Haiku Doo, the Way of Haiku

。。。。。。。。　俳 句 道

Basho who, when asked for a death haiku by his friends (according to Harold Henderson) "refused, on the ground that every poem in his last ten years had been composed as if it were a death poem ..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/translatinghaiku/message/734

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My Archery teacher used to say:

Shoot every arrow with the intention that it is your last !
That way you get the necessary intensity and will never be
... just shooting!

Many Japanese DOO 道, ways, are ways of living and teach the same things, applied to different activities. The basics are the same...
This is where the influence of Zen can mostly be felt in many traditional DOO in Japan.

Just yesterday I was talking to two young German boys who started six weeks of a homestay with a Japanese friend on how to cope with all these things unknown to them ... starting with the unknown language, the unknown food items ...
and all the pre-conceptions of their own culture and what SHOULD BE Japanese !

Whow, talk about Euro-Centrism ...

To learn any of the Japanese doo, you have to throw all of your own concepts way out over board.
Get empty first, before you can be filled with the haiku spirit ...


Haiku-Doo ...
first lesson:
forget it all!


Haiku-Doo　俳句道

as we have
the way of the bow, kyuudoo 弓道
the way of tea, chadoo　茶道
the way of flowers, kadoo　花道 (ikebana)


The tanden, 丹田, (lit. the cinnabar field of the old alchimists) is the most important aspect of most of these DOO, ways of life.
Tanden dose not mean "stomach", do not mix the biological reality with the power spots of your body, which you have to cultivate on a daily basis.


ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo

finding haiku <>
the innermost heart
all out there

finding haiku <>
the whole universe
in my mind

If haiku leads you on the way inside to yourself, whilst enjoying your reflections of the outside world, or vice versa, then you are truly

on the way



... Haiku and the Moment !!!!!

. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives 　

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Tue Nov 23, 2004

Yesterday a friend of mine, Japanese and doing traditional Hula dance in Hawaii very successfully for many years now, was quoted in the Japan Times as saying:

<> Why does Japan have to take something deep and beautiful like hula, and change it to be perfect, empty and cold?
I see it as my lifework here to restore spiritual content to hula, to help Japanese people appreciate and respect its roots. <>
。。。Keisuke Yasuda

When I read this, I immediately substituted HULA for HAIKU and Japan for America and found my lifework with the World Kigo Database to be very similar.


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Quotes
　　　
People who are “being” are fully present.
They are totally engaged in the moment.
This engagement includes
an easy appreciation and sense of connection
with whomever or whatever they are relating to at the time.

Sallirae Henderson



　　　
Life is a great and wondrous mystery,
and
the only thing we know that we have for sure is
what is right here right now.
Don't miss it.

Leo Buscaglia


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. World Kigo Database .

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