12 March 2024 (grappling)

grappling

with impermanence

Buddha-shaped soap

July 2: Cocktail

holy communion
Buddha ice cube
dissolving in my cocktail

January 20: Winter Zen

Buddha of the porch

remains serene

with a lap full of snow.

August 31: Chipmunk

Sunflower seed husks

scattered at Buddha's feet--

chipmunk's offering.

Posted with Blogsy

March 7: Everything's connected

On the kitchen shelf

wooden bird, little Buddha

linked by a cobweb

Posted with Blogsy

December 31: New Year's Eve

Pondering impermanence--

glass of fine bourbon

with Buddha ice cubes.

Posted with Blogsy

November 10: And he's smiling about it

Up to his neck in leaves

Buddha of the garden

waits for snowfall.

Posted with Blogsy

April 9: Why am I still writing about snow?

Buddha's lap damp with snow.
Monochrome lawn--
no enlightenment here.

October 12: Autumn Zen

Fall leaves prayer flags.

On the front porch Buddha

contemplates a pumpkin.

February 12: Moon rise

Buddha, wrapped in snow
blanket, watches the moon rise
over Mount Battie.

September 12: Houseful of Buddhas

While I am not a practicing Buddhist, I have strategically place around our house several small statues of Buddha and various bodhisattvas. One in particular, a Thai Buddha, bears a facial expression of such serene calm that I often find my eyes drawn to it in times of stress or anxiety, for its soothing influence. Others are fat and laughing, the kind one finds in Asian import shops everywhere. Those make me smile. Each one has its own mood, its own meaning for me. I'm drawn to the Buddhist emphasis on the ephemerality of life, which urges one to value the present moment and not get too attached to the world. While I haven't achieved a Buddhist detachment from the material world by any means, the core of my spiritual beliefs is to be mindful of Now. My buddhas remind me of this.

Haiku has a direct connection to Zen Buddhism, which is one of the things that sustains my interest in the form. On a site called "In the Moonlight a Worm...," sponsored by the Arts Council of England, I found this perfect explanation of the relationship:

"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 special quality is that it is perfectly adapted to give the reader that little instant of kensho insight. Basho developed the haiku form so that each haiku became a little burst of awakening. It is this that is the essence of haiku, not its number of syllables."

I can't express it any better than that.

Visitors ask me,
Why so many Buddhas here?
Because life is brief...