Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2406 - Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
In the case of archery,
the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but
are one reality.... Zen is the everyday mind, as was proclaimed
by Baso (Ma-tsu, died 788); this everyday mind is no more than
sleeping when tired, eating when hungry. As soon as we reflect,
deliberate, and conceptualize, the original unconsciousness is
lost and a thought interferes. We no longer eat while eating, we
no longer sleep while sleeping. The arrow is off the string but
does not fly straight to the target, nor does the target stand
where it is. Calculation which is miscalculation sets in. --D.T.
Suzuki, in Eugen Herrigels Zen and the Art of Archery
It is not merely the brevity by which the
haiku isolates a particular
group of phenomena from all the rest; nor its suggestiveness,
through
which it reveals a whole world of experience. It is not
only in its
remarkable use of the season word, by which it gives us a feeling
of
a quarter of the year; nor its faint all-pervading humour.
Its peculiar
quality is its self-effacing, self-annihilative nature, by which
it
enables us, more than any other form of literature, to grasp the
thing-in-itself.
The sun shines, snow falls, mountains rise and valleys sink,
night deepens and pales into day, but it is only very seldom
that we attend to such things ... When we are grasping the
inexpressible meaning of these things, this is life, this is
living.
To do this twenty-four hours a day is the Way of Haiku.
It is having life more abundantly.
Haiku shows us what we knew all the time,
but did not know we knew; it shows us that
we are poets in so far as we live at all.
~ Haiku, Volumes One thru Four
R.H.Blyth
Ed. note: Blyth had a most interesting life.
A brief bio may be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_H_Blyth
* * *
Each successful haiku is a breath of freedom. The seventeen
syllable,
traditional form was adjudged to be a breath span. And, just as
Keats
said that poetry should come as naturally as foliage to a tree,
or not
at all, so we say that haiku is an exhalation, a breath of
freedom, a
sigh.
It is a plunge. In the way of haiku, we cannot know what is next
to be
revealed. We are not soothsayers. Nor do we dabble in magic. What
will
be the next haiku moment? Anticipation is foolish. Each moment is
as
unique as your fingerprints, your iris, and as fleeting as your
breath. The haiku moment will not happen without you. You must be
there for it to happen. And it occurs in such an intense, pure
form
that it appears to have happened without you. That brief,
piercing
insight, that moment of haiku enlightenment, has stripped you of
the
thousand items that are the jig-saw of your ego. Then we're back
again
in the duality of the world and its routines. But we know that
another
surprise awaits around the corner, whatever it may be."
~ Gabriel Rosenstock
posted by ts to Allspirit
photo by Sam Pasiencier http://home.hccnet.nl/sam.pas/buddha=birds.jpg
The desolation of winter;
passing through a small hamlet,
a dog barks.
with advancing autumn
I am without gods
without Buddha
the bright moon
something in my breast
I am alone
~Masaoka Shiki
mountain temple--
under the spring moon
a poem party
with a voice
like a temple bell...
the lover cat
seaside temple--
the room in the mist
grows faint
mountain temple--
the butterfly sips
Buddha's tea water
~Issa
WHChaikuforumworkshop - Themed Category
Haiku Theme: Light
Chosen by Susumu Takiguchi
Oxford, UK
the sun stumbles
reeling towards sunset
drunk with daylight
you petulant orb
positioning yourself
between night and I
~ Mazie Lane
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/2-1/whchaikuforumworkshop_th.shtml
September 11 - Outpourings: "Real Haiku"
Real Haiku - Susumu Takiguchi
"Real" haiku encompasses haiku which are not generally
"yuki-teikei" and/or those which are un-traditional in
terms of subject matter. WHC's members spontaneously
responded to the events of September 11 and afterward
with haiku and related poetry. Those poems presented
here are unedited, offered in tribute to those who
suffered loss..."
never wanted this
always remembering
another war
~ Mazie Lane
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/1-3/september11_vanguardhaiku.shtml
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/
As I Am,
Mazie
Dear friends,
This time Amigo lets itself be heard by means of the question:
'What is the sense or meaning of existence?'
In this edition:
o Wolter Keers on
Indifference
o Jan van Delden
about Happiness in life
o interviews with Jan
van Rossum, Guy Smith, Chuck Hillig and Fokke Slootstra
o Jed McKenna on
where to find enlightenment
o a column by Rood
Houweling
o an 'innerview' with and
by Ragen
In summation you can ask yourself:
Is life a choice or a privilege?
You can find amigo
10 via: http://www.ods.nl/am1gos/am1gos10/index.html
much
pleasure in being
the Amigo editors
Consciousness
as an experience junkie
interview
with Chuck Hillig
excerpt from Amigo: Well, since
Dick has invited me to say a few final words, these are some of
the random thoughts that showed up: Essentially, my 'mission' is
to dis-illusion you. I want to encourage you to punch 'wholes' in
the story of who-you-think-you-are. Stop 'making-up-your-mind,'
and, instead, practice touching the entrancing world of forms
more lightly. You can only play the Song-of-God on the cosmic
piano by living each moment as if you're arriving...and
departing...at the very same instant. You won't have time to
cling to your attachments if you're always free-falling into the
love that you already are.
Live courageously from the Heart. After all, do you want a safe
life or do you want an authentic life? Be willing to fully and
consciously 'live-the-risk-that-life-is' while remembering that,
at the same time, everything changes and everything ends.
Sadly, though, most people live as if they're only extras in
their own movie. You are not an extra, a minor character or even
one of the 'co-stars.' You are, in fact, the Star. So... start
starring because it's all Star. And all of 'IT' is just for you.
Remember, you are 'what is.'
Since opposites arise simultaneously, it's true that, without
you, I'm nothing. And, vice versa. In making 'Much Ado About
Nothing,' we learn to recreate new imaginary friends like we once
had in childhood. Now, however, we just call these imaginary
friends 'everyone else.' Since they're here to play in your play,
you should honor them for contributing to your awakening. Since
you're always walking among your gurus, learn to patiently accept
their grace gracefully... even if it doesn't look like grace.
Heaven, after all, is only the graceful alignment with (and
unconditional acceptance of) 'what is.' Buddha once said, 'This
very body is the Buddha. This very place is the Lotus paradise.'
So if it's not right here and right now, then it's not anywhere.
Each and every moment is another opportunity for joyous
celebration. And, since 'It' will always be there, even the chaos
that shows up on your path needs to be celebrated, too. Instead,
we often create our own hell by living fearfully among the
ego-based concepts of 'me, mine and more.'
If duality is: 'Nothing pretending that it's something,' then
non-duality is: 'Nothing remembering that it's only pretending.'
So, look to (and in) your own Self. The Dhammapada said that:
'You are your own refuge. There is no other refuge.' To know thy
Self, you have to learn to 'no' thy self.
Finally, please remember that it's really OK to sing and dance
along the way. As Maharshi once said, 'It is all only a great
game of pretending.'
Chuck's website: www.chuckhillig.com
An online video interview can be found at: www.wisdomteachers.com/drdennis27.html
Other books by Chuck Hillig::
• Enlightenment for beginners
• The way it is
• Seeds For The Soul
(These three books form The Enlightment Trilogy)
