You must rise above _x000D_ The gloomy clouds _x000D_ Covering the mountaintop _x000D_ Otherwise, how will you _x000D_ Ever see the brightness?
Ryokan TaiguRead
With no mind, flowers lure the butterfly; With no mind, the butterfly visits the blossoms. Yet when flowers bloom, the butterfly comes; When the butterfly comes, the flowers bloom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the interconnectedness of nature, where flowers and butterflies influence each other's existence.
In this quote by Ryokan Taigu, the essence of mutual dependence between flowers and butterflies is highlighted, emphasizing how the presence of one leads to the flourishing of the other. It reflects the beauty of nature's harmony, suggesting that the absence of attachment ('no mind') allows them to thrive together, illustrating the flow of life and the importance of coexistence.
Themes
NatureFlowersButterflyInterconnectednessHarmony
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a nature conservation speech to highlight the importance of maintaining biodiversity.
More from Ryokan Taigu
All quotes βSimilar quotes
The Montana sunset lay between the mountains like a giant bruise from which darkened arteries spread across a poisoned sky.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
Our very contract with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity.
Pope John Paul IiRead
When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it's just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.
Jane GoodallRead
Nature is man's inorganic body -- that is to say, nature insofar as it is not the human body. Man lives from nature -- i.e., nature is his body -- and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it is he is not to die. To say that man's physical and mental life is linked to nature simply means that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature.
Karl MarxRead
... it is not a crisis of our environs or surroundings; it is a crisis of our lives as individuals, as family members, as community members, and as citizens. We have an 'environmental crisis' because we have consented to an economy in which by eating, drinking, working, resting, traveling, and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural, god-given world.
Wendell BerryRead
With the world's human population now at seven billion and growing, and the demand for technology and modern conveniences increasing, we can't control all our negative impacts. But we have to find better ways to live within the limits nature and its cycles impose.
David SuzukiRead