sunset, moonrise—
held
in a heartbeat
FYI: In Zen-inspired haiku, the Void (Śūnyatā) can be approached not as emptiness in the sense of nothingness, but as the absence of fixed boundaries between things...
...At first, sunset and moonrise appear to be separate events unfolding along a timeline. Yet the phrase in a heartbeat collapses that distance. Within a single pulse of awareness, the transition from one to the other can be experienced not as two events but as one unified "moment of suchness" ...
Added:
moon in water—
the ripples
where it was
...L1 presents an apparently simple image: moon in water. Yet what is actually present is not the moon itself, but its reflection—a phenomenon dependent upon the moon, the water, the light, the distance between them, and the conditions of perception.
When the ripples appear in L2, the reflection disappears in L3:
the ripples
where it was
Yet nothing substantial has been destroyed. The moon remains in the sky; the water remains; the ripples arise and pass. What disappears is an appearance that never possessed an independent existence of its own. Its presence was always contingent upon particular conditions.
In this sense, the haiku evokes the paradox expressed in the Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.” The moon's reflection has form—it can be seen, recognized, and momentarily experienced—yet it is empty of svabhāva, or inherent self-nature. It exists only through a temporary convergence of conditions....
