Ikkyu Quotes

Break open the cherry tree: where are the blossoms? Just wait for spring time to see how they bloom.

Fucking flattery, success, money.
I just sit back and suck my thumb.

Don't hesitate get laid that's wisdom
sitting around chanting what crap

Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.

The tree is stripped,
All color, fragrance gone,
Yet already on the bough,
Uncaring spring!

Sick of it whatever it's called sick of the names
I dedicate every pore to what's here

Don't wait for the man standing in the
snow
to cut off his arm help him now

Hearing a crow with no mouth
Cry in the deep
Darkness of the night,
I feel a longing for
My father before he was born.

We're lost where the mind can't find us
utterly lost

I've burnt all the holy pages I used to carry
but poems flare in my heart

I was like an old leafless tree until we met green buds burst and blossom

now that I have you I'll never forget what I owe you

We must become what we were
Before we were born

Watching my four year old daughter dance
I cannot break free of her.

Break open
A cherry tree
And there are no flowers;
But the spring breeze
Brings forth myriad blossoms.

Learn how to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon.

don't worry please please how many times do I have to say it
there's no way not to be who you are and where.

It isn't that we're alone or not alone
whose voice do you want mine? yours?

Don't read the sutras - practice meditation. Don't take up the broom - practice meditation. Don't plant tea seeds - practice meditation.

Born born everything is always born
thinking about it try not to

Having no destination,
I am never lost.

pleasure pain are equal in a clear heart
no mountain hides the moon

this boat is and is not
when it sinks both disappear

That stone Buddha deserves all the
birdshit it gets
I wave my skinny arms like a tall
flower in the wind

I and other humans no difference.

Look at the cherry blossoms!
Their color and scent fall with them,
Are gone forever,
Yet mindless
The spring comes again.

My real dwelling
Has no pillars
And no roof either
So rain cannot soak it
And wind cannot blow
it down.

Become a Buddha? The mind can't do it. The body can't do it. Only what can't become a Buddha becomes a Buddha.

Clouds very high look
not one word helped them get up there

I can see clouds a thousand miles away, hear ancient music in the pines.

father when I was a boy you left us now I forgive you

Like vanishing dew,
a passing apparition
or the sudden flash
of lightning
already gone
thus should one regard one's self.

I'd love to give you something
but what would help?

the wise know nothing at all
well maybe one song

ten dumb years I wanted things to be different furious proud I still feel it

here I am simply trying to get into your head
you think you were born you die what a pity

even before trees rocks I was nothing
when I'm dead nowhere I'll be nothing