Daniel Ladinsky

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A MYSTICAL VISION & HAIKU MIND

I wanted to share a mystical vision I once had, and first made public (where some may think was an odd spot) via a ”customer's review" at Amazon. It was for a book titled, The Path of Love by Meher Baba, and sometimes appears in the top five customer’s reviews for the book. My review was on April 12, 2010, and is tilted: I saw who he was. Click below to read it. 

https://www.amazon.com/Path-Love-Meher-Baba/dp/1880619237/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2QB8C00MZK2GG&keywords=the+path+of+love+Meher+Baba&qid=1680456688&sprefix=the+path+of+love+meher+baba+%2Caps%2C243&sr=8-1

This Mystical Vision is surely one of the very greatest in my life. Only one other was even more profound and intimate. That was when God-Hafiz gave me in the most extraordinary of ways a divine mandate to:  

                             “Give a message to 'My' (God's) artists and seekers.”

And then God drenched me with the astounding effulgent light from His/Her/Its heart that I needed to do the work. It has been like I have had— a golden ink well that I sincerely feel has affected anything I have ever written, published, or ever will. Since then, I have written some 10,000-12,000 poems that consist of a lot of free style haiku, and a theater play that may have a chance at getting turned into a film someday. 

My writing include many possible book titles that I may never complete myself, or may ever get published. One title was: The Most Beautiful Prayers In The World. That sounds like a nice one. Or a more playful one: The Moon Is On A Kite String You Hold, Zen Haiku & Chat. 

Here is a sample of one of my free style haiku. I sometimes try and write them from what I think could be the experience of a real Zen master, which I am not at all, but for a moment now and then, I can feel and imagine. This one is about enlightenment, weightlessness, ego-lessness, or, as Hafiz said, knowing:

                               'That ground of Illumined Conscious Nothing,

                                         where the Rose* does ever bloom."

  sitting on a tiny branch

     i bend it now less  

         than a sparrow

I like that one. It does seem literally about enlightenment. And would not real enlightenment allow one to sit anywhere, weightlessthe way pure spirit might?

*Rose can be a symbol for Buddha or God. The Rose is used in Persian poetry as a poetic symbol for Jesus. So that line could be read in this beautiful mystical way:

             There is a ground of conscious nothing

                     where God does ever bloom. 

             

And here is one more haiku. Well, now added several and most brand new, written as I moved down this page:

a zen master

   midair on a butterfly wing

      is high-fiving everyone

    ***

hovering over the lake

   those dragonfly wings i found

       are working

               ***

the sun and moon

   a wing, and i their

      divine body

           ***

sweet the kisses

   from the moon

     perched on my shoulder

    ***

love will reveal

   you are

     everything

            ***

i like those earrings

   buddha wears

      Venus and Mars

            *** 

i like kneeling 

   in the desert

      with the snow

           *** 

i beat the rooster

   to crowing

     this morning

    ***

we rose     

    holding hands laughing

       some suns and I 

            

Yeah, got some maybe 8,000 of these little haiku mutants. They are fun to write. I have many times recommended and given away the book: Haiku Mind, by Patricia Donegan to younger writers. She is a well-credentialed scholar. She endorses the classic 5-7-5 haiku format, but also encourages using just three short lines that might get you onto the poetic dance floor, where this world can seem a better place, and your heart and eye, more centered and glad. 

A haiku can distill a mountain into a jewel you then can carry in your pocket. Which now reminds me; well writing it right now:

a mountain sits

   on a shelf in my mind

      an ocean too

           ***

buddha feeling frisky 

     jumped into 

       my coffee cup

              ***

swimming with

   the whales today

      a thousand miles inland

             ***

that rock was glad

   someone could 

       listen to it 

           ***  

my wild kittens

   turned into stars 

        that like tuna

            ***

 

 a haiku can jump over

     the moon the way

         a satori can

    ***

a good haiku can be

    a ride on a giant

      waterslide

All the more reason to try and write some and wave to us from the sky— to give us a high five, like a Zen master midair on a butterfly wingAnd splash some eshq* on us too — from your countenance!  

*eshq means: loooooooove!

And true: 

Buddha and all, in some ways, are on a kite string we hold. Hey, reel a god in when needed.

sitting so still

   an angel perched 

       on me  

And isn't the very heart of Buddhism and all esoteric paths based upon in part, just four words:

sit until

  you 

    know

Or at least till an angel sees you are a golden limb, and maybe builds a nest there.

sweet the sun

   and the mountains

      built a nest in me

And something of an old favorite of mine is:

consciously walking

   buddha tickles

       feet

           ***

And one more my teacher inspired and could be wonderfully expounded upon, and I once did (from some things he said), and maybe will blog that someday. That haiku was:

 

an ant decided 

    to no longer 

       carry the elephant

Hey, that sounds like enlightenment too0! With a very in-part annotation being: the elephant is the great burden of not loving.

And OOOO gosh—one more, that guess just wanted to say hello:

the moon a magic coin

   that filled

      my begging bowl

Yes, let the miracle of beauty, of existence, give to you more!