when the frog jumps into the pond and ‘plup’. The existence disappeared from Basho
’s conciousness.
2. Zen reflected through imageries and ontological met
aphor in Basho’s prostitute poem
This poem shows the visual imagery and metaphor of the quality to communicate the deepest concepts of Basho. Basho as a monk wrote the poem as
he saw the moment that constitutes to some feeling of empathy. Suzuki,1988: 231.
Zen enables someone to see things as impermanent. This ability is perceived when someone takes focus on things and leaves his conceptualization
while he sees things. In Buddhist terminology it is called prajna Suzuki, 1988: 103.
Basho saw the things with prajna. Prajna enables him to see things in its nature, that is impermanent. He saw that those things are impermanent. Then he
wrote the things that are impermanent as his experience. The gentle and calm view of moonlight on the bush clover while the
sleeping human that laid down their exhausted body is the experience of Basho himself. In his poem, Basho set the prostitute as well as himself together with the
bush clover and the moon. Under the same sky Basho felt that they were not different; they were
changing, becoming something else. Basho experienced that things and concepts are impermanent. They were all transcending by time. They are viewed in the
transcendental level in Basho’s poem. There are no concepts that stay forever. They were impermanent.
3. Zen reflected through imageries and implied
metaphor in Basho’s stormy sea poem
The visual and the auditory imagery are The aurora is the sky phenomenon, and the sound of crashing waves is the earth phenomenon and
appear in the poem. Meanwhile both of them are in the same view that were stretching out along the horizon and were separated by imaginary line.
In the perspective of Zen, there is a situation called Nirvana, the highest circumstances that human can reach through doing dharma or good deeds and
meditation. In the other side there is human earth, the middle circumstances that is bounded by karma, or the circle of life and death Suzuki, 1988: 121.
Since the metaphors in this poem, are the heaven river and the sea in this poem, heaven and earth are separated, but they exist like two sides in a coin.
According to Suzuki, when someone is attached on one side there is thought, when there is a thought there is attachment, when there is attachment there is no
freedom 1988: 17. In Zen Buddhism, when someone has no freedom means he fails to realize the satori.
The non attachment of Zen is the idea that relied upon the poem of stormy sea. In Zen when someone attached to nirvana or the earhtly life he cannot attain
the satori, Basho was in the middle of it in his stillness that showing the non- attachement. In this poem Basho showed his awareness on the experience of non
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