Healing and therapy

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Healing and Therapy through Haiku

The motto of my own haiku forum is:

A Haiku a day keeps the Doctor away!
And a Happy Haiku works Wonders on a Weary Soul.

. Haiku Forum : Musings about Happiness .


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The Healing Spirit of Haiku
David H. Rosen, Joel Weishaus, Arthur Okamura

For David H. Rosen and Joel Weishaus, haiku represents a healing union of intuition and sensation, past and present, self and other, ordinary and extraordinary, and current and ancient memories. In this simple, compelling book, the authors, who have lived and traveled extensively in Japan, offer 172 haikus that resonate with Zen Buddhist, Shinto, and Taoist insights. Underscoring the philosophy "moments, moments, that is life," the book takes readers beyond the ego into a healing realm of simple, archetypal words.
This book is a haibun of psyche, an exchange of poetry and prose between two old friends who set out to accomplish a soulful journey together.
source :　www.amazon.co.jp


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Friends have asked about the healing effect of haiku and its use in therapy:

Question:
does anyone here know where I can find literature about haiku and psychotherapy?

source : facebook




CLICK for more : Healing and Haiku

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temple in summer -
the power of healing
in prayer and stone

夏の寺　祈りと石に癒されし

Tempel im Sommer -
die Kraft der Heilung
in Gebet und Stein


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quote
The Breath of Surrender:
A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku
edited by Robert Epstein, Published by MET Press

In The Breath of Surrender, haiku poet and psychotherapist Robert Epstein brings together the haiku and recovery communities, whose unique perspectives expand our appreciation of the world within and around us. Whether new to, or widely traveled on, the path of recovery, readers will discover new wholes in their lives sparked by the courage, strength and hope in these inspiring poems.

Baltimore, Maryland November 4, 2009
The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku edited by Robert Epstein has been published as a trade paperback by MET Press of Baltimore, Maryland. Often described as
"wordless" due to its brevity and directness, haiku poetry highlights, and celebrates, our often unseen connection with nature.
Recovery from the hell realms of addiction: alcohol, drugs, sex, shopping, over-eating, makes possible a reunion with life and one's fellow beings.

In The Breath of Surrender he first collection of its kind Haiku poet and psychotherapist Robert Epstein brings together the haiku and recovery communities, whose unique perspectives
expand our appreciation of the world within and around us. Whether new to, or widely traveled on, the path of recovery, readers will discover new wholes in their lives sparked by the courage, strength and hope in the inspiring poems that fill these pages.

"The addicted brain is a museum of distorted pictures. Recovery brings forth a new framing of images that is well-captured in this unique collection of poems.
Those at every stage of recovery can hang these poetic images on the mental walls that have been left so bare by addiction."
Fred Von Stieff, MD, MBA,

About Author:
Robert Epstein is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who practices psychotherapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked in the field of recovery treatment since 1980. ...
source : haikuinformation

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There is a Zen story about
how a single breath can free us
from the confines of our intellectualizing
and unite us with all creation.

Tokusan was a brilliant scripture scholar who went to study with Zen Master Ryutan.
One night as Tokusan was leaving to go home to bed after a long evening of discussion, he noticed that it was pitch black outside. Zen master Ryutan lit a lantern and handed it to Tokusan. Just as Tokusan reached for the lantern, Ryutan blew it out.

In that moment, Tokusan experienced enlightenment and bowed in gratitude.

Tokusan realized that he was not dependent upon words and teachings to light the way for him. Even in times of darkness, he could experience his essential nature directly and be a lamp unto himself.



Ellen Birx in "Healing Zen"
Buddhist Wisdom on Compassion, Caring, and Caregiving for Yourself and Others


haiku -
a single breath
can free us


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early morning -
the healing power
of birdsong


Morgenfrühe -
die heilende Kraft
des Gesangs der Vögel


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quote
Shoma Morita, founder of Morita therapy,
and haiku poet Shiki:
origin of Morita therapy.

A hypothesis that Shiki's struggle for life probably influenced the creation of Morita therapy is presented. Although Morita had no personal acquaintance with Shiki, they did have three common friends in Terada, Wakao and Katori. Considering this, as well as the renown of Shiki's works, Morita likely knew much of Shiki and may have been deeply impressed by his approach to life. Several essential concepts of Morita therapy such as absolute bed-rest, anguish and deliverance,
"Aru ga mama," "Jijitsu Yuishin," desire to live, and
the importance of keeping a diary can be found in Shiki's lifestyle and in his literary theory.

Moriyama N.
SourceYahata Kosei Hospital, Kitakyushu, Japan.
source : ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed


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Things found on the way



Iyashi no Haiku 癒しの俳句 Healing Haiku


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Reference :
- Haiku and Psychotherapy


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HAIKU

Healing power of spring green

powerful buds
today’s green is
different
.
all shades of green -
the painter
in silence
.
hugging a tree
hugging a forest
hugging the world

Gabi Greve, Spring 2004


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Related words

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- Time and Space

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Time and Space




Japanese haiku are usually placed in the present tense.
. AHA, the HAIKU MOMENT .


The concept of shasei, sketching from life, also places a haiku in the present.
. Sketching from Nature , SHASEI 写生 .


And we have the time-space shifting MA:
. MA　間, the pause created by a cut marker .


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There are however haiku that talk about the past or the future.
Let us look at some of them here.

Many use the word yagate やがて /軈て／頓て
eventually, after that, in the course of time
in due time


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the FUTURE


やがて死ぬけしきは見えず蝉の声
yagate shinu keshiki wa miezu semi no koe

shrilling of cicadas -
they show no sign
of dying soon
Tr. Gabi Greve

soon to die
yet no sign of it
cidada's chirp

Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉

- Translation reference -


おもしろうてやがて悲しき鵜舟かな
omoshiroote yagate kanashiki u-bune kana


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初蝶もやがて烏の扶食哉
hatsu choo mo yagate karasu no fujiki kana

first butterfly--
before long some crow's
snack

Shiinji Ogawa helped me understand this brutal haiku:
that sooner or later the first butterfly (or butterflies) will be eaten by a crow (crows).
Issa's poem recalls W. B. Yeats's lines,
"Cast a cold eye/ on life, on death!"

Tr. David Lanoue



waga ue ni yagate sakuran koke no hana


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the PAST

月いづく鐘は沈める海の底
tsuki izuku kane wa shizumeru umi no soko

where is the full moon?
the war bell has sunk
to the bottom of the sea


Basho often alludes to events of the past.

. Basho in Kanegasaki, Tsuruga .


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quote
By ROGER PULVERS

Japanese artistry, by design,
melds time and space into all its creations
Among the greatest of Japan's gifts to the world is surely the gift of design.

..... From the time Japan opened its doors to the outside world at the end of the feudal Edo Period (1603-1868) — after more than 200 years in which it was a capital offence to leave or enter the country without authority from the very highest level — people in Europe, America and China, in particular, became bewitched by the culture of Japan.

This was because they saw how Japanese culture brilliantly combined the abstract design of scale and the passage of time itself with a level of mastery in technique that had not been seen before. Indeed, to me, Japanese design is no less than design of space and time itself. This may sound rather obtuse, so let me explain.
.....
One feature of Japanese aesthetics that redesigns time is totsuzensa (suddenness).
Japanese culture is full of the unexpected, the unpredictable. In the traditional performing arts of kabuki and bunraku it can take the form of an instant transformation from one state or form to another — as when one character becomes another, such as a ghost. In ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), it is often evident in the poses and grimaces in the scene, capturing an unexpected instant of high drama.

The art of the haiku, too, which has become a universal symbol of Japanese emotional expression, beautifully illustrates the design of space and time in the engineering of scale.

Consider Issa Kobayashi's (1763-1827) haiku that jumps from the face of a traveler to the sky above:

Asleep with a fan
Across the face
The moon on the sea

Another poet who, in his haiku, presents startling images that redesign the spatial relationship between things was Shiki Masaoka (1867-1902). What is big? What is small? It all depends on your perspective and your personal viewpoint.

Sometimes, Shiki would present a spatial stretch of the imagination, but always in the presence of nature:

The snail is enticing
Rain clouds
With its antennae

Or sometimes he would offer a painterly scene in which the changing light plays a part:

Locusts buzz
The paths between the rice fields
As the daylight dims

Another characteristic of Japanese aesthetics, as is so sublimely evident in the following two haiku by Shiki, is the manipulation of color in order to achieve incongruity, contrast in scale and visual starkness:

The mountains in summer
All creation green ...
But a red bridge

And:

Hydrangeas
Pale blue in the rain
Bright blue under the moon

I would define haiku as "the redesign of space and time in 17 syllables."
By redesigning space in this way, Japanese culture places humans (including us who read the haiku, view the picture or observe the performance) properly in nature, as one small element with a highly personal viewpoint.

Only art can slow or prolong the ticking of the clock and allow people to appreciate their place in the scheme of the world; and Japanese art has demonstrated this ability in ways no other civilization has done.
source : Japan Times, December 11, 2011


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quote
Susumu Takiguchi writes:

silk strand
suddenly I've become
a puppeteer
an'ya

Amidst the flood of praise for this haiku of yours, may I add a comment on a question which is seldom discussed, and may well have been never pointed out before. The question is a non-Japanese convention of recommending the use of present tense, or 'present', in haiku-writing. This is one of the many conventions which WHC has been challenging into having a good review and reassessment, at least not accepting as a received gospel.

One of the reasons why your 'spiderweb silk' haiku is a success is the fact that you used present perfect. We Japanese, write, and have written for centuries, haiku in past tense as a routine. Even if we write some haiku in what 'appears' to be in present tense, it can be because of some grammatical convenience or of constraint of brevity and in 'real terms' it could still point to a past point.

What feels very much like the English present perfect (i.e. something already happened in the past but it is still in the same state such as the famous crow haiku in that the crow perched on the branch some time ago, and Basho may well have witnessed it, and he is still in the same state of perching there) is often used in Japanese haiku and is very effective.The convention of emphasising the present tense or 'present' in haiku comes straight from R. H. Blyth and Harold G. Henderson.

Fifty years on, we should review their views and reassess them properly, not to down or disown them but to respect them.
Compare, an'ya, your haiku 'spiderweb silk', or
Basho's on a bare branch /crow haiku.

Susumu Takiguchi, the World Haiku Club

source : sites.google.com/site/existencearts


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