Author Sean Murphy, in his “One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories”, tells us an interesting story about Zen Buddhist master and poet Soen Nakagawa, during his time spent in the U.S.:
“Soen loved to walk around New York City. He’d stare at the lighted skyscrapers, at their tops, he claimed he saw Buddha figures in the lights. “Look at the Buddha,” he’d point, “Shining Buddha!” He’d fill the sleeves of his robes with nuts and berries from Central Park or herbs growing in the sidewalk cracks, and add them to his bowl at the next meal. He loved the musical Fiddler on the Roof, and when asked a question about why some particular point of ceremony needed to be performed in a certain way, he might burst into song, responding “Tradition…!”
Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku
Deadline: 11th July 2018
Poem by Soen Nakagawa https://terebess.hu/english/haiku/nakagawa.html
Picture by Mark Kucharski https://unsplash.com/@markkucharski