Shuukan - Ni - November 24, 2014

greeting the sun
in the snow at dawn

a blackbird sings

first light of morning
illuminating valleys
- a new day is born

infinite stars
a cloudless autumn night

- the universe

in the park
an iridescent bubble -
reflects the world

(c) G.s.k. '14

Om purifies bliss and pride (realm of the gods); Ma purifies jealousy and need for entertainment (realm of the jealous gods); Ni purifies passion and desire (human realm); Pad purifies ignorance and prejudice (animal realm); Me purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts); Hum purifies aggression and hatred (hell realm).

This is the third of the series for the Shuukan haiku prompt for OM-MA-NI-PAD-ME-HUM 


Ni in the mantra is to help establish patience in order to overcome human passions and desires such as anger, hate, envy, acquisition etc.  In itself desire is neutral but in a society where desire has become the be all of existence, where only having and earning money seems to be the virtue of the age, where everyone is pushed to believe one can only be happy if he/she is rich, that money is the answer to everything, it becomes important that we over-come those passions inspired by our age. We can do this through meditation and realizing that being in a constant state of "desire" only brings us to live in constant fear pushing us into a state of vague unhappiness, depression, dissatisfaction.  The Buddha's goal was to find a way to overcome desire ... to seek happiness in this life and not live in a constant state of want.

Linked to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai - Shuukan

Shuukan . Persimmons - August 2, 2014

A symbol of autumn, at least here in Italy is the persimmon tree.  This is the word chosen today at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for this week's shuukan!  Here are two poems by Shiki dedicated to the persimmon:

sanzen no haiku wo kemishi kaki futatsu   

having examined
three thousand haiku poems –
two persimmons                 

© Shiki (1897)       

kaki bakari narabeshi Suma no komise kara          

displaying
only persimmons --
small store in Suma         

© Shiki (1895)

Persimmons were very popular once upon a time here in Italy ... bu now, well they are one of those fruits which are delicate, much more than  let's say the apple, so farmers have more or less abandoned it as a money crop.  You can only find persimmons in the autumn ... and here in Trentino we find lots of them indeed!  If you ask, sometimes you can get some off the trees from someones garden.  You can't conserve them, though recently there have been new breeds of persimmons, with harder skin and pulp.

 

old persimmon
majestically decorated
 birds feast

leafless limbs
covered with orange balls
like a Christmas tree

persimmon
abundant fruitful tree
in November

the old persimmon
giving abundant fruit
garden full of pulp