Foreword
I love Haikus. This short form of Japanese poetry can easily inspire and create images in our minds on which we can meditate upon. Sometimes, the image can bring about a realization, a short glimpse of satori, a window into Buddha-Nature, Enlightenment or emptiness. This book is for anyone who walks on a spiritual path, seeking the Truth and wanting to expand his consciousness.
During the creation of this book, I felt the need of organizing everything in chapters. Eventually I came up with 29, all related to virtues, human traits and spiritual terms. The haiku poems are meant to generate perspectives, views of the world, landscapes, states of mind or states of being. As you read through, you can choose any of them for your practice throughout your day, or maybe to meditate upon. They are great little spiritual companions that can guide or help us on our path.
The way I recommend reading the haikus is the following: choose a chapter, and start reading on them one by one, with a pause for meditation after each. You can take as much time as you want to meditate upon them, according to how much you resonate with the message in that particular haiku. They were all written with great attention and care, mostly in silence or in a meditative state, while looking for the deeper meaning of the chapter where they were included. May these poems that I wrote with much love, help you in your spiritual practice and guide your heart on the path of beauty and exquisiteness. Namaste
Acceptance
One of the most important spiritual tools in the hands of the spiritual practitioner is acceptance. Acceptance begins with letting go and surrendering to any aspect of our life that we reject or push away. By letting go, by surrendering, we become free of that which grasps upon us. We thus can go beyond aggression, sadness, rejection, hatred and so on.
One of the most important aspects of acceptance is the acceptance of the present moment, just the way it is. Surrendering to what is, will soon create the space in our lives where we can start to manifest consciously in the present moment, anything that we wish, no matter what the circumstances previously were.
Awareness
The importance of awareness in our spiritual practice is undeniable. In meditation, we practice being aware of our breath. In being present or mindful we are being aware of the present moment. Awareness is the most important tool that precedes mindfulness, wisdom, and contemplation.
Awareness brings us closer to acting consciously; the more aware we are, the more we act in our best interest, manifesting what we desire and taking advantage of the time that has been given to us. By paying attention now, we also respond better in critical situations and we can be more focused on our tasks. Spiritual insight can only occur when we are aware of the space that is around us, because awareness connects us to the conscious plane of existence, which is in itself, basically, the spiritual realm.
Once an old Zen master only said: "Pay attention! Pay attention! Pay attention!". This was his most valuable teaching, directing his students on the path of awareness, where one gradually learns more and more about his life and walks with steady confidence, on his spiritual path.
Buddha-nature
That underlying place that exists in all of us, that basic and fundamental goodness, that sanity of mind, that joyful state of being where one feels complete in every way is called in Buddhism, Buddha-nature. It can be reached, understood and fully experienced once one is awakening or has reached the Awakened state (often called Enlightenment or Salvation).
When the being is liberated of all the veils that keep it unaware of its spiritual legacy and it can finally experience its natural state of being, where the unsurpassable joy of just existing manifests, one can experience exquisite mental clarity and an open heart that feels the love that exists everywhere, in any circumstance and situation of our life.
Buddha-nature is what we all share at all times, be it we are aware of it or not. It is our most fundamental layer of being, that understands and talks the language of love, compassion, wisdom, and peace.
Compassion
The sister of unconditional love, compassion usually comes to those who have experienced a lot of suffering or have seen suffering around them. Compassion can be more easily understood as a mixture of sacred love mixed with wisdom and kindness.
Compassion basically means extending your unconditional love and kindness upon the ones who suffer. Being compassionate towards anyone shows great spiritual evolution. Also, one sees that everybody is capable of love, but because of "unhealthy" choices, people have forgotten how to be in their own hearts, so they are left to suffer and not see the real beauty of the world, through their own eyes.
The act of compassion is never complete without self-compassion. We get bruised too in this big world and we need to sometimes constantly reassert self-love so we can keep our hearts open. The warmth that this virtue radiates in our life will transform us and guide us on our spiritual path if we can manage to practice it the right way.
Contemplation
Contemplation has been used as a spiritual practice since time immemorial. Contemplation brings gradual stillness to one's inner being and connects us at a deeper level with the object being observed, unveiling levels of perception that are not usually active in our daily routines.
Contemplation is mostly achieved in silence, where there are fewer or no distractions around us when we can really dwell in the pure nature of our world while being still at the core of our being.