Saigyo Quotes & Sayings

Now seen ... now gone, The butterfly flits in and out Through fence-hung flowers; But a life lived so close to them I envy ... though it's here and gone. — Saigyo

Today's satori:
Such a change of mind would
Not exist without
My lifelong habit of having
My mind immersed in blossoms. — Saigyo

Last year, Yoshino,
I walked away bending branches
To point me to blossoms
Which now are everywhere and I can
Go where I've never been before. — Saigyo

Beyond this life and
This world I'll have it til
My heart's content:
The bright moon that passed over
The horizon before I had my fill. — Saigyo

This place of mine never is entered by humans come for conversation, only by the mute moon's light shafts that slip in between the trees. — Saigyo

The mind for truth
Begins, like a stream, shallow
At first, but then
Adds more and more depth
While gaining greater clarity. — Saigyo

Returning to where
It used to see blossoms,
My mind, changed,
Will stay on at Yoshino ...
Home now, and see anew. — Saigyo

Limitations gone: Since my mind fixed on the moon, Clarity and serenity Make something for which There's no end in sight. — Saigyo

Whatever it is, / I cannot understand it, / although gratitude / stubbornly overcomes me / until I'm reduced to tears. — Saigyo

Every single thing changes and is changing always in this world. Yet with the same light the moon goes on shining. — Saigyo

The cherries' only fault: the crowds that gather when they bloom — Saigyo

Tightly held by rocks
Through winter, the ice today
Begins to come undone:
A way-seeker also is the water,
Melting, murmuring from the moss. — Saigyo

I'd like to divide myself in order to see, among these mountains, each and every flower of every cherry tree. — Saigyo