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A flute with no holes is not a flute.

Matsuo Basho

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Matsuo Basho
Age: 50 †
Born: 1644
Born: January 1
Died: 1694
Died: November 28
Artist
Poet
Writer
Vaxjo
Matsuo Basho
Bashō
Bashô
Basho
Matsuo Bashou
Flute
Flutes
Holes

More quotes by Matsuo Basho

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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.
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Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.
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All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
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Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.
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Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
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Friends part foreverwild geese lost in cloud
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Even in Kyoto/Hearing the cuckoo's cry/I long for Kyoto
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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.
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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
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Go 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.
Matsuo Basho
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Orchidbreathing incense into butterfly's wings
Matsuo Basho
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The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
Matsuo Basho
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Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
Matsuo Basho
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Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon
Matsuo Basho
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For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.
Matsuo Basho
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A weathered skeleton in windy fields of memory, piercing like a knife.
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No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.
Matsuo Basho
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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.
Matsuo Basho
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Sabi is the color of haikai. It is different from tranquility. For example, if an old man dresses up in armor and helmet and goes to the battlefield, or in colorful brocade kimono, attending (his lord) at a banquet, [sabi] is like this old figure.
Matsuo Basho
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What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding, and returning to the world of our daily experience to seek therein the truth of beauty. No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that is has a bearing upon our everlasting self which is poetry.
Matsuo Basho