Bonchō

1 QUOTE

“...there is a moment when languages ceases (a moment obtained by dint of many exercises), and it is this echoless breach which institutes at once the truth of Zen and the form — brief and empty — of the haiku” (p. 74). Because of his rec...ognition of the emptiness of forms that is Buddhist reality, Barthes idealizes in the haiku this Buddhist notion of emptiness. When reading haiku, all that one can do with it is to scrutinize it, as recommended to the Zen apprentice who is working on a koan. He is told “not to solve it, as if it had a meaning, nor even to perceive its absurdity (which is still a meaning), but to ruminate it until ‘the tooth falls out’” (p. 74). As an alternative to Western thinking, although proposing such a radical blockage of sense-making structures, Zen Buddhism teaches its practitioners to meditate on the sign as sign, not as meaning but as an operation just like working on a koan."

— Chen-ou Liu

http://www.haijinx.org/columns/haiku-a-looking-bird/chen-ou-liu/

COMMENTARY

As words of a haiku 'fall away' the indicated image emerges out of boundless silence. The boundless silence is the perennial message of haiku. Yes, we enjoy the experience provided by the living diorama. Yes, we enjoy the associations which come and go. But, it is the silence which is the teaching, the inner meaning of every true haiku. This is why the Buddhist connection endures, even in the secular West, despite materialist sophistry and excuses to the contrary.

An outstanding example of this process is given in discourse (see link below) by Hasegawa Kai related to this haiku (somewhat staccato in plain translation) :

dying tub

dripping ceased -

tree cricket

Nozawa Bonchō (student of Matsuo Bashō)

http://gendaihaiku.com/hasegawa/index.html [8:70, video 2]

That video is worth using the pause button with and replaying until the point sinks in. A most worthwhile meditation that will stay with you forever and seriously enhance the reading, writing and detection of your haiku...and life.

PROSE-POEM 'HAIRON' (haiku theory, or essay) Based on the Hasegawa Kai discourse [see previous link] - for those who have no time. [We repeat the haiku for ease of reference.]

dying tub

dripping ceased -

tree cricket

— Bonchō

Ceased, death. We have silence of water, as the drops stop. A tree (of thought, relating to drops like fat leaves,) with a chirping male cricket (the girls don't). There may be a play on 'dying' - certainly this in English. When the noise of the tub ceases the chirp of the cricket is more noticeable - then we remember that this is so because the tub noise has gone into silence (to the last drop, sliding into the boundless nothingness of mu). Now we are aware of the unmeasurable silence. The cricket's tune becomes secondary to this Zen satori, this brief enlightenment of the awareness of source. The elements of this wonderful haiku bear attention as we switch from silence to objects to silence to.. Meanings come. New forms emerging out of the dark cosmic ocean. This is the arena of any haiku show. This ephemeral becoming and begoning. Our own death. The faith of renewal.

jp November, 2010

NOTE

This item has a companion piece

https://sites.google.com/site/inthesoundofwater/home/plop/frog-song/basho-s-frog-poem---the-backstory

and previous post

https://sites.google.com/site/inthesoundofwater/home/plop/frog-song/haiku-pointing

Explanation of this summery (video-2)

http://gendaihaiku.com/hasegawa/index.html

Nozawa Bonchō

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boncho

The Illustrated Haiku ofNozawa Boncho (d.1714)

http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/Boncho/00boncho.htm

Some useful terms to note

http://www.stillinthestream.com/files/glossary.html