Faith and Prayer

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Faith and prayer, expressed in Haiku

***** Location: Worldwide
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

discussing FAITH -
the seat of honour
is empty



　©　Photo Gabi Greve, squatting just below the seat
Dharmsala, Dalai Lama Seat, 1979



FAITH in the world -
the Dalai Lama adjusts
his spectacles


Dalai Lama, Visiting Japan, November 2007


Gabi Greve, November 2007

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kitoo 祈祷 is often translated as "prayer"
and some kigo are related to it.
In Japan, official prayers at shrines or temples are often accompanied by ritual dance and other ceremonies.


kigo for the New Year
(according to the Asian lunar calendar, spring was the beginning of the New Year)


harugitoo 春祈祷（はるぎとう）spring prayer
..... gongen mai 権現舞 (ごんげんまい) Gongen Dance
..... gongen sama 権現様（ごんげんさま）
..... kado-uchi 門打（かどうち）
..... ha-uchi 歯打（はうち）
This refers to a ceremony in Tohoku, Northern Japan, where the yamabushi priests dance a special dance, Yamabushi Kagura 山伏神楽 with two people carrying a lion head.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !


kitoo-gitsune 祈祷狐（きとうぎつね）
prayer to the Fox deity (kitsune)
kitsune mai 狐舞 (きつねまい) fox dance
inariyama no shirogitsune 稲荷山の白狐（いなりやまのしろぎつね）
the white fox from Inari mountain

Kitsune and Inari, the Fox Deity of Japan



kigo for late summer

aogitoo 青祈祷 (あおぎとう) "prayer in the green season"
Ceremony on the day of the ox in the sixth monthe of the lunar calendar.
A prayer wand is swished over the green fields, praying to Inari, the deity of good harvest and prayers for a bountiful harvest are spoken by a priest walking through the fields.





inori　いのり prayer

Shared by Nomura Shigeru
Joys of Japan, February 2012



. Rice planting and kigo .


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Dear Friends,

with the beginning of advent (which is not well known in Japan) we are now in a time where the thoughts revolve around our faith.

I would like to argue that each haiku conceived in the right moment is in itself a "short prayer". It might not get you into the top ten of a haiku competition, though.


In Buddhism, we have many ways to express this via haiku, for example Issa and others use the Amida Prayer

Reading the haiku of Issa is a great learning experience for writing haiku about faith.

... Namu Amida Butsu

autumn clouds -
the Lord's Prayer floats
through my mind
Gabi Greve




Meditation is another word used.
We have God, Christmas and Church and many more in the World Kigo Database.

Memorial Days of saints and religious figures are often used as kigo.


I would like to invite you to a discussion about this theme, any faith is welcome, it should not be a discussion about any particular FAITH (or which one is right and wrong, we can not decide that here) but how to express your feelings about it in haiku.
Maybe a little inter-confessional disucssion.

Greetings from Japan
GABI

Contact me privately if you want to contribute without giving your full name.


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the Dalai Lama -
a Buddha in
retirement ?


Question:
You say you are semiretired, but will you ever retire completely? And how would the next leader of the Tibetan people be chosen if you did?

HH answer:
Retirement from the Dalai Lamaship? I cannot retire. (Laughs.) I think when the majority of people do not consider me as the Dalai Lama, then I will retire. (Laughs.) I'm kind of joking.

THE DALAI LAMA
Ocean of wit and wisdoms
Japan Times, December 2, 2007


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Beth Vieira

I happen to be a buddhist so I may not have a different perspective to add.
I believe that interbeing as defined by Thich Nhat Hahn especially is the core of the buddhist faith and that interbeing involves the relatedness of all. This then leads to a natural expression in haiku, for haiku are all about relatedness.
It seems that the tiniest things have the stuff of miracles.

And haiku are uniquely equipped to express that wonder and reverence.

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Isabelle Prondzynski

Dear Gabi san, dear all,

Thank you for bringing up the question of faith in haiku, the "missing" element in the "church" page we created recently...

When giving some guidance to the Kenyan students as they were writing "church" haiku, I asked them to :

> ... see whether a church (one you know or one you do not know) is open when there are NO services (on a week-day). Just go inside, and keep quiet. Maybe have a seat and say a little prayer on your own. Sit and look around you. Or get up and walk around quietly, looking at the church. Do not talk, unless someone greets you.
>
> See some of the details of the building. Are there any insects about? Is there a particular smell? Any flowers? Be aware of the small things in the church, and remain conscious of the atmosphere. An atmosphere of prayer? Of faith? What does the stillness on a quiet day in church tell you? Focus on what you see, hear, touch, smell. And write about it when it has spoken to you!

There are a few I wrote recently in a church I visit quite often, such as :

placing a candle --
the warmth of the flames
on this cold day

candle prayer --
with every passing step
the flames move

These haiku remain at the level of the observation and, to my mind, do not necessarily speak of faith.

Here is an older one of mine which speaks from faith, but it is too wordy, and it generalises rather than focusing on the moment :

God is an artist --
over concrete city squares
he lightly paints clouds

A bit later, this was a reflection in a Japanese hot spring, as I relaxed and enjoyed warmth and peace on a Good Friday night :

Good Friday night
soaking in the hot spring --
you were arrested


Or a lovely view during an Advent service :

Advent service --
the ecstatic face
of a toddler


A book of haiku, "Small World", written by Dermot O'Brien, a poet residing in a monastery in Ireland, is more explicit in some of his haiku. Here is an (almost) seasonal one :

Announced by angels
and a miraculous star light
from another world

At this stage of learning and writing, my inclination is to follow Gabi sensei's advice (if I have understood it well...), using observation and the present tense, sketching from the world around
me. It would be my delight if some of these sketches came to contain a deeper meaning that allowed the reader a glimpse of my faith.
At this stage, I am not yet far advanced on that road...

And aware also that the word "faith" has very different meanings for people of different faiths (by which I do not just mean different religions)...

Glad to have this discussion!
It would be great to read how others write haiku expressing their faith.

Isabelle.
(Happy Haiku Forum)

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Discussion Isabelle / Chibi

Dear Gabi san, dear all,

Thank you, Gabi, for a beautiful reflection on faith and haiku.

> I would like to argue that each haiku conceived in the right moment is in itself a "short prayer".

I would agree... right moment and right spirit... What you say, makes huge sense to me.

> Haiku should be haiku-like (whatever that is ... grin ).
> That does not exclude writing directly about our religious experience in a special moment, if there was one.

Yes, agree here too. What all this means, is perhaps for us to find out!

Chibi san, thank you for your thoughtful remarks too.

Chibi:
> The English word, FAITH, has many meanings with many
> layers to me.
> I tend to look a FAITH as a culturally defined aspect of notions
> within humanity. To explain by example questions: Can a dog have
> FAITH? A tree? An ocean? A rock? A mountain? Yet, depending on
> the culture... these can/may be granted diety power and knowlege.


My reaction would be that the tree, ocean, rock, and mountain you mention probably do not HAVE faith, but they can be OBJECTS of faith, i.e. people (or animals?) can have faith in them.

Perhaps at the moment I see fewer layers of meaning in the word FAITH. Faith, to me, is a belief and a trust. The same sentiment is there at heart when one talks about one's religious faith ("I have faith in God"), the faith one has in another human ("I have great faith in my partner as a sound judge of human character"), or the faith one has in a concept ("I have great faith in the human survival instinct, which will get us out of this tricky situation").

Chibi:
> How does FAITH "connect" to HAIKU? I think the simple answer is
> through the culturals' filter(s) learned-embued by/to an individual.

> I believe (if I am allowed to venture to use the word FAITH in this
> context) and have FAITH that the best HAIKU enters the empty heart.
> There is a precedence implied in my assertion that the empty heart
> comes first allowing that emotional moment to seep into the vessel
> of the heart (sometimes it is more a gush than a seep). It is that
> emotional essence from which the best HAIKU is sipped and
> transmuted into words and form ~or~ in reVERSE that the best HAIKU
> words are transmuted back into that essential moment to fill the
> empty heart. Either way, requires first the heart to be empty.

I may not have fully understood what you are saying here. It makes sense, but I also see sense elsewhere... For instance, if the heart is full (e.g. of joy, of love, of wisdom...), what it sees will be
coloured by the fulness of the heart. And this perception, coloured by the heart, can lead to beautiful haiku.

That is how I read Gabi's :

sacred gingko tree <>
a prayer falls
with every leaf

If the heart were not already full of awe or love of the sacred, the notion of prayer would not arise...

Perhaps, Beth san, this is where Thich Nhat Hanh's interbeing comes in... that tree, that leaf, are also part of me, their falling and my prayer are one, while I am aware of that leaf, that tree, that sacredness. He says it all so much better...


Chibi:
> BUT... if by FAITH you mean RELIGION and all its trappings, well,
> then, that is beyond my perview to pontificate.

The trappings ARE not faith, but they can be an aid to people in their faith. Many objects can do this -- old well-thumbed Bibles, the gestures of a priest at a Holy Communion service, church music, sacred dance, candles, as well as so many other things in many cultures and religions.

And if a haiku written about any of these is read by someone for whom they have the same meaning, then faith can touch faith...

In Kenya, certain trees are associated with worship. They grow wide and old, and are always held in awe, even now in this era of Christianity. The colonialists cut them down and built churches in their place -- and many are the stories of the church buildings which brought sorrow and grief to the communities around them... earthquakes, floods, or even collapsing for no apparent reason. The tree IS not faith, but it helps people in their faith. The cathedral where I work in Nairobi, when planning new buildings, designed the whole complex around one of those old sacred trees, which now holds a place of honour in the Cathedral compound.

You can see a couple of photos here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/


Thank you for this discussion. I am so grateful. It is in discussion, interbeing with others, that I find it easier to grow...

Wishing you many beautiful haiku, this Advent!

Isabelle.



Chibi has brought the notion of an empty/full heart into the discussion.
Here is a page of our database to reconsider these concepts:

MU, Nothingness, the Void.....無

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Gabi writes:

Consider this

Religion taking care of the needs of us humans:

A Japanese baby is taken to the Shinto shrine for its first "Visit to the divine", a couple is married with a "Christian" touch in a chapel (no need to be a real Christian to get this "service") and the last way leads to a Buddhist cemetery.

I think religion in all its cultural varieties caters to the needs of humans in diverse societies, whereas my faith expresses my personal dealings with the divine or the non-divine, if I include atheism, marxism etc. here too.

I have always wondered about my "Buddhist" friends living in Christian Germany.




by the way, my haiku about ...

sacred gingko tree -
a prayer falls
with every leaf

some friends wondered,

a prayer is something that always rises !!

mmm, how about a prayer to mother earth?
or to the god of the ocean?
or a prayer going straight WEST to the paradise of Amida ? .... smile

a prayer rises ...
like smoke
into thin air


...............and some friends wondered

Leaves saying prayers?

I guess there can be four possibilities
(take this with a BIG grain of salt)

leaves say no prayers and individuals can not hear them
(natural scientists ... )

leaves say no prayers, but individuals hear them anyway
(poets ... )

leaves say prayers, but individuals can not hear them
(the usual me ... )

leaves say prayers and individuals can hear them
(mystics, those who know ...)


GABI


And by chance today in the newspaper, December 5

Globalization of ethics can bond regions
HANS KUNG


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Things found on the way


facing a cold wind
Virgin of Guadalupe
on faithful shoulders

Larry Bole

The Virgin of Guadalupe . . . Haibun by Larry Bole
Mexican Kannon


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HAIKU

a frog farting -
this too is the
voice of Buddha

a frog farting -
this too is the
voice of God


The second would be a Christian version of it.

©　Gabi Greve, 2005
Buddha and the voice of God


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mountain temple -
a prayer overgrown
with moss

　©　Photo and Haiku : Gabi Greve, August 2008
Mountain Temple Nage-Ire Do


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sacred gingko tree -
a prayer falls
with every leaf

　© Gabi Greve, LOOK HERE !


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Kobayashi Issa about not saying your prayers . . .
Tr. David Lanoue

世の中や祈らぬ野分きっと吹
yo no naka ya inoranu nowaki kitto fuku

in this world
unprayed-for autumn gales
surely blow


夕立や祈らぬむらは三度迄
yuudachi ya inoranu mura wa san do made

cloudbursts--
the village that doesn't pray
gets three


夕立の祈らぬ里にかかる也
yuudachi no inoranu sato ni kakaru nari

rainstorm--
hanging over the village
that doesn't pray


This hokku is Issa's only hokku written on 6/2/1806, a day after the biggest festival of the year for believers in Fuji-kou (富士講), a popular religion in the Edo area in Issa's time based . . .

. fujikoo　富士講 Fujiko in Edo .
groups of Mt. Fuji worshippers, Fuji pilgrims
devotional Fuji confraternities



yuudachi no inoranu sato ni kakaru nari

violent rainstorm
hits the town
even before I pray

It seems that it was Issa himself rather than the town in question who didn't pray.
... what Issa was going to pray the day after was at a tomb stone of a lady he loved long time ago. Her name is inscribed as 「香誉夏月明寿信女」.
More over, it was the 25th year after her death. Seemingly the people of the village had prayed on the day. Issa didn't want to come across with those people there. So he stalled his prayer, and alas, rainstorm came.....

- Shared by Hideo Suzuki -
Joys of Japan, 2012


The tomb is at temple Senpuku-Ji 専福寺 and the lady in question was probably O-HISA san おひさ, who died too early and left Issa at age 20, finding him now, at age 44, back at her grave.
The temple had been founded in 1504 by 槃誉久悦 to pray to Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of the Pure Land.
The haiku by Issa was probably written while he stayed at Urga 浦賀.


- Reference -


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fierce sun outside
sitting alone silent
on the floor


Guyana is experience a periodical weather condition called El Nino and the local sun is unusually hot. However I still have to do my meditation sometimes in the afternoon when I am free. I understand that "sitting" mentioned in the early japanese haiku means meditation mostly. I would like to tap into these "sitting" haiku.
I think of it as a silent prayer without desire for anything .

Kenneth Daniels (GY)
source : Kigo Hotline

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a trail of blood
from the altar to the door --
church grenade blast

Brian Etole
Kenya, spring 2012


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Related words

***** . Lingam worship in India .

***** Puja, pooja, prayer India


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