Musō Soseki > Quotes

“All worries and troubles
have gone from my breast
and I play joyfully
far from the world
For a person of Zen
no limits exist
The blue sky must feel
ashamed to be so small”
― Musō Soseki, Sun At Midnight: Poems and Letters

“It would be merciful for people not to come calling and disturb the loneliness of the mountains to which I have returned from the sorrows of the world.”
― Muso Soseki

“Just grasp the essence, don't concern yourself with results.”
― Musō Soseki, Sun At Midnight: Poems and Letters

“Old age and death are in the natural course of things. There is nothing a doctor can do about them.”
― Musō Soseki, Dialogues in a Dream

“My thatched hut;
the whole sky Is its roof
The mountains are its hedge,
And it has the sea for a garden.
I’m inside with nothing at all,
Not even a bag,
And yet there are visitors who say
It’s hidden behind a bamboo door”
― Musō Soseki

“The flying birds have left
no footprints on the blue sky”
― Musō Soseki, Sun At Midnight: Poems and Letters

“I stop worrying about anything
I give up activities
I'm full of my life

I no longer
go to the temple
evening and morning

If they ask me
"What are you doing
in your old age?"

I smile and tell them
"I'm letting my white hair
fall free"

- Old Man in Retirement”
― Musō Soseki, Sun At Midnight: Poems and Letters