Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Reginald Horace Blyth (British Japanologist)

Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) was an English author and devotee of Japanese culture. He is most famous for his writings on Zen and haiku poetry.

Born in Essex, England, Blyth became a conscientious objector to the war. He served a three-year sentence of hard labor, and he left for Asia. He settled in Korea in the mid-1920s and began teaching English at Seoul University. He returned to England briefly to complete a B.A. in English literature.

In Seoul, Blyth met a monk from Kyoto’s Myoshin-Ji temple of the Rinzai Zen sect. The meeting inspired Blyth to take up Japanese and begin Zen practice under Master Kayama Taigi.

In 1940, Blyth moved to Japan and remained there for the rest of his life, despite being interned as an enemy alien during World War II. He worked as a teacher (the Crown Prince of Japan was one of his students) and began prolific writing and translating career.

Blyth’s books include Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics (1942,) Senryu; Japanese Satirical Verses (4 vols., 1949,) Oriental Humour (1959,) A History of Haiku (2 vols., 1963–64,) and Zen and Zen Classics (4 vols., 1966.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Reginald Horace Blyth

Thus we see that the all important thing is not killing or giving life, drinking or not drinking, living in the town or the country, being unlucky or lucky, winning or losing. It is how we win, how we lose, how we live or die, finally, how we choose.
Reginald Horace Blyth
Topics: Choice, Choices

Zen is the game of insight, the game of discovering who you are beneath the social masks.
Reginald Horace Blyth
Topics: Zen

Zen is mind-less activity, that is, Mind-ful activity, and it may often be advisable to emphasize the mind, and say, Take care of the thoughts and the actions will take care of themselves.
Reginald Horace Blyth
Topics: Zen

Things have done their part; it is for us to do ours … .
Reginald Horace Blyth

There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.
Reginald Horace Blyth
Topics: Gratitude

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