There Once Was a Man...
OK, so perhaps this isn’t the finest moment in my career as a booster of meditation. I just happen to have a soft spot for limericks. And as anyone who knows something about limericks will attest, one limerick deserves, nay demands, another.
Dear Reader, the snow is about to fall in Vermont. Potentially stressful holidays loom. The economy is poised on the brink of something, but it’s hard to tell what. In these moments the mind turns to meditation. Ah well, yes very important. This time however, the mind turned to limericks.
Please Post
My request is simple: compose a (traditionally) five-line limerick using the word “zafu.” The word “zafu” can appear at the end of a rhyming line or in the body of the limerick. Comment on this blog post with your limerick and anything else you would like to share. If your limerick is “family friendly”, we will print it here. Traditionally limericks are opportunities to uncork profanity in unexpected ways. We respect this tradition but can only follow it up to a point. Apologies in advance; if you send us a really dirty limerick, the chances of publication are well…severely diminished.
The Word
In case you have stumbled upon this challenge based upon your love of limericks rather than your pursuit of the noble path of meditation, we might explain. “Zafu” is a Japanese word for a round pleated cushion used originally in the Zen tradition for the practice of Zazen or meditation. The practitioner sits on the cushion, traditionally with legs crossed in the lotus position on a Zabuton Mat.
Some of you might have endeavored the lotus posture in an earlier, more limber, era. Unless you are an adept, I suggest you refrain from trying it now (unless under supervision.) Speaking of limber, part of the challenge with using “Zafu” at the end of the limerick line is that limericks typically rely on anapestic phrasing. That is, a set of words or a word comprised of three syllables with the accent on the last syllable – like seventeen or well, yes, Nantucket. Attempting to use the two equally accented syllables of “Za-Fu” at the end of a line raises challenges to this convention.
Out of Time
This is a blog about meditation. If would be great if your limerick somehow addressed the subject, but we won’t insist. While nonsense has its place, limericks reach their apogee when word play and word meaning support each other. According to Dictionary.com, the term limerick comes from a party game played (in Ireland or England) at the end of the 19th century. Participants would extemporize verse and their efforts would be followed by the chorus “Won’t you come up to Limerick” – a town in the west of Ireland.
To extemporize means to recite spontaneously. How does one do this? The word’s roots here give a clue. Literally “ex-tempore” — is latin for outside of time. This time beyond time is the moment in which insights are born and also traditionally when true meditation is achieved. It may also be the only time when things happen. Speaking of out of time, when, you may ask, is there the time to compose this limerick? Commuting time, waiting in line, and while seeming to listen to someone complain are all great opportunities to turn your mind to the 5-lined monster.
A couple of limericks:
The Sound of One Cheek Sneaking
In Zazen, stuffed firm and sewn round,
A Zafu keeps your cheeks off the ground,
Not to be crass,
But if more than time you must pass,
Dense stuffing means no sound will be found.
(And a more solemn effort:)
The View of Meditation
From his black cotton buckwheat Zafu,
The Zen Master taught on the View,
He said, “Not as real as it seems,
Life’s like a Dream.
Zazen is no-thing to do.”
Editor’s Note: We have as yet no examples of the poetic tradition Mr. Greenleaf favors in our book inventory. However, for other examples of poetic expressions of the spontaneous nature of insight see First Thought Best Thought by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan, The Spring of My Life by Issa, or Narrow Road to the Interior by Basho. Patricia Donegan’s instructional book Haiku is aimed at young writers but is eminently useful to all who wish to try their hand at that form.
Tags: Zafu Limerick
The Author: Michael Greenleaf
Michael Greenleaf is a volunteer at Samadhi Cushions who works on marketing and internet issues. He is also a meditation teacher with many years of experience in the Shambhala community. Michael is a member of the core faculty for Mukpo Institute at Karme Choling. His professional training includes a CPA as well as an MBA in finance. Michael credits his Buddhist practice with helping him see the dreamlike nature of financial information.
Contact: E-Mail |
URL: http://blog.samadhicushions.com
View all entries by Michael Greenleaf
November 16th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I’d like to be better about sitting
But my day just seems so busy
My zafu awaits
But then it’s too late
Better sign up for some sessions
November 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
whilst practicing meditation
–a noble and calming vocation–
tis useful to find
a firm seat for your behind
which is a zafu, in my situation.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
There once was a meditater from Maine
Sitting on the floor made her feel lame
She bought a Zafu
And a text or two
Now following the breath is her main game
November 17th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
For sitting a zafu’s sadistic
A gomden is much more sophistc-
ated and square
for letting you dare
to sail away into the mystic
November 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
if you don’t have zafu, what have you?
a gomden’s too tall you giraffe you!
sitting close to the floor
kleshas come to the fore
buddha mind separates from the chaff, too.
November 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
beware a return to nature, for beneath the sky
splinters don’t find the mind’s eye
but distract just the same
breaking zazen with pain
remedied only by a zafu lotus and sigh.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:04 pm
A ZAFU
THERE ONCE WAS A MAN FROM VERMONT
A BUDDHIST WHO STUDIES A LOT
HE SAID “VIEWED AT CLOSE RANGE
THE COSMOS IS STRANGE
WHAT SEEMS REAL REALLY IS NOT
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
King Richard could not sleep in his bed,
All he wanted was to clear his head,
But “zafu” was not a word,
That he had ever heard,
So he called out for a horse instead.
As down the avenue I boozed,
I met the Buddha (not amused),
I said yo bro’ when yer thru,
I’ll need yer zafoo,
Cuz my mind is like, totally confused.
In the dead of winter the zen master sits alone,
I ask him his secret, tell me your koan!
He says get Michael to send me,
A zafu to mend me,
My butt has frozen to this stone!
November 24th, 2009 at 7:35 am
When Trungpa came to the West
To teach wild minds how to rest
He took the zafu from zen
and said sit here, but then
decided a gomden was best.
January 17th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Look there’s some red colored space
With a square of yellow on it’s face
Twirls round the sun
Supporting yet supported
by buns inextricably in place.
February 13th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
“not black, not blue, not that, no true”
by Sward
To pursue,
Is thought of redu.
“Me-too”,
Is self-untrue.
One is of IQ,
Other of woo.
Use a Zafu,
No black and blue.
February 21st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
O! in five lines
not black, not blue, not that, no true
To pursue, is thought of redu.
“Me-too”, is self-untrue.
One of IQ, other of woo.
Use a Zafu, no black and blue.
April 12th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
There once was a man placed his tush on
a brand new Samadhi zafu cushion.
Fell into shamatha’s pool
and started to drool —
We finally had to call in the Rusung!
May 28th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
a certain young fellow named Matthew
experience a painful type snafu.
till he’s healed up a bit
he must stand for his ‘sit’
since mistaking his cat for his zafu