SHIZEN

Haiku, as understood by Japanese tradition, is a form of worship of "the sacred," which manifests itself incessantly, and provokes in us that wonder whose mystical nature is unraveled in these pages. Through cultivating the poetic art of haiku, we begin a path of contemplation in Nature and toward Nature. It is not about intensely gazing at any object, but rather about "being." The world is an effervescent reality that offers us the possibility of vibrating with it, of being part of the change, the transformation of the Whole, of the life that surrounds us and beats within us. And it is essential to understand that this contemplation is not the contemplation of an orphaned and abandoned "I." If there is anything that haiku teaches us, it is that we are not helpless in this world, because we too are part of the mystery.