Carpe Diem Namasté, the spiritual way #1 Introduction to a new feature

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is my pleasure to present a new special feature here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. As you all know, haiku is not only the poetry of nature "an sich", but also the poetry of the spiritual nature. Haiku has its roots in Zen Buddhism, but also in Shinto, the official religion of Japan. In this new feature, Carpe Diem Namasté, the spiritual way, I love to explore that spiritual background of our beloved haiku. I hope to create this new feature every week as the start of the weekend, so it will be published every Friday evening around 10.00 PM (CET).

Namasté, I use it very often here at CDHK and all other parts of our CDHK family, e.g. Facebook, Tumblr and Wordpress, but what does it really mean?
Namasté is a Hindu holy greeting from one human being to another. It's always said with a gesture. The gesture you will maybe know. Both hands against each other fingers pointing to the sky, the Cosmos, to God; you close your eyes and bend your head a little towards your heart. Why do you have to close your eyes? Well ... every being is the same, notwithstanding race, color or physics, we are all the same.

Namasté

Maybe you can remember our Tarot-month back in 2013 (you can download the CDHK e-book Tarot in our library) in one of the episodes of that month, The Emperor, I talk about "God stuff", because before the Creation there was nothing only God and He used "God stuff" to create our world and us, so that means we are all part of God.
Now we can go back to Namasté, because what does it mean? Sometimes it is explained as "I greet the light in you", but I love to use Namasté because of its other meaning. That other meaning is: "The Divine in me bows before the Divine in you". I love that it's more my way of thinking and living. In everyone and everything I see God, Higher Self, Buddha or whatever name you would love use.
Namasté you can compare with the South German greeting "Grüss Gott!"

As you say Namasté you bow your head, in our Western culture we are not used to bowing, but bowing your head has nothing to do with submissiveness, the other is not superior, we are all the same. Bowing means "being equal" and being a part of God, as we all are. Bowing means "we are one", we are equal.
Both hands together, a gesture we all know, because both hands together is equal with praying, it's a very old gesture. Both hands together means also "I bring Sun and Moon together (the right hand means "Sun" and the left hand means "Moon") or "heaven and earth", you can also see this as "as is above, so is below", which we have seen here often at CDHK. It even is a haiku writing technique and we saw it often in our Tarot month.

Namasté

Your hands have a deeper spiritual meaning, they are synonymous with the Cosmos, even all separated fingers do have a meaning:

The thumb: emptiness and insight
The index: air and activity
The middle finger: fire and perception
The annulary: water and sensibility / receptivity
The little finger: earth and form

As you use the Namasté gesture than you bring your hands at the height of your heart, at the heart-chakra, the place were divine love enters. So another meaning of Namasté can be: "I honor the space in you (your heart) where love, truth, light and peace are ruling".

Over all you can say with Namasté "Your mind is not your boss it's your heart that has that authority".

Namasté gesture in words:

- both hands together, fingers pointing upward:
- close your eyes;
- bring your hands to your heart, or as sometimes seen, bring your hands first to your forehead (the Third Eye) and than to your heart.



Namasté

Namasté "I look at you with my inner eye, with my heart, the divine in me bows before the divine in you"

Isn't it wonderful? So much meaning in one gracious gesture? Isn't that what we hope to accomplish with our passion? Our haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry-form? Haiku needs a little bit of "God stuff", a little bit of "Namasté", a little bit of spirituality.

That's the goal of this new special feature "Carpe Diem Namasté, the spiritual way", try to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with a deeper, spiritual, meaning.

This first introductory episode of this new special feature here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is NOW OPEN for your submissions. You can submit until Monday February 6th 10.00 PM (CET). I will publish a new episode of "Namasté, the spiritual way" on Friday February 10th around 10.00 PM (CET). Have fun!