Haiku

I recently posted some self-authored haiku.  I should say that they are in the style of haiku rather than haiku.  They do not follow strict metrical patterns and some are even not about nature or the human in the setting of the natural. I am indebted to R. H. Blyth for the insight I have into haiku, in particular its origins in Japanese Zen Buddhism.  Reading the magisterial four volume Haiku (The Hokuseido Press 1975), first published in 1949, has been the core of my  induction into this gentle art.  I only possess Volume I. Eastern Culture, and have wanted the remaining volumes; I have been put off by the approximately $500 cost. Fortunately the local library had the remaining three volumes,  No. II, Spring, No. III, Summer-Autumn, and No. IV, Autumn-Winter.   Every page of Haiku is infused with the mystique of Zen and one can only surmise that  Blyth had both a scholarly understanding of the art of haiku as well as a deep appreciation of its origins in Buddhism and Zen in particular. It is clear from reading Blyth that the 'study' of Zen is the royal road to haiku both as a reader and practitioner. Blyth also compares the sentiments in haiku to extracts from Western literature which provides a unique view into the occidental genre.

I would say that Section II, of Vol. I of Haiku, Zen, The State of Mind for Haiku, is one of the most moving and profound things I have read. In this section Blyth draws from the qualities that characterise Zen and relates them to the mind of the haiku poet with examples of haiku.

1. Selflessness
2. Loneliness
3. Grateful acceptance
4. Wordlessness
5. Non-intellectuality
6. Contradictoriness
7. Humour
8. Freedom
9. Non-morality
10. Simplicity
11. Materiality
12. Love
13. Courage. 

Pumkin  Mushakoji Saneatsu
Plate 19 from Haiku by R.H. Blyth

Naturalism

Hands up those who are naturalists?  I do not see many hands up.  Perhaps some think this is related to a naturist. Not so, naturalists like to look at things plainly but do not remove their clothes. Nor in this case are they autodidactic observers of nature like Thoreau. Well, naturalism is not an ism at all; it is a world view or a way of apprehending the world; a template if you like based upon what good science has found out about the natural world. In my experience most people are unknowing and unthinking naturalists. It is their unconscious modus operandi; it is their hidden rock of common sense and expectation as to how things work. Almost none think of the balance of the  'four humours' as the basis for health, or that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck. Naturalism has brought light to the world of ignorance and superstition. It is the sine qua non of modern man.

Oddly though people fall back upon non-naturalistic world views. They take their dead to church and temple in the hope that by petitioning an unseen omnipotent being their loved one will be transported to a ultra-mundane world and spend an infinity in bliss in  the presence of celestial beings. One can multiply the examples.  These people consider themselves part-naturalist; it is based upon an assumption that the world is split into natural and supernatural components. Of course, this is a nonsense to the naturalist for naturalism can only be naturalistic; it cannot accommodate the supernatural any more than (at sea level) water might boil at 212 F in one part of the world and 250 F in another.

 So this hybrid naturalism-supernaturalism is a naive contrivance to save one from facing the facts. Better to say you are do not have a naturalistic world-view than say you have a hybrid naturalistic-super-naturalistic world-view. Yet it is so hard to say you are naturalistic.  It is to stand bare in the face of things, the buffeting and swell of what arises by necessity. You have to concede that the world is fundamentally meaningless in human terms.  And yet it is also a comfort for you do not have fall back positions that lack logic, reason and depend upon sophistry or faith assertions. The naturalist also does not fear death for death is merely the end of consciousness.