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HAIKU TECHNIQUES

Jane Reichhold

(As published in the Autumn, 2000 issue of Frogpond , Journal of the Haiku Society of

America.)

In my early years of haiku writing, I easilyaccepted the prevalent credo being espoused

on how to write haiku. This was, sometimesimplied and occasionally expressed, as being:if the author's mind/heart was correctlyaligned in the "proper" attitude, while

experiencing a so-called "haiku moment", onemerely had to report on the experience to have

a darn-good haiku.

One reason for rejoicing in the acceptance of this view, was that it by-passed the old 5-7-5

barrier crisis. This was certainly a plus for thewhole 70s haiku scene as there seemed a

danger of the entire movement bogging downin fights, arguments and broken friendships.

Another advantage of this system of defining ahaiku was that it bestowed near-religious



honor on the author of a passable haiku. Noone knew exactly why a particular haiku was

'good' but it was clear from the ku that theauthor had experienced a moment of

enlightenment (or satori for the Zen inspired).If the moment was holy and the form fit in

with the group's philosophy publishing the ku,the haiku was said to be an excellent one. This

happened more often if the person judging theku was a good friend of the haiku's author.

Another plus for this viewpoint was it allowedendless articles to be written for magazines on

the Zen aspects of haiku writing, and even

fuzzier articles of how to prepare for, find,recognize, and advertise one's haiku moments.Books were even compiled around this semi-

religious idea.

However, many of us, recognized that "haikumoments" were very much like other flashesof inspiration which, when transported into

other media, became paintings, stories, dreamsor even new color schemes or recipes. And

many others shared the frustration of having a



truly life-altering moment of insight and thennever being able to write a decent haiku that

expressed the wonder and majesty of thatmoment. They would ask, what was wrong

with me? Was I not spiritually preparedenough? Was I too common? Too inattentive?

Too word-numb? Maybe too many of myChristian beliefs kept me from the Zen nirvana

of haiku?The truth is: probably all of the above canweaken one's ability to write good haiku.

Ouch, that hurts. However, I felt rescued whenI came across Aware – a haiku primer written

by hand and illustrated by Betty Drevniok,who was at the time she wrote the book (early80s I am guessing as it has no date in it),

president of the Haiku Society of Canada.Among the many great tips for writing haiku(and obtaining the questionable Zenniness of

Zen) I came away with her precept: "Write[haiku] in three short lines using the principleof comparison, contrast, or association." On page 39 she used an expression I had been



missing in the discussion of haiku when shewrote: "This technique provides the pivot on

which the reader's thought turns and expands."Technique! So there are tools one can use! I

thought joyfully.

And I practiced her methods with glee andrelative (to me) success and increased

enjoyment. Suddenly I could figure out by

myself what was wrong with a haiku thatfailed to jell as I thought it should. I could ask myself if there was a comparison, a contrast

or an association between the images and if this relationship was clear and understandable

for the reader.Slowly, over the years, I found by reading thetranslations of the old Japanese masters and

the haiku of my contemporaries whom Iadmired, that there were more factors than justthese three on which one could build a haiku.However, there seemed a disinterest in others

wanting to study these aspects which I calltechniques. Perhaps this is because in thehaiku scene there continues to be such a



reverence for the haiku moment and such adislike for what are called "desk haiku". Thedefinition of a desk haiku is one written froman idea or from simply playing around withwords. If you don't experience an event with

all your senses it is not valid haiku material. Aku from your mind was half-dead and unreal.

An experienced writer could only smile at

such naiveté, but the label of "desk haiku" wasthe death-knell for a ku declared as such. This

fear kept people new to the scene afraid towork with techniques or even the idea that

techniques were needed when it came time towrite down the elusive haiku moment.

At the risk of leading anyone into the quasi-sin of writing dreaded desk haiku, I would like

to discuss and illustrate some of the haikuwriting techniques which I have recognizedand used. In order to avoid my seeming to

accuse others of using techniques, the kuquoted are all my own.

The Technique of Comparison - In thewords of Betty Drevniok: "In haiku the



SOMETHING and the SOMETHING ELSEare set down together in clearly stated images.Together they complete and fulfill each other as ONE PARTICULAR EVENT." She rather

leaves the reader to understand that the idea of comparison is showing how two differentthings are similar or share similar aspects.

a spring nap

downstream cherry treesin bud

What is expressed, but not said, is the thoughtthat buds on a tree can be compared to flowerstaking a nap. One could also ask to what other

images could cherry buds be compared? Along list of items can form in one's mind and be substituted for the first line. Or one can

turn the idea around and ask what in the springlandscape can be compared to a nap withoutnaming things that close their eyes to sleep.By changing either of these images one can

come up with one's own haiku while getting anew appreciation and awareness of



comparison.

The Technique of Contrast - Now the job

feels easier. All one has to do is to contrastimages.

long hard rainhanging in the willows

tender new leaves

The delight from this technique is theexcitement that opposites creates. You haveinstant built-in interest in the most common

haiku 'moment'. And yet most of the surprisesof life are the contrasts, and therefore this

technique is a major one for haiku.

The Technique of Association - This can bethought of as "how different things relate or come together". The Zen of this technique iscalled "oneness" or showing how everythingis part of everything else. You do not have to

be a Buddhist to see this; simply being awareof what is, is illumination enough.

ancestors



the wild plum blooms again

If this is too hard to see because you do notequate your ancestors with plum trees, perhaps

it is easier to understand with:

moving into the sunthe pony takes with him

some mountain shadowDoes it help for me to explain how this kucame to be written? I was watching some ponies grazing early in the morning on a

meadow that was still partially covered withthe shadow of the mountain. As the grazing

pony moved slowly into the sunshine, Ihappened to be focused on the shadow and

actually saw some of the mountain's shadowfollow the pony – to break off and become hisshadow. It can also be thought that the pony

eating the grass of the mountain becomes themountain and vice versa. When the boundaries

disappear between the things that separatesthem, it is truly a holy moment of insight and



it is no wonder that haiku writers are educatedto latch on to these miracles and to preserve

them in ku.

The Technique of the Riddle - this is probably one of the very oldest poeticaltechniques. It has been guessed that early

spiritual knowledge was secretly preservedand passed along through riddles. Because

poetry, as it is today, is the commercializationof religious prayers, incantations, and

knowledge, it is no surprise that riddles stillform a serious part of poetry's transmission of

ideas.

One can ask: "what is still to be seen"

on all four sidesof the long gone shack

The answer is:

calla liliesOr another one would be:

spirit bodies



waving from cacti plastic bags

The 'trick' is to state the riddle in as puzzlingterms as possible. What can one say that the

reader cannot figure out the answer? The moreintriguing the 'set-up' and the bigger surprisethe answer is, the better the haiku seems to

work. As in anything, you can overextend the

joke and lose the reader completely. Theanswer has to make sense to work and it

should be realistic. Here is a case against desk haiku. If one has seen plastic bags caught on

cacti, it is simple and safe to come to the

conclusion I did. If I had never seen such anincident, it could be it only happened in myimagination and in that scary territory one can

lose a reader. So keep it true, keep it simpleand keep it accurate and make it weird.

Oh, the old masters favorite trick with riddleswas the one of: is that a flower falling or is it a

butterfly? or is that snow on the plum or blossoms and the all-time favorite – am I a

butterfly dreaming I am a man or a man



dreaming I am a butterfly. Again, if you wishto experiment (the ku may or may not be a

keeper) you can ask yourself the question: if Isaw snow on a branch, what else could it be?

Or seeing a butterfly going by you ask yourself what else besides a butterfly could

that be?

The Technique of Sense-switching - This is

another old-time favorite of the Japanesehaiku masters, but one they have used verylittle and with a great deal of discretion. It is

simply to speak of the sensory aspect of athing and then change to another sensory

organ. Usually it involves hearing somethingone sees or vice versa or to switch betweenseeing and tasting.

home-grown lettucethe taste of well-water

green

The Technique of Narrowing Focus - This issomething Buson used a lot because he, beingan artist, was a very visual person. Basically



what you do is to start with a wide-angle lenson the world in the first line, switch to a

normal lens for the second line and zoom infor a close-up in the end. It sounds simple, but

when he did it he was very effective. Readsome of Buson's work to see when and how he

did this.

the whole sky

in a wide field of flowersone tulip

The Technique of Metaphor - I can just hear those of you who have had some training in

haiku, sucking in your breath in horror. There

IS that ironclad rule that one does not usemetaphor in haiku. Posh. Basho used it in hismost famous "crow ku". What he was sayingin other words (not haiku words) was that an

autumn evening come down on one the way itfeels when a crow lands on a bare branch. Inever understood this hokku until one day Iwas in my tiny studio with the door open. Iwas standing so still I excited the residentcrow's curiosity causing him to fly down



suddenly to land about two feet from mycheek on the tiny nearly bare pine branch. Ifelt the rush of darkness coming close, as

close as an autumn evening and as close as a big black crow. The thud of his big feet hitting

the bare branch caused the tiny ripple of anxiety one has when it gets dark so early in

the autumn. In that moment I felt I knew what

Basho had experienced. It is extremely hard tofind a haiku good enough to place up againstBasho's rightly famous one, so I'll pass givingyou an example of my ku. But this is a validtechnique and one that can bring you many

lovely and interesting haiku.

The Technique of Simile - Usually in Englishyou know a simile is coming when you spotthe words "as" and "like". Occasionally onewill find in a haiku the use of a simile withthese words still wrapped around it, but the

Japanese have proved to us that this is totallyunnecessary. From them we have learned thatit is enough to put two images in juxtaposition(next to each other) to let the reader figure out



the "as" and "like" for him/herself. So basically the unspoken rule is that you can usesimile (which the rule-sayers warn against) if you are smart enough to simply drop the "as"and "like". Besides, by doing this you give thereader some active part that makes him or her feel very smart when they discover the simile

for him/herself.

a long journeysome cherry petals

begin to fall

The Technique of the Sketch or Shiki's

Shasei - Though this technique is often given

Shiki's term shasei (sketch from life) or shajitsu (reality) it had been in use since the beginning of poetry in the Orient. The poetic principle is "to depict as is". The reason he

took it up as a 'cause' and thus, made itfamous, was his own rebellion against the

many other techniques used in haiku. Shikiwas, by nature it seemed, against whatever

was the status quo. If poets had over-used anyidea or method his personal goal was to point



this out and suggest something else. (Whichwas followed until someone else got tired of itand suggested something new. This seems to

be the way poetry styles go in and out of fashion.) Thus, Shiki hated word-plays, puns,riddles – all the things you are learning here!He favored the quiet simplicity of just statingwhat he saw without anything else having to

happen in the ku. He found the greatest beautyin the common sight, simply said. And 99% of his haiku were written in his style. And many people still feel he was right. And there are

some moments which are perhaps best said assimply as it is possible. Yet, he himself

realized, after writing very many in this stylein 1893, that used too much, even his new idea

can become boring. So the method is ananswer, but never the complete answer of how

to write a haiku.

eveningwaves come into the cove

one at a time

The Technique of Double entendre (or



double meanings) - Anyone who has readtranslations of Japanese poetry has seen howmuch poets delighted in saying one thing andmeaning something else. Only insiders knewthe secret language and got the jokes. In some

cases the pun was to cover up a sexualreference by seeming to speaking of

something commonplace. There are whole

lists of words with double meanings: springrain = sexual emissions and jade mountain =

the Mound of Venus, just to give you ansampling. But we have them in English also,and haiku can use them in the very same way.

eyes in secret placesdeep in the purple middleof an iris

The Technique of using Puns - Again we canonly learn from the master punsters – the

Japanese. We have the very same things inEnglish but we haiku writers may not be so

well-versed as the Japanese are in using these because there have been periods of Western

literary history where this skill has been



looked down upon. And even though the hai of haiku means "joke, or fun, or unusual"

there are still writers whose faces freeze into afrown when encountering a pun in three lines.

a signat the fork in the road

"fine dining"

The Technique of Word-plays - Again, wehave to admit the Japanese do this best. Their work is made easier by so many of their placenames either having double meaning or manyof their words being homonyms (sounding the

same). Still (there is one meaning 'quiet' or

'continuation') we have so many words withmultiple meaning there is no reason we cannot

learn to explore our own language. A steadylook at many of our cities' names could givenew inspiration: Oak-land, Anchor Bay, Ox-

ford, Cam-bridge and even our streets give usMeadowgate, First Street, and one I lived on –

Ten Mile Cutoff.

moon set



now it's right – how it fitsHalf Moon Bay

The Technique of Verb /Noun Exchange -This is a very gentle way of doing word play

and getting double duty out of words. InEnglish we have many words which functionas both verbs and nouns. By constructing the

poem carefully, one can utilize both aspects of

such words as leaves, spots, flowers, blossoms, sprouts, greens, fall, spring, circles

and hundreds more. You can use thistechnique to say things that are not allowed inhaiku. For instance, one would not be admired

for saying that the willow tree stringsraindrops, but one can get away with makingit sound as if the strings of willow are really

the spring rain manifested in raindrops. This isone of those cases where the reader has todecide which permissible stance the ku has

taken.

spring rainthe willow strings



raindrops

The Technique of Close Linkage - Basically

this could come as a sub-topic to association but it also works with contrast and comparison

so I like to give it its own rubric. In makingany connection between the two parts of a

haiku, the leap can be a small and even a well-known one. Usually beginners are easily

impressed with close linkage and experimentfirst with this form. They understand it and

feel comfortable using the technique.

winter coldfinding on a beach

an open knife

The Technique of Leap Linkage - Then as awriter's skills increase, and as he or she readsmany haiku (either their own or others) such'easy' leaps quickly fade in excitement. Being

human animals we seem destined to seek thenext level of difficulty and find that thrilling.So the writer begins to attempt leaps that a

reader new to haiku may not follow and



therefore find the ku to espouse nonsense. Thenice thing about this aspect, is when one

begins to read haiku by a certain author, onewill find some of the haiku simply leave the

reader cold and untouched. Years later,returning to the same book, with many haikuexperiences, the reader will discover the truth

or poetry or beauty in a haiku that seemed

dead and closed earlier. I think the important point in creating with this technique is that the

writer is always totally aware of his or her 'truth'. Poets of the surrealistic often make

leaps which simply seem impossible to follow(I am thinking of Paul Celan) where the reader

simply has to go on faith that the author knewwhat he was writing about. This is rare in

haiku. Usually, if you think about the ku longenough and deeply enough, one can find theauthor's truth. I know I have quickly read alink in a renga and thought the author waskidding me or had gone off the deep end.Sometimes it is days later when I will go,

"Ah-ha!" and in that instant understand what



the ku was truly about.

wildflowers

the early spring sunshinein my hand

The Technique of Mixing It Up - What Imean here is mixing up the action so the

reader does not know if nature is doing the

acting or if a human is doing it. As you know,haiku are praised for getting rid of authors,authors' opinions and authors' action. One way

to sneak this in is to use the gerund (-ingadded to a verb) combined with an action thatseems sensible for both a human and for the

nature/nature to do. Very often when I use agerund in a haiku I am basically saying, "I am.. . " making an action but leaving unsaid the "Iam". The Japanese language has allowed poetsto use this tactic so long and so well that even

their translators are barely aware of what is being done. It is a good way to combine

humanity's action with nature in a way thatminimizes the impact of the author but allows



an interaction between humanity and nature.

end of winter

covering the first rowof lettuce seeds

The Technique of Sabi - I almost hesitate to bring up this idea as a technique because theword sabi has gotten so many meanings over

the innumerable years it has been in Japan,and now that it comes to the English languageit is undergoing even new mutations. As

fascinated as Westerners have become withthe word, the Japanese have maintained for

centuries that no one can really, truly

comprehend what sabi really is and thus, theychange its definition according to their moods.Bill Higginson, in The Haiku Handbook , calls

sabi – "(patina/loneliness) Beauty with a senseof loneliness in time, akin to, but deeper than,

nostalgia." Suzuki maintains that sabi is"loneliness" or "solitude" but that it can also

be "miserable", "insignificant", and "pitiable","asymmetry" and "poverty". Donald Keenesees sabi as "an understatement hinting at



great depths". So you see, we are rather on our own with this! I have translated this as: sabi(SAH-BEE)- aged/loneliness - A quality of

images used in poetry that expressessomething aged or weathered with a hint of

sadness because of being abandoned. A split-rail fence sagging with overgrown vines has

sabi; a freshly painted picket fence does not."

As a technique, one puts together images andverbs which create this desired atmosphere.

Often in English this hallowed state is sought by using the word "old" and by writing of cemeteries and grandmas. These English

tricks wear thin quickly.

rocky springlips taking a sip

from a stone mouth

or

coming homeflower

by flower

The Technique of Wabi - the twin brother to



sabi who has as many personas can be definedas "(WAH-BEE)-poverty- Beauty judged to bethe result of living simply. Frayed and fadedLevis have the wabi that bleached designer

jeans can never achieve." Thus one can arguethat the above haiku samples are really more

wabi than sabi – and suddenly oneunderstands the big debate. However, I offer

one more ku that I think is more wabi than sabi because it offers a scene of austere beauty

and poignancy.

parting fogon wind barren meadows

birth of a lambThe Technique of Yûgen - another of theseJapanese states of poetry which is usually

defined as "mystery" and "unknowable depth".Somehow yûgen has avoided the controversy

of the other two terms but since decidingwhich haiku exemplifies this quality is a

judgmental decision, there is rarely consentover which ku has it and which one does not.

In my glossary I am brave enough to



propound: "One could say a woman's facehalf-hidden behind a fan has yûgen. The sameface half-covered with pink goo while getting

a facial, however, does not." But still haikuwriters do use the atmosphere as defined by yûgen to make their ku be a good haiku by

forcing their readers to think and to delve intothe everyday sacredness of common things.

(In a letter from Jeanne Emrich, she suggestsone can obtain yûgen by having something

disappear, or something appear suddenly outof nowhere, or by the use of night, fog, mist,empty streets, alleys, and houses. Using the

sense-switching technique can create an air of

mystery because of the information from thefrom the 'missing' sense.) Some English

writers have tried to create yûgen by using theword "old" which became so overused therewas an outcry against the adjective. Others

tried to reach this state by writing about ghostsor 'spooky' subjects which did not impress theJapanese at all. Jeanne's suggestions seem, to

me, to bring the writer closer to this goal.



tied to the pier the fishy smellsof empty boats

The Technique of the Paradox - One of theaims of the playing with haiku is to confuse

the reader just enough to attract interest. Usinga paradox will engage interest and give the

reader much to think about. Again, one cannot

use nonsense but has to construct a true(connected to reality) paradox. It is not easy to

come up with new ones or good ones, butwhen it happens, one should not be afraid of

using it in a haiku.

climbing the temple hillleg muscles tighten

in our throats

The Technique of The Improbable World -This is very close to paradox but has a slight

difference. Again, this is an old Japanese toolwhich is often used to make the poet sound

simple and child-like. Often it demonstrates adistorted view of science – one we 'know' is



not true, but always has the possibility of being true (as in quantum physics).

evening windcolors of the day

blown away

or

waiting room

a patch of sunlightwears out the chairs

The Technique of Humor - This is thedangerous stuff. Because one has no way of

judging another person's tolerance for

wisecracks, jokes, slurs, bathroom and bedroom references, one should enter the

territory of humor as if it is strewn with land-mines. And yet, if one is reading before a liveaudience nothing draws in the admiration and

applause like some humorous haiku. Very

often the humor of a haiku comes from thehonest reactions of humankind. Choose your

terms carefully, add to your situation withappropriate leaps, and may the haiku gods



smile on you.

dried prune faces

guests when they hear we have only a privy

The Above as Below Technique. Seeming to be a religious precept, yet this technique

works to make the tiny haiku a well-rounded

thought. Simply said: the first line and thethird line exhibit a connectedness or acompleteness. Some say one should be able toread the first line and the third line to find itmakes a complete thought. Sometimes onedoes not know in which order to place the

images in a haiku. When the images in thefirst and third lines have the strongest

relationship, the haiku usually feels 'complete'.For exercise, take any haiku and switch thelines around to see how this factor works or

try reading the haiku without the second line.

holding the day between my hands

a clay pot



This ku is also using the riddle technique.

In searching for these examples, I found so

many more of my haiku which did not fit intoany of these categories, which tells me there

are surely many more techniques which are inuse but are waiting for discovery, definitionand naming. I stop here, hoping I have givenyou enough to pique your interest in the quest

and new ways of exploring the miracles of haiku.

Blessed be!

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

!SOME CLASSICS

Enlightenment is like the moon

reflected on the water.

The moon does not get wet, nor is the



water broken.

Although its light is wide and great,

The moon is reflected even in a puddlean inch wide.

The whole moon and the entire sky

Are reflected in one dewdrop on the

grass.

Dogen

Those who see worldly life as an

obstacle to Dharma

see no Dharma in everyday actions.

They have not yet discovered that

there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma.

Dogen

It is as though you have aneye

That sees all formsBut does not see itself.

This is how your mind is.Its light penetrates



everywhereAnd engulfs everything,

So why does it not knowitself?Foyan

Who is

hearing?

Your physical

being doesn't

hear,

Nor does the

void.

Then what

does?

Strive to find

out.

Put aside your

rational

Intellect,Give up all

techniques.

Just get rid of

!!

What is this

mind?

Who is hearing

these sounds?Do not mistake

any state for

Self-realization,

but continue

To ask yourself

even more

intensely,

What is it that



the notion of

self.

Bassui

Bassui

Few people

believe their

Inherent

mind is

Buddha.Most will

not take this

seriously,

And

thereforeare

cramped.

They are

wrapped up

in illusions,cravings,

Resentments

, and other

Hell is not

punishment,

it's training.

Shunryu Suzuki

!!

The most important thing is

to find out what is the most important thing.



afflictions,

All because

they love thecave of

ignorance.

Fenyang

Well versed

in the

Buddha

way,

I go the non-

Way

Without

abandoning

my

Ordinary

person's

affairs.

The

conditioned

and

If you want to be free,

Get to know your real

self.

It has no form, no

appearance,

No root, no basis, no

abode,

But is lively and

buoyant.

It responds withversatile facility,

But its function cannot



Name-and-

form,

All areflowers in

the sky.

Nameless

and

formless,I leave

birth-and-

death.

Layman

P'ang(740-808)

e oca e .

Therefore when you

look for it,

You become further

from it;

When you seek it,

You turn away from it

all the more.

- Linji

!!

Where

beauty is,

then there

is ugliness;where right

is, also

there is

Nobly, the

great priestdeposits his

daily stool

in bleak



wrong.

Knowledge

and ignorance

are

interdepend

ent;

delusion

and

enlightenm

ent

condition

each other.

Since oldentimes it has

been so.

How could

it be

otherwisenow?

Wanting to

get rid of

Thoug

h I

think

not

To

think

about

it,

I dothink

about

it

And

shed tears

Thinki

ng

winter fields

Buson

!!The monkey

is reaching

For the moonin the water.

Until death

overtakes him

He'll never

give up.

If he'd let go

the branch

and

Disappear in

the deep pool,

The wholeworld would

shine

With dazzlin



one and

grab the

otheris merely

realizing a

scene of

stupidity.

Even if you

speak of the

wonder of

it all,

how do you

deal with

each thingchanging?

-Ryokan-

about

it.

Ryokan

pureness.

Hakuin

Food and

clothes

sustainBody and

life;

I advise

!!A

world

Even thoughI'm in Kyoto,

when the

kookoo cries,

I long for

Kyoto. Issa



you to learn

Being as is.

When it'stime,

I move my

hermitage

and go,

And there's

nothing

To be left

behind.

Layman

P'ang

dew,

and

withinevery

dewdr

op

a

worldof

strugg

le

Issa

Look for

Buddha

outside

your own

mind,and

Buddha

becomes

Just stopyour

wandering,Look

penetratingly into your

inherentnature,And,

concentrating yourspiritualener ,



the devil.

Dogen

Old

pond,

frog

jumps

in

-

splash

Basho

!!!

How

reluct

antly

the

The past isalready

past.

Don't try to

regain it.

The present

does not

stay.

Don't try to

touch it.

Frommoment to

moment.

The future

has not

come;

Don't think

about it

Beforehand

Sit inzazen

And breakthrough.Bassui

Cast off what has

beenrealized.Turn back

to thesubject

ThatrealizesTo the root

bottomAnd

resolutelyGo on.Bassui



bee

emerg

es from

deep

within

the

peony

Basho

Lightn

ing:

Heron'

s cryStabs

the

darkne

ss

Basho

.

Whatever

comes tothe eye,

Leave it be.

There are

no

commandments

To be kept;

There's no

filth to be

cleansed.With empty

mind really

Penetrated,

the

dharmasHave no

life.

When you

directly!What is

this?Look in

thismannerAnd you

won't befooled!Bassui



1. Experience Chan!

It's not mysterious.

As I see it, it boils

down to cause andeffect.

Outside the mind

there is no Dharma

So how can anybody

speak of a heavenbeyond?

2. Experience Chan!

!Good and evil have no

self nature;Holy and unholy are

empty names;

In front of the door is

the land of stillness

and quiet;

Spring comes, grass

grows by itself.

Master Seung Sahn



Ask your own heart.

4. Experience Chan!

It's not the teachingsof disciples.

Such speakers are

guests from outside

the gate.

The Chan which youare hankering to

speak about

Only talks about

turtles turning into

fish.5. Experience Chan!

It can't be described.

When you describe it

you miss the point.

When you discoverthat your proofs are

without substance

You'll realize that

,

You have no basis

For awakening to the

hidden path.

Kuei-shan Ling-yu

Whether you are going



words are nothing but

dust.

6. Experience Chan!It's experiencing your

own nature!

Going with the flow

everywhere and

always.When you don't fake

it and waste time

trying to rub and

polish it,

Your Original Self will always shine

through brighter than

bright.

7. Experience Chan!

It's like harvestingtreasures.

But donate them to

others.

or staying or sitting or

lying down,

the whole world isyour own self.

You must find out

whether the

mountains, rivers,

grass, and forests

exist in your own

mind or exist outside

it.

Analyze the ten

thousand things,

dissect them minutely,and when you take

this to the limit

you will come to the

limitless,

when you search intoit you come to the end

of search,

where thinkin oes



You won't need them.

Suddenly everything

will appear beforeyou,

Altogether complete

and altogether done.

8. Experience Chan!

Become a followerwho when accepted

Learns how to give up

his life and his death.

Grasping this

carefully he comes tosee clearly.

And then he laughs

till he topples the

Cold Mountain

ascetics.

9. Experience Chan!

It'll require great

skepticism;

no further and

distinctions vanish.

When you smash thecitadel of doubt,

then the Buddha is

simply yourself.

Daikaku

!!!

When mortals are

alive, they worryabout death.

When they're full, they

worry about hunger.

Theirs is the Great

Uncertainty.But sages don't

consider the past.

'



distance nor intimacy.

Observation is like a

family treasure.Whether with eyes,

ears, body, nose, or

tongue -

It's hard to say which

is the most amazing to

use.

12. Experience Chan!

There's no class

distinction.

The one who bowsand the one who is

bowed to are a

Buddha unit.

The yoke and its lash

are tied to each other.

Isn't this our first

principle... the one we

should most observe?

truth right where you

are,

where else do you

expect to find it?

Dogen

!



All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.

As with water and ice, there is no ice without

water;

apart from sentient beings, there are no

Buddhas.

Not knowing how close the truth is,

we seek it far away

--what a pity! Hakuin Ekaku Zenji

NOT-SO CLASSICAL

Not

believin

g in

anything

I just sit,

listening

to mybreathin

g

After

!

One

step

A

hun

dre

d

cric

kets

Adding

father's

name

to the

family

tombst

one

with



thirty

years

It stillgoes in

and out.

Albert

Coelho

!p

Jerr

y A

Lev

y

for my

own.

Nichol

as

Virgilio

Whenyou hear

your

inner

voice,

forget it. Hyoen

Sahn

in one

gust

the last

leaf

decides:

gone

Robert

Henry

Poulin

!first on a track

night spider

webs

catch my face

Yao Feng

(Tasmania)

Brown mimosa seed

trou

bled

night

no

resti

Look!The

beggar'

s



where blossoms

once invited

hummingbirds tofeed.

Ethel Freeman

ng

plac

efor

my

thou

ghts

Phil

Ada

ms

g

fingers

find nolistener'

s eye.

Owen

Burkha

rt

loud

window

thud

in my

cupped

hand

the little

bird

diesYao

Feng

(Tasman

Empty morningstreets

Cold path to the

castle

Castle colder

still

[email protected]

om

!



!Yellow young

spring

Sky full of hope

Future won't

come.

Frenzy of

insects Heat of our

star

The past has

dissolved.

Red humid forest

Light rays in

fog

Shattering

silence. Black naked

trees

White

friends

Love,

laughterand trust

Dukkha

disguised.

!Grasping

attachmen

t,

Insistingon

trouble:My life as

a fool.

Grasping

a Path,

Insistingon my

view:

My life as

yard

with

childre

n

Shamel

ess

screami

ng and

fun

When

did I

loose

that?

!!

Thunde

ring

silenceColorfu

l

darknes



m

to

beThe

stru

ggl

e to

end

.

!

Never

is now

End of

the

tunnel

No

tunnel

No me.

!

Who

am

I?

Am

I?

Am?

.

!

! A tree in

the wind The wind

in a tree

All in me.

Zen Haiku

Haiku is one of the most popular and highly



regarded forms of Japanese poetry. Although

the form of haiku evolved over time, in it's

current form it is composed of a 17-syllableverse, broken into units of 5, 7, and 5

syllables. Most haiku describe a single image

or moment, often from nature.

Haiku traditionally contain a kigo, or season

word, that indicates which season the haiku is

set in. So for example, a blooming flower or

cherry blossom would indicate Spring, snow

or ice Winter, buzzing mosquitos Summer, or

brown leaves Fall. In general, haiku does not

use metaphor or simile. A frog is a frog, and abird is a bird. But there are exceptions,

especially among modern haiku poets.

Because of the strict form, haiku can be

difficult to translate. Translators must choosewhether to stay true to the syllabic structure or

the image and meaning of the poem. (The

translations I've chosen below do the latter.)



kenshos, or moments of awakening or

epiphany. Kensho moments are often

represented by a surprise or sudden movementwithin the haiku, as in this famous example:

Old pond,

frog jumps in

- splash.

Basho

Kensho is also sometimes evoked through an

explicit reference to becoming 'awake', as in

this example:

A pattering of rain

on the new eaves

brings me awake.

Koji

Zen and the Art of Haiku

Ken Jones



What is it about haiku that imparts that

mysterious little whiff of insight, so difficult

to describe and yet so strangely satisfying? Iwould like to offer some pointers from my

experience as a long term Zen Buddhist for

whom the Way of haiku has become a valued

part of my practice.

Characteristically we endeavour to secure andconsole our fragile self-identity by processing,

shaping and colouring the raw experience of

existence. Even - or especially - in the face of

discouraging external circumstances, our

minds strive to maximise the 'feel good' factorboth emotionally and intellectually, helped

and amplified by a social culture which

includes plenty of imaginative literature. The

worst of this offers merely escape from who

we really are; the best offers a sometimes

magnificent creative and cathartic treatment of

our existential evasion. However, as

imaginative literature, it remains ultimately



evasion. Here is a beautiful warning from the

eighteenth century Zen Master Hakuin:

At the north window, icydraughts whistle through the

cracks,

At the south pond, wild geese

huddle in snowy reeds.

Above, the mountain moon ispinched thin with cold,

Freezing clouds threaten to

plunge from the sky.

Buddhas might descend to this

world by the thousands,They couldn't add or subtract

one thing. (2)

Ultimately the only effective remedy is, in

Blake's words, to learn to "cleanse the doors

of perception" and let reality flood in. As all

the spiritual traditions affirm, this brings a

sense of joy and release and an ability to live

more fully and freely in the world - and in the



Empty of Self-Need

It follows that haiku must spring from a mind

open and unobstructed by any urge to makesomething of the reality that has come to the

poet's attention. Those who go searching after

haiku will find them shy and few and far

between. Look for them and you will not find

them.. Don't look for them, and they are not tobe found. Of subjective meddling the 13th

century Zen Master Dogen observed, "When

the self withdraws the ten thousand things

advance; when the self advances, the ten

thousand things withdraw". And Bashoadvised: "When composing a verse let there

not be a hair's breadth separating your mind

from what you write; 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." (3)

Just washed

how chill



the white leeks!

In Zen parlance there is no need to "put legs

on the snake" - not even poetic metaphysicalones, as does Nicholas Virgilio:

Lily:

out of the water

out of itself

Similarly, Bruce Ross identifies a "tendency inthe fourth generation of American haiku

writers of the late seventies, eighties and early

nineties unfortunately to frequently offer

catchy moments of sensibility that often rely

on obvious metaphoric figures. TheseAmerican poets desire to create 'haiku

moments'. But a subjective ego, call it

sentiment or call it imagination, intrudes upon

their perception of the object".(4) Typical is

the poem by Steve Sanfield quoted later in this

paper in another context.

'How it is' doesn't come with meanings and

explanations attached to give us the illusion of



a more secure grip on it. Nor does it come

tricked out with distracting embellishments.

Allusive brevity is one invariablecharacteristic of the haiku form. We have an

itch to add in order - as we fondly suppose - to

clarify. Too much verbiage muffles the spark:

the shorter the poem the more space for the

reader.

The insight of the haiku moment is fresh, new-

minted perception, though it may be so

ordinarily expressed as to risk failing the "So

What?" test unless the reader's reception is

similarly attuned, as with Shiki: A single butterfly

fluttering and drifting

in the wind

If haiku were no more than a reflection of how

it is ("so what?") they would not engage ourattention as they do. But they express how it is

as experienced by a human being. Thus, in

Martin Lucas's words, they are "open



metaphors" for our human condition and

resonate with that condition. They offer a

glancing opportunity, without the poeticprompting of another, to accept for ourselves

how it is. Such pure acceptance has qualities

of compassion, release, quiet joy, subtle

humour. It is well known to the mystics, like

Julian of Norwich: "All shall be well, and all

manner of things shall be well". However, as

T S Eliot observed:

For most of us, there is only

the unattended

Moment, the moment in and outof time,

The distraction fit, lost in a

shaft of sunlight. (5)

Haiku moments offer a little bit of existential

therapy shared between writer and reader, a

little bit of mutual compassion. For of all

literary forms haiku are, in the current telltale

slang, the least 'in your face'; they have the



least 'attitude'. Indeed, they may leave us

momentarily suspended in an emptiness which

nevertheless feels authentic and moving, aswith Shiki:

The long night

a light passes along

the shoji (screen)

At the other extreme the reader may justoccasionally be prodded with a question, as in

this example from Basho:

In the dense mist

what is being shouted

between hill and boat?The sense of metaphor may be particularly

strong when the poet has his own feelings in

mind.. In this example, old age is deeply felt

by Shiseki. He acknowledges the self-pity that

comes with it, but he does not massage thisfeeling with any expressions of consolation:

My old thighs

how thin



by firelight

However, these 'open metaphors' retain their

power only so long as readers leave them openand do not hasten to fill them with their own

meanings. R. H. Blyth warns: "Where Basho

is at his greatest is where he seems most

insignificant, the neck of a firefly, hailstones in

the sun, the chirp of an insect ... these are full

of meaning, interest, value, that is, poetry, but

not as symbols of the Infinite, not as types of

Eternity, but in themselves. Their meaning is

just as direct, as clear, as unmistakable, as

complete and perfect, as devoid of reference

to other things, as dipping the hand suddenlyinto boiling water." (6)

Traditionally, haiku poets have taken nature as

their subject matter, as being more

contemplatively accessible. Presumably

human goings-on were assumed to be more

likely to excite the poet's impulse to comment.

But this is not necessarily so, as Jim Norton



demonstrates below. Zen is commonplace: the

ordinary is extraordinary when we are jolted

out of our habitual selves; there is no need tohype it up. So it is with Jim Norton in a

Dublin tenement:

What blue! Coughing

through my dirty lace curtain

and the stranger upstairs April night coughs, too

But when nature turns dramatic only the best

haiku poets can both express the drama and

retain the haiku spirit without tipping over into

subjective melodrama. In such highly tunedhaiku the translator also will be put to the test.

Here are two examples from Basho, translated

by Lucien Stryk, (7) with all the dramatic

down-to-earth energy of Zen:

Mogami river, yanking Shriekingplovers

the burning sky calling

darkness



into the sea around Hoshizaki

Cape

Varieties of AwarenessUndistorted by self-need, reality displays

characteristics of transience and

insubstantiality which, deeply experienced (as

at moments of lifetime crisis) may feel very

threatening. Meditation enables a graduallyprepared opening to them and joyful release

from the lifetime effort of denying them at a

deep existential level. When "how it

is" ('suchness', sono-mama) is 'empty' of the

weight of self-need we feel a sense of release,of lightness of spirit. This is the karumi

experienced in miniature in haiku, many of

which give little intimations of this

'emptiness'. In some instances it may move us

very deeply: yugen - profound awareness to

which we cannot put words. In Japanese

culture certain mood responses, of elusive and

overlapping meaning, have been identified.



Unless appreciated in the spiritual context of

Zen these easily become no more than haiku

conventions or 'values', or Japanesemannerisms. "Willow pattern haiku", haiku `a

la Japonaise, may result. Thus Bruce Ross

refers to "the stylistically self-conscious

underscoring of Zen-like experiences" to be

found in many contemporary American haiku

poets. (8)

Sabi is an acceptance of the 'emptiness',

insubstantiality and vulnerability of

phenomena (including oneself). But it is an

acceptance coloured with a gentle,compassionate sadness, a delicate frisson, and

not of stoic indifference. In Brian Tasker's

words, "Sabi is a kind of pure and sublime

melancholy and detached emotion which is

not received in a self-centred way but simply

honoured for what it is - a symptom of the

human condition ... Sabi is the existential

aloneness that can only be resolved by



acknowledging its inevitability coupled with

the joy and gratitude that can arise from its

acceptance." (9) Consider the followinghaunting example from Basho (loneliness,

deserted, aged, wild):

The loneliness

of this deserted mountain

the aged farmerdigging wild potatoes

On more superficial view sabi can refer to

anything that is old, worn, tranquil, mellow

and dignified. Like the other haiku 'moods', in

the absence of real insight it can all too easilylend itself to tired and well worn 'oriental'

haiku.

Wabi essentially denotes respect for the

ordinary, the commonplace as opposed to the

sensational. Simplicity, restraint, austerity arerelated meanings, with "rustic solitude" as a

rather more mannered expression. Here is a

nice contemporary example from Gary



Hotham:

coffee

in a papercup ---a long way from home

When the self withdraws its confirming

sharpness and specificity of perception it

leaves space for a more subtle, subdued, low

key beauty to manifest. This is shibui, as inthe following from Martin Lucas (silent,

white, empty):

First darkness of dusk

silently a white owl

flies in the empty laneAware is the mood of transience, defined by

Makoto Ueda as "sadness or melancholy

arising from a deep, empathetic appreciation

of the ephemeral beauty manifested in nature,

human life, or a work of art".(10) It commonlytranslates as a nostalgic sadness connected

with autumn, as with Marlene Mountain:

Faded flowers on the bed sheet



autumn night

Finally, another noteworthy haiku mood is

surely that of understated humour, sometimesblack or tinged with irony. It typically arises

when one of our cherished delusions impacts

with reality in the one haiku. Alexis Rotella

has many delightful examples:

Undressed -today's role dangles

from a metal hanger

The Zen of the Cutting Line

The majority of haiku achieve their main

effect through a device called "the cuttingline" or "eye opener". Some Zen preliminaries

may help us to understand more profoundly

how this device works. In order to free their

students from the conventional self-assuring

perceptual patterns, Zen teachers commonlyresort to mutually contradictory words and

phrases: iron women give birth; the sun rises

at midnight, or, in this verse by the 15th c.



Master Ikkyu:

Hearing a crow with no mouth

cry in the darkness of thenight

I feel a longing for

my father before he was born.

(11)

So characteristic of all spirituality, paradox isonly baffling, only paradoxical, to a mind

unable to step out of a logically structured

world of this defining that. In all spiritual

traditions, what is is the same as what is not;

one thing is all things and all things are onething:

The infinitely small is as

large as the infinitely great

when boundaries and

distinctions are forgotten;The infinitely large is as

small as the infinitely minute

when its outlines are not seen



by any eye. (12)

There is all the solidity of the world of form in

"a wooden hen sits on a coffin warming anegg" (Hakuin again). But it is empty of 'sense'

- 'pure nonsense' - in that the self cannot

confirm the self by making any sense of it. In

Buddhist terminology, form is in fact 'empty' -

of the order, solidity and permanence we need

to attribute to it. But, paradoxically, it is also

more real and factitious than the many ways in

which we dress it up to escape its sharp edges.

Ikkyu explains:

A well nobody dug filled withno water

ripples and a shapeless,

weightless man drinks (13)

In Buddhist terminology, the power of Zen



haiku lies in their embodiment of form-and-

emptiness. The best of them come to us out of

the moment in an insight so right, yet sobeyond our ordinary habitual perception, as to

dumbfound us. We find ourselves saying more

than we mean and more than we know.

Two lines set the scene and a third, cutting

line throws them out of gear by switchingattention to a different perception, sparking

across the gap between the phrases and

momentarily illuminating the whole poem in a

fresh light. Our customary - and solidified -

perceptual associations are fractured. Self momentarily loses its foothold. Selfless space

(emptiness) opens for an instant of naked

clarity. We have been caught off balance.

Trying to figure it out is like figuring out a

joke: we miss the point. Occasionally the

cutting line is wholly contradictory. Thus

Sodo (1641-1715) says:

In my hut this spring



there is nothing -

there is everything (14)

However, haiku are usually more subtle,insinuating - and accessible - in their none-

sense, as in this from Yamei:

In one shrill cry

the pheasant has swallowed

the broad field (14)It would be possible (though probably not

very useful) to attempt a classification of

different uses of the cutting line. There is, for

example, the double cutting line, where the

second line magicks the third into being as athrowback illumination of the first. R. H.

Blyth (in a different connection) quotes

Kikaku:

The beggar wears

Heaven and Earthas his summer clothes (14)

The cutting line provides a ready, specific

device in haiku making and lends itself to the



cleverness of what I call 'artful haiku' which

lie at the opposite end of a continuum from

'insightful haiku'. This doesn't make them'better' or 'worse', even as a genre, let alone

individually. Most haijin probably write and

enjoy both. Good 'artful haiku' can be quite

clever at tweaking our fancy - and a bit more

as in this one by Steve Sanfield:

Sleep on the couch she says

cutting his fantasies

in two

Altogether different is the distinction I would

like to make between 'broad' and 'narrow' endsof the spectrum of insightful haiku. The

broader profoundly illuminate our whole

human condition, and are what I have

specifically in mind as 'Zen haiku'; the

narrower do so in a more limited and specific

way. However the use of the words broad and

narrow is not intended to refer to the quality of

the haiku. Zen haiku are not necessarily good



usually been a sociable lot. Secondly, and

more important, is opening to a contemplative

state of mind.My own experience of solitary meditation

retreats of a week or more may be of interest

here. The meditation I use is that of 'bare

awareness' (shikantaza), in which the mind is

a mirror, not a lens. Whatever comes up issimply observed, without mental comment,

and dissolves like a bubble. After some

practice the mind becomes still for quite long

periods. This transparency carries over from

the meditation periods. Primed with 'dry'haiku (through reading) it translates into haiku

'readiness'. I am far from being either a gifted

meditator or haiku poet, and it is usually not

until the second or third day that haiku begin

to flow freely.

For company

an empty chair

Bruce Ross has argued that the writing of "the



Haiku is a particular type of poem. A

traditional Haiku is 3 phrases with 17

syllables; Haiku became popular in Japan,

during the seventeenth century, and has

recently caught the imagination of the WesternWorld. Haiku gives the poet a unique

challenge to express themselves with the

minimum of language. There are different

aspects of the Haiku which can be particularly

instructive.

Paradox

The Haiku masters delight in the paradox,



mixing the mundane with the ethereal; the

beautiful with the ugly. In part this reflects the

quirky sense of humour the poet’s enjoyed.“This Rooster

Struts along! as though

he had something to do.”

- Anonymous

But, there is also the deliberate effect of

mixing sublime truths in the most ordinary of

everyday objects. If a Zen master was to gain

enlightenment, it was just as likely to be

sweeping the floor as it was meditating in a

Himalayan cave. The paradox is a reminder to

see the extraordinary in the ordinary – the

infinite in a grain of sand.

“Where there are people

there are flies, and alsothere are Buddhas”

- Issa



is something to be observed and enjoyed; but,

there is nothing we need to take too seriously,

even this business of enlightenment.“From the nostril

of the Great Buddha

comes a swallow”

- Issa

“A thin layer of snow

coats the wings of mandarin ducks -

such stillness!”

- Shiki

The Divine in All.

Zen Haiku masters rarely refer directly to

God. In fact the Siddharta the Buddha

preferred not to mention the concept of God,because he felt it was impossible to describe

the nature of God. But, Zen masters are able to

see the divine in all, especially living creatures



with bad things, our instinctive reaction is to

want to destroy them. But, look what happens

in the second poem, the poet unexpectedlybrings in the joyful idea of a ‘dancing a

Buddhist chant’. Even the mosquito’s are part

of creation; they too have a role to play in life.

Here the poet, tries to lift us from the realm of

‘good and bad’ and make us aware of the

underlying unity of all living things. The final

line continues the theme of paradox. Water

signifies life; grave signifies death. In these 12

words we have everything – life and death.

But, in the middle we have the beautiful image

of ! ‘dancing a Buddhist chant’. The poet issaying that in the middle of life and death

there is the bliss of creation; we just have to

go beyond our concepts of death, good and

bad.

Wisdom

Sometimes the poets explicitly share wisdom;

wisdom through the use of analogy. Here the



concept of non attachment is beautifully

explained with the simplest of examples.

“By the powerof complete non attachment

the frog floats”

- Jaso

We could write pages and pages of prose onthe issue of non-attachment, but here the poet

is able to conjure up an image revealing the

simplistic power of non attachment.

Part 4 - Haiku and Zen

Zen Buddhism has significantly shaped the

historical development of Japanese haiku. Not

all the haiku poets were Zen Buddhists, but

several key figures were. Basho was Zen

trained, and ordained as a priest, but he did not

seem to make up his mind if he was a priest ornot. In one of his travel sketches he describes

himself as being dressed in a priest’s black

robe, "but neither a priest nor an ordinary man



century, Priest Saigyo.

One of Buddhism's 'Three Signs of Being' is

that all things are subject to change. Thestrong emphasis on the seasons in haiku

means that a sense of the changes in the

natural world, paralleled in the human world,

is at the core of every haiku:

Hoarfrost spikes

have sprung out overnight

like the hairs on my chin

(Koji)

In Zen Buddhism there is a great

enlightenment called satori, sought through

many years of disciplined meditation. There

are also many little flashes of enlightenment,

called kensho, which are intense forms of

those everyday noticings that surprise us or

please us because they seem to reveal a truth,or to be exemplary, or to connect us again,

momentarily, with the sense of awe. Haiku is a

momentary, condensed poetic form and its



hectic surface activity of the mind: the

constant planning, speculating, fantasising,

hoping, dreading, assessing, recalling, self-congratulation, self-doubt and so on, to which

we humans are prone. When a measure of

control over the runaway mind is established,

a calmer space appears.!As the trainee attends to the life-rhythms of

this calm space, he or she begins to experience

the things mystics of all religious traditions

have always said are true of the ultimate

reality: its unity, love, boundlessness. The

calm space beneath thought has variousnames, but the sort of words that have been

used traditionally for describing it are

'stillness,' 'silence,' 'emptiness,' 'nothingness,'

and 'void.'

!You might imagine, from this list, that

Buddhism was a form of nihilism, but that is

not the case. The 'nothingness' is not barren.



Zen master Lin-chi said, 'It is vibrantly alive,

yet has no root or stem. You can't gather it up,

you can't scatter it to the winds. The more yousearch for it the farther away it gets. But don't

search for it and it's right before your eyes, its

miraculous sound always in your ears.' (The

Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi translated by

Burton Watson, Shambhala Publications 1993

p.58). Poets are struggling to convey the

inexpressible, to find images for the

'miraculous sound' in the heart of the silence.

Zen poets hear the sound of the life-force

emerging from emptiness to fill everything:

The skylark:

Its voice alone fell,

Leaving nothing behind

(Ampu, trans. Blyth)

The silence;The voice of the cicadas

Penetrates the rocks.

(Basho, trans. Blyth)



legged on a cushion, is a matter of balance:

the gull soars on nothing

but slight correctionsto the tilt of its nose

(George Marsh)

The meditation hall, called a zendo, is the

place for going from the particular to the

universal:

In the zendo

when the coughing ceased

all sound ceased

(Satokawa Suisho trans. Marsh)

The black robes of a crow might remind one

of a priest:

The crow sits

on a dead branch –

evening of autumn(Basho, trans. Marsh)!

Why flap to town?



A country crow

going to market

(Basho, trans. Marsh)Lao Tsu was the original archetype of The

Sage. He lived five hundred years before

Christ and wrote The Book of The Way (Tao

Te Ching). So references to paths, roads, ways

and so on are always resonant. Living thereligious life of meditation practice has been

known in the East as following 'The Way' or

'The Path' from the time of Lao Tsu, more than

a thousand years before Buddhism came to

China. By extension, the arts through whichpeople express their meditative understanding

are also known as The Ways: flower

arranging, archery, tea ceremony, acting,

dancing and poetry are among them. Since

meditation is essentially something one can

only do focused on the inner life, even when

many people meditate together, the references

often have a lonely quality - even more so in



made longer

by a dog’s barking

(Santoka, trans. Stevens)An octopus pot –

inside, a short-lived dream

under the summer moon

(Basho, trans.Ueda)

To Basho the road was not just a literary or

religious metaphor. He was a traveller,

walking the open road on journeys the length

and breadth of Japan. In the twentieth century

another Zen Buddhist haiku poet followed in

his footsteps. Santoka Taneda lived as a

wandering mendicant monk, a 'gentleman of

the road.' For him the lonely path was a daily

reality:

There is nothing else I can do;

I walk on and on.

(Santoka, trans. Stevens)



detail which is being noticed - often natural -

with a human significance.

!By George Marsh

Part 8 - Interviews with Haiku masters

Extracts from Lucien Stryk’s The Awakened

Self: Encounters with Zen published by

Kodansha, 1995.

Waning Moon Press is grateful to Lucien

Stryk for permission to quote extended

extracts from his writings.

Rinzai Zen Master Nakamura is

interviewed by Lucien Stryk:

Nakamura: There's nothing intrinsically Zen

in any art, in spite of the way some seem to

reflect Zen principles. It is the man who brings

Zen to the art he practices.Stryk : But surely some arts would not have

developed as they did had it not been for Zen.

Haiku, for example. Basho was profoundly



Zenist, an enlightened man, and quite possibly

for that reason haiku became an important art.

Nakamura: There is to be sure a strong taste of Zen in his best poems, and it’s true he studied

Zen with the master Butcho. Perhaps he best

illustrates the point I am making. He brought

Zen to the art of haiku, which was well-

established before he came onto the scene. Itwasn't really there before him.

Stryk : It might equally be said, would you

agree, that there was not true haiku before

him? Surely, from Basho on, there’s

something characteristically Zen-like in theform itself. The greatest haiku contain the

sense of revelation we associate with Zen, and

there’s compression.

Nakamura: Many haiku, those of its finest

practitioners, have no Zen whatsoever. No, itis man who fills a poem with Zen.

Haiku writer Fujiwara of the "traditional"



strict-form Ten-Ro school is interviewed by

Lucien Stryk.

Fujiwara: Haiku, we like to feel, is thegreatest of the Zen arts. As you know, Basho,

our greatest haiku writer, was a Zenist. All

important haiku artists have been….

Every place is full of poetry. All one has to do

is go find the poems. That’s why we can write

one hundred poems in a day about a place we

visit. We select an interesting and beautiful

place and, on the spot, compose its poetry…

We’re made aware, through active seeking, of

the presence of poetry all around us; we begin,slowly to be sure, to see our personal world in

the same spirit. I assure you the practice is

based on fundamentals which lead to great

discoveries.

Fujiwara: A good writer ignores no aspect of contemporary life.

Stryk : Machines, automobiles, highrises, that



sort of thing?

Fujiwara: Why not, among many? They make

our world, whether we like it or not. In Ten-Ro we examine everything, nothing is too low

or high for us.Traditional in method, we are

very modern in spirit.

Stryk : Then the work of Basho is archaic in

language?

Fujiwara: The themes are not as interesting. It

excites me to see how far one can take haiku

into reality – very challenging to write of

things never before associated with art.

Stryk : How many feel as you do on that

subject?

Fujiwara: All good writers! The others are for

the most part poor imitators of Basho and

Buson, using their language, images, and Isuspect they know it. Disgraceful, yet they

can’t help it…



In haiku there is a weeding out of all that

would clutter, muddy, confuse, - leading to

great incisiveness, clear purpose. What we arelooking for, guided by Zen, is revelation.

Small as it is, the haiku is a repository of great

wisdom, has been now for centuries.

Haiku writer Uchijima of the "free verse"

So-Un school is interviewed by LucienStryk.

Stryk : The So-Un school is perhaps the most

unusual in the history of the art. In some

quarters it’s little short of notorious!

Uchijima: Yes, the first So-Un writes were

clearly influenced by the the writers of free

verse, but, if anything, their innovations were

more daring. Never in three hundred years had

anyone dared depart from strict haiku form.

Stryk : You mean the abandoning of the

seventeen-syllable limitation?

Uchijima: That was the most obvious break



with the past, but not the only. The idea

behind all of So-Un’s departures from the

norm was precisely that they had become thenorm. Our first writers wanted to restore

haiku’s vigour: the art was in a bad way –

little originality, less depth. They wanted to

return to the spirit of Basho. We’re still trying

to do just that.

Stryk : Were the first So-Un poets Zenists?

Uchijima: Yes, above all they wanted their

works to have Zen spirit.

Stryk : How would you sum up the ideals of

So-Un?

Uchijima: To put it simply, significance.

Stryk : Significance? You mean seriousness of

theme?

Uchijima: That and depth of treatment,

whatever the theme. I tell my students haiku is

not a game. We aren’t a mutual admiration



society – I expect my work to be judged

sternly.

“Better to struggle with a sick jackass

than carry the wood by yourself.”! Zen

Proverb

A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin

where he would go after he died.Hakuin answered:

‘How am I supposed to know?’

‘How do you not know? You’re a Zen

master!’ exclaimed the samurai.‘Yes, but not a dead one,’ Hakuin answered.

Student says:

“I am very discouraged

what should I do?”

Master says:

“Encourage others”

Zen Proverb



Zen and the Art of Haiku

By Anna Poplawska

“‘Tis better to be brief than tedious.”

-- Shakespeare

In March the Jung Institute in Evanston

invited David Rosen, MD, a Jungian analyst

from Texas A & M University, to present aprogram entitled, “Haiku, Zen and Jung’s

Psychology.” Dr. Rosen considers haiku a

spiritual art form that promotes deep spiritual

healing among its practitioners (haiku

composers) and readers. The art of writing

haiku began with Japanese Zen monks; now,

however, the form has spread all over the

world. In Japan itself, it has become a folk art

and a cultural icon. Most Japanese have

written haiku, and in a culture more open to

creative expression than our own, there aregenerally at least a few published in every

Japanese newspaper.



Traditionally haiku are short poems of three

lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven

in the second and five in the third. Due tolanguage differences, haiku written in English,

using this same syllable count, often include

more information than would be possible in

Japanese. Thus, contemporary American poets

are free to write shorter haiku with one to

three lines and up to 17 syllables. The

shortness of these poems is a reflection of Zen

philosophy, which, like yoga, emphasizes

being in the moment. Unlike other poetry,

haiku generally do not use metaphor or

obscure imagery, nor do they reflect thefeelings or inner life of the poet--at least in an

obvious way. It is rather an expression of

egolessness in which the poet turns outward to

fully experience and capture the essence of

being in a particular moment at a particularplace.



Old pond

A frog jumps in–

The sound of water.

!!!!!



For example, consider another Basho haiku:

On a leafless branch,

A crow comes to rest–Autumn nightfall.

Dr. Rosen explained that if we are busy, if we

are lost in our own thoughts, worrying about

problems or planning tomorrow’s activities,

we won’t even notice the crow on the branch.

On the other hand, if we are alone and

wandering in nature, our mind becomes free to

contemplate and to be more deeply present in

the moment. Haiku are born out of this

experience. Traditional haiku were writtenabout nature, but modern practitioners don’t

always adhere to this. It isn’t necessary to

understand haiku or interpret them. Nor is it

clear that all haiku can be interpreted. Rather,

as readers, we are invited to share theexperience of being in the moment with the

poet. Through this, we learn to appreciate the

beauty inherent in our own lives.



then, we come across a haiku such as this one

by Hokushi (1667–1718), and it sets us free

from those feelings of inadequacy:I write, erase, rewrite,

Erase again, and then

A poppy blooms.

We recognize that even Zen monks who wrote

300 years ago had trouble getting it right. This

recognition enables us to accept our common

humanity--one of the steps on the road to

transcendence. We then sit down to write our

own haiku, understanding that we are really

no different, no better or worse than Hokushior Basho. We are merely living in a different

century.

Haiku is a form that is deceptively simple. The

apparent simplicity is part of the attraction

many feel to writing them. We don’t feelintimidated. We don’t feel like we have to

twist our brain cells into a metaphorical lotus

posture to come up with complex, highfalutin



a last haiku when they know that they are

about to pass out of this life. Some of these

haiku have been collected into the bookJapanese Death Poems by Yoel Hoffman. It

includes this poem by Gozan, written on

December 17, 1789, at the age of 71:

The snow of yesterday

That fell like cherry petalsIs water once again.

Asked to what extent Zen Buddhism continues

to influence contemporary practitioners,

Charlie Trumbull, president of the American

Haiku Society, explained, “There are peoplewho want to forget about Zen. They say that

it’s an American form now, and we ought to

let go of the Japanese aspects. But I’m not one

of them. Zen itself is kind of spongy and

difficult to define, because the moment youthink you’ve succeeded it’s not Zen anymore,

so you really need to read the haiku

themselves to see. I think that the more Zen



you find in a haiku, the more successful it’s

likely to be. Because if it’s not Zen, then it’s

probably intellectualization and wordplay,which are definitely not a part of haiku.” He

gave the example of this well-known Zen-like

haiku by Jack Cain (1969):

an empty elevator

openscloses

Dr. David Rosen is the author of Tao of Jung,

Tao of Elvis and Transforming Depression,

and co-author with Joel Weishaus of TheHealing Spirit of Haiku.

zen haiku.pdf

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