The Water Bottom

One Hundred Famous
HAIKU
Translated by D.E Buchanan

Minasoko wo
   Mite kita kao no
    Kogamo kana.

---- Joso


“The water bottom
   I have seen and come back,” says
    the face of the teal.

Joso (1662-1704) was one of the ten special pupils of Basho. In this verse the poet seems to indicate that hidden things are often not so interesting as they may first appear to be.
---- D.E. Buchanan

 I get a double meaning from this Haiku. One is the picture that Buchanan draws and the one I interpret from his commentary is that the inner-self… the depths of the pond… may be “not so interesting” to the teal but they are profound to me. As I explore and dive deeply and become as familiar as the teal to the terrain of the bottom through the practice of meditation, the less interesting I become and the more my attention goes outward as I “come back”. The first phase of my spiritual development is to get to know myself just as the teal gets to know what is under the surface. We see the lotus blossom while the teal sees how the lily draws its nourishment at the very bottom of the pond. The next phase of my spiritual development is what I see above… to “come back”. I have been to the bottom and I have returned. Now I must get to work tending the garden if I wish to sit and enjoy it as the sun sets at the end of the day.


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