painting by numbers
1
Painting by numbers is ubiquitous, sadly. Leave the desk and its, 'memories, dreams and reflections'. Pull on your haiku walking shoes and leave the building. . . .
A useful trick, when out and about, hunting the wild haiku, is to ask yourself this question:
What's happening
here (and why) ?
(you will always get a reply)
When you're relaxed and 'empty' is best - and 'open'. (This reduces vanity's static, its gobbledygook, its monkey chatter.)
With practice this simple method programs into autopilot. A default state of conscious awareness when we hit the haiku button. This is how Basho 'became the pine'. You can become one with nature also.
This is the deeper meaning of haiku. It's a unique and powerful form of meditation for the people. A present from DNA in the service of God.
2
So. Now we've arrived. Our haikuing has matured to the point where, like Marvin Gaye, we... speak in lyrics. What happens next?
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are. — The Talmud
Haiku is the person, affectation is useless. — jp
What sort of person are we? What do we represent? How seamless is our integrity? Have we grown out of childhood's self-obsession? Having achieved objectivity and unfettered clarity, what do we do with it?
Do we walk in the darkness, or in the light? Are we possessed of demons or angels? Is sorcery our game or the mystic journey into not-self? Do we live on the threshold between nothingness and somethingness, as virtual bodhisattvas, or do we plunge into apotheosis and, like Enoch, walk with God and be not?
Perhaps, rather more mundanely, do we respect ourselves and other's right to evolve (including all living things in this conscious universe), each according to their own astonishing uniqueness? Do we appreciate the privilege of participating in this miracle of existence we find ourselves embedded in, here and now, on the ground; and thus doing, do we honour each breath we breath and which our fellow creatures breath - all with a due dilligence?
As immortal time travellers, on a fact-finding rotation through eternity, do we work for the common good of all being, in the radiant love of existence, or do we steal God's glory and deposit it in our vanity account, at the Bank of Lucifer, Manifestation Central, Matteropolis?
jp
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(a haijin's glad promise and a makoto blessing to all embodied souls)
Nana-korobi Ya-oki (七転び八起き）
literally means:
Seven falls, eight getting up...
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24-09-11