Sublime

In just three lines totaling seventeen syllables (5–7–5), a haiku presents a brief meditation in which the reader or listener is invited to participate, using imagery drawn from intensely careful observation.

Haiku and waka poems convey perhaps more easily than painting the subtle differences between the four moods of sabi, wabi, aware, and yugen.

This haiku is a deep reflection on the truth of reality, which is by nature transient and fleeting. When we are unable to accept this truth we become distressed. However, recognition of this truth could at least bring a sense of poignancy to all of us human beings, who inevitably experience and witness it. There is even an aesthetic of this

Rinzai Roku (a celebrated Zen text of the T’ang dynasty) and the teachings of Bankei, the seventeenth-century Japanese master who, for me, represents Zen at its best.

The haiku poet, Issa, represents this profound experience in one of his most famous poems: The world of dew is the world of dew. And yet, and yet … He wrote this poem after the funeral of his baby daughter.