One Robe, One Bowl Quotes

“The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away,and the weather is clear again. If your heart is pure, then all things in your world are pure... Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way”
― Ryokan, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan

“If there is beauty, there must be ugliness;
If there is right, there must be wrong.
Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,
And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.
This is an old truth, don't think it was discovered recently.
"I want this, I want that"
Is nothing but foolishness.
I'll tell you a secret -
"All things are impermanent!”
― Ryokan, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan

“He never preached or exhorted, but his life radiated purity and joy, he was a living sermon.”
― Ryōkan, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan

“An evening dream--everything must have been an illusion;
I cannot explain clearly even one part of what I saw.
Yet in the dream it seemed as if the truth were in front of my eyes.
This morning, awake, is it not the same dream?”
― Ryokan / translated and introduced by John Stevens, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan

“If you speak delusions, everything becomes a delusion;
If you speak the truth, everything becomes the truth.
Outside the truth there is no delusion,
But outside delusion there is no special truth.
Followers of Buddha's Way!
Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?
Look for delusions and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.”
― Ryokan / translated and introduced by John Stevens, One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan