Zazen!

On Wednesday there was a typhoon. So much rain!

Wednesday also happened to be when I took a day off to go Kamakura-way and do zazen at Kencho-ji. During Tokyo Cousin Extravaganza, we had visited that temple, and I'd noticed a sign about zazen in English being offered in September. "That sounds cultural and interesting," I thought, and I somehow managed to actually make it work and get there, in spite of it being on a workday.

Zazen is a very important Zen Buddhist practice. The aim of zazen, or seated meditation, is, er, sitting. Like, wholehearted sitting. It is difficult. Sitting without moving is difficult. Sitting without moving and with your eyes half shut is difficult. Sitting without moving, with your eyes half shut, and attempting to clear your mind and not think about how you are definitely thinking too much...yeah, super difficult. But! We did three sessions of about 15 minutes each, and I felt like I sucked way less by the third session than I had at the start.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, even though I got soaked by the downpour. It was something really different for me! It was cultural! It was interesting to actually do something at a temple instead of just visiting them (we were in an area I normally could not have entered)! And it's probably good to do something challenging every once in a while. I'm not good at just sitting, so zazen was definitely a challenge. But I didn't hate it by the end! It was nice even, to sit on a cushion on a tatami floor, with the smell of incense and the sound of rain and a priest wandering around with a giant stick to hit you with (if you asked him to, which I did not) if you felt your concentration was not as focused as it should have been. And afterwards we had a little tea ceremony. Culture!

Enjoy 30 seconds of rain, right before I had to leave the temple to hurry to the station, fearing all the while that the train service would be stopped because of the typhoon (I was lucky and my train just ended up being very very delayed).