Carpe Diem #919 Intuition

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and that the posts I shared were a source of inspiration for you all. I realize that I am asking a lot of you, especially this week in which we also have our first CD Theme Week next to the regular posts in which we are sharpening our senses with Hamish Managua Gunn.

Introduction

Today it's about intuition, also known as the sixth sense. Intuition is one of the senses we need as haiku poets. It's our intuition that brings us the haiku we are writing. As we see, maybe unconsciousness, the beauty of nature and the moment than our intuition takes over and brings us the words we need. Our intuition also alerts us as we are in a kind of dangerous situation. It activates our senses, our brain to watch out were we are going ... Intuition is also one of the main pillars of those paranormal mediums, because they cannot be of help without their intuition.

A haiku by Matsuo Basho can give you (maybe) an idea about "intuition" in haiku:

by the road
a rose mallow ... it has been
eaten by my horse!

© Basho (Tr. Ueda)

In this haiku we can read the "intuition" ("instinct") of the horse.

Credits: Intuition

Hamish on Intuition

Intuition is often called the '6th sense,' and is also seen as a 'feminine' sense. Intuition is sometimes technically called the Philosophy of Mind, a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body. Academic Idealists even maintain that the mind is all that exists and that the external world is either mental itself, or an illusion.

In the East intuition is mostly intertwined with religion and spirituality, and various meanings exist from different religious texts. Advaita vedanta (a school of thought) takes intuition to be an experience through which one can come in contact with and experience Brahman. Buddhism finds intuition being a faculty in the mind of immediate knowledge & puts the term intuition beyond mental process of conscious thinking, as the conscious intellect cannot necessarily access subconscious information, or render such information into a communicable form. In Zen Buddhism various techniques have been developed to help develop ones intuitive capability, such as kó-an - the resolving of which leads to states of minor enlightenment (satori).

In Islam there are various scholars with varied interpretation of intuition, sometimes relating the ability of having intuitive knowledge to prophethood. Siháb al Din-al Suhrawadi in his book philosophy of illumination (ishráq) finds intuition is a knowledge got through illumination and is mystical in nature and also suggests mystical contemplation on this to bring about correct judgments, while Ibn Sīnā finds the ability of having intuition as a "prophetic capacity" terms it as a knowledge obtained without intentionally acquiring it.

Intuition is a difficult choice for a haiku. In fact intuition an instinct sure share a connection, or link, even if they are not the same thing, but bringing in the concept of 'instinct' into you haiku can help to create a haiku about an animal's action, such as a frog's jump...

Intuition is seeing with your spirit

My response

How to respond on this essay on intuition? What can I do with the idea of intuition in haiku. Mostly it will turn out to a haiku in which animal behavior is used, but can I also bring human intuition in haiku?

First a haiku in which I have tried to catch the intuition of an animal, in this case a horse:

as struck by lightning
the horse steps back from the precipice
saves the rider's life

© Chèvrefeuille

In this haiku the horse saves its rider from dead. Horses are very intelligent and respond in a great way. Is this the horse's intuition? It's instinct?

And I have tried to create a haiku in which I hope to catch human intuition:

as struck by lightning
the mother dives into the pond
saves her child

© Chèvrefeuille

A natural response I would say ... is this intuition? Or instinct?

A lot to think about I would say. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, a new Tokubetsudesu episode, later on.