The Zen Arts of Haiku and Shakuhachi

A writing and listening workshop at the Zen Center of Syracuse

A hands-on, hearts-open experience of writing haiku poetry will be offered at the Zen Center of Syracuse Sunday, May 31, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. The traditional Japanese art form, with its sense of immediacy, spontaneity and awareness of the transitory nature of life, will be taught by Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat, a writer and abbot of the Zen Center. A Zen practitioner for more than 60 years, she finds the haiku format a natural way to express the mystery and wonder of the ordinary.

Poems by the great haiku masters of the late seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Japan—Basho, Buson, Issa and the Buddhist nun Chiyo-ni—will be studied, along with those of contemporary practitioners like the late Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Patricia Donegan, Clark Strand, Shinge Roshi and her students.

Shakuhachi (bamboo flute) master Karaku Marco Burmester will offer the musical equivalent of haiku at intervals during the afternoon, and participants will be encouraged to wander through the Zen Center’s six acres along Onondaga Creek to experience and be inspired by the environment, returning to write and share their work.

The cost for the afternoon workshop is $50. A limited number of scholarships are available. All are welcome to join in the morning chanting and zazen (meditation) periods as well, during which Karaku Sensei will offer “Blowing Zen” shakuhachi pieces.

The workshop is offered in-person only. Please register by Thursday, May 21.

A lineage holder in the Rinzai School of Zen, Shinge Roshi received a degree in creative writing from Vassar College and studied painting at the New York Studio School.  In addition to writing haiku, she is the author of several books, including Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa (with Eido Shimano Roshi and Kazuaki Tanahashi); Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart; Eloquent Silence: The Writings of Nyogen Senzaki, and Life Lessons: The Art of Jerome Witkin.

“In Zen, artistic expression is not limited to experts, Shinge Roshi says.  “Instead, one’s own fresh, direct, and spontaneous experience is appreciated.  By learning to develop the intuitive mind, each one of us can have full access to the source of creativity.”

“The Zen arts encourage us to drop our preconceived ideas about the way things are, and instead to experience each moment just as it is.  Rather than expertise and skill, an open mind and a willing heart are all that are required.  As the late Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki said, ‘In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.’

“Those who already work with words and images may discover the excitement of seeing with ‘beginner’s mind;’ those who consider themselves beginners may discover abundant possibilities.  By getting out of the way—letting go of ego-driven ideas about success and failure—we can discover our own true Way.”