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Showing posts from February, 2020

Sengai; a Zen priest with a joyful mind

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What a fun picture it is! Looking at the moon they were asking each other how old the moon was. The big man answered thirteen years old and the other answered seven. It is childish, but it is the last mental state where the Zen priest who painted it had arrived after many Zen practices and enlightenments. I showed it to my daughter who is a kindergarten teacher and asked her how she felt. She immediately answered cute, “kawaii”. Sengai The painter is Sengai who was a great Zen priest at the time of 70 years after Hakuin in the Edo period , but Sengai never met Hakuin. Hakuin who painted many amusing pictures for people, but he was a consistent Zen priest. Contrarily, Sengai was the most eager Zen priest likewise amid the then Zen priests, but his last mind state was away from Zen by Zen practices. Look at the picture above. It was painted by young Sengai. He was a good painter and a good Zen practitioner with hope. So it concludes the taste of Zen. Sengai hoped that he wo

Kurama-dera Temple; to see mysterious elements

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The sky from this point of Kurama-dera Temple is another sky, I have such a impression. Here is the top area of Kamakura-dera Temple. It may be due to the sweat of your walking up, but even by the many aspects of this temple. Kurama-dera Temple has many houses on the slope of the 569m-high Kurama-yama Mountain in the north of Kyoto. The mountain has a 250 million-year-old stratum, so the stratum may include some mysterious energy. From the front of the main gate at the foot of the mountain you can see the mountain beyond the gate. To arrive at the main cathedral on the upper slope of the mountain, you can shorten the time by riding on the cable car but I recommend you go on foot. You can see a lot of small temples along the way that has a road with many bends. The three main deities of the temple The temple enshrines the three deities, “Bishamonten”, “Kannon” and “Gohou-Maoh”. Bishamonten is the deity of the sun, Kannon is the deity of the moon and Gohou-Maoh is the deity

Minatogawa Shrine; The historic place of the Japanese spirit

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The brave Blossoms, the Japanese national rugby team, showed their fighting spirit in The Rugby World Cup in Japan last year. During the cup a former foreign national rugby player inspired the team members with the word of the Japanese spirit, called “yamato damashii” in Japanese. He said that the Japanese spirit was to work hard and the spirituality of devoting yourself to the team and teammates. He has been in Japan for a long time and he learned the Japanese spirit from his rugby experiences in Japan. And he thinks it is nowhere outside of Japan and it is excellent. Eventually, many people think the Japanese spirit is the fighting spirit, however, you may be surprised to know that the true Japanese spirit includes a kind and peaceful spirit. The Japanese spirit has two sides, one is the brave side and the other is the peaceful side. The Genji Story, which is the oldest love story in the world, was written by a female novelist. She wrote about the importance of the Japanese spir