Rather than recallin these flowersthe fragrance of the past,I would like to hear this nightingale's voice,to know if his song is as sweet.

Even when a river of tears courses through this body, the flame of love cannot be quenched.

In this world love has no color yet how deeply my body is stained by yours.

Although I try / to hold the single thought / of Buddha's teaching in my heart, / I cannot help but hear / the many crickets' voices calling as well.

The one close to me now; even my own body--these too will soon become clouds, floating in different directions.

Come quickly -- as soon as these blossoms open, they fall. This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.

Watching the moon at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out.

In love longing I listen to the monk's bell. I will never forget you even for an interval short as those between the bell notes.

When my desiregrows too fierceI wear my bed clothesinside out, dark as the night’s rough husk.

I want to live. Doesn't everyone feel the same way?

If you are too good to look after God’s trash, you are not good enough to look after God’s treasure.

Don't be afraid of failure be afraid of petty success.

One reproduces only that which is striking; that is to say, the necessary. Thus, one's recollections and inventions are liberated from the tyranny which nature exerts.

What matters most is how you respond to your heartbreaks and your disappointments and your fears. What matters most is who you become in response to them.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

Don't eat anything your great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. There are a great many food-like items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn't recognize as food.. stay away from these

Priests are often well-meaning people who haven't yet looked too thoroughly into comparative religion.

I'm really a very weak musicologist. Wish it weren't so, but there's only so much you can dig deeply into in one lifetime, as if you hadn't noticed.