Jewish Haiku/Jewish Zen

This was in an email from my friend P. Haiku are Japanese poems of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.


Beyond Valium,
peace is knowing one's child
is an internist.


On Passover we
opened the door for Elijah.
Now our dog is gone.


After the warm rain
the sweet smell of camellias.
Did you wipe your feet?


Her lips near my ear,
Aunt Sadie whispers the name
of her friend's disease.


Today I am a man
Tomorrow I will return
to the seventh grade.


Testing the warm milk
on her wrist, she sighs softly
But her son is forty.


The sparkling blue sea
reminds me to wait an hour
after my sandwich.


Like a bonsai tree
is your terrible posture
at my dinner table.


Jews on safari --
map, compass, elephant gun,
hard sucking candies.


The same kimono
the top geishas are wearing:
I got it at Loehmann's.


The shiva visit:
so sorry about your loss.
Now back to my problems.


Mom, please!
There is no need
to put that dinner roll in your purse.


Sorry I'm not home
to take your call. At the tone
please state your bad news.


Is one Nobel Prize
so much to ask from a child
after all I've done?


Today, mild shvitzing.
Tomorrow, so hot you'll plotz
Five-day forecast: feh.


Yenta. Shmeer. Gevalt.
Shlemiel. Shlimazl. Meshuganah
Oy! To be fluent!


Quietly murmured
at Saturday Synagogue services,
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 3.


A lovely nose ring,
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven.


Hard to tell under the lights.
White kippah or
male-pattern baldness.


Jewish Buddhism:
If there is no self
whose arthritis is this?


Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?


Drink tea and nourish life;
with the first sip, joy;
with the second sip, satisfaction;
with the third sip, peace;
with the fourth, a Danish.


Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.


Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?


The journey of a thousand miles begins with
a single Oy.


There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life,
you never called,
you never wrote,
you never visited.
And whose fault was that?


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkis.


The Tao does not speak,
does not blame,
does not take sides.
The Tao has no expectations,
demands nothing of others.
It is not Jewish.


Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out
Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be
the least of your problems.


Let your mind be as a floating cloud.
Let your stillness be as a wooded glen
And sit up straight.
You'll never meet the Buddha with such
rounded shoulders.


Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.
Each blossom has ten thousand petals.
You might want to see a specialist.


Be aware of your body.
Be aware of your perceptions.
Keep in mind that not every physical
sensation is a
symptom of a terminal illness.


The Torah says,
Love your neighbor as yourself.
The Buddha says,
There is no self.
Maybe we're off the hook.