Hello all!
Today was our first full day in Kyoto — and we enjoyed every minute of it!
The day began with breakfast in the hostel — the green tea bread was really good! After we’d eaten, we left to explore the city a bit as a group before our afternoon meeting at Tofuku-ji — a Zen temple at which we were to meet and interview a Zen priest.
Kagaya-sensi took us through a really neat food market where we saw a lot of interesting things. There were little sweet shops (including one that was entirely Snoopy themed) as well as stores selling (really fresh) fish and pickled just about everything. I sampled some black bean tea that was very tasty. We walked through the Gion district which was very beautiful. It retained a really classic look and even though the Geisha weren’t out during the day, I could easily imagine them walking those streets.
I tried tempura shrimp and udon noodles for lunch (it was delicious) before we headed to the train station to get to the main event of the day — the visit to Tofuku-ji.
Stepping through the gates of Tofuku-ji was like stepping into the past. (Just about literally — the room that we met Yukei Isobe, or as he asked us to call him, Kei-san, in — was apparently over four hundred years old!) This experience is arguably what I was most excited about before setting out for Kyoto and it lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Kei-san began our time by telling us the story of how Buddhism first began and how the Zen koan started. The koan is a type of riddle used in the practice of Zen to help the practitioner face his or her true self. There are no stock answers to these riddles — each person’s answer is unique. The story that Kei-san told us contained a koan that we will contemplate for 10 days before returning to Tofuku-ji to give him our answers. I’ll summarize the story and the koan below.
Bodhidharma was the man who is credited with beginning Zen Buddhism when he came from India to China some 1500 years ago. The story goes that a young man named Jinko heard that Bodhidharma had truly experienced enlightenment and had actualized the teachings of Buddha. He wanted terribly to be Bodhidharma’s apprentice and set out to find him. When Jinko met Bodhidharma it was winter and the ground was blanketed by snow. Jinko asked Bodhidharma if he would take him as a student and Bodhidharma replied that he would take Jinko as a student when the white snow turned red. Jinko immediately cut off his left arm and allowed his blood to water the snow — turning the white snow red. Bodhidharma was convinced of Jinko’s sincerity and took him on as a student.
One day, Jinko came to Bodhidharma and told his teacher that his kokoro (spirit/heart/mind) was troubled. Bodhidharma said to Jinko that if he could bring his kokoro to Bodhidharma, Bodhidharma would set it at peace for him. The question was this: what would you do if you were in Jinko’s shoes? How do you bring someone your mind/heart/spirit? This question implies a broader and deeper question that lies at the very center of Zen practice: who are you? Or, as another Zen koan asks, what is your true nature? What was your face before your parents were born?
I look forward to contemplating this koan throughout the coming week. Beyond this, Kei-san answered all of the questions that we brought with us from our research into Zen. Before we left Williamstown, there was one particular question that had really consumed me. It was a question about resolving or internalizing the apparent paradox of the individualistic nature of Zen with it’s desire to eliminate the understanding of the individual as an individual. However, for some reason, when it came time to ask that question today, I felt kind of silly doing so. It felt that something slid into place inside of me in that old temple as we were meditating. That, even if it was only for a moment, I understood. That might be silly, but I walked away from that temple with a sense of profundity that I have never experienced before settling over my soul.
After we finished at the temple, we took the train back to the area around our hostel and shopped around for a bit! Kyoto is a really nice city to walk around. It’s very compact, but it’s also very clean and friendly. We went to a tofu restaurant for dinner where I tried real tofu for the first time! It was delicious. Now we’re back in the hostel. It’s been a really full day and I’m excited for the new experiences tomorrow will bring!
See you tomorrow!
-Breelyn
