Yokuoji Temple Kamakura

Jufukuji Temple Kamakura

Ranked Third of the Five Kamakura Mountain Temples,

Jufukuji is a Rinzai Zen Buddhist Temple.

Founded in 1200 

by Hojo Masako, who was the widow of

Yoritomo, the Founder of the Kamakura Shogunate. 

The first Abbot was Eisai,

 who introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan from China.

It is rarely open to the public except its beautiful front entrance and gates and some parts of its cemetery located in the back of the temple grounds.   However, you can get a glimpse of the Hojo (main hall) as well as a very old tree which is a Kamakura natural treasure.   There are also yagura (burial caves), reputed to contain the remains of Masako and her son).

Chojuji Temple Kamakura

The Four Seasons of Zuisenji Kamakura

Myō

Daisetz T. Suzuki describes the Zen Buddhist concept of myō as a "certain quality perceivable not only in works of art but in anything in Nature or life...myō is something original and creative growing out of one's own unconsciousness.  The hands may move according to the technique given out to every student, but there is a certain spontaneity and personal creativity when the technique, conceptualized and universalized, is handled by the master hand.   Myō may also be applied to the intelligence and the instinctive activities of various animals, for example, the beaver building its nest, the spider spinning its web, the wasp or an constructing its castles under the eaves or beneath the ground.  They are wonders of Nature.  In fact, the whole universe is a miraculous exhibition of a master mind, and we humans who are one of its wonderful achievements have been straining our intellectual efforts ever since the awakening of consciousness, and are daily being overwhelmed by Nature's demonstrations of its unfathomable and inexhaustive myō."     Zen and Japanese Culture

Homeward Bound

I am now on student leave with the Florida Conference of the UMC pursuing a PHD in Peace and Conflict Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies with a focus on developing a pragmatic discourse analysis theory with a focus on the religious components of the Kashmir Conflict.

Our family moved to Yokohama Japan two years ago when my husband received an assignment to work here.   The move was unsettling both culturally, spiritually and personally.   I mourned leaving the local church that I loved; I mourned leaving my friends behind and all that was familiar.   I celebrated the experience of new learning, of new friends and new culture.   These two feelings left me often feeling overwhelmed with little sense of stability and normalcy.

In July this year I was able to spend almost a month in Spain and France, both for academic pursuit and for vacation.  On my final day there, my husband and I had a rather difficult and lengthy van ride to the airport(the driver had to pick up passengers located in various hotels all over Paris which took almost two hours to accomplish), which made us late for our check-in.   Once at the Charles De Gaulle airport, panicked because we were late, we could not figure out where our ANA (All Nippon Airways) check in counter was located.   After several minutes of scrambling and multiple u-turns we found an information desk and got directions.   As we turned a corner, we saw the ANA desk, with four immaculately dressed attendants helping those in the short check in line.   As we approached, one of the attendants politely bowed to us and welcomed us.   I broke into a huge smile, overwhelmed with relief and said "I am going home!"

At that moment I realized that home now was Yokohama and that while transitions never really end but just change based on the ever changing context of life, I nevertheless had transitioned from one home to a new one.   With that awareness, I have found a new intentionality of being.   My energy, not consumed by transition, could find new paths of deepening. Just as I once shared my reflections on this blog after I finally felt home after a two year transition into the local church, I now wish to share some of my reflections based on my new home here in Japan as a graduate student.