(no subject)
Feb. 25th, 2003 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riot_nrrrdI have been drawing lines in so many gardens and dirt paths during samu lately that every time I close my eyes, I see waves drawn in sand. It's too much, I say.
Last night, two people left the monastery. One, Fugan, a Mexican woman in her 20s, is leaving for her home country for a month. The other, Jacint, is returning to his native Hungary to work because his visa has run out. We sent them off with a big fire where we roasted potatoes and marshmallows. The people who weren't American had never roasted marshmallows before; we had to show them how. Reinhart, a German man in his 50s, pulled out his guitar and improvised for a bit. It was nice. Peaceful.
Also, because some force exists that keeps this place in perpetual balance, two people arrived last night, and they are now staying in the guest house. The first, Peter, is a Belgian man in his 50s, and he is familiar with the practices of our temple. He is here until Friday, I believe, principally here to see a lecture in town. He's working on his doctoral thesis at the moment, about the commonalities of sacramental/mystical rites in all religions. I think his focuses are Catholicism and Shingon and other forms of esoteric Buddhism. He's writing his thesis in Japanese.
The second person is named Max. I'd guess him to be about late 20s/early 30s, and he works for Google.com in San Francicso. He's here in Japan on business and decided after the business was over to take a trip here in Japan. He's leaving on Thursday, going to Kyoto for two days, and returning to the States.
I have all this weird erratic energy around Max, mainly owing to the fact that my gaydar went off the second I met him, and I'm going through sensory overload due to the fact that I've been hanging around straight people for the past six months. There's no other logical reason for me to be so drawn to him. He strikes me as one of those mainstream homos who reads The Advocate, if he's not completely apolitical. He's apparently been studying zen for two years at the San Francisco Zen Center, and he makes a big deal out of the fact that a)this temple is Rinzai Sect and his center is Soto Sect, b)he doesn't want to pursue the monastic life because he likes his lifestyle. There's no pressure here at all to pursue a monastic lifestyle, and no sense that those who do are in any way more enlightened or virtuous than those who don't. I think everybody here recognizes that the way they live is not for everybody, and encourage you to simply take as much as you can from your stay here.
I suppose I should be more lenient on the guy. I'm projecting all my joys and disappointments about queer people in general on to him, due to my withdrawal. He's a decent guy. Even if he can't eat a bowl of rice correctly.
* * *
Something the Japanese woman who helps the monks with their visas told me today as I swept the path: "People think I come here to do things for the people here, but they don't realize ho much I get from these people."
* * *
Book written about this place: Thank You and Okay: An American Zen Failure in Japan by David Chadwick.
Last night, two people left the monastery. One, Fugan, a Mexican woman in her 20s, is leaving for her home country for a month. The other, Jacint, is returning to his native Hungary to work because his visa has run out. We sent them off with a big fire where we roasted potatoes and marshmallows. The people who weren't American had never roasted marshmallows before; we had to show them how. Reinhart, a German man in his 50s, pulled out his guitar and improvised for a bit. It was nice. Peaceful.
Also, because some force exists that keeps this place in perpetual balance, two people arrived last night, and they are now staying in the guest house. The first, Peter, is a Belgian man in his 50s, and he is familiar with the practices of our temple. He is here until Friday, I believe, principally here to see a lecture in town. He's working on his doctoral thesis at the moment, about the commonalities of sacramental/mystical rites in all religions. I think his focuses are Catholicism and Shingon and other forms of esoteric Buddhism. He's writing his thesis in Japanese.
The second person is named Max. I'd guess him to be about late 20s/early 30s, and he works for Google.com in San Francicso. He's here in Japan on business and decided after the business was over to take a trip here in Japan. He's leaving on Thursday, going to Kyoto for two days, and returning to the States.
I have all this weird erratic energy around Max, mainly owing to the fact that my gaydar went off the second I met him, and I'm going through sensory overload due to the fact that I've been hanging around straight people for the past six months. There's no other logical reason for me to be so drawn to him. He strikes me as one of those mainstream homos who reads The Advocate, if he's not completely apolitical. He's apparently been studying zen for two years at the San Francisco Zen Center, and he makes a big deal out of the fact that a)this temple is Rinzai Sect and his center is Soto Sect, b)he doesn't want to pursue the monastic life because he likes his lifestyle. There's no pressure here at all to pursue a monastic lifestyle, and no sense that those who do are in any way more enlightened or virtuous than those who don't. I think everybody here recognizes that the way they live is not for everybody, and encourage you to simply take as much as you can from your stay here.
I suppose I should be more lenient on the guy. I'm projecting all my joys and disappointments about queer people in general on to him, due to my withdrawal. He's a decent guy. Even if he can't eat a bowl of rice correctly.
Something the Japanese woman who helps the monks with their visas told me today as I swept the path: "People think I come here to do things for the people here, but they don't realize ho much I get from these people."
Book written about this place: Thank You and Okay: An American Zen Failure in Japan by David Chadwick.
