Carpe Diem #1824 Yasaka-ji (temple 47)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize (again). At the moment my life is a bit upside down, because of circumstances in private and at work, so my mind isn't really at our wonderful Kai. So before I give you our Thursday episode I have to tell you all that this month I will not always publish an episode every day. I just can't find the peace to create them for you in the quality you all deserve. I hope you all will accept this choice.

This month we are on a pilgrimage at Shikoku Island, a kind of reprise of our earlier pilgrimage there back in 2014. Today we have a nice episode about Yasaka-ji, the 47th temple of the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Yasaka-ji (temple 47)

Yasaka-ji temple is dedicated to Amida Nyorai. Let me tell you a little bit more about Amida Nyorai.
Amitābha, also known as Amida or Amitāyus, is a celestial buddha according to the scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in Pure Land Buddhism, a branch of East Asian Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism, Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merit resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. Amitābha means "Infinite Light", and Amitāyus means "Infinite Life" so Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Light and Life".

Kobayashi Issa, one of the big-five haiku poets, was a buddhist in the tradition of the Pure Land Buddhism and he wrote several haiku with that theme, here are a few examples:

"Praise the unshackled
heavenly gods!"
plum blossoms

if you're praying
pray to Amida Buddha!
summer cicadas

one paulownia leaf
good choice!
it falls westward

© Kobayashi Issa

That 2nd and 3rd haiku are very specific themed Pure Land. According to Pure Land Buddhism is paradise situated in the west.

at dusk
the colored clouds show the Way
Pure Land calls
reaches out to humankind
Eternity awaits

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 18th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1472 emptiness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My apologies for being late. I had a very busy day on our chemo-therapy unit. So I hadn't time earlier to create this new episode of our Imagination Without Limits month, July 2018. So ... because of being late I will only give you the image for today to inspire you. I think it's another beautiful image and I hope it will inspire you to create your Japanese poetry.

Emptiness

what happened?
left coffee cup
her perfume

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1413 Loneliness (Haibun in the classical way)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to wander along the beach, only the sound of waves and seagulls, all alone. I love to sit down in the backyard on my own, only nature and my own thoughts and feelings. I love being alone sometimes. I think I need that ... I have a busy life, my family, my work as an oncology-nurse, being your host and being myself, the haiku poet Chèvrefeuille. Loneliness is something you can choose for, but mostly loneliness is not something that we choose. There are enough humans that are alone, who live their life in loneliness but didn't choose for it. Loneliness ... our theme for today. I think we have had this theme earlier here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

Here are a few links to earlier posts:

Carpe Diem #405
Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #17
Carpe Diem #886
Carpe Diem Namaste, The Spiritual Way #6

Loneliness

Loneliness ... what does it mean for you. Do you choose loneliness sometimes, to find new inspiration and new energy? Loneliness ... a strong emotion with a strong task today, because I love to challenge you to create a classical haibun. In other words, the haiku (or tanka) have to be written in the classical way. (More about this classical way of haiku-ing you can find above in Carpe Diem Lecture 1) Your haibun may have a maximum of 300 words.

Here is a (non-classical) haiku from my archives about "loneliness":

in front of the fireplace
an empty bottle and broken wine glasses 
after the quarrel

© Chėvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, nakedness, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku #3 classical haiku

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 23rd at 7.00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's almost weekend and that means ... time for a new episode of our "weekend-meditation" feature. This weekend I have a nice episode for you of "Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku", inspired on the book by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016).
In the last episode of "Writing and Enjoying Haiku" you had to create haiku without rules, this time, I love to challenge you to create haiku following the rules, the most basic rules of haiku. You may choose your own theme, but you have to follow the following rules:

1. A kigo seasonword)
2. A kireji (cutting-word or punctuation)
3. 5-7-5 syllables (onji)
4. The theme is nature
5. A spiritual, Zen-Buddhistic layer / meaning
6. First and Third line are interchangeable
7. In your haiku you may not use "I", because in haiku the poet isn't visible

All rules ... you (we) have to follow, but as Basho once said "forget the rules". Well for this episode of Writing and Enjoying Haiku you (we) cannot forget the rules.

As you all (maybe) know I am not a haiku poet that follows the rules, I am more like Santoka Taneda and try to create my haiku in the "free-style" way. So this challenge will not be easy for me, but of course I had to give it a try and created this haiku following the rules:

a fragile cobweb
dressed in crystalline dewdrops
treasure at sunrise

© Chèvrefeuille

Pff ... that wasn't easy. In my opinion this is a nice haiku, but it looks somewhat artificial, but after re-reading I had to change my opinion. It has become a real nice haiku. I think all the "rules" are in it, but about the Zen-Buddhistic layer I am not sure. What do you think?

This "weekend-meditation" is open for your submissions next Sunday July 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, dunes, also around 7:00 PM (CET) next Sunday. Have a great weekend!