Leaving the train station, we had a lot of choices. Tour companies offered to take us on a bus loop to the major palaces, castles, forts, shrines gardens and temples that people go to Kyoto to see. We opted to visit just one temple and give it some time. It helped that the Higashi Honganji, a center for Shin Buddhism is within easy walking distance of the station. Lonely pl2024anet wondered why, being so close to the station, and free, it was relatively uncrowded. We wondered why too. But uncrowded is what we needed.
We started by exploring the compound grounds and gardens. We spied a giant goldfish in the moat, crossed the curved bridge, admired the compound doors, the stone lanterns, the galleries and bought a book at visitor’s information center. I am, just now, reading a brief summary of the teachings of the masters of this school to try to better interpret what we saw.
The founder’s hall, the Goei-do, claims to be the second biggest wooden structure in Japan. It was first built in 1658, destroyed by the great fire that ravaged Kyoto in 1788, rebuilt in in 1797 and underwent reconstruction in both 1825 and1835 under the patronage of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The hall and sister buildings were destroyed by fire in 1858 and rebuilt in 1861. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, guardian of the Shogunate used the buildings as his residence while in Kyoto. They burned again in 1864 in an incident during the closing days of the Shogunate. The present halls were built in 1879. A retreat center was built in the compound in 1959.
In the hall, people knelt or sat cross legged on mats. The temple thoughtfully provided chairs for those of us who have trouble getting off the floor (and a lift so we could avoid the stairs up to the halls, and bags to put our shoes in.) I sat on a chair, both feet flat on the floor, hands on my knees, breathing in and out slowly, in through the nose, out through the mouth. It was hot outside. Inside it was cool, a breeze brushed my face. The slight waft of incense perked my sense of smell. At regular intervals a deep bell sounded. I thought about peace, our world’s need for it, the ship’s lecture on Hiroshima and Nagasaki we attended the day before, of people I knew in my aid work who suffered from war, and of my good fortune. I am not a spiritual person, I call myself spiritually impaired, but somewhere along the path my mind was taking this afternoon my attitude went from prayer to meditation. After a while, before we left the hall, I had a feeling of being full and being empty at the same time. I had no need to visit another temple, shrine or garden.
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