With Matt Kuke Kane in Japan. Having completed a translation of poems by the great pilgrim monk, Enku, I left a copy on his grave at Mirokuji, and then we walked through the mountains up the valley of the Nagara River via Enku’s birthplace, the shrine where his first statues were enshrined, the waterfall where he realized enlightenment and finished at the gateway temple to Hakusan – White Mountain, the great holy peak of central Japan.

We left a copy of the poems on the mountain altar with the following poem inscribed on it:

May these leaves
flutter
all over this world mountain,
spreading Enku’s joy
wherever they land.

It’s hard to describe the mixture of pain and bliss that was the fabric of the pilgrimage. Perhaps you can imagine walking through cloud-swept mountains and actually being the mountains.

On Wednesday 7th July at 6.30pm, I’m doing a talk at the Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, near Victoria Station, London. Here’s the write-up on the flyer:

“The seventeenth-century yamabushi or mountain-practice monk Enku, completed a vow to carve and distribute 120.000 statues. He also wrote numerous poems and engaged in prodigious pilgrimages the length of Japan. Considered an enlightened man in his lifetime, the extraordinary creativity, vitality and compassion of Enku’s work make him a fascinating figure even today.`’

Please come and join us if you can. There’s no charge.

Over here in Japan, all’s well. Yesterday I was down in Kamakura learning a style of Buddhist dance called Odori Nembutsu. It has an ancient tradition here in Japan, but has almost died out. Give it a generation or two and it’ll be gone, I suspect. In the old days a wandering holy man (who was also a Zen master, actually) called Ippen Shonin travelled around the remote places of Japan where the people were mostly ignorant and pretty down-trodden. He taught them to chant Namu Amida Butsu – the name of the Buddha of Infinite life and love who vowed to save all beings regardless of whatever they’d done or not done.

As he travelled, Ippen organised dances – people would dance all night chanting the name of Amida, imersing themselves in that total love. The school of Buddhism started by Ippen is called the Ji Shu. It never became very big because the monks lived on the road, rather than in temples. Nevertheless, it used to be a major force in Japan. Shame how, like so many good things in Japan, it’s almost died out. If you want to explore the wonderful unique things that Japanese culture has to offer. Do it now before it gets smothered in concrete and neon.

Have a great week. More later.

Cheers Daizan

Hi, how’s it going? We’ve had an incredibly mild winter here in Japan and now the plum blossoms are out, so I guess it’s over. Changes! changes!

Right now in the temple we’re busy pickling radishes (huge Japanese ones called ‘daikons’) and, maybe it’s the slanting morning sunlight, or the buds appearing on the tress, or even the occasional lazy spiraling column of mosquitos but something….. something is turning our attention to the future. Do you get that – those times when you just naturally start to take stock and work out the next good move or two? Here in the temple we just got within two days of having the electricity turned-off and it’s becoming increasingly clear that things are not really sustainable here. We’re still living in a half-burned-out temple and the income just isn’t there to support what we have going on.

So Roshi, the zen master, has been scouting around for another place to operate from. The most likely candidate is a temple near the base of Mount Fuji. We could be moving there very soon. As for me, I’m probably not so far from finishing my training here so starting to look at what might be the best ways to share the joy. I’ll keep you posted. And, by the way, thank you for all your kind thoughts through 2006. This whole place survives on that more than you realize.

More later. In the meantime, wishing you a springtime of unfolding horizons and bright possibilites. What an amazing universe we live in!

Cheers Daizan