First, there are very preliminary reports that a person fired shots from an AK-47 adjacent to Donald Trump's golf course in Florida, and was arrested. No one, including Trump, was injured. This is now a second attempt on his life. He must now be totally spooked.
Today, something spiritual and cool. You can believe all you want that there is a Heaven, but you'll never know if you will actually get there until you die. Then, if there is no Heaven, that belief, while in vain, at least comfortably allows you to pass in a hopeful state of mind. There is immense psychological value, relative to my fear of entering a perpetual state of nothingness. Except I'm trying to strengthen other thoughts, such as eternal peace. So Imagine.
What I'm leading to, though, is a state of mind you can enhance while you are still alive. I just read an article in Time magazine, The Pursuit of Happiness: My Week at the Buzzy Meditation Retreat That Promises Bliss on Demand, or Nick Cammarata Has Always Been Unusually Happy, by Naina Bajekal. To quote:
Then, in 2021, as part of an effort to investigate whether life could get even better, Cammarata discovered the jhanas. These eight advanced meditative states, characterized by deep concentration and blissful absorption, have been practiced for thousands of years but were long considered the domain of mystics and monks with decades of training. Cammarata, however, taught himself to enter these states after around 1,000 hours of solo meditation practice. “I was shocked that it was possible to get this thing you turn on in 10 seconds and just get joy for five hours straight,” he says. “Nobody talks about it.”
A link for enhanced understanding can be found at Jhourney. Perhaps next Sunday I'll have a part 2 and further detail that joyful bliss known as jhāna or dhyāna.
What I will do today is something not as deeply satisfying, but a step towards elevating your Earthly presence, by inspiring you to explore a new cool realm for this purpose. Poetry has never been me. I can't understand what it's all about, and probably never will.
Yet, way back when as a sophomore in high school, in my sudden zeal to go away to school on a scholarship, I was told that, not being a genius, being a well-rounded individual would help for being accepted by schools like Stanford.- So I ran for class officer and won, learned how to play tennis and lettered, and even sent in an essay, plus a poem, to two national high school anthologies, and got published. A huge regret is that I long ago threw those two books away. I actually made an attempt on the world-web, found a Library of Congress link, but got nowhere.
More recently, I have a faculty friend from the University of Tokyo, and he now and then sends me a Haiku poem for my comment. He has completed one every day for much of his professorial career. Maybe you (and I) might want to consider exploring this new dimension? Perhaps it might be more mentally stimulating for me to do haiku instead of this blog.
So what is Haiku?
- It is a short form poetry that originated in Japan, and can be traced back to China. In Japan, Zen monks in the 1500's developed the Japanese version.
- Called Hokku.
- However, Haiku was only called so in Japan shortly before 1900, possibly only slightly adjusting the name from Hokku.
- The Haiku Society of American has two definitions of haiku.
- An unrhymed poem in which nature is linked to human nature.
- A foreign adaptation of the Japanese form, usually written in three lines totaling fewer than 17 syllables. In other words, you don't need to follow the 5-7-5 pattern.
- The standard haiku consists of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units
- Called on in Japanese.
- Similar to syllables.
- The phrases have 5 in first line, 7 in the second and 5 in the third.
- There has to be a cutting word and a seasonal reference.
- There are two unexpectedly similar subjects, that is, something natural and something human-made.
- Helps to have a contemplative or wistful tone and an impressionistic brevity that lends the form to an sensory emphasis.
- Can contain simile and metaphor.
- Entire poem should be expressed in a single breath.
- The cutting word is called kireji, and has no English equivalent.
- Difficult to define.
- Said to supply structural support to the verse.
- When placed at the end, it provides a dignified ending.
- Used in the middle, it briefly cuts the stream of thought, and provides a pause, both rhythmically and grammatically, lending an emotional flavor to the preceding phrase.
- Can be represented by a punctuation (like a dash or ellipse), or exclamatory particle, or left unmarked.
- To further confuse, the kireji paradoxically both cuts and joins.
- Examples. First mid-verse:
| 行く | 春 | や | 鳥 | 泣 | 魚 | の | 目 | は | 泪 | ||
| yuku | haru | ya | tori | naki | uo | no | me | wa | namida | ||
| go | spring | — | bird | crying | fish | 's | eye | as-for | tear |
- Or at the end.
| ひやひや | と | 壁 | を | ふまへて | 昼寝 | 哉 | ||
| hiyahiya | to | kabe | wo | fumaete | hirune | kana | ||
| cool | so | wall | (accusative) | put-feet-on | siesta | how |
The above examples might be confusing, for you probably don't know Japanese. I am Japanese, but also don't know the language. However there is HAIKU IN ENGLISH!!! Better yet for others, Haiku in other languages, for 212 different world domains have visited this blog site.
What is Haiku in English?
- Forget having 5-7-5 lines.
- As the structure in Japanese haiku usually averages only 12 syllables, English-language haiku poets use 10 to 14 syllables in three lines.
- To give you further freedom, modern haiku can be greater or fewer than 17 syllables.
- American haiku can also have more than 3 lines, or less.
- The art of haiku is all about expressing as much as possible in a very few words.
- Rules? Many poets do what they want, adhering to the spirit of haiku rather than the technical details.
- Imagine the power of nature, and use a seasonal theme.
- Juxtapose two distinct, but seemingly unrelated images, like a small cricket and a large mountain.
- Don't worry about things Japanese. American haiku can be about America.
- Forget kireji, for there is no such thing in the U.S. Instead, use a punctation mark, exclamation point or an ellipsis. What is an ellipsis? Absence of a word to avoid repeating it.
- Before attempting a few yourself, read a few by masters.
Four of the greatest haiku masters of all time are Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), Yosa Buson (1716–1784), Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828), and Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902)
- The Old Pond by Basho.
An old silent pond…
A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again.
- A moment in nature.
- The two contrasting images are a pond, which is silent, and a frog, which is in motion.
- That em dash after pond is the kireji.
- What did he say? Depends on what you think. One interpretation is that Basho is using the pond as a metaphor for the human mind. The frog momentarily disrupts a mind at rest, but soon, the mind returns to silence.
Frankly, I don't quite get it. Other examples.
- La La Land was one of the last two movies I saw to end the year and easily made my top films.
- More time passed between
the Independence Day films
Than Star Wars movies
By Jeff Zittrain:
My top 10 movie/haiku post-game analysis:
Apocalypse Now
Unforgiven
The Last Waltz
Life of Brian
Dirty Harry
Stripes
Kristen Bell’s Africa
A Clockwork Orange
Richard Pryor Live in Concert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
David Bader published One Hundred Great Books in Haiku.
- Rather then spending your life reading Homer, Milton, Dostoyevsky, save eyestrain, reduce reforestation and become the hit of your next cocktail party by reading this book.
- Says this is the perfect gift for book lovers with short attention spans.
When I started this posting I was planning to test out my first haiku on you. However, perhaps next Sunday if ready. Chances are, though, that I'll wait until the next International Haiku Day, which will be on April 17. Yes, it looks like jhāna next Sunday.
Typhoon Bebinca went up to 85 MPH today, has slightly weakened to 80 MPH, and will make landfall early Monday morning, sufficiently south of Shanghai to only bring a lot of rain. However, typhoon strength near the eye could get up to 94 MPH and a third of million people have been evacuated. Flights into Hongqiao and Pudong airports have largely been cancelled, and travel across some bridges and highways will be restricted.
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