Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Buddhist : Zen / Chan 18th Century	About Kobayashi Issa Timeline (1763 - 1828)
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English version by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto Original Language Japanese	From burweed,
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Birth, Rebirth           Recommended Books A Box of Zen: Haiku the Poetry of Zen, Koans the Lessons of Zen, Sayings the Wisdom of Zen, Edited by Manuela Dunn Mascetti / Edited by Timothy Hugh Barrett The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell The Poetry of Zen: (Shambhalla Library), Edited by Sam Hamill / Edited by J. P. Seaton Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter, Translated by Lucien Stryk / Translated by Takashi Ikemoto	From burweed, such a butterfly was born?     -- from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter, Translated by Lucien Stryk / Translated by Takashi Ikemoto Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

Haiku has such a powerful way of discovering great truth in the details of nature. It is a poetry of metaphor. Glimpse it for just a moment and you see the macrocosm reflected by the microcosm, the Eternal in the specific.

One should never be too casual or definite in interpreting the meaning of a haiku. It is like a dream; the meaning is felt, it is immediate, and it reflects something of yourself back to yourself. It resists being overly defined. But I will suggest one possible way of understanding this haiku...

This haiku by Issa is a poem of instant enlightenment. Issa is stunned to recognize that from "burweed" -- the mind, the rough, mud-hugging "weed" filled with burrs of self-thought -- such elegant, diaphanous life and freedom can be born.

This begs the question, how can we bring the "butterfly" to birth? First, we need the Winter of spiritual practice and inturning (the gestation within the cocoon). And we must hold fast to the earth (the mud of the weed), to steadiness, to nature. All that is needed then is to simply wait for the new light of Spring to naturally awaken life, growth, transformation.

May the butterfly be born in us all!

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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