Kumano Kudo Pilgrimage
This 1st week was spent with my boys walking the ancient pilgrimage of the 3 sacred shines. It was quite a challenge trying to meditate with 3 huffing and puffing boys in tow, but even the children learnt the meditation of the walk.... after about 5hrs of walking, everyone was walking in complete silence : No more mindless chatter... just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other!
Hosenji Temple
http://www.zazen.or.jp/zencenter-e.html
We weren't really supposed to be taking pictures but these shots were irresistible! I taught my room-mate Miki yoga during our free time in the garden (just look at how beautiful the garden is!!), and that is Miki doing forest meditation after a 2hr hiking meditation up the mountain behind the temple, before doing sutra chanting on top of the mountain! It was really awesome!
Hosenji Temple is a small Rinzai Zen temple that is supposed to be relatively strict. Days started at 5am and ended at 10pm with many many hours spent in meditation : sitting meditation, cleaning meditation, working meditation, calligraphy meditation, eating meditation, walking meditation..... The meals were so complicated and filled with so many rules and rituals that I could hardly eat the first 2 days!!
It is here that I had my first real encounter with the chanting of sutras and I feel that I may be getting intimate with the Hannya Shingyo; (The heart sutra). The vibrations from this sutra stirred me even before I understood the words and now with each chanting, I see and understand new aspects that astound me!
Shikoku 88 Temple pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is not merely a walk, it is a meditation that uses all the 5 senses so as to awaken the 6th sense (mind consciousness) and the 7th sense (ultimate reality).
It was on this walk on my own from temple 11 to temple 16 with no one else for company other than Saint Koba Dashi that I guess I learnt the most. I chanted my sutras, reflected on koans and chatted with Koba Dashi..... There were many little lessons and one big revalation! I think I finally understand what life is about!!!
I used to think that life was a journey and it didn't matter much which path one took because it was the journey that mattered. Well, No! Life is not just a journey, it is a pilgrimage. We walk through life with all our senses, completely in the NOW, but there is a purpose in the walk; a destination. There is a raison d'etre! Phew!! Socrates said that Knowledge is the most important thing and the most important knowledge is to know thyself. When we know ourselves, we will know what our purpose is (our destiny)! Pretty good stuff right? I guess it is much better than just wandering through life aimlessly..... you can enjoy every moment, but after a while, it is just pointless without that greater meaning!
Oh, and I learnt something about living in the NOW that I am feeling pretty chuffed about too! Everyone kept talking about being present in the NOW and not dwelling in the past or projecting into the future... For me, that always had a sense of recklessness to it that I was not too comfortable with! If we live in the now and never think of the future, isn't that living a life of no consequence and isn't a life without consequence therefore inconsequential and meaningless! You know when Eckart Tolle (the guy who wrote The Power of Now) abandoned his life and was homeless for I don't remember how many years... Well, I never really understood that! The Zen Now, I found out, is not just about a single moment though, it actually encompasses all moments from the past (in this life and previous lives) and encompasses all moments of the future (including that of future generations), because every moment, every encounter, everything that happens, happens for a reason. Everything is interconnected and interdependent. The Zen life is therefore not the life of a libertine, but is a life of past and future karmic responsibility; for society, for community and for family!
Double Phew to that!!! :)
Shikoku Tokushima Sandbath
I did an amazing 4 1/2 hrs in a sandbath; the longest meditation I have ever done! Sitting immobile and silent buried neck-deep in sand was actually relatively easy; the beach was beautiful, there was a gentle breeze and there were clouds and waves to meditate on. After 3 hrs, I had a desperate need to pee though and it made the rest of the meditation pretty difficult. All I could think about was pee and I kept trying to do it, but it was sooooo difficult! I think I managed to do it after about an hour of trying.
