When he experienced the sound as the metaphor of time Basho was the time means changing together with the time, the unity of Basho and his meditation
made him suddenly he forgot himself. At that time, he experienced satori.
5. Zen reflected through imageries and implied
metaphor in Basho’s dragonfly poem
The imageries both visual ‘the dragonfly’ and tactile imagery ‘the slippery grass blade’ and the metaphor ‘the moving dragonfly’ in this poem leads to an
understanding that ontologically Basho is a subject. He saw the dragonfly. The dragonfly is an object. In Zen there is a teaching of deep meditation or samadhi, it
is a state of condition when subject and object have no barrier and they are united. Basho wrote his experience, when he and the dragonfly are united. In a deep
meditation there is no more separation between the subject Basho himself, and the object, the dragonfly.
When the dragonfly fail to hold on to the grass, He noticed that failure of the dragonfly shows the mind that fail to grasp the concepts, as the wordly things.
This meditation led Basho to experience Zen. In a meditation, the mind no longer found the solid concept to hold onto. At the same time the dragonfly that
was trying to hold on the grass blade failed to hold it, and flew away. The mind, which is formed as the existence or the dragonfly is written failed to grasps the
grass blade considered as the concepts. The dragonfly or the mind is continue to fly. When the mind does not stop like the dragonfly which is continue to fly, it is
called the flowing mind. This flowing mind shows the non attachment nature of the mind. The mind actually cannot be freezed or stood on the same thought. In
Zen the mind always flows. When Basho experienced the flowing mind he experienced the non attachment of mind. The flowing mind, is the Zen itself.
6. Zen reflected through imageries and ontological
metaphor in Basho’s cherry trees poem
In this poem, the cherry trees appear as an visual imagery and as a metaphor of the constant changing. This poem conveys how Basho experienced
the changing nature, when he saw cherry blossom turns into blossom dust. He lived intimately with nature, In Japanese terminology Basho lived in the style of
Sabi or live in wild nature with simpleness even poorness Suzuki, 1988: 24. With highest sense he saw much of the changing in age 47. When he felt it
as he wrote the cherry trees Haiku, he wrote about the circle of death and life existence. In the Zen Buddhism this state is called experience of things that is
impermanent Suzuki, 1988: 6. There is nothing stand still forever. The cherry trees never exist forever as trees, the cherry trees blossom
become the blossom dust, and the blossom dust fertilizes the cherry trees, nothing stays the same, but it always changes, the mind is never be the same, and there is
the impermanent, Basho experienced the impermanent condition of things, when he experiences this, he experiences Zen, the circle of changes.
