KYONIN (and Jundo's) TRAVEL DIARY in JAPAN

[Nengei]

What a privilege it has been to follow your journey through this pilgrimage, Kyonin.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat. LAH.

[Onka]

Cool.

Also

http://www.budismosotozen.org

There's a Chocobuda link on the header menu to Kyonin's blog as well.

Gassho
Kevin
Sat

Thanks for the link Kevin. It's a terrific site to check out thanks to the Google gods of translation.
I'm no longer on any social media but thanks for the Twitter link Jakuden.

What a magnificent experience for us all that our beloved comrade Kyonin was able to practice at Antai ji before Muho retires.

Gassho
Anna

stlah

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Tapatalk

[Onka]

Just a word on our visits today as Kyonin recovers from Antaiji ...

Our first pilgrimage was to a hall that is the most moving place l have ever visited in Japan, a world treasure I believe. 1001 statues of Kannon Bodhisattva fill a single hall, each statue the same yet, on close examination, each with its slightly different facial features and personality. The oldest are from the Kamakura period, and the main image happens to have been created in the same year of Dogen's death (although it is not a Zen temple, but Tendai). It is called the Sanjusangendo ...

It is meant to express the power and presence of Kannon. And in a like fashion, Kyonin and l then paid our visit to a modern effort to do the same, the Android Kannon. Some people have difficulty to relate to this Kannon of metal and silicone, but Kyonin and i both agreed that it is much more impressive in person, and succeeeds in conveying a powerful message one the meaning of "non-self" (the topic of the Dharma talk that it offered ...

https://youtu.be/mJDf1GXaF-w

More tomorrow ...

Gassho, J

STLah

I'd get sensory overload looking at all those Bodhisattvas. I went to the Keukenhof gardens in Holland and experienced sensory overload after looking at all the tulip fields. I had to sit down and close my eyes for a bit to feel ok again.

https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/plan-your-holiday/events/keukenhof.htm

Gassho
Anna

stlah

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Hi All,

A photo from yesterday of Kyonin with Android Kannon. Kyonin is the one on the right.

robotkyonin.jpg

Today began with a visit to Kenninji, a most important temple in the history of Zen in Japan, including Soto Zen. Although a Tendai Buddhist temple, it was one of the first temples in Japan to introduce serious Zen Rinzai training as part of their practices. Also, Master Dogen lived and practiced at Kenninji for many years in their Rinzai ways before heading to China, and introducing the Soto Zen ways to Japan.

Here is a little peek at the beautiful gardens of Kenninji ...

https://youtu.be/NMd7qU8BJ5c

While at Kenninji, Kyonin and i were able to pursue the wonderful practice of Shakyo, or Sutra Copying. Here is a picture showing how it is done. Basically, tracing paper is placed over a copy of the Heart Sutra so that even someone who cannot write Japanese can trace the beautiful Chinese characters closely. Kyonin, it turns out, has studied western calligraphy, so even though he does not read Japanese, his Kanji were truly elegant. He just has a natural feel for the brush. it took us about 2 hours to copy the characters of the Heart Sutra.



After that, we moved on to the famous sand garden of Ryoanji, which is a Rinzai monastery. However, as beautiful as is Ryoanji and its gardens, i must confess that the sand gardens of Kenninji and some other temples may be even more captivating. You can see Kenninji's sand gardens in the above video and judge for yourself.



After that, we walked for about an hour to the famous Rinzai university, Hanazono, which holds a weekly Zazenkai in their Zendo on campus. Alas, the priest there told me that almost none of the 1000 students in the university come to Zazen, and that most of the participants are middle aged and older Japanese folks from the university and surrounding community. They have an amazing hall that can sit a couple of hundred people (although Zazen was lightly attended), and the priest carries to long Rinzai style "keisaku" wake up stick. He used it on Kyonin and me at our request, but lightly. (Kyonin told me that Muho, at the Antaiji session, carries a Rinzai style stick and uses it much harder).



Finally, here is a picture of the "rooms" where Kyonin and I stayed. Actually, not "rooms," bacause I found us two "boxes" (that is the only way to describe them ... wooden boxes with a curtain on one side), barely big enough to stretch out and sit up. However at the equivalent of U.S. $18 a night, a bargain. Showers and toilet down the hall, our boxes were clean and cozy. I would not say that they were the same as a modern Japanese "capsule," because they were actual boxes or crates (coffins?) in a 200 year old Japanese inn that looks like it could be the location for a samurai movie. Here are Kyonin's toes in his box.

boxkyoto.JPEG

And that's the news.

Gassho, J

SatodayLah

[Ishin]

Kyonin, I am so glad you had this experience and, in my opinion, you are even more hardcore than Metallica!

Thanks to you and Jundo for all these writing and pictures, it's wonderful to be following your footsteps.

Gassho
Ishin
Sat/lah

[Shinshi]

Thank you for sharing so much of the experience. It all looks amazing!

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Kokuu]

Wonderful! Thank you for all of the updates!

The Sanjusangendo is incredible.

I have been sitting with the online broadcast from Sokukoji in Michigan some days and they are doing sutra copying after their morning service and sit. The teacher, Sokuzan, was taught by Chogyam Trungpa as well as a Soto teacher so I wasn't sure which it came from.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Amelia]

I am so happy for you, Kyonin. Congratulations on sitting at Antaiji! I have heard that it is one of the more rigorous sesshins! I am so happy that you are both having a great time, and getting so much in! Kyonin will probably sleep for three days when he gets home...

Gassho

Sat today, lah

[Doshin]

Happy for You

Doshin
St

[Seishin]

Kenninji looks so peaceful, thank you for sharing.

Sat

[Jundo]

Kenninji looks so peaceful, thank you for sharing.

Sat

Well, frankly, it was a little less peaceful outwardly (inward is always the same) because of the bus loads of tourists, mostly from China but really all languages heard. I must say that, compared to my last visit quite a few years ago, Kyoto is rather overrun with tourists. Some places of quiet reflection and elegance are starting to look like New York's Times Square.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/Japan-gets-more-than-it-bargained-for-with-tourist-boom

TOKYO/KYOTO -- Yuko Kato, a 50-year-old housewife, was raised in Kyoto and has lived there all her life. Going to the 1,300-year-old Nishiki Market, known as "Kyoto's Kitchen," to buy fish, pickles and seasonings used to be a weekly habit for her, but that has changed over the past five years.

These days, the traditional retail market, which covers five blocks of narrow laneways lined with shops, is overrun by foreign tourists, many of them eating skewered shrimp and other local delicacies as they stroll, making it difficult for daily shoppers to go about their business. Posters saying "No Eating While Walking" are pasted everywhere, but are largely ignored. ... The surge in foreign visitors to Japan reflects a gradual easing of travel visa requirements since 2013 for countries including Thailand, the Philippines and China; growth in the number of budget airlines in Asia; and a depreciation in the yen, all of which have made Japan one of the most popular destinations in the region. According to a survey by the city, 7.4 million foreign guests traveled to Kyoto in 2017, a more than fivefold increase from 2012. Including domestic tourists, the city hosted 53.6 million visitors in 2017, dwarfing its population of 1.5 million. ... Joanna, a 29-year-old tourist from the U.K., was astonished when she visited the Fushimi Inari shrine with her boyfriend and saw it packed with tourists taking selfies in front of its thousands of statuesque vermilion gates. "Although we wanted to go see the forest at the end of the gates, we decided not to go. We just couldn't walk because of the crowds," she says.

However, the heart can remain quiet, empty and elegant.

Gassho, J STLah

[Onka]

These updates injected with a Dad joke or two are terrific.
Thank you Jundo and Kyonin for sharing.
Gassho
Anna

ST

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Well, a killer typhoon is heading to Japan this weekend. It should not stop Kyonin's plans to sit for a day at Eiheiji, but travel might get a little dicey comimg back from there to Tsukuba ...



For today, a little rain. We first visited the Shogun's castle in Kyoto for a little history lesson for Kyonin. Here is a recreation of an audience of lords with the great Shogen in the actual chambers.



Then, off to the Byodoin, one of the very early Buddhist temples in Japan. It is a world heritage site, so beautiful that it is featured on the Japanese 10 Yen coin. The structure is one of the few surviving from Japan's Heian period, around the year 1000.



Even more than the famous hall, were the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues, some over 1000 years old, in the temple museum. A small sample ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm2oMRKl4dc&t=8s

However, the main reason for our visit to the area is a temple nearby that is the continuation of Master Dogen's first temple which he founded in Japan after returning from China (although it is really the child of that temple, as the location was moved some centuries after Dogen's time). The name is Koshoji ...

In 1233, after his return from his study mission to China, Dogen Zenji founded the Koshoji, the first Sōtō temple in Fukakusa, just south of the ancient capital Kyoto. During medieval warring, fire destroyed the compound and many priceless scriptures. In 1648, the local ruler Nagai Naomasa rebuilt it at Uji, its present location.

After Dogen Zenji’s death, the Koshoji ceased to exist. But the abbot Banan Eishu revived it to serve as a center for the severe and simple style of Zen inherited from Dogen Zenji. During the Edo period (1603-1867), novices from all over Japan came to train at the Koshoji, which, together with the Eiheiji and the Sojiji, cultivated many outstanding monks.

Most fortunate for us, an English speaking monk born in India has recently begun training there and was able to guide us around to many often closed parts of the temple. Most touching, of course, was the Zazen Hall (Sodo) where Zazen is sat daily from 4am. Here is a picture of us together in front of the central Altar, and another of the grounds ...

koshoji one.jpg

koshoji two.jpg

It was an honor to visit this place and to pay respects to the founder, Master Dogen.

Tomorrow, a precious chance for lunch with Taigu, who will meet us in Kyoto.

Gassho, Jundo

[Washin]

Lovely updates, beautiful places!
Thank you for sharing them, Jundo and Kyonin.

Gassho
Washin
sat/lah

[Kotei]

Thank you for the infos and pictures.
Hoping for safe travels and a bit of maple fall colours in those beautiful gardens.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.