Socrates: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”
We are increasingly driven by distraction and competing demands on our time and thinking. Our ability to take time for ourselves is as challenging and necessary as it has ever been.
Lucy takes her grandmother’s extended hand and enters the well-tended generations old family garden for an early morning stroll. The old woman points to the wonders surrounding them– the smells, colors, butterflies, strawberries, bees, and an occasional worm, that make the garden a magical land.
“You see so many wonderful things, Grandma.”
“I am seeing these wonderful things because I can’t walk very fast.”
Carving out a space to slow down and gather our thoughts and emotions can help us see and experience wonderful things. This truth has become more real and important to me as I age. I find solitude as I take time for myself in early morning walks around the park near our home. Walking slowly I watch flowers open themselves to the sun, listen to small birds sing, and smell fresh grass as it welcomes a new day.
On most all these walks I take with me a selected haiku poem that enhances self-reflection as I rest on a park bench surrounded by the beauty nature offers.
So, just what is haiku? The art of haiku had its genesis in Japan over 700 years ago. In the seventeenth century through the genius of the poet, Basho, it blossomed into full perfection. In today’s world hundreds of thousands of haikus are published each year.
The word Haiku means “to trace a journey.” Haiku follows two paths: 1) visible images observed on the path and, 2) invisible images that move through the traveler’s mind during the journey.
The seeming simplicity and brevity of the short three line haiku poems simultaneously challenges us to see the world outside while teaching us to take time for ourselves. It provides an avenue through which each of us in our own way can realize and examine the hidden within ourselves, providing tender clarity. Haiku poetry brings each reader unique and personal insight.
BASHO (1644-1694)
In 1666 the Japanese poet Basho’s master teacher and closest friend, Lord Segin, died suddenly. Following his death Basho went to the monastery at Koyasan and “renounced the world.” A few years later he appeared in the sacred city, Kyoto, where he refined and evolved the art of haiku and started his own school at age 30.
In 1681 Basho pronounced his life as “too worldly” and began the serious study of Zen. A year later he began taking month-long journeys on foot where he paused and wrote such haiku as the following:
The long night;
the sound of the water
says what I think
ISSA (1762-1826)
Sixty-eight years after Basho’s death, Issa was born. Rejected by family, Issa lived in poverty, and in his solitude he shared his inner most emotions. It is said of Issa, “He opens his soul to us, revealing ours, and that is why we love him.”
Now that I am old
I am envied by people—
oh, but it’s cold!
Issa’s haiku accompanies me in my aging.
RYOKAN (1758-1831)
Issa’s contemporary, the Japanese hermit, Ryokan, was also beloved. He was a wanderer who un-self-consciously played games with children and lived in a lonely hut in the forest where the roof leaked and the walls were covered with scratchy ineligibly written poems. He wrote of lice on his chest, insects in the grass, and expressed the most natural human feelings of sadness, loneliness, bewilderment.
However, even when robbed, Ryokan is still rich.
The thief
left it behind—
the moon at the window.
The moon at the window, where quiet resides, offers a space to relax and absorb the beauty in the sky above and the spirit within.
An anonymous monk supplements the haiku insights of the masters as he finishes eating and puts aside his bowl saying: “If I ate all the time, there would be no time to pause, reflect, and digest. Such moments are food for the spiritual life. There is a time to put a lid on the bowl.”
The once young Lucy is now an old woman sitting by the moonlit window observing the dimly lit family garden below. It is the same garden were so many years ago her grandmother held her hand, taught her to walk slowly, take time for herself, and absorb the healing and restorative power found in sharing space with the ants and butterflies.
Lucy reflects on how garden walks influenced her life as they did her grandmother’s before her. The haiku poet Basho and the contemporary poet Mitsu Suzuki come to her mind. Oh how many times she had read their poetry while resting on a garden bench.
Lucy remembers that in 1686 Basho returned to the home of his master after a twenty year absence. Basho walked where he and Lord Segin had worked and played amongst the cherry trees.
Many, many things
they bring to mind-
cherry blossoms!
MITSU SUZUKI (1914-2016)
Lucy is inspired by the 101 years of life Mitsu Suzuki lived. Mitsu Zuzuki expressed the complexity and depth of her life through haiku. Her life story is well worth exploring. Friends called her an “unrepeatable marvel.” Near the end of her life she wrote in her book, A White Tea Bowl:
No limit
To kindness—
Winter violets
Mitsu Zuzuki took time to know herself and through that knowledge express kindness to others.
We become what we think. How we live life, what we take from it and give back, forms our emotions and our actions. The great haiku masters, the monk with his bowl, and the slow walking grandmother, all understood the importance and power of the pause, taking quality time to “know thyself.” Such masters can help guide us home, to the place where the heart is kept.
(This article was inspired by the universal spirit expressed both externally and internally at the Tokyo Olympics.)
Written by: Hartzell Cobbs
The Moon at the Window
About the Author: With a sprinkling of exuberance and vitality, Dr. Cobbs is an accomplished author of three books and numerous articles published in different venues throughout his life. Dr. Cobbs’ first book, Thanatos and the Sage: A spiritual approach to Aging (2008), offers a thought-provoking interpretation of the interplay between how to live life with meaningful intentions and the eventuality of coming to terms with death. His second book, Ravenwind (2019) delves into the raven’s role as it relates to Native American myths, legends, and folktales and global history. His reflections on the spirituality of living and dying depicted in his books are threaded throughout the short essays posted on the website for “Smart Strategies for Successful Living” and in his latest book, The Moon at the Window.
Smart Strategies for Successful Living provides an international format for writers to share research, thoughts, and experiences on aging well. One of our writers, Hartzell Cobbs, has compiled and edited articles from the past four years and put them in book form. “The book reveals the thoughts and emotions old age has dealt me” says Hartzell. “I have been surprised by how many aging people have similar experiences to my own.” The book has its genesis in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, and concludes with reflections in the silence of the Arizona desert.
The book, The Moon at the Window, is now available at: CLICK HERE.
For additional information: CLICK HERE.
On behalf of Smart Strategies for Successful Living, a special thanks goes to Hartzell Cobbs for his brilliant works as a guest writer and for donating the book royalties from “The Moon at the Window” to us. We greatly treasure his talents and generous support of our website.