If you are an oak,
don't pretend you are a flower.
-Matsuo Basho
You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
-Han Shan
And in your eye its very fate resides.
-Han Shan
One flower opens:
Spring everywhere.
-A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Masters
Zen flowers are formless,
in and out of bloom in our hearts.
-Huai-Jang
The temple bell stops
but I still hear the sound
coming out of the flowers.
-Matsuo Basho
Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance
as before a storm.
Beauteous soul! when a storm approaches thee,
be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.
-Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers so dear
That when they scatter
I find it all the more sad
To bid them my last farewell.
-Saigyo
Because the flowers blooming
In our original home
Are everlasting,
Though springtimes may come and go
Their colors do not fade.
-Dogen
I hold the flowers so dear
That when they scatter
I find it all the more sad
To bid them my last farewell.
-Saigyo
Because the flowers blooming
In our original home
Are everlasting,
Though springtimes may come and go
Their colors do not fade.
-Dogen
Do not go to the garden of flowers!
O Friend ! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus,
and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
-Kabir
O Friend ! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus,
and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
-Kabir
