like a child alone, careless, unattached, devoid of ambition.’”
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