R.H. Blyth Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated.

R.H. Blyth

#5. Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, but appropriate actions in an imperfect one.

R.H. Blyth

#6. Nothing divides one so much as thought.

R.H. Blyth

#7. 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

#8. 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

#9. Freedom is not doing what you like, but liking what you do.

R.H. Blyth

#10. 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