← All the songs Haiga in song · No. 13

One Breath

Stillness, held for as long as it will hold.

No. 1333 haiga5:33
From the curator

Stillness, held for as long as it will hold. The song begins by asking you to stop, then offers its refrain — one time, one meeting, one lifetime, one breath — the tea ceremony’s reminder that no moment repeats. The early haiga quiet the voice in your head; the middle practices attention: forget a thing’s name to see it, notice the tree you pass every day, feel the Earth pressing up under your feet. Then comes the harder lesson of letting go. It ends with water that always wins, bamboo that bends, and a plain instruction: you will never have more time than you do right now, so spend it wisely.

The haiga, in order

33 haiga · as they appear in the video
  1. stop once in a while / and consider whether you / are wasting your life
  2. one time, one meeting / one lifetime, one encounter / one moment, one breath
  3. sometimes we see a / lot but do not notice what / we are looking at
  4. despite what you think / nobody else is paying / you much attention
  5. talking to yourself / means that you are listening / to yourself talking
  6. if what you have to / say is not any better / than silence, shut up
  7. make meditation / the center of everything / and all of your days
  8. the way to quiet / that voice in your head is to / learn to watch your breath
  9. humming every day / massages your vagus nerve / and resets your brain
  10. dance to your beating / heart, in the rhythm of breath / you'll find peace and joy
  11. sound of one hand clap / pebble ripples up a pond / none, sound of stillness
  12. an unlit candle / is nothing more than some wax / on a piece of string
  13. in order to see / something as it really is / first forget its name
  14. look without seeing / hear without listening, and / speak without talking
  15. the best trees are the / ones that you notice when you / stop to catch your breath
  16. sometimes the best things / in your life are hidden right / in front of your eyes
  17. Can you feel the press / of the Earth below your feet / as we watch the clouds?
  18. Look over the edge! / We are all hanging straight down / from a ball, in space.
  19. dewdrops shining bright / softly hug the mountain's side / early morning mist
  20. learning to let go / is the most difficult skill / that life will teach you
  21. whether you give it / or have it taken away / it’s no longer yours
  22. some things you can’t change / the quicker you learn that the / better your life is
  23. nothing is as bad / as it seems to be nor as / real as expected
  24. the desire to / have is what keeps us all from / being enlightened
  25. the way to get rich / is to be satisfied with / everything you have
  26. sometimes you are sad / other times you are happy / both times are still you
  27. water always wins / nothing is more flexible / nothing is softer
  28. the bamboo that bends / will survive a wind that blows / down the mighty oak
  29. flow like water flame / like fire blow like the wind / solid as the earth
  30. world, flute; mind, player / reality and music / created at once
  31. attend to what is / and what is not will always / take care of itself
  32. since you cannot live / longer, why not decide to / start living deeper
  33. you will never have / more time than you do right now / so spend it wisely
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