Welcome to my weekly blog,  Friday Feelings!

For the next few weeks, it will my pleasure to share with you something I've recently discovered for myself and, indeed, for anybody who is interested, something you might consider doing in your own free time and in your own language.                                                                 

Haiku is originally a Japanese art form, a small poem of just three lines with a total of seventeen syllables, 5, 7, 5.   

In other languages around the world, haiku may be restricted to three lines, but not necessarily seventeen syllables.                          

The haiku is like a flash of lightning which literally throws a sudden flash of light on an observation. Reading haiku, and especially writing one, is a wonderful tool for anybody who wants to enhance his or her awareness of the little things we experience in life from moment to moment. The haikuist is the alchemist who transforms the moment into something rich and strange.                                                       

I owe my discovery of  haiku to my brother Gabriel, whose medium is the Irish language and who has published many haiku collections in both Irish and English. He says (and I agree with him) that the long vowel sounds of Irish lend themselves better to the haiku form than English.                                                   

Musically, Irish is more like a wind instrument (pipes?), whereas English is more like a piano. (As it happens, there's no piano in Irish traditional music. In the bad old days, they might have said, you can't run with a piano!)                                 

You can check out Gabriel's published books on haiku at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=gabriel+rosenstock

For myself, I decided that if the Japanese restrict their haiku form to seventeen syllables, and in view of the fact that English is not as musical as many other languages, I would create a form which would be the same for every haiku I write.

Why have a form at all? one may ask. Well to begin with, adhering to a form with limitations makes it easier to focus on your task.  I also feel that it has to do with nature; even the smallest organic unit in nature, the cell, has a membrane (or skin) to keep it together. Without the membrane, there would no life.

In my own approach, each haiku is encapsulated by a form which has no verb (to go/ to be, etc.) and no adjective  (good / sad, etc.).                                                                                                                

So there are only nouns ('things', concepts) and articles (a/the), and other little linking bits and pieces thrown in here and there to glue it together -  but  NO verb and NO adjective, reducing it to an almost 'cellular'  level. You might call it single-handed piano playing!                                                                                                                    

As well as that, no judgement. The judgement is left to the reader. Any temptation to make a judgement is constrained by the fact that no verb and no adjective can be used. That's why the series is called, From an ET's Logbook.  The haiku are like memos or observations from an extra-terrestrial's logbook, as the ET wanders around from place to place.

The third line is the punch line, which (hopefully!) creates a little surprise for the reader. The punctuation also follows a regular pattern for each haiku, making the 'shell' instantly recognisable:

A semi-colon after the first line;

a comma after the second line,

and a full-stop after the third line.

For the next few weeks, I'll include three new haiku for the Friday Feelings blog!   Here are the first three:

I

The purr of the hearse;

In the yew trees,

Chitchat of the birds.

II

The throb of the stars;

Under my shoe,

A daisy.

III


Breadcrumbs for the birds;
On the news,
Famine in Africa.


Greg, www.bluefeather.ie

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!        

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture. We explore and discover  Ireland and its Culture - so that's why I call them 'Logs', as in a ship's logbook! 

Each Saturday, I hope to post an extract from each of the Logs.

Below each extract, we have an extract from the Mining The Text section which focuses on the use of English involved in creating the paragraph.

In our Course, participants sit back and listen first to a recording of the reading, then we read it together, look at how it was created and discuss the content involved! In the afternoons and evenings, we go out, explore and discover!

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

Dublin was founded by the Vikings in 988 CE. (CE = AD; it means Common Era.  BC = BCE, Before Common Era) 

The Irish name for Dublin is Dubh Linn, Black Pool.

In the 19th century, Dublin was described as the second city of the British Empire.  In Merrion Square, in particular, you will see some great examples of Georgian architecture, as fine as some of the best in London. These houses were built in the period of the King Georges of England  from the beginning of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century.  The typical Georgian house was built with granite - quarried in Dalkey - and had six, one-foot-square little windows in each sash window. The windows at the top (usually the servants' quarters) were smaller. The visible part of the roof was flat to give the illusion of greater height. The chimney flues were often curved to provide greater heat from the fires on each floor and in general, the houses were warmer in the 18th century than they are today!

Log Two, Dublin in a Nutshell, MINING THE TEXT

Dublin was founded (1) by the Vikings in 988 CE. (CE = AD; it means Common Era.  BC = BCE, Before Common Era) 

The Irish name for Dublin is Dubh Linn, Black Pool.

In the 19th century, Dublin was described (2) as the second city of the British Empire.

1.      Dublin was founded = Passive.  (They founded Dublin = Active.)

          It has been done = Passive.  (I have done it = Active)

          It will be built = Passive. (We will build it = Active)

          It is being examined = Passive. (They are examining it = Active)

          How to make the Passive: OBJECT + VERB 'TO BE' + 
          PAST PARTICIPLE

          (OBJECT =   + TO BE (in the right tense) + third form of the verb)

2.      Passive.  (Active= 'People described it....')  Noun of 'describe' = description.

In Merrion Square, in particular, you will see some great examples of Georgian architecture, as fine as (3) some of the best in London. These houses were built in the period of the King Georges of England, from the beginning of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century.  The typical Georgian house was built with granite - quarried (4) in Dalkey - and had six one-foot-square little windows in each sash window.

3. Simile. 'As tall as a tree.'  'As big as a house'. 'As sober as a judge.'  'As drunk as a lord.' 'As quiet as a mouse.' 'As black as night.' 'As white as a sheet.' (If a person is pale from sickness or shock)

4. To quarry = to break rocks or stone from a quarry. The granite for Dun Laoghaire harbour was quarried (Passive!) in Dalkey.

6. Height, depth, length, breadth, width   (High, deep, long, broad, wide - broad and wide are similar. Broadway in New York is so called because the street is wide/broad. They say that O'Connell Street in Dublin is the widest street in Europe but that's probably nonsense.

7. Warmer, brighter, smaller, bigger, etc.  If the adjective has ONE SYLLABLE, it ends in 'er' in the comparative. Exceptions: happy - happier; pretty - prettier; merry/jolly - merrier/jollier. Other adjectives  use 'more', e.g. more interesting, more difficult, more important.

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

Last week, the focus of attention was on Forgiveness in the ancient Hawaiian healing practice of Ho'oponopono:                          

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you. 

Let's have a look at the others:

When we say I am sorry, we still create separation between you and me. Furthermore, the focus seems to be on me and not you! Isn't that odd?                              

Of course, what we are really trying to say is: will you forgive me? But the focus is still on me, not on you, the person I hurt.  When Dr Len said I'm sorry in his Ho'opnopono practice, he was expressing empathetic awareness of that part of himself responsible for the unconscious actions of his patients.

Your reflection is clearly you.

Even though the words are I am sorry, there was no separation of  'I' and 'You' in the feeling. (Remember, he never even saw his patients J)

I love you.  Those pronouns again!  (I &You)                                                

These days, we are told not to be afraid to say I love you more often.         

But is that correct?                                                             

Why do people need to say I love you if the love is already there? And if they have to say it, or if it's expected of them to say it more often to a partner or a family member, does it not suggest that there may be an element of doubt? L

But, I hear you plead, people like to be reassured that they are loved! With words?  Isn't that a bit facile? Surely, there should be no reason for having to say I love you if the love is already there. The unconditional love. After all, there is no other kind of love except unconditional love.  Would you not agree?

So, what do I think Dr Len meant when he said, I love you?  Clearly, he was expressing universal compassion for his patients and, of course, for himself, agape, the ancient Greek word for spiritual love, or unconditional love. (I choose to translate agape as lOve, in writing, at least (capital O); it's a noun and a verb! J )

As far as romantic love is concerned, by the way, if you can fall out of love as quickly as you can fall in love, the love in question can never have been real, or unconditional, love to begin with! Can it? K

Thank you is powerful when it's said with the energy of feeling behind it. What or whom was Dr Len thanking?  I believe he was thanking the universe, thanking life for being what it is, in all its uniqueness and abundance. Thanking is like giving, you give thanks.  In giving thanks, you release yourself from your ego and let the universe back onto the driving seat. That's why it's so liberating to be thankful, for everything, no matter what your circumstances are in life.

Well, that's what I feel anyway, this wet Friday.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!   (I know it's Wednesday today, but the exception proves the rule!)      

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture. We explore and discover  Ireland and its Culture - so that's why I call them 'Logs', as in a ship's logbook!  

Each Saturday, I hope to post an extract from each of the Logs.

Below each extract, we have an extract from the Mining The Text section which focuses on the use of English involved in creating the paragraph.

In our Course, participants sit back and listen first to a recording of the reading, then we read it together, look at how it was created and discuss the content involved! In the afternoons and evenings, we go out, explore and discover!

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

LOG 1, (Extract)  IRELAND IN A NUTSHELL        

The first millennium (7) in Ireland is what we might describe as the happy millennium and the second millennium as the sad millennium in Irish history. 

Now, in our third millennium, we are members of the EU, recovering from the economic crash of 2008.

Although (8) the Republic of Ireland is a small country (population c. 4.5 million), it has a wide (9) variety of fascinating landscapes. The coasts of Ireland are full of hills and small mountains and the centre is flat by comparison, like a plate, so some of the most beautiful sights are along the coast. We call Wicklow, for example, the Garden of Ireland.

By contrast, the west of Ireland is wild, rough (10) and rocky but also very beautiful. Some people say that the real Ireland is the Ireland west of the Shannon - the longest river in Ireland and Britain - which flows down through the centre of Ireland.

7.       Millennium = a thousand years.  Century = a hundred years;  Decade = ten years.

8.       Although/Though/Even though  the Republic of Ireland.....

          Though  is also seen at the end of the sentence in everyday conversation, e.g. 'It's a very long           film but it's very interesting, though!'

9.       'Wide variety'  = a collocation, two words that usually go together. (We don't normally say 'a           big variety', although it's not wrong!)  wide ≠ narrow; deep ≠ shallow; (The deep and the           shallow end of a swimming pool; a person can also be deep or shallow!)

10.     rough ≠ smooth; 'In a friendship, you have to take the rough with the smooth!'  Tough means           difficult or hard. 'She's a tough customer' = she's difficult to manage!  'When the going gets           tough, the tough get going!'  (The 'going'  - from horse-racing - means the conditions; when           the conditions are difficult, people who are tough don't mind the difficulties. To get going = to       make progress.)

 

         

                  

Teaching without words and working without doing
Are understood by very few.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings !

Last week, I wrote about the wonderful Dr Len and how he healed all those patients in Hawaii who were diagnosed as criminally insane. His method, the ancient Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, focuses on the following:                           

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you. 

Many people will just laugh at that.They know that such phrases are overused or used insincerely or expediently, i.e. out of self-interest (small 's' J) .

Maybe one needs to examine what these phrases really mean.

Today, we'll just look at that first phrase, I forgive  you.

But what does it mean?

The problem with the word  forgive, as in, I forgive you, is that it seems to place "I" on a higher judicial or moral platform than "YOU":                                                              
"I" (Yes. Me.) "Forgive" (Yeah, I know I'm a good guy)  "You" (Yes, you over there). 

So part of the problem is the pronoun ( "I" and "You").                                                  

Some people won't forgive or even accept forgiveness, even though they might have already ostensibly buried the hatchet.  'How dare she forgive me! '  they think.  'Who does she think she is? I'm the one who should be doing the forgiving!'

Of course, when you don't forgive, it's like holding a hot coal in your hand to throw it at the offender, as the Buddha put it.                                                              

So what exactly does the word forgive mean?  

We know that it's linked to its Germanic cousin, vergeben, geben meaning to give; the ver part of the German word  - the v is pronounced as  f  in German, so the  v eventually turned into the  f  in the  for prefix in English -  seems to have come from the original Latin per, meaning through, as in the Latin perdonare, donare to give, perdonare  to forgive, (we have the word pardon from that), which presumably means to give through and through, to give completely. Give what?  Give away any wish for retribution, I guess, completely give up any desire for revenge, something like that.  Hence,  forgiveness.                       

No wonder it's confusing!...K

The Irish word for forgiveness is maithiúnas (mah-hoo-nass); maitheas (mah-hass) means goodness. You could say it is the giving of goodness. The mother kisses the naughty child; that makes more sense than saying, 'I forgive you' !  Now that makes more sense to me.

Nevertheless, I feel that in forgiveness there is no giving or receiving. You see, there is nothing to forgive. Real forgiveness is always to accept the wrong-doer but never, of course, the wrong-doing. Society should punish the wrong-doing, not the wrong-doer. How do you punish the wrong-doing without punishing the wrong-doer?  By never confusing the doer with the deed.                                                                                                                                       

Punishing  the wrong-doer is punishing ourselves. Forgiving others is really forgiving ourselves for being asleep, for the unconscious action of being asleep at the wheel.  

So who was Dr Len forgiving?  He was forgiving himself. As he said himself, he was forgiving that part of him which created the conditions in which crimes were committed by the patients he had never seen.                                                                 

But, I hear you cry, Dr Len is not his patients!

Of course not. You're right. Dr Len is Dr Len. The patients are the patients.         

You are not your reflection.

But your reflection is clearly you.

Well, that's what I feel, anyway.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

I just can't get away from that mirror!  Remember?

You are not your reflection, but your reflection is clearly you.

Last week I wrote about Ho'oponopono, the ancient Hawaiian practice  of reconciliation and forgiveness, and how a local therapist was able to heal all those criminally insane people at the hospital without even seeing them.

In the course of the interview, the humble Dr Len also said:

'I was simply healing the part of me that created them.'

I have a feeling that if we can understand that statement, it will literally change the world.

Gandhi's famous words were, You must be the change that you wish to see in the world. 

Most people think that this is about being a good example. You know, the Golden Rule.

Well, that's partly it, of course.

But it's much deeper, much more profound, much more radical than that.

You see, you are responsible for what's happening in the world. 

Who? Me?

Yes.

Your reflection is clearly you.

To be honest, I can't pretend that I really understand it myself.  But I'm trying.  Really. I'm trying hard to understand it. To really understand it.  

(Maybe I should't try so hard! J)

Anyway, there are just four key concepts in Ho'oponopono: 

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you.

That's all. You just say that. With feeling, of course.

Is that it?

That's it.

But what does it mean?

It means what it says.

But it's trite! you plead.  It's ridiculous!

True. All four phrases have become trite and ridiculous.

In next week's Friday Feelings, we'll have a closer look at the F-word, the S-word, the L-word and the T-word.

In the meantime, I'll be thinking about the incredible Dr Len and his wonderful quote. 

I hope one day I'll understand it.                                                                                       

I hope one day we'll all understand it.

And the world will live as one...🎶

Well, that's my feeling anyway.

What do YOU think?