! Haiku and Happiness ! (02)

1/01/2008

BACKUP worldkigo 2008

12/31/2007

First Snow Roses

　　　　

初雪や

first snow !
the silence of my roses
deepens

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Roses and Clouds, December 26 !!!

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rose snow
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First Snow

　　　　

first snow !
the silence
deepens

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12/27/2007

roses and clouds

sea of clouds -
my roses breathe
so carefully

frost melting
on my roses -
the beauty of NOW

winter roses -
each petal has
its own spark

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The Art of Meditation in Taoism

Contemplative Taoists will be happily to sit with yogis and Zennists for as long as is reasonable and comfortable, but when nature tells us that we are 'pushing the river' we will get up and do something else, or even go to sleep...

... or even write a haiku ...

Basically, Taoist meditation is more like a sort of wisdom achieved by close observation of the things and phenomena in the world surrounding us. Such wisdom should help us go alongside with things and not against them, and is surely related to the wu-wei (nondoing) concept.
　© www.taopage.org

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rose roses rose
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12/26/2007

Long Moment

　　　　

winter morning -
the long moment
from dark to light

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Version TWO

　　　　

winter morning -
this long moment

　　　　

from dark

　　　　

to light

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Version THREE

　　　　

winter morning -
this long moment

　　　　

from birth

　　　　

to death

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woke up too early today, enjoying the warmth in bed while staring at the window ...

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12/25/2007

dishevelled

winter morning -
the dishevelled hair
of my neighbour

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She is about 65 and I meet her often on my morning walk up the hill to get the newspaper. Me in my checkered pajamas and her ... well, you see above a gentler version of it.

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Tradition - Kumari

coping with tradition -
Kumari chews
a bubble gum

©　PHOTO Kumari: Reuters Limited 2007

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Kumari, or Kumari Devi
is a living goddess in Nepal. Kumari literally means virgin in Nepali and was the name of the goddess Durga as a child. A Kumari is a prepubescent girl selected from the Shakya caste of the Nepalese Newari community. The Kumari is revered and worshipped by some of the country's Hindus as well as the Nepali Buddhists, though not the Tibetan Buddhists.

While there are several Kumaris throughout Nepal, with some cities having several, the best known is the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu, and she lives in the Kumari Ghar, a palace in the center of the city. The selection process for her is especially rigorous. The current Royal Kumari, Preeti Shakya, was installed on July 10, 2001 at the age of four.

A Kumari is believed to be the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body. Serious illness or a major loss of blood from an injury are also causes for her to revert to common status.

© KUMARI / Wikipedia

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Today, December 24 in Japan, I read in the Japan Times about the child that likes bubble gum ...

KATMANDU, Nepal -
The living goddess likes bubble gum.

On a cold autumn evening, during a festival giving thanks for the monsoon rains, dozens of chanting worshippers pulled her enormous wooden chariot through the narrow streets of Katmandu’s old city. Thousands of cheering people pressed forward, hoping for a blessing. Drunken young men danced around her, pounding drums and shouting.

But the goddess — a child wrapped in red silk, a third eye painted on her forehead as a sign of enlightenment — took little notice of the joyous riot. Instead, she stared ahead intently, her jaw pumping furiously.
Then, finally, she blew a yellow bubble about the size of a plum.

Priti Shakya is 10 years old, the daughter of a family of poor goldsmiths. At the age of 4, a panel of judges examined her in a series of ancient ceremonies — checking her horoscope, searching for physical imperfections and, as a final test, seeing if she would be frightened after a night spent in a room filled with 108 freshly decapitated animal heads. She was not.

So Priti became a goddess, worshipped as the incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju, and going into near-complete isolation in an ancient Katmandu palace.

She will return home only at the onset of menstruation, when a new goddess will be named. Then Priti will be left to adjust to a life that — suddenly and absolutely — is supposed to be completely normal.

That is how it has been for nearly four centuries, in a tradition that held out against modernity even as Nepal, ever so slowly, began to change.

But modernity is coming, even to the goddess.

“We know there needs to be change,” said Manju Shree Ratna Bajracharya, the eighth generation of priest from his family to oversee the temple of the royal kumari — or virgin — as the goddess is commonly called.

“But this criticism of the tradition,
this is pure ignorance.”

Read the full article HERE
©　mamimagazine.com

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If you choose to write Japanese haiku, it is your decision to do so.
If you choose to wear a Japanese kimono, it is your decision to do so.

But it is part of a tradition and culture which might not be your own and you may not know too much about the real background of this tradition and culture you are trying to copy and use. You might not even be able to read Japanese and have to rely on translations and secondhand information when trying to understand what JAPANESE HAIKU is.

While wearing this unfamiliar Japanese kimono in the subway of your own culture, you might feel it uncomfortabel and want to make it suit YOUR needs. So you cut off the long sleeves and then throw away the many belts, using just a leather bucklebelt maybe ... and the long skirts have to go, make this into a pair of short pants, after all, yours is a hot country ...

When you walk the streets like the emperor with "YOUR NEW KIMONO", well, it might be adjusted to the needs of your living sourroundings, but what is it now ...

well, maybe just another bubble of the worldwide Haiku Gum...

to be chewed with a grain of smiling salt !

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On second thought, you might try
a light cotton robe, yukata 浴衣 (ゆかた) !
The yukata is frequently worn after bathing at traditional Japanese inns. Though their use is not limited to after-bath wear, yukata literally means "bath clothes".

The Emperor's New Clothes

. Kanjak Ashtami Puja - India .

CHECK HERE
My Haiku Theory Archives

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12/24/2007

Die Blaue Blume

this blue shine
by the roadside -
winter walk

friendly smiles
for the weary traveler -
Shikoku road

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The Blue Flower (German: Blaue Blume) is a central symbol of Romanticism

　wikipedia has more

Shikoku Pilgrims Road

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12/21/2007

sunny morning

　　　　

winter morning <>
I share a sunny moment
just with myself

nashi

like the big head
of a small baby ...
what is this ? ??

12/20/2007

cabbage smiling

Mary Christmas ..
the cabbage smiles at me

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We got this charming little cabbage, a stand for toothpicks, from our local post office.

Read my Haiku Archives
DECEMBER 2007

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12/19/2007

red berries

red berries
to brighten my mind -
winter walk

and here the nandine

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***** Nandina Berries, Nandin Berries,
nanten no mi, mi nanten　
南天の実、実南天　
Nandina Berries: kigo for all winter

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***** aoki no mi 青木の実 (あおきのみ)
berries of the Aoki laurel
Aucuba japonica, kind of Japanese laurel
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
Aoki-Frucht

kigo for all winter

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aoki no hana 青木の花 (あおきのはな)
blossoms of the Aoki laurel

kigo for late spring

They are light brown and very small. The tree grows wild in many mountain regions of Japan and prefers a shadowy place.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

. WKD : Oleander (Nerium oleander) . kyoochikutoo 夾竹桃 .
Laurel rosa

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Haiku from my friends:

a gift from Gabi
a haiku to brighten
my imagination

Bill Kenney

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clumsy grey jay--
in the alpine snow field
red berries

wade german (ookigoshi)

(the grey jay, a.k.a. the whiskey jack, or canada jay)

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December -
all colors faded but for
nandina's red berries.

Zhanna P. Rader

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p.s. do you know just how amazing your "red berries" poem truly is?! absolutely beautiful...

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. PLANTS in all seasons - SAIJIKI

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12/18/2007

words of wisdom

learn from the pine -

the twisted meaning

of words of wisdom

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my teaching is here
Learn from the Pine !

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12/17/2007

drying seaweed

drying seaweed -
these dancing shadows
on the sand

drying seaweed -
how many fingers
have been whacked off ?

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Kamakura Beach 1992

Seaweeds in various kigo

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12/16/2007

Haiku Seeds Haiku Flowers

　　　　

haiku flowers -
Japanese seeds
for the whole world

For Taisen Deshimaru
who brought Zen seeds to France

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Taisen Deshimaru (birth name: Yasuo Deshimaru) (1914-1982) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher. Born in the Saga Prefecture of Kyushu, Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather, a former Samurai before the Meiji Revolution, and by his mother, a devout follower of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism.

He received dharma transmission from Master Yamada Reirin.

In 1967, Deshimaru came to Europe and settled in Paris in order to fulfill his master's wish and spread the teachings of Zen. In the 1970's, his mission grew and he received dharma transmission from Master Yamada Reirin and became kaikyosokan (head of Japanese Soto Zen for a particular country or continent) in Europe.

He trained many disciples, and was the catalyst for the creation of a multitude of practice centers. His teachings and multitude of books helped spread the influence of Zen in Europe and America, particularly of the Soto sect. He founded the AZI in 1970 and La Gendronnière in 1979. He died in 1982, after having solidly established Zen practice in the West.

　　© Wikipedia has more

I learned this again from Deshimaru Sensei

haiku seeds are from Japan
but haiku flowers blossom
in the whole wide world

the flowers of haiku
in the whole world
Japanese seeds

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