Mirror for the Moon Quotes

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

“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, Mirror for the Moon

“Today's satori:
Such a change of mind would
Not exist without
My lifelong habit of having
My mind immersed in blossoms.”
― Saigyo, Mirror for the Moon

“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, Mirror for the Moon

“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, Mirror for the Moon

“The mind for truth
Begins, like a stream, shallow
At first, but then
Adds more and more depth
While gaining greater clarity.”
― Saigyō, Mirror for the Moon

“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, Mirror for the Moon

“Returning to where
It used to see blossoms,
My mind, changed,
Will stay on at Yoshino...
Home now, and see anew.”
― Saigyo, Mirror for the Moon