Cloudscape Record
Introduction
This is the beginning of a series of excerpts from CLOUDSCAPE RECORD, a haibun-style journal of a 50-day meditation course led by my Zen teacher in the spring of 2022. This book was printed January 2024.
From the preface—
There are aesthetic expressions of Zen practice called ways, one of which is “the way of poetry.” To practice this art requires the same meditative mind. There was even a saying among the ancient poets that “Zen and poetry are one.” But what that is, ironically, transcends language. The haiku poet Bashō once said poetry is “a realm which cannot be taught; you must pass through it yourself.” Another poet before him said that to learn the way is to “clarify the mind by immersing it in that realm.” The poet tends to express this immersion with as few words as possible, only tracing the outlines, suggesting a fragrance.
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