Haiku-dô

El haiku como camino espiritual

Vicente Haya

About the book:

Haiku-dô

This book presents us with 70 Japanese haikus as 70 enigmas waiting to be deciphered. Convinced that any effort to reveal the meaning of a haiku has as its result the unveiling of the heart that attempts it. That is the mirror quality of the haiku. No one has the necessary resources to decipher a haiku's perfection. We can only empty ourselves and stand before it as if it were a mirror. We are the enigma that the haiku's beauty should decipher. Only thinking in this way can we become a little less of an enigma for ourselves. For that reason not only the writing of haikus but also the study of those that others write, can become a spiritual path for us.

At the end of this meticulous examination of 70 paradigmatic examples of haikus that challenge our comprehension, what emerges is that the Japanese haiku always has been a spiritual path, a way of spiritual advancement, a form of training for the “self”, a process of awakening of the senses, of attention, of naturalness, of authenticity, of patience, of detachment, of extinction of vanity… The haiku masters teach us that the poet should remove himself from the poetry, for the verses to capture the dynamic essence of reality. 

About the author:

Vicente Haya is the author of El corazón del haiku (“The heart of the haiku”, Mandala, 2002), Saborear el agua: 100 haikus de un monje zen (“Savouring the water: 100 haikus by a zen monk”, Hiperion, 2004), Haiku: la vía de los sentidos (“Haiku: the way of the senses”) Fundación Alfonso el Magnanim, 2005), Haikus japoneses de vuelo mágico (“The magical flight of Japanese haikus”, Azul, 2006) and El espacio interior del haiku (“The inner space of the haiku”, Shinden, 2004). He has collaborated previously with Akiko Yamada in El monje desnudo: 100 haikus (“The naked monk: 100 haikus”, Miraguano, 2006).