謹賀新年 – HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

   There is a traditional New Year's decoration in Japan called a kadomatsu [門松], which literally means “gate pine”. They are placed in pairs at the entrance to the home to welcome ancestral harvest spirits or kami. A core of three bamboo shoots cut to different lengths is decorated typically with pine and other plant materials depending on the region. Just as traditional Japanese Ikebana is based on three branches of different lengths, the bamboo shoots in a kadomatsu are cut on an angle to three different lengths that represent heaven, man and earth with heaven being the highest and earth the lowest.

   Not being particularly traditionalist we decided to play around with combining the kadomatsu concept and Ikebana. While walking in the wooded area around our house a few days ago we cut a type of Magnolia branch that was still in the early bud phase to use with a bamboo shoot that I had cut a few weeks ago. We decided to do the arrangement this morning in time for the New Year. After cutting some Nandina berries on another walk in the neighborhood we decided to do the arrangement without any vases since a vase would have detracted from the simplicity and the Magnolia wouldn't bloom this early anyhow. A notch cut into the bamboo served as a small water reservoir for the Nandina berries. The rest is free standing and balanced on the two main elements.

bamboo shoot, Magnolia branch and Nandina berries

Winter Solstice

There's a raw chill in the air, 

the sun is hazy and distant,

 the wind howls in the bare tree branches

 and whips across your face

 and through your clothes. 

But not today. 

Walking in the mountains

 on a relatively mild day, 

the world seems to hold its breath

 as the Earth teeters on the brink

 at its maximum distance

 from the magnetic pull of old Sol.

 Here there is no tinsel

 or jingling bells; 

the riotous reds and mellow yellows of fall

 have fallen in heaps of dried browns and grays; 

a few spiky stalks of pampas grass

 stand determinedly against a leaden sky

 and the watery sparkles of a cloud-dimmed sun.

 A banana

 seems especially sweet

  out of doors

 on a winter afternoon.

Happy Aphelion

A little different seasonal greeting 

to welcome the planet back 

from the farthest point in its annual journey 

around our beloved Sun, and 

the shortest day of the year.

nandina berries and pothus leaf

A bit of trivia for you...

Christmas (the "birth" of Christ) 

is an arbitrary date chosen 

to coincide with the Winter Solstice (aphelion) celebrations of ancient peoples 

who needed a celebration to dispel 

the depression and gloom of 

long, cold, dark winter nights.

Update 12/23/2014:

       One can find much speculation about the origin of the Christmas story and it's symbolic relation to Sun (Son) worship in older religions. 

       The idea isn't to debunk Christianity, but to see it as a continuity with the whole spectrum of human speculation about our origins and relationship to our universe. I agree with a friend of mine who finds that continuity fascinating and reassuring. There is an interesting (unprovable, of course) relationship between Christianity and Mithraism for example:

       “Mithra (Sun-God) is believed* to be a Mediator between God and man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said* that Mithra or [the] Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the belief of* the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was born of [a] Virgin. He traveled far and wide. He has twelve satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples.... [The Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—Christmas and Easter. His symbol is the Lamb...."

Swami Prajnanananda, Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth

[*My emphasis]

       I think it isn't really a question of belief or faith, but an intuitive connection with the full panoply of human thought, emotion and existence from ancient to our own times. 

Rudolph say: Happy Holidays One and All

Killing Time

      Looking for a killer opening line...something not too overtly pretentious, grabs the attention, but can't think of a damn thing! The synapses aren't snapping and crackling the way they used to. Soon to be 73 and wondering what I'm still doing here. Staying alive—since the alternative doesn't seem all that attractive in the absence of a terminal illness. But, no, that is far too cynical, even for me, and not even very funny. Still, the question does pose itself, especially in the whirlpool depths of insomniac nights.

the Leaning Tower of Burano

       Recently, a younger 40-something creative guy asked me what I do with my time. People of that age can't imagine what not having to get up at the crack of dawn, stumble around in the semi-dark, swallow some breakfast that you aren't even hungry for and then lurch off to earn your daily bread is like. True, that. Still, the question caught me off guard and I just shrugged. “Hobbies. Just chilling?”, he asked. The implication is: “What do you do with all that time on your hands?” It's a fair question, I have to admit.


       True, it's a fact, if your in your seventies, you do have a lot of time. In fact, time is really all you have. Come to think of it, time is really all any of us have. What we do with it is what differentiates one from another. Our conditioning tells us that we should be doing something productive with our time, accomplishing something. What that usually means is that we should be getting compensation for the production and accomplishment, generally in the form of monetary remuneration. The bigger the remuneration, the greater the accomplishment. In other words, one is not wasting one's time.


       If, however, you are in your seventies, by that definition you have a lot of time to waste since you aren't likely to get any impressive remuneration for your productive capacity and efforts. And why would you want the hassle of running the rat race all over again to gain more remuneration if you're comfortable without it? I would consider that “wasting” what time I have left.


       In an otherwise silly formulaic romantic comedy of the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again or vice versa variety, there was a good line. Daughter asks widowed father why he surrounds himself with several “girlfriends” instead of choosing just one. He responds that no one could replace her mother and now he's just fooling around, “killing time”, presumably until he can rejoin her. It's a cliché, but it's very pleasant to kill time: time to “smell the roses”, take a walk in the mountains on a sunny afternoon, getaway to a hot spring in the winter with the snow falling on your bare shoulders, experiment with the creative pursuits that delight you... And, yes, think wistfully about the twilight years, wondering, occasionally, when and how it will all finally end.

       But until then, I'm just killing time.

Paris: Indignant con woman caught in the act.

She drops a ring on the ground near you, approaches,

and asks if it's yours to get close enough

to pick your pocket. This mark took her

ring and walked off with it, with her, angrily, in hot pursuit.

la butte Montmartre

Charles Aznavour - La Bohème

      This beautiful song by Charles Aznavour captures the romantic image of the poor and starving artist on the little hill known as la butte Montmartre in the popular imagination. It's a somewhat sad and wistful song of a man in his late 60s looking back on a Parisian neighborhood that is no more and probably, except in his fond memories of youth, never was. 

      Probably the rents in Montmartre are way to high for starving artists to afford these days, and they may have moved to squats down in the Marais, or maybe Montparnasse,  but the little hill with its crowning glory of Sacre Coeur is still worth a picture or two, I'd say. Here are a few rather immodest examples:

a crèperie called Le Tire Bouchon (the pull the cork)

Restaurant Le Consulat

Basilica of the Sacred Heart 

Moulin de la Galette

Other renditions of gatherings at the Moulin de la Galette:

Renoir - 1876

Toulouse-Lautrec - 1889

Picasso - 1900

Burned Out in Paris

Getting Reacquainted 14 – The Hidden Hovel Temple

     There are several expressions for “wife” in Japanese. A couple of them indicate her lowly, second-class status in relation to the family and her place in it. The man of the family is the 主人 [shujin] the master or lord of the house. But the wife of the master doesn't have a human designation. She is the 家内 [kanai], which simply means inside the house. She is commonly addressed as 奥さん[okusan], which means, loosely, honorable hidden in the back person.

Okunoin - main temple

        My purpose here is not to denigrate women, but to point out some peculiarities of language interfacing. Road Buddy, my honorable hidden in the back person, were having one of our intercultural discussions while hiking around yet another shrine/temple complex near our home named Okunoin, 奥之院. It is the inner sanctuary of the main temple down in the valley. Yet it sits on the summit of 龍王山 [Ryuozan] (Dragon King Mountain). You may remember the “Great Luck Dragon King” Shrine in a previous post. Well, same Dragon King, same area.


        You may not have noticed the same Chinese Character 奥 [oku] in both the word for 奥さん [honorable hidden in the back person] and 奥之院 [Okunoin] which can be translated as [less exalted, hidden in the back, temple/shrine complex] or, as my title suggests The Hidden Hovel Temple.



        Okunoin is, in fact, anything but a hovel. It is part of a larger conglomerate of Nichiren-shu (a Buddhist sect) shrines and temples in the area. It stands on the summit of a mountain with an excellent view of the city of Okayama (below) off in the blue hazy distance. Framed by the colors of Autumn (right) the vista is impressive.

the city of Okayama from Ryuozan  - (Dragon King Mountain)

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo -- 南無妙法蓮華経

the Namu Myoho ...on the left...

...behind...

        The most impressive aspect of Okunoin is the myriad of rocks and stones inscribed with the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren-shu encourages its adherents to recite a mantra from the Lotus Sutra daily. I first noticed the same inscription on many rocks on a recent visit to another Nichiren-shu temple, Ryuzenji, and asked Road Buddy what it meant. To my surprise she recited the mantra [Namu Myoho Renge Kyo] 南無妙法蓮華経 (fancifully inscribed on the rocks) from memory.

...framed...

...all around...

        It can't be precisely defined in words but I gather it encompasses the essence of enlightenment as taught by the Buddha. Chanting the mantra is hypnotic and perhaps can put one in a meditative frame of mind when repeated over and over. 

...all alone....

...grouped...

...camouflaged...

        Strolling around Okunoin with the seemingly hundreds of rocks inscribed with the Lotus Sutra feels like a visual chanting of the mantra so that you could almost meditatively levitate right off the mountain top and float over the hills and valleys below.

...and fanciful!

Getting Reacquainted 13 – The Temple of the Dragon Waterfall

     There is a seasonal element to many things Japanese—especially art forms. You will find seasonal words in haiku poems:

A dirt road on foot,

a fine golden afternoon,

backlit pampas grass.

In this example “pampas grass” imparts a feeling of autumn. Similarly, Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) expresses a seasonal mood in the materials chosen. In this example the persimmons indicate, as the pampas grass in the haiku, that the season is, again, autumn.

          There is a temple in the mountains not far from our home that we often drive by on the way to someplace else. You seem to miss so many wonderful things on the way to “someplace else”. Since we enjoy walking in natural settings—well, semi-natural settings to be more exact—we decided to try hiking on the mountain trails near the Temple of the Dragon Waterfall. It sounds more concise and poetic in Japanese – RYUSENJI [龍泉寺], and the kanji for dragon:

would make a great tattoo.

Falcor, the luck dragon 

        Unlike the Western tradition, dragons are not forces for evil in the East. Here, they are more like Falcor, the “luck dragon”, in Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story and symbolize benevolence and good fortune. Accordingly, we have a temple and its adjacent shrine dedicated to dragons. Working in tandem they are designed to ensure a good rice crop and harvest. The temple is called RYUSENJI [龍泉寺], The Temple of the Dragon Waterfall; the shrine is called HACHIDAIRYUO [八大龍王], Great Luck Dragon King.

Ryusenji - main temple

       Ryusenji is a particularly lovely specimen of the temple type. The main temple sits on a sunny hilltop. However, as its name implies, there is a misty/shadowy rock chasm that contains the dragon waterfall used for “misogi” (ritual purification) by Buddhist monks. Lest you imagine something majestic like Niagara or Victoria Falls let me prick your bubble before descending into the grotto. The waterfall is piped in and emerges through a kind of dragon-like faucet and drops to the rock floor of the grotto. Nevertheless, in spite of the slight kitchyness of the contraption, the grotto possesses a kind of spirituality conducive to meditation and cleansing of the spirit. It must be especially challenging in the winter, though.

unusual dragon motif in roof decoration

dragon waterfall - more like a spout

the grotto

Buddhist monk doing "misogi" 

earthen dam and  HACHIDAIRYUO [八大龍王] Shrine

       The complex contains a large pond created by an earthen dam which you can walk around on a dirt road used for service vehicles. It’s about two kilometers to circumnavigate the pond and a fairly easy hike with easily doable ups and downs. The road winds close to the contours of the pond and is very scenic, especially on a sunny fall day.

Jizo (guardian spirits)

       While walking along, my eye was struck by the singular vision of hundreds of statues of “Jizos” (a kind of protective spirit like a guardian angel) all lined up in orderly rows and columns, some wearing red bibs. According to Road Buddy these spirits absorb your bad karma and release you from it. Actually, it’s a pretty amusing sight. I couldn’t resist an irreverent photo or two. I guess I’ll burn in one of the several Buddhist purgatories for that little indiscretion, but should eventually achieve Nirvana.

the Sanskrit Mantra rock

       The road soon leads to the Great Luck Dragon King [Hachi dai ryu o] shrine associated with the temple. The pond is very prettily framed by a newish style bright vermilion torii gate from inside the shrine precinct, which, basically, consists of a very large rock with a Buddhist Sanskrit mantra (Namu Myoho Renge Kyo) inscribed in kanji characters. This same mantra is visible on many of the rocks in the Ryusenji complex. Translating from the Sanskrit it says: "I honor the Universal Mystical Law of Cause and Effect."


       I can abide with that; The Temple of the Dragon Waterfall complex is a pretty mystical place.