R.H. Blyth Quotes & Sayings

Nothing divides one so much as thought. — R.H. Blyth

Thus we see that the all important thing is not killing or giving life, drinking or not drinking, living in the town or the country, being unlucky or lucky, winning or losing. It is how we win, how we lose, how we live or die, finally, how we choose. — R.H. Blyth

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. — R.H. Blyth

Freedom is not doing what you like, but liking what you do. — R.H. Blyth

These are some of the characteristics of the state of mind which the creation and appreciation of haiku demand: Selflessness, Loneliness, Grateful Acceptance, Wordlessness, Non-intellectuality, Contradictoriness, Humor, Freedom, Non-morality, Simplicity, Materiality, Love, and Courage. — R.H. Blyth

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. — R.H. Blyth

The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated. — R.H. Blyth

What is Zen? Zen means doing anything perfectly, making mistakes perfectly, being defeated perfectly, hesitating perfectly, doing anything perfectly or imperfectly, perfectly. What is the meaning of this perfectly? How does it differ from perfectly? Perfectly is in the will; perfectly is in the activity. Perfectly means that at each moment of the activity there is no egoism in it ... our pain is not only our own pain; it is the pain of the universe. The joy of the universe is also our joy. Our failure and misjudgment is that of nature, which never hopes or despairs, but keeps on trying. R. H. Blyth — R.H. Blyth

The sun shines, snow falls, mountains rise and valleys sink, night deepens and pales into day, but it is only very seldom that we attend to such things ... When we are grasping the inexpressible meaning of these things, this is life, this is living. To do this twenty-four hours a day is the Way of Haiku. It is having life more abundantly. — R.H. Blyth

Two came here, Two flew off, - Butterflies. Chora3 In this verse, the ordinary poetical meaning is discarded; what remains is that dark flame of life that burns in all things. It is seen with the belly, not with the eye; with "bowels of compassion. — R.H. Blyth

Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, but appropriate actions in an imperfect one. — R.H. Blyth

A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature. — R.H. Blyth