Natalie Goldberg: The Way of Haiku: From Pathos to Play (Part 3 of 9)

In Part 3 of Upaya’s The Way of Haiku series, Natalie Goldberg (author of Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku), explores the relationship between haiku and Zen. When we practice haiku, as when we practice Zazen, we practice dropping below the discursive mind. Writing haiku, Natalie explains, is about dropping right into your own body, just as it is. And being in touch with your own body puts you in a perfect place to compose haiku. The practice of haiku is averse to spiritual bypassing, whereby we use the tools of spirituality to avoid dealing with whatever is arising in the present moment. In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Natalie speaks of Nick Virgilio, an American haiku poet, who wrote about the horrors of  America’s invasion of Vietnam, and of his mother’s interminable sorrow at losing one of her sons, Nick’s brother, to the war. The practice of haiku excludes nothing painful or joyous of the past, present, or future, but brings it all to bear upon our present, not so that we become attached to or bogged down in the present, but so that we can process and release it. Throughout this episode, Natalie provides practices for dropping into the present moment, below the monkey mind, and composing your own haiku. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Dogen: The Way of Haiku: From Pathos to Play 2022