Haikus with photographs from Dhyan Tarpan
Something that typifies dragonflies is their love for sharp and narrow edges, tips of twigs etc – maybe because of their exceptional 360-degree vision (they have a visual information capacity of 200 images per second, which is significantly faster than the human rate of 60 images per second!). On a tip of grass they can simply sit for hours and hours, doing nothing (at the most they may fly up and then back down to sit on the same spot again!). And still, the grass may be growing by itself, carrying them up. But the photographers think that they are posing for a good shot.
Punya must have lived as a dragonfly in one of her past lives, otherwise how did she settle on the title On the Edge for her autobiographical work? But it’s beautiful, her book and the title. Here in India, it is quite a familiar usage from the days of the Upanishads – Kshurasya dhara means ‘the razor’s edge’. Somerset Maugham and then Osho have used ‘Razor’s Edge’ as book titles, though I think it was more appropriate for Osho, a challenging Master, with his sharp and provoking ways of working.
Going through many books and articles from people who were with Osho, ‘The Razors’s Edge’ could be the single phrase which best describes those days, I feel. Even for people like me who haven’t met Osho in person, just to figure out what this man is all about, is in itself a walk on the razor’s edge! What to say about those who were moving with him?
Dragonflies don’t have a nest or a particular hiding place. They sleep and rest wherever they feel best camouflaged. Bushes, the shade of a leaf, or any edges in darkness will make for a nightful sleep. (They don’t sleep in the traditional sense. Opting for an inactive mode is enough for them!) That’s how I fell in love with dragonflies, especially in adolescence. Observing that they did not go back to their nest or home in the evening, like most birds and animals do, I thought they were ‘wandering monks’ by birth!
Anyway, our dragonflies bring out all their six legs to enjoy Zazen on a sharp tip of twig! That’s how they have become such significant symbols in Zen, and they appear in many haikus too. Many haikus were written about dragonflies by Basho, Issa and many more. Many modern haikus are being born day after day. But while composing a haiku, do we forget that the dragonfly itself is the haiku, that it goes on challenging us to live like it does? – silent, spontaneous, hunting the inner sky…
Dragonflies’ flirting with ripples on pools is truly spectacular. It’s a great temptation for a photographer to play with shutter speeds, and for sure, very rarely do we get satisfactory outcomes. A few of my dragonfly shots are shared here. Most of them were done in a creative mode, and are not meant as a documentation of nature.
Dragonflies offer a retreat into something beyond our grasp. As the Zen master invokes:
Ready for the festival
dressed to the nines!
red dragonfly
Issa
Finally, the dragonfly quietly landed
on the blade of grass.
She didn’t bother
to hide her wings.
And the grass tip nodded slightly –
yes, yes.
I’m the sky
I’m the no-sky
According to quantum mechanics
the bush grew in this shape
because of the dragonfly
who was supposed to imitate it.
All my hurry
shattered on a dragonfly,
sitting bold and silent like
a Zen alphabet.
Simply sitting
doing nothing
must be the very singularity
they are talking about;
where else is the universe emerging from?
ECSTASY
– I am drunk with the most ancient darkness
and a thousand splendid suns
on my head.
Dragonfly
brings the sky
back to earth
Drunken dragon
silent red
– The very sitting,
stillness,
and the rustling breeze all around.
Dragonfly
burned its wings,
darkness too.
Dragonflies
sign their signature
of silence
till the end
Sitting or flying
the sky is the limit
Zazen
@ a broken twig
composed the scene,
directed
and
interpreted by the silence.
But the dragonfly
didn’t call it a drama.
Still on a tip, me
the centre of the universe.
Glitterings of silence
formed a dragonfly
and
it forgot to rub its legs.
Related articles
- A refreshing bath of wings – An ode to butterflies, with photographs, insights, a poem and a quote by Osho – from Dhyan Tarpan
- Butterflies – A short poem and a wonderful photograph by Tarpan
- More by Dhyan Tarpan on Osho News
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