Visitors

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客を待つ　吐く息ごとに　春深む


waiting for visitors -
with each breath
spring deepens



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Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Food Colors

food colors - the color of LOVE is still . red

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Food Colors and E-Numbers (European Union)


E100 Curcumin, turmeric (food colouring)
E101 Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), formerly called lactoflavin (Vitamin G) (food colouring)
E101a Riboflavin-5'-Phosphate (food colouring)
E102 Tartrazine (FD&C Yellow 5) (food colouring)
E103 Chrysoine resorcinol (food colouring)
E104 Quinoline yellow (food colouring)
E105 Fast Yellow AB (food colouring)
E106 Riboflavin-5-Sodium Phosphate (food colouring)
E107 Yellow 2G (food colouring)
E110 Sunset Yellow FCF, Orange Yellow S, FD&C Yellow 6 (food colouring)
E111 Orange GGN (food colouring)
E120 Cochineal, Carminic acid, Carmines, Natural Red 4 (food colouring)
E121 Orcein, Orchil (food colouring)
E122 Carmoisine, Azorubine (food colouring)
E123 Amaranth (FD&C Red 2) (food colouring)
E124 Ponceau 4R, Cochineal Red A, Brilliant Scarlet 4R (food colouring)
E125 Ponceau SX, Scarlet GN (food colouring)
E126 Ponceau 6R (food colouring)
E127 Erythrosine (FD&C Red 3) (food colouring)
E128 Red 2G (food colouring)
E129 Allura Red AC (FD&C Red 40) (food colouring)
E130 Indanthrene blue RS (food colouring)
E131 Patent Blue V (food colouring)
E132 Indigo carmine, Indigotine, FD&C Blue 2 (food colouring)
E133 Brilliant Blue FCF (FD&C Blue 1) (food colouring)
E140 Chlorophylls and Chlorophyllins: (i) Chlorophylls (ii) Chlorophyllins (food colouring)
E141 Copper complexes of chlorophylls and chlorophyllins
(i) Copper complexes of chlorophylls
(ii) Copper complexes of chlorophyllins (food colouring)
E142 Greens S (food colouring)
E143 Fast Green FCF (FD&C Green 3) (food colouring)
E150a Plain Caramel (food colouring)
E150b Caustic sulfite caramel (food colouring)
E150c Ammonia caramel (food colouring)
E150d Sulphite ammonia caramel (food colouring)
E151 Black PN, Brilliant Black BN (food colouring)
E152 Black 7984 (food colouring)
E153 Carbon black, Vegetable carbon (food colouring)
E154 Brown FK, Kipper Brown (food colouring)
E155 Brown HT, Chocolate brown HT (food colouring)
E160a Alpha-carotene, Beta-carotene, Gamma-carotene (food colouring)
E160b Annatto, bixin, norbixin (food colouring)
E160c Capsanthin, capsorubin, Paprika extract (food colouring)
E160d Lycopene (food colouring)
E160e Beta-apo-8'-carotenal (C 30) (food colouring)
E160f Ethyl ester of beta-apo-8'-carotenic acid (C 30) (food colouring)
E161a Flavoxanthin (food colouring)
E161b Lutein (food colouring)
E161c Cryptoxanthin (food colouring)
E161d Rubixanthin (food colouring)
E161e Violaxanthin (food colouring)
E161f Rhodoxanthin (food colouring)
E161g Canthaxanthin (food colouring)
E161h Zeaxanthin (food colouring)
E161i Citranaxanthin (food colouring)
E161j Astaxanthin (food colouring)
E162 Beetroot Red, Betanin (food colouring)
E163 Anthocyanins (food colouring)
E170 Calcium carbonate, Chalk (food colouring)
E171 Titanium dioxide (food colouring)
E172 Iron oxides and hydroxides (food colouring)
E173 Aluminium (food colouring)
E174 Silver (food colouring)
E175 Gold (food colouring)
E180 Pigment Rubine, Lithol Rubine BK (food colouring)
E181 Tannin (food colouring)



List of more subdued
Japanese Colors




Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Early Bee

early bee - don't get hurt in the coming snow storm

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More of our Windwheels
極楽庵の風車


BEE (mitsubachi), a kigo



Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Fukuyama Hiroshige

museum park - the Hiroshige perspective comes to mind

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Fukuyama Castle and the ANT
Another Haiku Perspective


My Visit to Fukuyama Castle

My Visit to Fukuyama Bingo Shrine



Photo Album Fukuyama, February 2007




Read my Haiku Archives

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Fukuyama castle ant

looking up at the castle tower - I am the ANT

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Photo Album Fukuyama, February 2007


My Hiroshige Haiku Perspective of the Castle !


My Visit to Fukuyama Castle


Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Sysyphos

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cutting the weeds
one by one ...
sysyphos in winter



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Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Red Leaves

red leaves in the evening sun - spring is a'comin

Nanten and Haiku


Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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Sparrows

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a crowd of sparrows
chirping on the high branches -
my cat in hiding



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Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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February Sun

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February Sun -
the growing threat of
global warming




February Sun -
a myriad birdsongs
in my valley

　

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屋根までに雪が積もるや温暖化

global warming -
up to the roof
in heavy snow

© Gabi Greve, December 22, 2005



Global warming, a Haiku Topic


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Funeral Parade

funeral parade - black robes wandering through the white snow

It was a rather traditional rural funeral.


Fresh Snow
Grandmother Stonefield


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WKD - Learn from the pine

learn from the pine - the twisted meaning of words of wisdom

learn from the pine,

said my clever American haiku friends.


So I sat down by the American pine and learned from it. Intensely ...
He told me a lot in English, but could not speak Japanese of course.
When I was ready I wrote a poem about what I learned from him, but when I showed it to my Japanese friends, they said

"Nice poem, but what makes you think this is a haiku ?
It is beautiful, but it is just free verse!"


So I asked the thousand years old Japanese pine
in the temple grounds near my home
and she whispered to me:

"You know, we Japanese pines can only tell you
the wisdom of Japanese pines !
We are not learned enought to teach you the wisdom of writing poetry, especially not the secrets of writing haiku.
Maybe Kawazu The Frog, down by the old pond, can tell you more!"


So I went down to the Old Pond.
There was another young man sitting there already, trying to learn from the frog.
Plash, splash, splonk ... more than a hundred versions of frog wisdom ...


The young man introduced himself. His voice sounded rather squaaaked.

"My name is Bananas, I am trying to understand the secret of Japanese haiku. First I learned from the pine, but it only told me pine wisdom. Now I try by learning a bit more from the frog, who is moving around and should know better. Yet all I come up is frog lore and frog wisdom .....
What am I missing ?
Seems you are in the same trouble with your pine wisdom.
Know what, let us go to the old book editor in Edo, Kigin sensei (季吟　"Poetry about the Seasons"), he might help us understand why we do not understand."


So we went to Edo to meet Kigin Sensei.
Finally we got some answers.

"If you want to write Japanese haiku, ask someone who knows, ask a sensei, like myself (he grinned). I can teach you the basics of the secret of writing Japanese haiku.

If you want to write haiku about the pine,
learn the essence of the pine from the pine.

And then apply what you learned about the secrets of writing haiku (to be quite honest, he said HOKKU) and write about the pine wisdom accordingly.

And now, I will teach you the basics of hokku ... "


That is when my dream ended, sorry!

Gabi Greve with a big grin ...


I realized that another problem involved here is the language. The pine teaches you in PINE language, but you have to translate this to a human language to be understood by your fellow humans.
As a professional translator, I know well how difficult and challenging this can be! !!
And how many varieties are there to translate one word of PINE into one haiku word of HUMAN ?



But you can still
meet Kitamura Kigin.




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If you observe only the pine and not your inner self,
you might end up with what is later called

. Sketching from Nature , SHASEI 写生 .
shajitsu　写実, byoosha　描写


「松の事は松に習え、竹の事は竹に習えと師の詞のありしも、
私意をはなれよということ也。」
（服部土芳著「赤冊子」）

「松の事は松に習え、竹の事は竹に習え」とおっしゃったのも、
「対象に対する先入観（我執）のすべてを捨てて、ひたすら物に従いなさい」
ということをいわれたのです。


「見るにつけ、聞くにつけ、作者の感じるままを句に作るところは、
すなわち俳諧の誠である」
（芭蕉の門人・服部土芳「三冊子」）
俳諧の誠というのは私意や虚偽を排し、対象をよく観察し、傾聴して、そのありさまを
十七文字で表現することに全力を傾けるという意味である。

more about shasei :
source :　michi/node



- Japanese Reference -




悪党芭蕉
嵐山光三郎



. Matsuo Basho　松尾芭蕉 .
(1644 - 1694)


"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine"

Go to the banana
if you want to learn about Matsuo Banana.

If you really want to understand  Matsuo Basho and his teachings about hokku, you have to study the Japanese language and read his original texts.
Anything else will leave you interpreting the many differing and sometimes misleading translations.

You can not taste the real banana pie by reading all the cookbooks in the world.

. Basho teaching "shasei 写生" .

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quote
In one of his most famous theoretical statements, Basho says,
“Learn about pines from the pine, and about bamboo from the bamboo.”
(Hass 233).
Each pine exhibits pineness but is not pineness itself: each pine alludes to, or is symbolic of, the essence of pine.

Contemporary writers may find Basho’s statement confusing. To use the Western terminology of essence we see in Reichhold and many modern Western haiku commentators, even the essence of pine is not the same as the essence of being. The essence of things is not located within the thing itself. The is-ness of a thing is not to be gained through attention to the thing alone. Indeed, is-ness is not the same as the “thingness” of a thing.

Barnhill says that in his travels Basho pursued “the wayfaring life in order to embody physically and metaphorically the fundamental character of the universe.” (6).
He visits places “loaded” with cultural and spiritual significance and his sense of “nature” is bound up with these traditions of place. This intertwining of place and significance, the local and the transcendental, is basic to Basho’s experience. The centrality of “place names” or utamakura is basic to Basho’s outlook. Barnhill says,
“Basho tended to write of places in nature handed down through literature, giving cultural depth to his experience of nature.”

source : BASHO’S JOURNEY - Jamie Edgecombe 2011



quote
The Master has said:
“Learn about pine from pines and learn about bamboo from bamboos.”
By these words he is teaching us to eradicate subjectivity. One will end up learning nothing with one’s subjective self even if one wants to learn. To learn means to enter the object, to find its subtle details and empathize with it, and let what is experienced become poetry. For instance, if one has portrayed the outer form of an object but failed to express the feelings that flow naturally out of it, the object and the author’s self become two, so the poem cannot achieve sincerity. It is merely a product of subjectivity.
- - - Peipei-Qiu


. Matsuo Basho and the concept of emptiness .

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quote
Su Dongpo’s poem on the bamboo painter says:

“When Yuke paints bamboos,
He sees only the bamboos, not himself.
Not only seeing no self,
Vacantly and far away, he loses the self:
The self transforms with the bamboos,
Endlessly creating pure novelty.

Since Zhuangzi is no longer in this world,
Who understands such spiritual concentration?”

“Vacantly and far away”
source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu


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It is very important that you feel free to write a haiku your way.
But there are certain basic conditions which you as a haiku poet are supposed to observe.

Read more of the teachings of this Japanese Haiku Sensei:
Inahata Teiko




Sensei, a Japanese Haiku Teacher . and how about it outside Japan.



Understanding Japanese Haiku
What am I missing ?


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- Watercolor, shared by Ron Moss -
Joys of Japan, 2012


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My Dream Friend Bananas later became quite famous and is supposed to have said this, after teaching his students the basics and secrets of writing proper hokku ...

What pertains to the pine tree, learn from the pine tree;
what pertains to the bamboo, learn from the bamboo.

To do that you must leave behind you all subjective prejudice. Otherwise you will force your own self onto the object and can learn nothing from it. Your poem will well-up of its own accord when you and the object become one, when you dive deep enough into the object, to discover something of its hidden glimmer.

However well you may have made your poem, if your feeling isn't natural, if you and the object are divided, your poem will not be true, it will be instead a subjective forgery."
(Matsuo Basho, Sanzooshi 三冊子（さんぞうし）俳諧 )
source : Aisaku Suzuki


another translated version

"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one - when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if your feeling is not natural - if the object and yourself are separate - then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit."

"Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. Your feeling is not natural when the object and yourself are separate. You must become one with the object in order for your poetry to be true."

"No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it."
source : www.yenra.com




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....................................... Gabi about
Tradition, wearing a haiku like a kimono ...



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December 26, 2008


learn from the pine ...
today I learn from
the snow


just one snowflake -
to grow
to dance
to touch the ground
to melt


snow over night
should I get the shovel or
the camera?

Gabi Greve






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. . . . . BACK TO

My Haiku Theory Archives 　


The one thousand years old pine at Temple Ryosanji
両山寺のニ上杉、大杉 "Futakami Sugi"


Basho, Bashoo, Bashou
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. Matsuo Basho - Archives of the WKD .


[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]

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Fresh snow

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fresh snow -
your whiteness strikes me
once again



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We were woken up in the early morning by the local policeman.
Grandma Stonefield was missing since yesterday! All are out searching for her, using long poles poking the weeds and brushes at the roadside.
Divers were checking the nearby pond.
Night came so early. By morning it was well below five degrees centigrade.

At sunrise, the search continued.
Dogs from Okayama police department were deployed.
Toward nightbreak, a bark close to the ditch:


fresh snow -
the paleness of her
dead body


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We often met on my walks to the local shrine.
With her 88 years, she was much more sure-footed at the steep slopes between the rice paddies than myself. We would sit on the small path and chat for a while.
She had lived alone in her old farm for more than 20 years now, tending the vegetable garden and some fruit trees. She was born here in Ohaga and never left the place.

Dear Grandmother, we will miss you so much!
Namu Amida Butsu.



funeral parade -
black robes wandering
through the white snow


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. WKD : Graves and Funerals .


Read my Haiku Archives


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Visitors Page

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Dear Visitors,

if you do not find a page with your subject in my Gallery,

feel free to add your haiku HERE as a comment.

Thank you !

GABI






a busy bee -
collecting haiku and
sunshine


. . . Read my Haiku Archives !


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February First

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February First -
most colorful clouds
in the evening sky


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Read my Haiku Archives from January 2007


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WKD - ZEN, Buddhism and Haiku

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]
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Zen and Haiku

More knowledge people have written about this subject.
Here are just a few of my own musings and a few links on the subject.




Buddha meditates –
the hungry folk
just want food

Five Buddhas and one Tanuki
© Photo and Haiku by Gabi Greve


I have a museum with artefacts of Bodhidaruma, the founder of Zen Buddhistm.

The Daruma Museum, Japan

Daruma and Haiku



And read about the Japanese ZEN temple Eihei-Ji.


The Zendo in Kamakura : Sanboo kyoodan Zen
and the Way of the New Religions
by Robert H. Sharf

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“A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment
in which we see into the life of things.”

R.H. Blyth


Well, this is just one opinion.


enlightenment ...
all it takes is
HAIKU ???


or maybe

HAIKU !
all it takes is
enlightenment


temporary enlightenment -
just a bunch of
fireflies


. . . . . .


en LIGHT enment
just how LIGHT
can it be ?

anonymous

. . . . . .




enlightenment -
my Daruma squeezed
into a lightbulb

Gabi Greve, January 2011


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Zen and Haiku from my Gallery


Zen Riddles with BEE ..

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Haiku and Zen Moments ... some fun



KOAN and Haiku (01) .. 公案と俳句
KOAN and Haiku (02) .. Dreams 夢
KOAN and Haiku (03) .. Original face and Immortality


Quietude and the Galactic Ant 　静けさと蟻のクシャミ
..... The Sound of Wind, Sound of Clouds (essay)
風の音、雲の音、お茶の音


Stone Buddhas .. 石仏

Voice of Buddha .. .. Frogs Farting :o) 。。蛙の屁


. Wordless Poem, Wordless Smile 　



Carpet Meditations 2007





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The Haiku Moment

Composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy. It is also like cutting a ripe watermelon with a sharp knife or like taking a large bite at a pear.
Matsuo Basho

Basho here is referring to that sudden insight into the hidden nature of things which he called "inspiration." While he certainly revised his own poems and those of his students, his meaning here may be taken to be that if the poem does not contain inspiration at the beginning, does not capture the true impact of a moment, then it will fail. Later revision may perfect the expression, but only by composing spontaneously can one learn to grasp the flash of inspiration as it happens

Haiku in English
by Barbara Louise Ungar


Translating the haiku moment ... back to Japanese :
haiku no shunkan ?　俳句の瞬間 ?
Not a word commonly used in Japanese.


The AHA MOMENT ... more of my musings !!!


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quote
“Notes on Self-Transcendence East and West:
Jorge Guillén and Haiku”
by Rupert Allen

During the second half of this century we have seen an enormous growth in the literature on self-transcendence. The phenomena associated with “centered,” non-ego awareness have been described in a number of fields including ethnology, depth psychology, comparative religion, parapsychology, and the vast literature on meditative techniques.
...
Particularly relevant to our understanding of the seer as poet (rather than as prophet) is the classical haiku, the poetry of Zen consciousness, for here we have the deliberate esthetic cultivation of transcendental reality, resting on the solid theoretical foundation of Zen Buddhism.
That we Westerners are generally oblivious to the existence of the “other” world is indicated by the fact that we do not know how to read haiku without special training in altered consciousness. Once this training is undergone the content of the haiku becomes accessible, and the impressive world of Japanese beauty is seen for the miracle that it is.
source : terebess.hu DOC


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quote
Basho, thought by many Japanese to be their finest haiku writer and greatest poet, lived from 1644 to 1694. Like almost all noted haiku writers he knew Zen, practicing discipline under the master Butcho in Kashima, with whom, according to Dr. D. T. Suzuki, he had the following exchange:

Butcho:
How are you getting along these days?

Basho:
Since the recent rain moss is greener than ever.

Butcho:
What Buddhism was there before the moss became green?

Resulting in enlightenment and the first of his best-known haiku:

Basho:
Leap-splash - a frog.

Whether or not they undertook discipline, haiku writers thought themselves living in the spirit of Zen, their truest poems expressing its ideals. To art lovers the appeal of haiku is not unlike that of a sumie (ink-wash) scroll by Sesshu, and many
haiku poets, like Buson, were also outstanding painters.

Zenists have always associated the two arts:
"When a feeling reaches its highest pitch," says Dr Suzuki, Zen´s most distinguished historian,
"we remain silent, even 17 syllables may be too many. Japanese artists ... influenced by the way of Zen tend to use the fewest words or strokes of brush to express their feelings. When they are too fully expressed no room for suggestion is possible, and suggestibility is the secret of the Japanese arts´.
Like a painting or rock garden, haiku is an object of meditation, drawing back the the curtain on essential truth. It shares with other arts qualities belonging to the Zen aesthetic - simplicity, naturalness, directness, profundity - and each poem has its dominant mood:

sabi (isolation),
wabi (poverty),
aware (impermanence) or
yugen (mystery).

If it is true that the art of poetry consists in saying important things with the fewest possible words, then haiku has a just place in world literature. The limitation of syllables assures terseness and concision, and the range of association in the finest examples is at times astonishing. It has the added advantage of being accessible:
a seasonal reference, direct or indirect, simplest words, chiefly names of things in dynamic relationships, familiar themes, make it understandable to most, on one level at least.

Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter
Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto
source : books.google.co.jp


. Zen Master Butchoo, Butchō 仏頂和尚 Butcho, Temple 雲岸寺 Ungan-Ji .
(1643– 1715)


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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


quote
Bashō and Religious Traditions

Of course the fact that Bashō chose not to become an official member of a religious tradition does not mean that those traditions are irrelevant. While he is not, for instance, a Buddhist in the conventional sense of the term, his world view and way of life exhibit certain Buddhistic qualities, only one of which can we mention here.
As we have seen, an important aspect of Buddhist thought is nonduality.

Nonduality applied even to the distinction between the deluded state and enlightenment, as seen in Buddhist phrases such as "enlightenment is found in the world of passions" (bonnô sunawachi bodai naru) and "the deluded mind is itself Buddha" (môjin soku butsu). The Zen master Dōgen is famous for insisting on the nonduality of means and end. For him, zazen is not a technique one engaged in for the purpose of achieving enlightenment, it was the enactment of enlightenment.

Bashō also experiences, in a unique way, the nonduality between imperfection and perfection and means and end. His travels are not like pilgrimages, which are temporary journeys directed toward a specific end. His wayfaring is endless: the journey itself is home.

... The nonduality of means and end extends to his attitude toward himself. Because his practice is never concluded, he sees himself as forever incomplete, like the asunarô tree, which appears to be the valuable cypress but is not.

"Tomorrow I will be a cypress!" an old tree in a valley once said. Yesterday has passed as a dream; tomorrow has not yet come. Instead of just enjoying a cask of wine in my life, I keep saying "tomorrow, tomorrow," securing the reproof of the sages.

sabishisa ya - Loneliness:
hana no atari - among the blossoms
asunarō - an asunarô

The name asunarô literally means "tomorrow I will become..." with the context implying "...a cypress." But the tree will never become a cypress, and Bashō will never complete his journey either. While in several passages Bashō exhibits self-denigration about his incompletion, ultimately this is not condemnation but realization: reality fundamentally is an endless journey with no climax or completion. But there is, perhaps, something of a Pure Land Buddhist tone in his self-recrimination and sense of imperfection, and the possible affinities between Pure Land and Bashō are worth careful attention.

While Bashō's mode of being is Buddhistic in some ways, they depart from traditional Buddhism in other ways. Buddhism began to lose its hold as the predominant religious tradition in the seventeenth century, and Bashō's departure from (and in some cases criticism of) Buddhism may be an example of this. The notion of karma, so important to medieval Buddhism, is absent in his works. In fact, early in The Record of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton Bashō encounters a situation that seems to be presented in a way that the reader expects a reference to karma: an abandoned baby by the roadside. After tossing the child some food and composing a mournful poem, he continues his speculation on the cause of the situation.
“Why did this happen? Were you hated by your father or neglected by your mother? Your father did not hate you, your mother did not neglect you. This simply is from heaven, and you can only grieve over your fate.” Traditional Buddhism would call for an explanation based on past lives that would affirm the cosmic justice of deserved suffering. For Bashō there is no cosmic justice in the normal sense, only the ever-present imminence of death shared by all wayfarers.

This passage is patterned very closely on the writings of the Taoist Chuang-Tzu, and Bashō's notion of fate is far closer to classical Taoism than it is to traditional Buddhism. In fact, Chuang Tzu is alluded to in his writings more often than any other religious thinker. Bashō's self-portrait has several Taoist aspects. The Chuang Tzu contains numerous images of wayfaring and flying as the ideal, especially in the first chapter, "Free and Easy Wandering." The Record of a Travel-Worn Satchel begins with a description of Bashō as a fûrabô, and the image in the first sentence is taken directly from The Chuang Tzu.

Among these hundred bones and nine holes there is something. For now let's call it "gauze in the wind" (fûrabô). Surely we can say it's thin, torn easily by a breeze. It grew fond of mad poetry long ago; eventually, this became its life work.
This life's work, he relates elsewhere, is quite "useless," a major theme in Chuang Tzu's writings.

Bashō, then, experiences life as an inheritor and participant in the meditational Buddhist, classical Taoist, and shamanistic yugyô hijiri traditions. Indeed he most likely saw them as three complementary streams, all of them parts of one religious complex of ideas, attitudes, and practices. This particular mode of being-in-the-world presents to the reader a sophisticated world view and way of life that becomes for us an ato, a trace of his life that we can appropriate in our particular way as we travel our own endless journey.

THE JOURNALS OF MATSUO BASHŌ
source : Barnhill


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Meditation - Dhyana

ZEN and Haiku - some thoughts
... more on the Haiku Moment (haiku no shunkan?)

ZEN and Haiku - short musing

ZEN and Zen-isch, McZen - Cold at Temple Eihei-Ji


EGO, Zen and Haiku
.......... Zen and the Art of Haiku. Ken Jones !!!!!



Words do not make a man understand;
You must get the man, to understand them.
ZENRIN KUSHU Poetry Collection 禅林句集 English


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. . . . . . . . . . . T A O


.. .. .. .. .. .. .. Tao, Dao and Haiku 道教と俳句
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. Tao of a useless tree 　

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External LINKS

Zen Poems and Haiku - A haiku selection from a 'non-zennist'


Zen and Haiku GOOGLE


Zen and Haiku YAHOO

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A Haibun

Leaving the noisy, busy city behind for a while, I go into the quiet museum to see an exhibit of zen portrait paintings. Entering the dimly lit galleries, I find myself in the midst of a gathering of sages!

Gazing intently around me, I soon enter into the spirit of things. I come down the mountain with Shakyamuni, both of us smiling, smiling from head to toe, smiling at the universe. I sit down next to Bohdidharma, determined to stay awakened, however long it takes, eyes unblinking! I wander aimlessly with Hotei, balancing my bag of stuff with my belly, laughing at nothing and everything, heedless of appearances. After a while, tired from all this traveling to distant times and places, I rest my head peacefully beside Hanshan's, the warm body of a sleeping tiger for our pillow, with not a care in the world!

Where today can you find such characters? I'd like to meet them.


fine spring day--
a bum dozes outside
the zen painting show


Larry Bole, April 2007

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I exist,
I only just exist here -
snow is falling

只居ればおるとて雪の降にけり
tada oreba oru tote yuki no furi ni keri

Kobayashi Issa, 1805
Tr. Gabi Greve


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ZEN is not the only form of Buddhism with an influence on culture, poetry and haiku.


"Henro Haiku " by pilgrims of Shikoku
There are even kigo with this phenomenon
Esoteric Buddhism　密教 and Kukai Kobo Daishi

. Henro Haiku 遍路俳句 .



Kobayashi Issa and his Pure Land Buddhism
. Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶) .

Pure Land Buddhism 浄土仏教
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


Nichiren Buddhism 　日蓮宗　and related kigo
. Saint Nichiren 日蓮 .


and all the observance kigo related to
Buddhist festivals and religious persons

. Observance SAIJIKI .

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Not everything is ZEN in haikuland.

. Zooka, zouka, zōka 造化 zoka
The Creative Power and Basho .


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Haiku Theory Archives

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