R.H. Blyth Quotes

If all men lead mechanical, unpoetical lives, this is the real nihilism, the real undoing of the world.

The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things. Without them, - these sticks, stones, feathers, shells, - there is no Deity.

There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.

Nothing divides one so much as thought.

Think of Zen, of the Void, of Good and Evil and you are bound hand and foot. Think only and entirely and completely of what you are doing at the moment and you are free as a bird.

A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment, in which we see into the life of things.

I myself think that to have a cat is more important than to have a Bible.

Zen is the unsymbolization of the world.

The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated.

The love of nature is religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.

Regarding R. H. Blyth: For translations, the best books are still those by R. H. Blyth. . . .

Regarding R. H. Blyth: Blyth is sometimes perilous, naturally, since he's a high-handed old poem himself, but he's also sublime - and who goes to poetry for safety anyway.

What is essential is not the answer but the questions; the answers indeed are the death of the life that is in the questions.

What is Zen? Zen is looking at things with the eye of God, that is, becoming the thing's eyes so that it looks at itself with our eyes.

Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, bur appropriate actions in an imperfect one.

Mud is the most poetical thing in the world.

Things have done their part; it is for us to do ours.

A thief running away like mad from a ferocious watch-dog may be a splendid example of Zen.

Zen is the game of insight, the game of discovering who you are beneath the social masks.

Zen is mind-less activity, that is, Mind-ful activity, and it may often be advisable to emphasize the mind, and say, Take care of the thoughts and the actions will take care of themselves.

Regarding R. H. Blyth: Two men who may be called pillars of the Western haiku movement, Harold G. Henderson and R. H. Blyth. . . .

Any enlightenment which requires to be authenticated, certified, recognized, congratulated, is (as yet) a false, or at least incomplete one.

Zen is poetry; poetry is Zen.

We that change, hate change. And we that pass, love what abides. Ashes, darkness, dust.

There is nothing intrinsically more beautiful or poetical about the moon than about a dunghill; if anything, the contrary, for the latter is full of life and warmth and energy.

Every time you try to do something that anxiety wants to stop you from doing, you've struck a blow that will make the anxiety weaker.

The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things. Without them—these sticks, stones, feathers, shells—there is no Deity.