saying
On Haiku as Zen Practice
Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa
Text
Haiku is not poetry. Haiku is Zen. In seventeen syllables, you must capture this moment exactly as it is—no more, no less. If you add your opinion, it is not haiku. If you subtract the reality, it is not haiku. The frog jumps, the water sounds—Basho did not invent this. He simply opened his ears and let the universe write through his brush. When you write haiku, you practice the same thing as zazen: getting out of the way so that reality can express itself.
Attribution
By Nakagawa Soen
From Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa
Sources
Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa: On Haiku as Zen Practice