We have a number of patients who travel a lot, but they go to the same place(s) trip after trip. They feel like they have ‘died and gone to heaven’ each time they return
to a location which satisfies all their desires. Nancy and I feel differently, because our experience is that no two places we visit are the same, and we learn so much from each that we don’t feel
the desire to return to a spot already sampled and forego a spot yet to be tasted.
That said, there is one country we have visited where we feel even if we were to move there permanently, and live another 100 years, we would never really get a true understanding of
what the place is all about. That place is Japan.
It seems to be the nature of the Japanese to keep their innermost thoughts hidden from view. They maintain a calm, placid exterior, and we find it impossible to ‘read” what
they are thinking. This is in sharp contrast to the situation where you find yourself on a train with an American sitting next to you. Inside of 30 or 45 minutes, you know more about that person than his
or her mother does!
This is not a ‘knock’ on Americans. We tend to be rather outgoing in our personalities, and up front with our thoughts. Definitely not the way it goes with most of the Japanese
we have met!
Kyoto, an ancient capital of Japan, has more temples, monuments gardens than you can possibly visit in a limited amount of time. And to make it worse, all of them are noteworthy. To
us, the most outstanding of these is Kinkakui, the Golden Pavilion, so called because its roof it covered with genuine gold leaf..
As we were told, it was built in the late 1300's by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. He selected the site because it was the loveliest place he could find in all of Japan, and he lived
there until his death 11 years later. Originally, he was going to keep it as his own personal eternal resting ground, but he decided, in the end, that it was too beautiful to keep isolated; too lovely
to not be allowed to give pleasure to others. And so he decided to donate this ‘loveliest place in Japan’, and it became a Zen temple.
As we got out of the car that brought us to this place, we could literally feel the
‘vibration’, the energy of some ethereal spirit here, hovering all around us. It was clear we were standing on “hallowed ground”.
A short walk from the pavilion is a veranda which overlooks Ryoanji, Japan’s most famous Zen rock garden. The garden contains 15 rocks set among raked white pebbles. It is left
to you to interpret and give whatever meaning comes to your mind as you stand in the presence of this beautiful garden.
It was first laid out in the 15th century, and the caretakers of this mystical paradise are descendants of the original gardeners.
Think of that: more than 500 years, in the care of the same family... |
