Thursday, December 31, 2015

A SEA GYPSY HAIKU SAMPLER



by Ray Jason        

           
            It was a most unusual voyage.  I was sailing South in search of a world free of screens.  Still reeling from a month in El Norte, witnessing the tyranny of technology, I needed serenity.  I sought a peaceful lagoon, where people were not submissives - dominated by their TV screens, computer screens and Smart phone screens.
            When the anchor was down in one of my favorite hideaway coves, it felt like a great emancipation – a return to solitude and stillness.  Within a few hours I was absorbing the tranquility of the tiny bay.  I knew that I was truly being cured of the frenzy when the haiku began to flow.

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This ancient form of Japanese poetry has appealed to me since my early days in college, when I was introduced to the great master of the form - Basho.  Basically, the poems are tiny snapshots of Nature.  But in their most exalted moments they speak to the sublime interface of the Human with the Natural.  They amplify the often uncelebrated aspects of the world around us that are elemental, commonplace and eternal.  And they do so with austere elegance.
The most standard form is three lines with the first and last comprised of five syllables and the middle line having seven syllables.  They should be immediate impressions of a real-time encounter with Nature.  They should not be abstract and intellectual.  They also require simplicity rather than ornamentation.  An old adage that expresses this perfectly is: “If the finger that is pointing towards the moon is bejeweled, that to which it is pointing will not be noticed.”

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Monday, December 21, 2015

A PANTHEIST LOOKS AT CHRISTMAS



by Ray Jason           

            As soon as I finish this essay and send it out into the world to find its way, I will begin my own private Christmas celebration.  I will cast off the dock-lines, hoist the sails and head off to a little cove that will bequeath me the wondrous gift of Solitude.  My only companions will be the creatures of the Sea and the Sky and an occasional fisherman drifting by in a cayuco.
            What I will be seeking in this isolation is what has been lost in the current incarnation of Christmas – REVERENCE.  This holiday is supposed to pay homage to the birth date of the founder of Christianity.  But it has steadily deteriorated from a spiritual celebration into a materialistic, consumer frenzy.  It is not about Spirit.  It is about Stuff.       
            The object of my reverence will not be a god or a man-god or a man.  It will be Nature.  Whereas the existence of god cannot be proven, the existence of Nature cannot be denied.  My handsome little sailboat will be moving through it – through the waves of the Sea - powered by the wind from the Sky.  In a very real sense, my boat and I will be cradled by Nature. 

Thursday, December 10, 2015

IT'S NOT JUST A MOVIE


by Ray Jason

Sometimes, when I am anchored alone in the far reaches of the Archipelago of Bliss, I will see a group of Indios gathered around a camp fire sharing stories as the twilight deepens into darkness.  Everything in such a scene is primal and elemental and authentic.  If there are children in the circle, I suspect that the adults are probably passing along their tribal story.  They are teaching the young their shared history and their common values. 
Because language was invented long before writing, the importance of oral story-telling was enormous in our early evolution as a species.  Stories DO MATTER – they are vital in our societal development.  And as humanity has progressed, so has the manner in which our stories are conveyed. 
Tribal campfire instruction was supplanted by medieval theatrical productions.  Shakespeare replaced the shaman.  But it wasn’t long before The Book diminished The Bard.  With the moveable-type printing press, far more people could have access to the shared wisdom accumulated during the human caravan.  In the 20th Century, the written word lost its pre-eminence due to the invention of movies and television.  These tools, that combined moving images with spoken words and music, were far more powerful than the story-telling systems that had preceded them.

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