Know the splendour of your being

Basho wrote:

Skylar sing all day,
and day not long enough

He is saying that you work the whole day, your whole life, never knowing the splendour of your being because your work -- your so-called mundane activities -- takes all your time. Life is so short, seventy years pass so quickly ... You don't know even when your childhood becomes your youth, you don't know when your youth disappears and you become old, you don't know that you are moving continuously towards the grave. Whatever you do, the grave is coming closer.

Remember, life is short, but it has become too short because of your unnecessary activity. I am surprised at people who are playing cards or chess, or going to the movie. And if you ask them, "What are you doing?" they say they are killing time. As if too much time, superfluous, has been given to them and they are killing it by playing cards.

Just look at people leaning on the chess board as if it is their life, standing in a line before a movie house. But the strange thing is, people go on exploring the same territory again and again and again. And still people think they are sane.