Calendar
March 2021
March Contemplation
Our March contemplation is by R.H. (Reginald Horace) Blyth, (1898-1964), an educator, translator, and author. As a British expatriate in Japan, he taught English while studying haiku and practicing Zen Buddhism with D. T. Suzuki. During WWII, he was sent to an internment camp in Kobe where he translated haiku masters and wrote texts that influenced the post-war cultural exchange, especially in emerging forms of poetry in the U.S.​
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Blyth’s books, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics; Haiku; and History of Haiku, reintroduced the artform within the context of mindfulness and awakening. "Haiku shows us what we knew all the time, but did not know we knew; it shows us that we are poets in so far as we live at all," he wrote. This existential idea gave voice to a new consciousness in English language haiku, and seeded its growth in popularity from the Beat generation to the modern haiku of today.​
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Robert Aitken recalls Blyth introducing him to haiku and Zen while they were imprisoned together in Japan, in a Tricycle article here. Read how the Beats discovered Blyth in another Tricycle article here. Learn about haiku and mindfulness in our “Spring Breeze" Haiku Workshop. Registration is now open in the Special Events section of our website, here.
Meditation Schedule
** Our Meditation Practice Groups are meeting online until further notice**
Virtual Meditation Practice Group information and Zoom links can be found below.
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