Today was our second to last day! I’m starting to get pretty sad. My only consolation is that I’m trying to study abroad in Tokyo for Senior Fall, but it all depends on if my program is approved. Lets keep our fingers crossed. Today we met with Kei-san to discuss the answer of the koan. It was interesting this past trip to see everyone reflect on their koan outloud. We would make alot of jokes, such as the answer to our kokoro is in Diaso, but as the days rolled by we began to think more deeply about it. Kei-san had told us that the answer cannot be found if googled, but of course humans beings being human, some people googled what the disciple orginally said. I’m just glad I avoided that spoiler alert until the very last day, as I wouldn’t have wanted that “correct answer” (which I must stress there is no one correct answer, but sometimes we can loose sight of that in the persuit of correctness) to influence what I thought. My answer was that it is impossible to bring something you do not know, and that I could only bring pieces, and those pieces would come in the form of any and every interaction we have. I had a rough idea of what my answer would be, but I didnt construct that sort of fancy sentence until the first zazen of the day that we did with Kei-san, before telling him our answers. I enjoyed this final session with Kei-san, it was a moment you had to experience, and would be hard to describe as this time I did not take notes, but simply lived in the moment. My overall take away was that it is not the answer of the koan that is important, but the result that occurs during your search for the answer. You cannot achieve this result by googling an answer, or asking someone else for help – instead it is process of mulling, rejection, second guessing and finally the peace you find with your interpretation, when your mind settles on what you deem the answer. After our meeting with Kei-san I also got to ask the number one burning question: where he got his socks. For those who don’t know, Kei-san wears these socks that dont have toes. They look very hobo-chic, or I guess “wabi-sabi” and I like them alot. Turns out he gets them on Amazon. Do I search for “buddhist socks” or just “toeless socks”. That is an answer for another day.Lastly, I went to Fushimi Inari. It was one of the places I indicated that I wanted to go to when I was in Williamstown. Unfortunately I couldn’t hike to the top as I forgot my ventolin, and I happen to like breathing oxygen alot. I got to a nice spot and was able to look at the city. I then hiked down and got crab on a stick, and these fox cream filled puffs. I got alot of trinkets, as I really love foxes, as mentioned in my first blog. You usually see two pairs of foxes flanking each shrine, with one of the foxes holding the key to the rice granary, and the other one a jewel. This is because the shrines in the area are dedicated to Inari, the Japanese kami of foxes, rice and good business. Most of the fox statues had little red capes on, I thought that was so cute. I got a little fox purse that clips onto my bag, a fox lapel pin, fox cellphone charms actually I just bought so many foxes. I need to name all of them.
