Zen Buddhist Influence In Matsuo Basho

From the earliest times, the Japanese had demonstrated a fondness for short, gnomic poems. By the seventeenth century, the Japanese Zen Masters had brought this "silent" verse to flawlessness in the haiku, the poem of seventeen syllables which drops the subject just about as it takes it up.
To non-Japanese individuals, haiku are able to appear to be close to beginnings or even titles for poems, and in interpretation, it is difficult to pass on the impact of their sound and beat. In any case, interpretation can normally convey the image given by the poet, which is the vital point.
Be that as it may, the non-Japanese audience must recall that a decent haiku is a "pebble thrown into the pool of the listener’s mind, evoking associations out of the richness of

Enlightenment, or epiphany, is the state of being in which one achieves harmony with nature and existence. Zen Buddhists believe that one can overcome ignorance through epiphany during deep self¬reflection. In such moments, “the nature of reality and the experience of it are revealed” (Zen). In “the most sacred of all shrines” with Mount Kurokami in the distance, Basho observes:
It is with awe that
I beheld fresh leaves, green leaves bright in the sun.
This meditative haiku was written in Nikko (which means the bright beams of the sun). There Basho appears to reach the transcendent center of his spiritual journey.
Bashō’s poetry was a clever tool for enlightenment and revelation – through the artfully simple arrangement of words. The poems are valuable not because they are beautiful (though they are this too) but "because they can serve as a catalyst for some of the most important states of the soul" (Great Eastern Philosophers). They remind both the poet and the peruser that happiness depends on knowing how to get joy from straightforwardness, and how to get away the oppression of acting