Nothing and Everything :: Haiku of Japan #39

宿の春何もなきこそ何もあれ
yado no haru nani mo naki koso nani mo are


spring at my hut
there is nothing...
yet, there is everything
—Sodo


(Tr. David LaSpina)

(Print by Shiro Kasamatsu)

This is absolutely one of my favorite haiku. Sodo is embracing his poverty. As many spiritual teachers have taught throughout time, the less we own, the more free we are. One of our more recent guides, Thoreau, wrote:

Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

At the same time, Sodo is speaking in the kind of riddle that is common in Zen. To confront an apparent paradox and truly understand in an intuitive way (not an intelligential way) that it is both and neither is the path to satori. As the Lao Tzu wrote:

The tao that can be spoken of
     is not the Eternal Tao.
The name that can be given
     is not the Eternal Name.
The nameless
     is the beginning of Heaven and Earth
The named
     is the mother of everything
Free from desire
     one sees its wonders

Filled with desire
     one sees its manifestations
Both are the same
     but differ in name
Different but the same
     this is the mystery
Mystery of mysteries
     the door to all understanding

Both are the same, yet both are different—understand this and you understand everything. This idea is at the very heart of Zen Buddhism and it is indirectly what Sodo is hinting at.

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Tao te Ching Ch 1, translation mine

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Don't miss other great haiku in the Haiku of Japan series!

#1–10 — Haiku of Japan :: Collection #1
#11–20 — Haiku of Japan :: Collection #2
#21–30 — Haiku of Japan :: Collection #3
#31 — Am I a Butterfly or a Man?
#32 — Hidden Grey Hair
#33 — Sleeping Butterfly
#34 — Never To Grow Old
#35 — From Dog to Cat
#36 — Short Night
#37 — Silent Moon
#38 — Temple Pine Needles

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I post one photo everyday, as well as a haiku and as time allows, videos, more Japanese history, and so on. Let me know if there is anything about Japan you would like to know more about or would like to see.

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	David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.