Carpe Diem #434, Okubo-ji (temple 88)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is, our last episode of Carpe Diem's Shikoku pilgrimage along 88 temples. It was a joy to go on this virtual pilgrimage with you all, with our haiku-community, our haiku-family, but this is it. Next month we will have another wonderful month of kigo (seasonwords), all modern ones based on "A Dictionary of Haiku" by Jane Reichhold, but before we enter this new month I love to tell you all about the last theme in the State of Zen in Haiku, courage.

The last of the manifestations of Zen is in the form of courage. Though not one of the virtues especially emphasized by the moralist, it nevertheless includes all the other twelve characteristics which came along in the last two months, selflessness, loneliness, grateful acceptance, wordlessness, non-intellectuality, contradictoriness, humour, freedom, non-morality, materiality and love. All these elements are in some way present when an act of courage is performed.

It may be difficult, however, to see how courage is an essential, even the most essential part of a poet. Courage is life, living. Life is change; change is suffering; the will to suffer is courage.
Without courage we shall never be able truly to grasp the fact that all things, all events are vehicles of something that is far above and beyond the rules of morality.

It takes courage to become a pilgrim, as we have seen the last two months. It takes courage to become a haiku-poet, because you have to say what you have seen in an eye-blink in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Courage to say in a minimum of words that short moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into the water.

the sound of water
resonates through the mountains
deepens the silence

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Okubo-ji (temple 88)

Maybe it takes courage to enter the last temple on our Shikoku Pilgrimage, but at the other hand ... it must be a joy to realise that we have made it to the last temple Okubo-ji, devoted to Yakushi Nyorai the Buddha of Healing and Medicine. Maybe that's what this pilgrimage has brought us Healing ... but that I can not say, because I don't know how you all have experienced this pilgrimage. To me it was just a joy and in a way very healing and I think this pilgrimage has transformed me into ... another strong loving being.

Well ... that concludes our pilgrimage along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island and now we will enter a new month of Carpe Diem in which we will celebrate spring and in which month we will have our first 'ghost-writer' week.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 2nd 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, the first of a new month of Carpe Diem, later on today. Than we will enter spring with Awe.

Namaste

Carpe Diem #433, Nagao-ji (temple 87)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

With this episode we enter the last phase, the last two days of our Shikoku pilgrimage and as I have promised I will the last two themes of the State of Zen in Haiku.
In this episode that will be love and in our last episode tomorrow that will be courage.

Love ... a wellknown emotion and in Zen-Buddhism love is very much referred to all and everything, but what to say about love as theme for the State of Zen in Haiku? Let me tell you ...

Credits: Spiritual Love

Zen is love of the Universe. Without this love, joy is uncertain, pain inevitable, all is meaningless.
This love must be complete, - not that it aims at the Universe as a whole, but that the personality as a whole is to be concentrated on the thing; the thing is to be suffused with the personality.

[...] "When an object is picked up, everthing else, One and All, comes along with it, not in the way of suggestion, but all-inclusively, in the sense that the object is complete in itself" [...] (Source: Dr. Suzuki)

The relation of love to poetry may be easy to make, but that to Zen is more difficult. Look at it like this.
If we are without self-love, greediness, without desire of gain, of happiness, of life itself, all this energy must overflow somewhere. It overflowes into all things, including one self, so that now no actions are selfish or unselfish, good or bad, but are like the sunshine or the rain, but with mind instead of mindlessness. We say that we see the beauty of the fine drops of rain, the glittering of the leaves in the sun, the stars in their calm, - but what we really see is in the mind of man, or own mind, in all these things. Through our activity and cooperation, these inanimate things acquire mind and affection.
In return, we become windy, rainy, starry, sunny creatures living in all things, in all times and places.

Love is also a kind of Dualism

Haiku are an expression of the joy of our reunion with things from which we have been parted by self-consciousness, so strong and tender in the sexual act, more diffused, yet equally powerful and delicate in our poetic moments. Though our love of things is so feeble, we all desire to be loved ardently in the wrong, the unbuddhistic, the unchristian way.

A few haiku to give you all an idea of love as a State of Zen in Haiku:

mountain persimmons;
the mother is eating
the astringent parts

(c) Issa

shutting the great temple gate,
creak! it goes:
an autumn evening

(c) Shiki

And a last one composed by San-in, a not so well-known haiku-poet:

it walked with me
as I walked,
the scarecrow in the distance

(c) San-in

Now we know a little bit more about love as a State of Zen in Haiku and now we can enter Nagao-ji, temple 87, devoted to Guanyin the boddhisattva of compassion. Guanyin is in this idea of love as a State of Zen in Haiku the most important boddhisattva, because Guanyin is depicted in both ways, as a male and as a female. So in Guanyin love is clearly there.
Now we can celebrate love as the ultimate, unconditional and universal energy which makes us who we are and who we will become. In my opinion love is the strongest energy to transform us into godlike loving creatures.

Nagao-ji (temple 87)

the last steps taken
to find universal love -
the sound of rain

(c) Chèvrefeuille

And now it is up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to write haiku inspired by love as a State of Zen. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 1st 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) post our last episode of this month, of this wonderful and spiritual pilgrimage, later on today. In that episode we will finally, after two months, enter the last temple of the Shikoku trail, Okubo-ji (temple 88).

Carpe Diem #432, shido-ji (temple 86)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First this: Thank you all for the congratulations shared with me and my family with the birth of our (7th) grandchild, Myron. My daughter and Myron are both well and they have left the hospital today.

It's almost over this pilgrimage along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island in which we have trod in the footsteps of Kobo Daishi (774-835) one of the founders of Shingon-sect of Buddhism. We have visited a lot of temples and we have gotten more knowledge of Buddhism ... and as I stated in our yesterday's post about The Way of St. James, I think this pilgrimage has transformed us all.
I have read wonderful haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka and haibun, but I am also glad that these months are almost over, because it was a challenge to write an every day post about the temples and Buddhism.
As I was preparing this new episode I watched the prompt-list again of this month and I realized that I had forgotten March 31th. So after this episode we have another two episodes to go. In those episodes I will visit the last two temples and I will share the last two themes of the State of Zen of Haiku.
Our last two days, March 30th and 31th, we will visit respectively temple 87 and 88 (Nagao-ji and Okubo-ji) sorry for this little change in our prompt-list of March.

For this episode I will only share a photo of Shido-ji temple for your inspiration and I hope that photo will give enough inspiration. By the way the name Shido-ji means Temple of fulfilling One's Wish.

Shido-ji (temple 86)

pilgrimage's end in sight
just one wish left to fulfill
to be Enlightened

(c) Chèvrefeuille

I hope this episode will give you all enough inspiration to write haiku. This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 31th 11.59 AM (CET).
Our next stop will be temple 87, Nagao-ji, and in that episode I will share another theme of the State of Zen of Haiku ... LOVE.

Carpe Diem #431, Negoro-ji (temple 82) & Yashima-ji (temple 84)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all could have read in the small post of yesterday I have become a granddad (again). Our youngest daughter has given birth to her first born, a baby-boy named Myron. I couldn't post the episode of Negoro-ji and Yashima-ji on time, so I have chosen to do both temples in one post. I hope you don't mind that.
We are almost at the end of our pilgrimages on Shikoku Island and in the Northern region of Spain and then we will enter a new month full of exciting 'modern' kigo (seasonwords) for spring and of course we will have our first week of "Ghost-Writing". All family-members whom I had invited to be 'ghost-writer', have accepted my invitation. So in week 15 (April 7th until April 11th) we will have posts written by (respectively) Jules (April 7th), Managua (April 8th), Ese (April 9th), Belinda (April 10th) and Bjorn (April 11th). I am looking forward to this week and the posts they will write for our Haiku Kai.

Well ... let us go on with our Shikoku Pilgrimage along the 88 temples on the Japanese Island Shikoku. As I wrote above we will visit two temples on this trail today and I hope those temples will inspire you to write nice haiku. This time I have chosen to just give a photo of the temple for your inspiration ... so have fun ...

Negoro-ji (temple 82) devoted to Senju Kannon

a challenge
walking the path to Enlightenment -
poppies bow their head

(c) Chèvrefeuille

And here a photograph of Yashima-ji (temple 84) devoted also to Senju Kannon, the boddhisattva of compassion, as we have seen earlier on our pilgrimage. (The Far Eastern equivalent of the Virgin Mary).

Yashima-ji (temple 84) also devoted to Senju Kannon

full of compassion
she bows her head to Guanyin
the Virgin Mary

(c) Chèvrefeuille

I hope these photos and haiku give you all enough inspiration to write a haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun in response on this post. By the way I have tried to write a haiku in response on the birth of my grandson Myron, but I didn't succeed right ... but I will sure share that haiku with you all. Thank you all for the congratulations given in rsponse of the birth of my grandson.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 30th 11.59 AM (CET). I wil try to post our new episode, that will be the last Special about The Way of St. James, later on today.

Carpe Diem #429, Zentsu-ji (temple 75)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today is a special day we are visiting the Zentsu-ji temple in Zentsu-ji Kagawa Prefecture. This temple is built in the early 9th century and is built in the birth place of Kobo Daishi. This temple was built by his father, Zentsu Saeki.

Zentsu-ji (temple 75)

The Shikoku trail is based on the life and actions by Kobo Daishi (or Kukai) and is established in honor of him. This Shikoku Pilgrimage is for Buddhists, what the Hajj is for the muslim. It's a once in a lif-time to do pilgrimage for the Buddhists.

Zentsu-ji is devoted to Yakushi Nyorai or the Buddha of Healing and Medicine. Starting in the 7th century in Japan, Yakushi was prayed to in the place of Ashuku (Akshobhya). Some of Yakushi's role has been taken over by Jizō (Ksitigarbha), but Yakushi is still invoked in the traditional memorial services for the dead. 

Older temples, those mostly found in the Tendai and Shingon sects, especially those around Kyoto, Nara and the Kinki region often have Yakushi as the center of devotion, unlike later Buddhist sects which focus on Amitabha Buddha or Kannon Bodhisattva almost exclusively. Often, when Yakushi is the center of devotion in a Buddhist temple, he is flanked by the Twelve Heavenly Generals (十二神将 Jūni-shinshō?), who were twelve yaksha generals who had been converted through hearing the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra:

"Wherever this sutra circulates or wherever there are sentient beings who hold fast to the name of the Medicine Buddha [Yakushi Buddha] and respectfully make offerings to him, whether in villages, towns, kingdoms or in the wilderness, we [the Twelve Generals] will all protect them. We will release them from all suffering and calamities and see to it that all their wishes are fulfilled." (Source: Wikipedia)

Zentsu-ji (temple 75)

Buddhist monks think and believe that Kobo Daishi isn't dead and that he still is alive hiding in the mountains, especially on Mount Koya. They bring food to this place for Kobo Daishi to keep him healthy and comfortable.

Buddhist Monks bringing Kobo Daishi food on Mount Koya

On Mount Koya a temple is once built named Kongobuji and a village, Koyasan, was established around it. Koyasan has become a small town during the centuries and was until 1872 only a place for male monks. In 1872 Koyasan became also open for women. Since then Koyasan has grown and in 2004 it became an UNESCO World Heritage. It's now the headquarters of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism and the Kongobuji temple is the heart of their religion.

Kongobuji tempel has one the worlds greatest rock gardens in which they practice Zen-Buddhism.

Kongobuji's Rock Garden

What a wonderful garden full of Zen and spirituality must be a joy to walk through it.

in deep silence
monks cleaning up their garden -
willow leaves fall

(c) Chèvrefeuille

What a joy this must be ... to have such a Rock Garden and meditate in it while cleaning it up ...

chanting their mantra
broomstick and rake in hand
true meditation

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 26th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Sanuki Kokubun-ji (temple 80), later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun with our Haiku Kai.

Carpe Diem #428, Mandara-ji (temple 72)

Dear O-Henro .... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have launched a new feature as you can find in the menu above. I have called it "Ghost-Writer" and in that new feature I invite haiku kai family-members to write a post. We will see if that's gonna work.

Today we enter temple 72, Mandara-ji, this temple is devoted to Vairocana, the embodiment of the Buddhist principle Emptiness, and he is refered to as the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.
Vairocana is first mentioned in the Brahma Net Sutra:

“Now, I, Vairocana Buddha am sitting atop a lotus pedestal; On a thousand flowers surrounding me are a thousand Sakyamuni Buddha’s. Each flower supports a hundred million worlds; in each world a Sakyamuni Buddha appears. All are seated beneath a Bodhi-tree, all simultaneously attain Buddhahood. All these innumerable Buddha’s have Vairocana as their original body".

Vairocana Buddha

What to say more? I just thought to leave it this way. We are still on our pilgrimage and the end is coming nearer ... 

an empty bowl,
lost on the street, toy for the wind,
home for a todd

(c) Chèvrefeuille

To conclude this episode I love to share a photo of Mandara-ji temple.

Mandara-ji (temple 72)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 26th 11.59 AM (CET). We will travel on to temple 75, Zentsu-ji, in the birth-town of Kobo Daishi. I will try to post that episode today around 7.00 PM (CET).

Carpe Diem #427, Motoyama-ji (temple 70)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Motoyama-ji, the 70th temple on the Shikoku trail is one of the oldest temples on the trail. Its history goes back to the 9th century and was established by Emperor Heizei's (773-824) instructions in 807. Heizei was the 51st Emperor of Japan.
Motoyama-ji is a temple of the Koyasan Shingon-shu sect, the sect wich Kobo Daishi (or Kukai) founded in 807, so Motoyama-ji is one of the first temples based on the Buddhist principles founded by Kobo Daishi.

Motoyama-ji (temple 70)

Motoyama-ji is devoted to Bato Kannon or the bodhisattva of compassion or the Goddess of Mercy. From this bodhisattva comes the famous Buddhist saying: 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is form', which we can find in the Heart Sutra, the sutra about the Perfection of Wisdom.
So ... with this knowledge I have to come up with a wise piece of post here (smiles), but am I wise enough? We will see ...
My wisdom lays deep down inside of my heart hidden for the world. Will I share that with the world? Will I give my wisdom? Maybe that's my wisdom 'I am not wise. I take all and everything for granted with an open heart and that makes me wise'.

watching the world
with an open heart and mind -
that's true wisdom

(c) Chèvrefeuille

In this episode I love to watch at another theme of the State of Zen of Haiku, materiality.
Zen, like haiku,emphazises the material, as against the so-called spiritual. There is no abstract arguing, no general principles. Everything is concrete. If we glance through a number of haiku we find they are entirely about things, snow, cherry blossoms, people dancing, frogs, the wind.

A few haiku by Miura Chora (1729-1780) to 'show' this.

ya wa ureshiku hiru wa shizuka ya haru no ame

at night, happiness;
in the day-time, quietness,
spring rain


hiya mizu ni senbei ni-mai chora ga natsu

cold water,
two biscuits,
Chora's summer

As we can read in the second haiku it's not a shame to mention yourself in a haiku unlike the classical rule 'No Self, it's an experience not how the poet feels about it'.

The materiality of Zen comes out in the fact that the religious life is at the lowest ebb in church, where everything is arranged to incline the mind to some other place, Heaven or Hell, some other time, the past or the future. Religion is more outside on the streets, in nature or even on a battle-field.
In poetry, at least as the haiku-poets understand it, we simply cannot manage to do without things.
We suppose that the body is a machine and that the soul drives it at will hither an thither, but the reverse is the case. Our boasted self-control, confession and penance, reformation, conversion, salvation, - all are determined physically, in our bodies.
It is the root which the cold and silent earth decides what flowers are to bloom in the wind and sun.

Things and mankind are equal, our common nature, is reciprocal. We excist only if they do. They will not be lorded over and treated with contempt. We are equals and can live together harmoniously only if our independence and dependence, our separatness and continuity is recognized. Things have done their part; it is for us to do ours.
In this we can only see the same phrase as we saw at the beginning of this episode:

'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form'.

A nice haiku by Shiki (1867-1902) can 'show' what I hoped to say above.

rai harete ichi ju no yuhi semi-no koe

the thunderstorm having cleared up,
the evening sun shines on a tree
where a cicada is chirping

By this materiality of aspect, animate and inanimate things lose much of their difference, as do also human and non-human.

after the rainstorm
I sit down on the porch
smelling the fresh air

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This concludes this episode which is NOW OPEN for your submissions until March 24th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to post our new Special episode, part 9 of our pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela, later on today. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with our Haiku Kai.

Carpe Diem #426, Jinne in (temple 68)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you did like our temple-visit of yesterday in which I explained another part of the Zen State of Haiku, simplicity, and that it inspired you to write haiku as if you were child again. As you maybe have noticed I am a bit behind with commenting on all of your wonderful posts, but I will catch up as soon as possible. So ... be patient ... I will surely visit you all.

Today we are visiting the second temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Kagawa Prefecture, Jinne in (temple 68). Jinne in is situated in Kan'onji City, a city with almost 65.000 inhabitants. On their official city-website I found a wonderful photo of a sight in Kan'onji City's Kotohuki Park. It's a Sand Coin Effigy and it's called Zenigata Sazo. It's really a wonderful sight.

Zenigata Sazo or on wikipedia

Isn't it a wonderful piece of land-art? Really awsome ...
Jenni in is devoted to Amida Nyorai and as you maybe know Issa, one of the four greatest haiku-poets, was a devotee to Amida Nyorai, so I love to share a few haiku written by Issa about Amida Buddha.

saku yuri ni namu amida bu no hayaru nari

amid blooming lilies
many, many prayers
to Amida Buddha

This one refers to the thanksgiving prayer Namu Amida Butsu (All praise to Amida Buddha). With this prayer the followers of Amida Buddha hoped to enter the Pure Land.

And another one:

 

suzushisa ni mida dôtai no agura kana

in the cool air
like Amida Buddha...
cross-legged

And to conclude this episode ... I found a wonderful photo with an along going haiku by Issa which I turned into a haiga.

into morning-glories
with one shoulder bare ...
holyman

(c) Issa
(photo-credits: "Wonderful Buddha")

By the way, "Wonderful Buddha" is for sure worth to visit. It's a great wordpress-weblog about Buddhism.

in deep prayer
eyes closed in devotion -
Lotus starts to bloom

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 22th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, Motoyama-ji (temple 70), later on today. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem #425, Daiko-ji (temple 67)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Zen has an extreme simplicity and the volibility of the Japanese language has been completely overcome in haiku. Simplîcity is what Basho means as he says: "Get a three-foot child to write haîku". As we write haiku with the eyes of a child, which îs still there deep înside us, than the simplicity of haiku is very clear. For example I will give a haiku by Basho. It's (I think) one of his well-known haiku:

michi-no-be no mokuge wa uma ni kuware keri

the Rose of Sharon
by the roadside,
was eaten by the horse

(c) Basho (1644 - 1694)

Rose of Sharon

What Basho means is something that belongs to Zen, namely, that we must not wish to do something clever, write a fine poem, but do it as naturally, as freely, as unselfconsciously as a child does everything. Another haiku by Basho, in which his childiss simplicity is exposed. He composed this one on a snowy day when his friend, Sora, called on him:

kimi hi take yoki mono misen yukimaroge

you light the fire;
I'll show you something nice, -
a great ball of snow!

(c) Basho

Issa also has that simplicity of a child as he writes:

I could eat it! -
this snow that falls
so softly, so softly

The aim of haiku is to express the prime phenomena in words. "What you see, is what you get", is  a proverb we all know I think. It's that way too for haiku in all it's simple grace. "What you see, is what you have to read in haiku". This says it all as we know haiku catches a short moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in water. To conclude this episode another haiku by Basho, a haiku which is the max as it is in simplicity. In this haiku he heralds the beauty of Matsushima.

Matsushima!
Ah! Matsushima, ah!
Matsushima, ah!

(c) Basho

Matsushima

This simplicity in the realm of thought and feeling appears as brevity in that of form. Silence is deeper than speaking; from silence springs speaking, and returns to it.

The brevity of haiku has its origin in the endeavour to appeal from the unconscious in one human being to the unconscious in others. It's like talking with your beloved one without words. You and your beloved one don't need words, your hearts beating together as one are doing the talking. You understand eachother without words. That's the kind of simplicity which is meant here.
   Live your life as a child, see the world around you as a child as if you see it for the very first time and enjoy.

cherry blossom petals
fall one by one in the puddle
hugged by the moon

(c) Chèvrefeuille

what a joy
the song of birds
a new day rises

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Let us enter Daiko-ji temple, devoted to the Buddha of healing and Medicine, as a child and see its beauty in all its simplicity. Daiko-ji is the first temple which we visit in Kagawa Prefecture (the fourth 'country' on Shikoku Island).

Daiko-ji (temple 67)

Nightingale's voice
resonates through Daiko-ji -
Ah! that healing sound

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open for your submissions until March 22th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, Jinne in (temple 68), later on today. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku written in the simplicity of a child with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
PS.: I hope to publish our new promptlist for April, modern kigo, as soon as possible.

Carpe Diem #424, Unpen-ji (temple 66)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here we are at Unpenji, temple 66, being back in Tokushima Prefecture (the first Prefecture we entered) were we started. It's just for today that we are back at the beginning of our Shikoku Pilgrimage. Another day has passed away and it's time to explore another theme of the Stata of Zen of Haiku.
Today we will explore non-morality. Zen is non-moral. About morality as such, pure morality, there is something hard and mechanical and dead often makes us wish to do without it. So-called 'good' actions are, as far as the morality of them is concerned, cold, and move us to a merely cold admiration. It is in this manner, rather than then the action or its results, the manner of the person who does it, that the value lies.
At bottom, this 'manner' is the poetry of the action. It has nothing to do with the morality of it. An example written by Oshima Ryota (1718-1787), a not so well-known haiku-poet:

angry and offended,
I came back:
the willow tree in the garden

Willow Tree Bonsai

What a wonderful haiku don't you think too. I can picture the scene. Ryota is offended by someone and is angry about that, but as he returns home and sees the willow tree in his garden, his anger dissapeared like snow in the sun.

Buddha taught that by fulfilment of the moral laws a man may enter into Nirvana. He never suggested that any other means was possible. The teaching of Christ is exactly the same.

Another haiku-example, this time by Taigi (1709-1771), a contemporary of Ryota:

not a single stone
to throw at the dog, -
the wintry moon

Wintry Moon

Taigi was angry on a dog who was barking the whole night through and he sought for a stone to throw at it, but then he saw the wintery moon, and his anger vanished.
This is poetry, howerver inhumane it may also be. The point lies in the fact that e.g. Christ was not hindered by his morality from doing the will of God. It is not a merely superficial view which considers this something which is above morality and destructive. Life is only possible through death, but the positive side of the matter is in life itself. The strange thing is that, because of, or in spite of, or irrespective of morality, all things work together for good, all that we behold is full of blessings.
It is in this sense that we say, Zen is non-moral. It lives a deeper life than morality as such, not cast down by sin or elated by virtuos action, a life of painful joy without ceasing.
For this episode I gratefully used the Haiku-series written by R.H.Blyth.

Unpen-ji (temple 66)

Today we visit Unpen-ji (temple 66) situated in Myoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, devoted to Senju Kannon, a Buddha which we have met earlier on our pilgrimage.The city's flower is a beautiful flower from the family of orchids.

Habenaria Radiata, the flower of Myoshi

scent of orchids
overwhelms me as I enter
Unpen-ji temple

(c) Chèvrefeuille

boiling of anger
after the quarrel with her -
Honeysuckle perfume

(c) Chèvrefeuille

It is not easy to catch non-morality in a haiku, so I tried it with the second haiku above, but ... I am not satisfied with it.

Well ... it was a joy to write this post and I hope you all did like it. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 20th 11.59 AM (CET). I hope to post our new episode, Daiko-ji (temple 67), later on today.

Carpe Diem #423, Sankaku-ji (temple 65)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As we go on with our Shikoku Pilgrimage today we have walked the trail for over two-third of the total length ... Today we will visit the last temple in Ehime Prefecture, Sankaku-ji (temple 65). Sankaku-ji we will find in Shikokuchuo with a population of almost 95000 people. Shikokuchuo is mostly known for it's paper- and paper-products industry.
As in the most Japanese cities Shikokuchuo has its own mayor festival, the Doi Taiko (Japanese Drum) festival which takes place on 13 to 15th October every year.

Doi Taiko Festival

So, maybe we can visit this festival as we celebrate our second anniversary this October. As you maybe know its my goal to visit Japanese Festivals in October and so this Doi Taiko Dai we will see again.

As we are on our pilgrimage, there is no celebration at hand, but just a tough walk along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island.
Sankaku-ji is devoted to Juichimen Kannon, the boddhisattva of compassion, the Far Eastern equivalent of the Christian Virgin/Mother Mary.

Sankaku-ji (temple 65)

Its a tough climb to Sankaku-ji, we have to enter it by a stairway, a pilgrimage by itself. Well ... no one has ever said that a pilgrimage was easy so ... that we all know now.

Japanese drums
resonate through the spring-night -
evil spirits flee

evil spirits flee
as prayers for compassion
resonate through the night

compassionate
she ... the full moon of March
lights the dark night

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 19th 11.59 AM (CET). I will post our next episode, Unpen-ji (temple 66), later on.
Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun with us all.

Carpe Diem #422, Kichijo-ji (temple 63)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Still going oin strong along the Shikoku temple trail ... exhausted by our pilgrimage and the constant thoughts and meditation. All those wonderful paths and roads we have crossed and the beauty of all the temples we have seen already ... Today we will visit Kichijo-ji (temple 63) ... this temple is devoted to Vaisravana or Bishamonten. He is one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and was the great Warrior who guarded Buddha at the places where he was preaching.

Bishamonten

preacherman's guard
watches over him and the crowd -
praying mantis

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Kichijo-ji (temple 63)

Well ... I am going to bed, I had the nightshift, ... so ... This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 17th 11.59 AM (CET). I will post our next episode, part 8 of Paulo Coelho's pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share.

Carpe Diem #421, Hoju-ji (Temple 62)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I posted a small post about changes ... and it touched me that you all were concerned about my wellbeing ... that touched me deep in my heart and soul ... that's a kind of love you share with me and I appreciate that very much. Maybe a daily haiku-meme is to much for one guy, but I love doing it. One of your ideas was to write smaller posts or invite guest-writers. I will try to write shorter posts and I will think about the guest-idea, because I like that idea. Earlier this month one of our family-members gave me the idea to write more prompts in the same post ... to get more time for myself and that's also something which I will think over.

Hoju-ji (temple 62)

Today we visit Hoju-ji, the 62th temple on our Shikoku Pilgrimage devoted to Juichimen Kannon the Boddhisattva of Compassion and one of the deities which we have seen already on our pilgrimage. Hoju-ji is situated in the city called Saijo. This city is wellknown by its fountains and it's said that the water in Saijo is "holy". All those fountains, especially Kobosui (named after Kobo Daishi), are frequented by pilgrims.

Uchinuki, the flowing artesian well

To end this episode I have to write a haiku of course,

compassionate
Buddha leads me to the source
my Inner Self

(c) Chèvrefeuille

And another one ...

sound of falling water
the silence of the night deepens -
a Nightingale's song

(c) Chèvrefeuille

I hope you all liked this post and I hope it inspires you all to write new haiku. This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 16th 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, Kichijo-ji (temple 63), later on today.

Carpe Diem # 420, Yokomine-ji (temple 60)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day along the Shikoku trail has started and we are still on our way to Enlightenment ... at least trying to become enlightened by following the footsteps of Kobo Daishi (774-835), founder of Shingon Buddhism.
Today we will reach temple 60, Yokomine-ji, devoted to Dainichi Nyorai or in Sanskrit Vairocana, the Embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Emptiness. Dainichi Nyorai is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas and is always depicted in the centre of the other four Wisdom Buddhas.

Vairocana

Vairocana is mentioned in the sixth chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra or Flower Garland Sutra. I would have shared that chapter in this post, but it's to long. So if you want to read it (including an explanation) than click HERE it leads you to the sixth chapter of the Flower Garland Sutra.

Dainichi Nyorai is the Embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Emptiness or Sunyata and I recall that I have told you on an earlier episode about Sunyata. That's by the way not so strange, because there are several temples on the Shikoku trail who are devoted to the same boddhisattva or Buddha. Sunyata refers to the so called "not-self", it's one the oldest concepts of Buddhism.

Yokomine-ji (Temple 60)

an empty bucket
thrown away in the backyard -
overgrown by Ivy

(c) Chèvrefeuille

I hope you have enjoyed the read and all the extra links shared here. So I hope they have inspired you to write new haiku. This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 15th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Hoju-ji (temple 62), later on today.

Carpe Diem #419, Senju-ji (temple 58)

Dear O-Henro ... Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to prepare another episode for a new stage on our Shikoku Pilgrimage. We are walking with eachother the Shikoku 88 temples trail and are in deep contact with eachother, the spiritual world and Mother Nature.
It's an everyday struggle to write these posts, but ... it's also a joy and a pleasure to do this for you all. Ofcourse I have sometimes not enough time, but notwithstanding I try to publish every day a new episode. It isn't easy, maybe it looks that way, but it's for sure not an easy task to write these episodes in a way to make it real in our virtual world.

Senju-ji (temple 58)

Let us take a look at this temple, which is devoted to Senju Kannon, Buddha of Compassion who watches the world. We have seen this Buddha more than once in our pilgrimage along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island.

In Pure Land Buddhism, Guanyin is described as the "Barque of Salvation". Along with Amitabha Buddha and the bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta, She temporarily liberates beings out of the Wheel of Samsara into the Pure Land, where they will have the chance to accrue the necessary merit so as to be a Buddha in one lifetime.

seasons come and go
like the Wheel of Samsara
cherry blossoms bloom

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Wheel of Samsara Tibetan painting

Well ... it was really a pleasure to make this episode and I hope you all did like it. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 14th 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Yokomine-ji (temple 60), later on today.