Our day started at 10am for some of us (like me). It started around 6:30am for the others—I guess they were either jetlagged or incredibly excited for their first day in Kyoto!
I started the day with a quick breakfast before gathering with the group to begin journey–travelling through some of the nearby attractions in the morning and meeting with Yukei Isobe (Kei-san) in the afternoon, which I found incredibly fulfilling. It was important for Kei-san to address whatever questions we had about Zen, so we started with a lecture after Kei-san heard about our individual Zen-specific interests and questions. We learned that the Zen mind is in everything–it’s not restricted solely to meditation. It is in talking, eating, playing, and everything else in our life. We learned about the history of Shakyamuni Buddha and what makes Zen different. However, what was notable about today to me was the koan we received. After we learned about Jinko, who cut off his left arm to show the bodhidharma how badly he wanted to be his student, we heard about a command the bodhidharma gave Jinko when Jinko asked the bodhidharma how he could find inner peace–Jinko was asked to bring his “kokoro”. We saw that “kokoro” can be quite difficult to fully translate to English, but the closest English translations we got was “heart-mind” and “consciousness.” Thus, the koan we were given was “What is your kokoro” and over the course of the next 10 days, we must find our kokoro and come back with a response.
Our meeting and meditation has shaped so much of the mindset I had today, and I hope I continue this mindset. Throughout the course of the day, I have found myself much more aware of every physical sensation I’ve felt in my body. I’ve definitely been more deliberately present today, but the the koan we must answer has also sparked a lot of thoughts in my mind. Thinking about how to define myself and answer who I am is something that I rarely get to deliberately think about. We were also told that it’s common for an individual to answer the question “Who are you” with their name, but that name is given by someone else–their family. However, in my case, I have been thinking a lot about my name. My name ‘Sohum’ (alternatively spelled ‘Soham’) is a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to “I am He/That.” It is a word that identifies the self with the universe/God/ultimate reality. We had learned that while Western philosophy is very outward looking, Zen is more inward looking. With Zen, one must face themselves completely because it’s only when one meets the real self that they meet the real world. It’s only after reaching enlightenment that the very core of a person will come up, but what is the core or the original self, even before a person’s parents were born? This is a question I’ll be thinking about over the next week and a half (and most probably even after then), but for now I’ve been thinking about the possibility of identifying the self with the ultimate reality.
After meeting Kei-san, CJ, Sei Hou, and I went to see Fushimi Inari-taisha, and it was nice to see the Shinto shrine. The group got dinner later (by going to a tofu-specializing restaurant), had a great meal, grabbed parfait afterwards, and we are all ready to learn more about Noh tomorrow!
