Poetry ~ Waka
Hanukkah
may the glow warm your heart
miracle of lights
~
Que la lueur
d’Hanukkah enflamme ton coeur
miracle des lumières
© Tournesol ’14
Hanukkah – Dec 16th to Dec. 24th 2014
More readings: Inside Hanukkah and Holidays – Hanukkah
flora breathes life
giving me permission
to lean on you
© Tournesol ’14/12/13
I can see how a mother and her newborn would experience a genre of greed …this need to possess…to be connected and not quite ready to share with the world. My mother told me I was like a tigress with my babies when they were newborns and she could relate so well as she was the same with my sister and me.
A psychologist explained to us in a class last year that an infant is born one year too soon. Gestation continues outside the womb but the connection mother/child is most important. The couple needs to cocoon together for longer than many industrialized cultures allow.
key connection
budding human nature
symbiosis
~
mother and infant
hoarding every moment
tenderness and bliss
© Tournesol ’14
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Our host says: “This week we are going further with exploring the powerful ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’, mantra. This week it’s the fifth ‘sound’ , “me” … I will give the mantra here again:
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).
As we look at the mantra’s fifth sound “Me” than we can see that it purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts) and this is what is said about this mantra by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:
“The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Päd, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom. “So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom. The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times. What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?”
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones.
This fifth sound is connected with the fourth and together with that sound it refers to Wisdom. Om Mani Padme Hum is a very strong mantra and in it self the world of Buddhism … it offers us the basic rules of Buddhism, one of the pilars of haiku.
This sound is about purifying greed and possessiveness, but what is wrong with greed or possession? I am greedy in a positive way: “
Our host’s inspired haiku is here:
looking for more
hunting for gold and diamonds –
haiku community
© Chèvrefeuille
Mountain top
breathing unpeopled air
pure
~
pure
cabin provides warmth
echoes inner peace
© Tournesol ’14
A little Japanese history and talk about The Choka…
Hello Everyone!
First of all thanks to all of you who participated writing a Naani … you did a fantastic job!
This week I’m taking you back to Japanese history. The form I’ve chosen to introduce is called the choka. Choka were long, elegiac poems (in fact choka means the long poem) and the longest ran sometimes over 100 lines! They were usually sung.
The classical choka is formed by writing 5-7 syllables couplets for as many lines as you like ending however with an extra 7 syllable line. There have been variations over the years as to how to write a choka including modern attempts to revive the genre.
Now days when the form is used and interestingly it is often used by English haiku poets, it is used to tell a story, not necessarily an epic or commemorative tale – just a story.
Here’s one of my choka as…
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(c) Tournesol <14
I took another long route to work today. After a snow storm, I love to see the trees covered with thick snow, many streets only one side is plowed. This reminds me when I drove to work at 6pm. I had to move my car to the other side so the snow plow could clear the street. There was usually always a warning, a truck drives up ahead with flashing lights and honks to warn a few drivers to move their vehicle, otherwise they get a hefty ticket.
Today I was in awe at the parks and the trees. Of course I felt sorry for the cyclists because we have many avid winter cyclists who often have trouble finding their bike in the huge snow banks the snow plows created. Today it was wet heavy snow and the streets were slushy. My feet were soaken wet…guess my boots are not as waterproof as I thought.
© Tournesol ’14
© Tournesol ’14
© Tournesol `14
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
