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Until now I had mistaken the "Enlightenment” of Zen: I was wrong to think it meant being able to die serenely under any conditions. It means being able to live serenely under any conditions.

— Masaoka Shiki

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Buddhism

More quotes by Masaoka Shiki

Take your materials from what is around you—if you see a dandelion, write about it; if it’s misty, write about the mist. The materials for poetry are all about you in profusion.

... the sparrow’s chirp, the crow’s caw, the willow’s green, the cherry blossom’s pink, are the truth of the Zen master and the essence of Basho's style.

柿くへば
鐘が鳴るなり
法隆寺
kaki kueba
kane ga naru nari
Hōryūji

Tell them
I was a persimmon eater
who liked haiku

Haiku in particular allows poets to depict the insignificant things that other poetic forms cannot, given the natural tendency of a haiku poet’s observations to encompass every inch of the world. Taken to the extreme, the haiku poet cannot dismiss even excrement.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Masaoka Shiki (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.