Scattered Thoughts on Haiku

by

Dalvir Gill

one can ask, if not just the “5-7-5″ or all the “5-7-5′s”, still! there gotta be some 5-7-5 of Haiku
it’s easy not to understand that there could be a totally other way of living, where calligraphy
is not calligraphy, a samurai is not learning swordsmanship, a general laborer is not just labeling boxes. and zen sages weren’t creating any literature. everything is different. it’s a different life-style! a different way of living!!
a zen may not have any concept of Time, per se. conceptualization may be the only considered ‘sin’, to use a concept from the dictionary we know anything of.
i won’t hear a single reference towards nature or time in a single sentence they will utter. but even you will feel the presence of nature and time in them.
time, if asked, “one Moment” is ETERNAL, it can not be cut into any divisions.
i and nature aren’t any two different entities. i don’t care much about any other form of Zen “Poetry”, they sound like Buddhist Sutras to me or like Rumi, or Tilopa or Sant-Baani” or whatever ….. Haiku is what i love and haiku is what i ( want to ) write.
so i start, without checking the manuals of haiku-writing. if i am living a life according to Tao, and Zen is my natural state, it would be a Haiku, no matter what!
to be in that state, to be living that life, there is no written Dogma, or any Dogma of any form, then, how can we figure the Dogma for Haiku, its 5-7-5; Existentially it is Experienced – Isingness.
in the other world all that is called “knowledge” has been achieved by any individual by words, oral or written!
and a world where a person tries to process as much information as possible., there Bodhidharma’s message starts with
“A special transmission beyond Manuscripts,
No dependence on written words or letters.
Looking straight into man’s soul, and
Attainment of boddha-hood.” NOW AND HERE!!!
“It’s harder to unlearn than learn.”
…. Warrior is told before setting on a fight/war,”In all these years of schooling you have learned lots of moves, but the only move you will keep in your memory is going to cause your end.”
old sayings have a lot in them. we shall listen, what the other person is saying. ( a haiku can provoke/evoke only admiration, no discussion, this Device was devised for the very meaning to hush that “Inner Dialogue” and render it silent. )
my most favourite is “Kill Buddha!! If you meet him on the road.”
hugs!! Everybody!!!!
muchlove. Stay Blessed!