As I have mentioned before I have a friend here named Suki. She is just a wonderful woman and she has a five year old son, Xavier, who is Lucas’ best friend. Today she treated the kids and me to a drive into Kyoto as she had a pass for a world renowned UNESCO site.
We drove about an hour through tunnels and along highways to get into Kyoto. Once we navigated the city we arrived at Nanzenji Temple. The area was estate-sized with forest, a huge wooden entrance gate and several smaller ones and many smaller shrines and gardens within. The kids ran around a lot and Xavier received many looks as he was wearing a vampire cape. We hoped people knew that it was just the whim of a child and nothing disrespectful in a Buddhist temple site. We wandered through Tenjuan with its 14th century style landscaping. Two central islands were in the two ponds and we all loved the stepping stones by the waterfall. There were carp in the pond and Suki gave the children a bit of bread to feed them (I didn’t comment although I don’t agree with that) and just as people were coming along Lucas threw in the whole piece so it was really noticeable what we had been up to. The carp had a little feeding frenzy and took the Zen right out of the place.
Saihoji Temple, otherwise known as the Moss temple, is a UNESCO Heritage Site located on the west side of Kyoto. It began as a site of the villa of Prince Shotoku and then it became a temple ground by wish of Emperor Shomu. It was erected in the 800’s to enshrine three images representing the Amitabha Divinities (who are said to provide limitless light and life in Buddhism). In the late 1400’s Muso Kokushi, a Zen priest and skilled landscape gardener reconstructed the garden and restored the temple.
The garden is two levels with the lower area’s paths and ponds forming the Chinese character for SHIN (heart) and the upper level contains six moss rocks. Supposedly there are 120 kinds of moss present.
We arrived just in time to join a large group of people who were inside a wooden building kneeling in front of tiny tables writing a Heart Sutra. I told Eleanor and Lucas to draw me a picture so they would keep quiet as I wrote. The monks and priest treated us to a spiritual chanting and drumming recital of this sutra. I felt it in my heart and was sent into a meditative state. When it was over I was still a little zoned out so I wasn’t aware of a monk in front of me until he jumped into the air in a moment of shock. I looked to see why and realized he had noticed Lucas’s drawings of cartoon characters. Oops! We finished up, delivered our wish at the altar, knelt for a prayer and carried on.
The moss garden was exquisite. It all looked so soft and velvety and the light was making wonderful shadows from the trees. I felt like curling up on the moss and having a nap. Then the sound of the joyful kids brought me back to the present. The boys were playing, as any child would in a shadowy forest, and Xavier fell onto the sacred moss. We reprimanded the boys a bit and a man behind us overheard. He and his wife approached us and he said that he understood as he wouldn’t have been interested in a temple garden when he was a four year old. I quietly replied that it was the mothers who were interested and in this day and age if a mother wanted to be out of the house having such wonderful experiences she had to visit places like this with her children in tow. Besides what is better for young children than being outside walking in a forest? His wife smiled.
Eleanor found what she called ‘necklaces’ on a rock and two trees. They were made of rope and had dangling tufts. We learned that they are considered very sacred when they are decorated that way. Eleanor suggested we do that for one of our trees back in Sackville when we got home. Then Lucas yelled out that he had to go pee so off he and I went as fast as his little legs could carry him uphill and around to the garden exit so he could use the toilet. I laughed as I realized there is something so Zen about children as they just ‘are’ without thinking about their actions. They are so pure and full of light. What magic it was to have them with us in the very spot that is meant to teach us adults to let go of our stuff.
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