Matsuo Basho, a Zen master has written many many Haikus, utterly beautiful and meaningful at the same time, meaningless. Among these all Haikus, the Frog Haiku is perhaps the most famous one. It will be really a wonderful experiences to explore this Haiku. The Haiku is as follows-
Ancient Pond,
Frog jumps in,
Plop…..
These three lines have been translated differently by thousands of poets and masters. I am trying to give my exploration.
It is said that for enlightenment we have to do nothing special, nothing different. Any ordinary thing can transform us because in this world, nothing is ordinary. But, for this to happen, we should be like an ancient pond. An ancient pond, vast and still. Basho wants us to feel this stillness…This is-ness of the pond. If in such pond, a frog jumps, what remains is a plop, and waves of consciousness. When we are like this ancient pond, steady, still and at the same time aware, even a plop of jumping frog can create ripples of awareness in us. Basho here, is giving in three lines the whole phenomenon of enlightenment.
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