July 2012 – Matkoya's Blog

After is Before

2012-07-282012-07-28Mat Koya

I’m back, back in Koyasan, back home. It’s been a long time, more than tow month I was on th road, walking from one place to the next one, uphill, downhill, on roads, through woods, along rivers and creeks. It has been a time for being with myself out in constant changing environment and now I’m back.

The last days

It was quite easy, no big climbs anymore, no steep ways downhill, just walking. After I arrived at Ōkuboji (#88), I decided to close the circel and go back to Ryōzenji (#1) to tell thank you to my friend Kinoshita San. She was very busy, so I decided to take a day off, hoping she’ll have more time the next day, but she didn’t. Anyway there wee also 3 friends there from Naruto and one of them has done Tokudo at Muryokoin 2 years ago. Together we visited the Namaste Guesthouse in Naruto and I stayed at thier place over night. I also used the opportunity to wash my cloth the last time during this journey.

The next day it became really hot and I walked to Tokushima to catch the ferry for Wakayama. I had to wait a while, time for eating and resting a bit. The ferry takes roughly 2 hours to Wakayama, so I still had a bit time to walk a little more. The heat continued the next 2 days, actually it’s still hot even up here in Koyasan. The last evening before goign up to koyasan, I went to a local place to eat something. First the guy told me he has only beer, nothing to eat, on the end I got Kani (Crab) and Sushis. I had a nice talk with people there, on the end I additional received 1000¥, the last osettai during this journey.

All the sudden, surprinsgly I was standing in front of Diamon, the big gate. I expected a lot of stairs – I remembered it wrong. It was easy the last part. Of course I was sweating, everything was wet 😀

Yesterday I still went to Okunoin, today back at he temple for morning ceremony and coffee later.

What’s next?

Well good question. I plan to write a book about this journey, but also need to make some money now. So first I’ll start to clean out the place here a bit and get reorganized. Still a lot of things, which were cooking up are not yet in place and still need some more reflection.

All in all it was worth the effort, it changed my view a bit I think, the way I think about different things and hopefully also the way how I deal with people.

I received so much friendliness during this journey, uncondtionally, just like that and I’m most greatful for that. I also was often thinking on my teachers, on Habukawa and Hashimoto Sensei specially and I want to say I big thank you to everyone, who directly or indirectly supported hepled me to make this possible.

Murphies Law

2012-07-222012-07-22Mat Koya

Walking, weather report says, partly cloudy. It starts dripping, I put the rainsheet over the backpack, continue to walk. Dripping slowly becomes rain. I think it’ll stop soon. Passing by a coffee bar, which is the only place to sit in around. It has its day off. Slowly rain starts streaming, wind comes up, shoes get wet, finally a shrine along the road with a small place under a roof. I put my rain gear on. Keeping on walking. Rain decreases, stops. 15 minutes walking, clouds move, sunshine, still having wet shoes 😀

Anger, Attachments and Freedom

2012-07-192012-07-21Mat Koya

Well, well, the journey slowly comes to it’s end. I’m now on the way Nagaoji (#87), which is just 5km from the Okunomiyaki-place, where I’m sitting right now. Later today I will walk towards Ōtakiji (b20), which is the last of the bengai-fudasho or bekakku temples. Together with the 88 temples it makes 108 temples, as many as mala has beats. Most people think on 108 attachments, in the context of Buddhism each beat presenting one.
What made starting thinking more deeper on attachments or bonno as they are called in Japanese, was a short event at Senyūji (#58), where I participated in the morning ceremony. As usual I was sitting in halflotus and on the end the priest told me, there is no halflotus in Shingon, only Zeza, meaning kneeling and sitting on ones heals, because this is Japanese culture. After that he was talking about attachments and of course being unaware how much he – like other people here as well – is attached to the idea, Shingon is a Japanese cultural property, what it is of course not. I didn’t reacted of course, but when I was going down the mountain, this event occupied my mind. In a glimpse of moment I got even angry about that guys ignorance. Has he ever seen Kūkai or any of the Buddha statues sitting in Zeza? Didn’t dharma teaching came from India to China and then to Japan? This lead me to thinking more about my own attachments and expectations. How can I expect that people understand emptiness, when they recite the heartsutra in Kanbun, a language, normal people don’t understand. Kanbun is actually old Chinese with Japanese pronunciation. It was used long time ago by educated people who able to read and write.
… I need to move on and will continue writing later, as I haven’t made my point yet. Please bear with me and stay tuned 😉
Thanks for your patience 🙂 I’m now just a few km away from Ōkuboji, the last temple. From there I plan to go back to Ryōzenji to close the circle.
Anyway to continue from before. What really pissed me off wad, when I was thrown off the temple ground at Kokubunji (#80) after receiving my stamp, before I could recite my mantras. They guy said that’s Japanese culture, not a bad thing with a grin in his face, saying the opposite.
After I cooled down, a voice spoke inside to me, saying do your thing in front of the gate, that’s fine. This guy will receive his fruits at one point, but it’s not your business. So I made a little incense holder, did my recitations and moved on.
What triggered anger, were my own expectations, that people do have some understanding, but they just cling as much to their social framework as I stick to my expectations. These expectations are attachment. The only thing I can change here is dropping this idea, that people at least partly share my understanding. They just don’t and they will never do. Dropping this idea means dropping this kind of attachment, opening the door to freedom and experiencing the unexpected.
And exactly that happened to me yesterday. I went up to Ōtakiji. When I got my stamp, the son of the Jushoku insisted in speaking English and told me the best option is to go and stay in a Onsen Hotel, because there’s no place with food the other way. I was thinking all the time, I’ve seen this face before… on the end, when I was about leaving, I asked him and in fact, he was studying with Sanja and we met a couple of times some 4 or 5 years ago in Kōyasan. He told me then, they will now go to that onsen and I should come with them. As I wanted to go by foot everything, I had to reject this friendly offer. The compromise was, they took my backpack with them. So these 12km downhill just took me 2 hours only. After enjoying onsen, nice food and an air-conditioned room without mosquitos, I wanted to pay my bill this morning and the guy charged me only the beer I drank the evening before. I was so surprised! Everything else was already taken care of and my heart was filled with gratefulness about this unexpected ossetai, making me again clear what kind of freedom I receive by not expecting anything 🙂

Double Temple

2012-07-122012-07-12Mat Koya

Today I went to Jinnein (#68) and Kanonji (#69), which are 2 temples in one. During the Meiji period Jinnein was moved to the same place as Kanonji. During the Meiji period the state tried to destroy Buddhism in Japan, because it was strongly connected to the traditional clans and Samurais, who didn’t like the modernization of Japan, which was actually enforced by the US. Anyway, that’s all history and I often can perceive it’s traces it left behind.
The let’s say practical thing was I got stamps for two temples from one office.
What amazed me was the site, a little hill hosting two temples in the back at one site. These temples are so different! Jinnein has a very interesting Hondõ, a successful mixture of modern architecture mixed with traditional elements. The entrance reminds to the museum of modern art in New York, followed by a building like a traditional temple. The Hondō of Kanonji on the other side is a red painted old style building.
Of course there’s a big Shrine in front of the hill and behind a big park with a huge sand coin. They say if you look the coin you’ll be healthy and wealthy.
Well, I did 🙂

Now I’m sitting in a pub writing this blog and still want to walk to Motoyamaji (#70), where is a park next to it. Parks usually have toilets and often a roof. Weather should be fine tonight anyway 🙂

A short update

2012-07-102012-07-10Mat Koya

The WP-app just crashed, so I try again to give you a short update.
I’m on the way to Unpenji (#66), sitting in a little hut, where I built up my tent. Straight floor and a roof on top in case it starts raining. The last days I had really nice weather, walking became a kind of routine. I’m even not disturbed by busy roads anymore. One step follows the next, breath goes in and out, sweat runs down the back.
Sometimes I’m nearly overwhelmed by the friendliness of people. Some days ago, a woman stopped her car in the middle of the street, jumped out, gave me 200¥, said “osettai desu”, jumped back into her car and disappeared before I could say thank you. Later 2 days ago, I met an old man on the street. He was on his walk for health, as he said. We were walking some time together until Enmeiji (b12). After visiting the temple, he invited me for lunch and coffee. When I left him on the station, where he took the train back home, he gave me 1000¥, “for dinner” he said. On the same day in the evening, while I was buying dinner, another guy gave me 2 beer and some more food.
I still didn’t do takuhatsu, begging as monks were doing in the old times. It feels embarrassing for me and I guess I have to learn more humbleness to overcome this.
Today I was at Hashikuraji. I renamed the temple to “Kaidanji”, temple of stairs. Until one reaches the gate, it’s already quite a sweaty way uphill. Beyond the gate comes a nice wide way, leading to a red bridge, followed by 777 steps until the office and the Fudodō, 27 more steps to the temple bell and another long stairway until the Hondō and the Daishidõ. It’s worth the effort though. It’s a wonderful and peaceful place. The monk, who put the stamps surprised me on the end by asking me, if I know Kurt. We were talking for some time and we figured out that we had the same Shidokegyo teacher. So nice!

Bumped into a wall

2012-07-032012-07-03Mat Koya

Again… So here it goes:
Yesterday I first came to a “paradise shop”. They had everything there, shoes, rain protection and more, so I got a new mat for under the sleeping bag. Smaller, softer and less weight 🙂
In the evening I wanted to walk until Kama-Daishi, which is on the way to Enmeiji (#54). When I came to a convenient store, 1km away, I was asking the guy there, if one can pitch up a tent there, the answer was “no way”. So I stayed near the convini in a little park. No roof, no water and no toilet there. Anyway, weather was nice, the moon shining, I went to sleep. What a surprise, when I woke up, it was not only raining, it came down in torrents. The weather forecast said something different and waiting didn’t help, so now the tent isn’t dry anymore.
After a short walk I arrived at Kama-Daishi and what a surprise! Roof, water toilet, even a plug for charging, everything there. The place under the roof would have been big enough for the tent and Daishi Sama could have guarded my dreams 🙂
This was not the first time, I believed others more then my intuition. Every time I pay a price for not listening. I need to learn to listen better to my inner self. Will I learn this lesson finally?