The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedMatsuo Basho
Title QuotedNarrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches / translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
Date (Year/Month/Day)1967/12/19
Imprint[S.l.] : Penguin. 1967
QuotationReading Basho again. Deeply moved by the purity and beauty of his travel notes and Haiku. "All who have achieved real excellence in any art, possess one thing in common, that is, a mind to obey nature, to be one with nature throughout the four seasons of the year. Whatever such a mind sees is flower, and whatever such a mind dreams of is moon. It is only a barbarous mind that sees other than the flower, merely an animal mind that dreams of other than the moon. The first lesson for the artist is, therefore, to learn how to overcome such barbarism and animality, to follow nature, to be one with nature." (Penguin"”p.72)
Quotation SourceThe Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 7, 1967-1968.; Edited by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1998, p. 27
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Link to Merton's Copy 42602 

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