Carpe Diem Namasté, the Spiritual Way #4 keepers of the earth

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In my garden I have a small statue of Buddha, he always sits there, meditating and contemplating. I a way he is my spiritual master. Sometimes I kneel in front of him. I bow my head. Than my mind becomes clear and silent. All my thoughts stop, complete emptiness in my head. All my senses awaken and than ... the miracle ... I hear nature, I breath nature, I see nature, I feel nature, I sense nature in a way I have never sensed it. I become one with nature.
As I look back than I feel, I experience every moment of my life again. Than I see how my. our, life has changed.

Recently I had a small depression. I questioned all and everything I had done. One day I sat down and looked back on the years that have passed. I saw how "my" Buddha was covered with snow and he sat there without having a problem with it. Than Buddha was covered with the fragile beauty of cherry blossom of the old Sakura in my garden. I became Buddha, I felt the softness of the cherry blossoms, I smelt the decay of the blossoms. I saw the life-stream through the Sakura and followed it through its branches, its trunk  and in its roots deep hidden in the earth. I became the Cherry tree. Right at that moment I learned to appreciate the Cherry.
One day, just after the start of summer, Buddha was the only one in my garden that captured a spot of sunlight. It was a mystical experience ... the (so-called) Pelican-Tree behind Buddha, a surrogate for the Bodhi Tree, caught a bit of sunlight too. At that moment I had a "karumi" experience, a revelation. I saw for the very first time that the leaves of the Pelican Tree had a thin red pinkish edge. I really hadn't seen that earlier, but it must have been there forever, I however hadn't seen it. On that moment I thought "Wow, nature is gorgeous. I have to go back to nature. Only than I can be one with nature as a real haiku poet".

Pelican Tree (Salix Integra)

Later that year, when summer departed and autumn colored nature I saw that beauty again, more intense than ever. A small colorful leaf was in the folded hands of Buddha, a few days later we had the first frost and that leaf in Buddha's hands had become more fragile, more beautiful ... that thin layer of frost told me "seasons come and go, and nature knows it  better than which intelligent species on earth".

Just a little story to explain what this Namasté episode is about. We are one with nature. We need nature, we have to take care of nature, we have to be the keepers of the earth like all those shamans all around the world. We are all keepers of the earth and we are praising earth with our haiku.

Be a keeper of the earth, live with nature as if you see it for the very first time. See that apple as if you see it for the first time. Look at the apple follow its life back to the blossoms, the bare branches, the trunk, its roots ... than you will experience its beauty, its richness, its taste to the max. In a way become the apple. Isn't that what Zen-Buddhism means?
Zen-Buddhism is one of the pillars of haiku. In Zen-Buddhism one of the sacred ideas / thoughts is Oneness. Be one with all and everything around you .... be the keeper of the earth.

This Namasté feature is meant to be a kind of "meditation" to contemplate and think it over. Become part of the story of your life ... you are a keeper of the earth.

To give you time to meditate and contemplate you can start to submit your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form next Sunday March 5th at 7.00 PM (CET) until March 7th at 7.00 PM (CET). So you have a few days to think it over and create your poetry and you have a few days to post your submission.

I hope to publish our new episode, dancer, Sunday 5th around 7.00 PM (CET). Enjoy your weekend.