By his own account the renga master Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) studied Zen, and sometimes dressed as a Zen priest, with his head shaved. New age circles advance the thesis that there is a very strong association between Zen Buddhism and haiku. Master Kobayashi Issa  (1762-1826) lived for several years in monasteries and took his name from the Buddhist ideas of emptiness and change. Basho insisted that a life dedicated to haiku poetry was a "Way" to enlightenment.

If a haiku is a temple, do you go inside to burn insence or to count syllables?

I write haiku in the most straightforward simple way as if I am a beginner! Grateful acceptance is a traditional Buddhist attitude, so I don't try to make my haiku skilfull, intellectual, smart or beautiful. I write haiku with full attention, with an empty mind free of the habits of the so called experts. I see things as they are, in one flash. I face moment after moment and I forget all about rules and teachings... Clear writing gives the reader clear images. Haiku are related to pebbles and soft sand, not to armchair scholars or complicated conceptions.

house altar

on Bhudda’s belly

a mosquito