HaikuOW?

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How To Haiku - Step 1: slow down. . . .

"I don't take with me an intention to write haiku. They come to me. When they do, I write descriptions of the perceptions that gave birth to them. My personal, ineffable reactions to these perceptions I think of as momentary enlightenments."

Stewart W. Holmes

We need to empty. . . .

We may well have a directive on our mind and the world may well return a haiku-moment to illustrate and advise. (Or this will happen anyway.)

Certainly, though, we need to move out of the busy mind and be more clearly aware, unconditionally, as a basis.

This is meditation in motion, by any other name.

Often enough, a haiku is born in our minds in this groovy condition of self-forgetfulness and attentive relaxation of mind:

"Go to the pine if you want to learn about pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself."

Matsuo Basho

Going on a haiku walk (ginko) is good exercise and a focused adventure. One never knows the minute when a realization will occur. The mind has to be prepared for this. The preparation is emptiness. It happens, happily, that as we walk our concerns drop away and we start to notice our surroundings with more clarity. We encourage this wide-eyed innocence of perception.

Yes, this is what we want. The mind to become transparent to what we experience on our haiku walk - our magical mystery tour.

Without this slowing down to finer states of clear apprehension, try as we might we will not be lucky in our haikuing, and may tend to resort to intellectual struggle. This manufacturing is not really haiku, it is make believe, and better done in another literary form.

NOTE

This basic skill of slowing down does takes time to develop. So, we work with what we have in the early stages of our haiku practice. Doing our best, day by day, to gently achieve increased clarity of enhanced haiku perception.

Something to read before bed

And listen to too

Full Basho quote:

"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. 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 the object and yourself are separate – then your poetry is not true poetry but a semblance of the real thing."

Symbolism:

"The pine tree is chastity, the bamboo is strength the plum tree is purity. The three friends have a spiritual relationship, they forget the time of year [winter]." Jiaqing emperor, son of Qianlong, Late November 1811 / source

One of my personal top Matsuo haiku:

on a journey. . . .

resting beneath the cherry blossoms

I feel myself to be in a Noh play

— Basho

jp

step 2

step 3

Student (unsought testimonial)

"What I appreciate so much about you, John, is your absolute authenticity and fidelity to the way you experience the world. There is no guile in what you share with us, and I really appreciate your "gift" to me (personally) that has opened my eyes to the extra-ordinaryness in the so-called "ordinary"! You do not seek fame and fortune, and do not "need" affirmation per se, but for what it is worth, your passion for hakai is never in doubt in my receiving of it."

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30-11-11

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