Tao Te Ching
Harvest of Leisure
Tsurezuregusa 徒然草 Essays in Idleness
One of the most beautiful and insightful works of all Japanese literature, Tsurezuregusa has captivated and inspired readers for almost 700 years. Including everything from short aphorisms to developed essays, it’s the stream-of-consciousness style easily penetrates the numb, sleep-walking quality of our lives like an urgent but humble alarm clock. Instead of extensive editing, most believe that Kenko just wrote his random thoughts on scraps of paper and stuck them on walls for his friend, Imagawa Ryoshun to find and compile. His emphasis on the power of impermanence, an awareness of life’s transiency as our best teacher of appreciating and enjoying life became a major influence on Japanese and now World Culture.
Quotes from Harvest of Leisure
“Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of the spring - these are even more deeply moving. Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with flowers are worthier of our admiration.”
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“Branches about to blossom or gardens strewn with faded flowers are worthier of our admiration. In all things, it is the beginnings and ends that are interesting.”
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“Even the moonshine seems to gain in friendly brilliance, striking into the house where a good man lives in peaceful ease.”
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“I am happiest when I have nothing to distract me and I am completely alone.”
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“If man were never to fade away ... but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.”
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“If you imagine that once you have accomplished your ambitions you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover that your ambitions never come to an end.”
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“It is a great error to act superior to others.... anyone truly versed in any art will be clearly aware of his own deficiency; and therefore, his ambition being never satisfied, he ends by never being proud.”
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“It is a world full of lies, and we shall make no mistake if we make up our minds that what we hear is really not at all strange and unusual but merely exaggerated in the telling.”
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“It is only after the silk wrapper has frayed at top and bottom, and the mother-of-pearl has fallen from the roller, that a scroll looks beautiful.”
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“Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.”
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“Looking back on months and years of intimacy, to feel that your friend, while you still remember the moving words you exchanged, is yet growing distant and living in a world apart—all this is sadder far than partings brought by death.”
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“So long as people, being ill-governed, suffer from hunger, criminals will never disappear. It is extremely unkind to punish those who, being sufferers from hunger, are compelled to violate laws.”
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“The beauty of life is in its impermanence. If we lived forever, if the dews of Adashino never vanished, if the crematory smoke on Toribeyama never faded, men would hardly feel the pity of things.”
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“The day is ending, the way is long; my life already begins to stumble on its journey. I shall not keep promises, nor consider decorum. Let anyone who cannot understand my feelings feel free to call me mad… Abuse will not bother me; I shall not listen if praised.”
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“The true criminal must be defined as a man who commits a crime though he is as decently fed and clothed as others.”
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“To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations—such is a pleasure beyond compare.”
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“Verily, the roots of passion are deep, and remote its sources. It can hardly be uprooted, and young and old, wise and foolish are alike its slaves.”
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Quotes about Harvest of Leisure (1 quotes)
“What a strange feeling to realize I have spent whole days before this inkstone jotting down at random without order or purpose whatever nonsensical, trifling thoughts have passed through my mind. What a demented and crazy thing to do!”
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