"A haiku is a prayer of praise that celebrates God's work by paying attention and then ref1ecting back, as simply and clearly as possible, what we experience in God's created world. It is a way of letting God know that we are paying attention, and that, at least for one moment, we 'get it.'
"In my prayer life, so much has to do with me, with my immediate concerns and needs. Though I pray for others, it is hard to keep myself out of the picture. My hopes for those I love, what I think would be best for them, sneaks in whether I am aware of it or not. Writing a haiku offers surprising relief from all that. Writing a haiku turns the focus from the all-consuming Me and instead shares one fleeting glimpse of the ever-present Spirit permeating all things. The relief I feel in turning my focus outward comes not only from escaping the confines of my hungry little self, but also in finding my true self, transformed, in the essence of the world around me.
" 'Haiku are an expression of the joy of our reunion with things from which we have been parted by self-consciousness.'
— R. H. Blyth
"One of the great Vedic statements in the Hindu Upanishads is 'Tat tvam asi,' sometimes translated as 'Thou art that.' In recognizing that the apparent sense of separation between me and everything else is a delusion, these brief and potent words express the oneness between the deepest self and Brahman, or Ultimate Reality. When I can enter into the moment at hand and let it speak to me, then I may hear my own heart beat in the rhythms of creation. Writing a haiku acknowledges and honors the interrelatedness of all things by offering back to the Creator an echo of the heartbeat we all share."
the spirit, the truth
of silent prayer —
just the moon on the road
— Kikusha-Ni (1752-1826)
