by Kelly

What is a haiku mind?

Is it the preserved brain of a long-dead haiku master? Matsuo Basho’s cerebral mush in a jar?

No.

A haiku mind is not a bottled up, ancient organ. It is, instead, a living, breathing one that is grounded in its surroundings.

Haiku mind is a state of being, a state of heightened awareness. It is the act of stopping and seeing, acknowledging and appreciating.

For example, you might experience haiku mind when you pause to admire the intricate knotting in a piece of lace.

Or when, while sipping on your cup of morning Joe, you glance out the window, notice a bug on the pane of glass outside and lean in to get a better look at its underworkings.

Or when, while taking your dog on a walk, you notice a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, and you try to keep it in your sight for as long as possible.

Haiku mind can happen anywhere, at any time, but the key is to notice when it happens and to allow it to proceed.

All of this is described in Patricia Donegan’s book, Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart.

In it, Donegan urges her readers to pause, notice and reflect, to foster what she calls “haiku mind.” In doing so, she says, we will become more grateful and gracious.

Each chapter, all 108, open with a haiku. Donegan then uses these haiku to teach small life lessons. One haiku offers guidance in coping with loneliness. Another reminds us to seek the dignity in all forms of life. At the end of each chapter is a paragraph of biographical information about the haiku poet.

This isn’t the sort of book you sit down and read all at once. It’s best digested in small parts, and it’s certainly spiritual in nature.

After reading just a few chapters it was acutely apparent to me that there was much I didn’t know about the art of haiku. And I did appreciate the meditative quality of each chapter. I found myself reading one, staring off into space, reading another then zoning out again.

Chapter 13, for example, teaches “interpendence.” The opening haiku, by Buson Yosa, which does not fit the 5-7-5 count because it has been translated from Japanese, is:

a heavy cart

rumbles by –

peonies tremble

Interdependence. Cause and effect. Every action sparks a new action. I know that. I knew that. But reading this haiku made me pause and rethink my own movements, made me appreciate the positive energy that my own action can generate.

To test my mindfulness, I put a hand on my small dog’s back. He always curls up next to me whenever I sit down to read. My touch, my action, caused him to nuzzle a little bit closer, to tighten what had already been just a small gap between us.

Yes, I thought to myself, I can choose to act in a way that will bring about more love.

Find Haiku Mind on Amazon:
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Interdependece haiku excerpted from Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan, (c)
2008. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.
www.Shambhala.com.