Templed Out

The Lovely and I continue our temple sojourn around Kyoto. From Gold to silver, from dry to wet. From gravel to moss, from austere tea house to dense bamboo thicket. We’ve come to visit the Bling-By-The-Lake again. It is cosily nestled into the side of the hills that surround Kyoto on the North Western side. There are people everywhere here today. They come in waves that coincide with the arrival of the bus or trains. However, there is always the possibility of finding a quiet place and moment to take in the atmosphere and be still while being there with it.

Ofcourse, there are other beautiful vistas beside the lake and its bling. We walk around the lake and up through the gardens. This thins out a lot of the visitors straight away. The whole place is so well kept. I starts me wondering how many gardeners that it takes to keep a place like this clean and tidy as well as weeded and pruned?

It doesn’t take long to find the work going on all around us, but very discreetly, just slightly out-of-the-way, but there in plain sight, if you take the time to see.

We take the opportunity to take tea in the garden. No one else seems interested in this simple pleasure today, so we have the garden to our selves.

We take the walk between the Golden Temple and Ryoanji Temple, famous for its raked gavel garden. It’s an easy 15 min stroll. The crowds thin out toward lunch time. Everyone seems to go off to have lunch.

We spend some time here taking it all in. It is certainly serene. Although people are coming and going like gentle waves and tides all the time. It is possible to just sit and stay focussed and let it all pass.

I leave with a sense of quiet. I go to the loo and see this warning on the ‘sharps’ disposal bin in the cubicle. “While applying your make-up, don’t drop your baby in the sharps bin. Or if you do, don’t try to remove your lost child by hand, you might get jabbed. Do not drop your cigarette butts in the ‘sharps’ bin after the baby”. What kind of world is this? Why would this warning be necessary, unless it has happened once? It’s a jarring juxtaposition with the raked grave outside.

Next, we go to the silver pavilion, which isn’t, but it has a lovely garden. The Silver Pavilion is situated right across town on the other side of the city nestled into the hills on the North Eastern side. We take the time to do the full walk. It’s a very beautiful garden and looks all the more impressive now in spring, after some rain and a warming climate. The mosses are glowing and wet under the forest canopy. The last time I was here, it was autumn and quite dry, so the mosses were very thin on the ground.

As we leave the Silver Pavilion precinct we encounter the all the usual marketing and merchandising. Selling us some object that we don’t need to clutter up our lives to celebrate the non-acquisitional nature of true buddhist philosophy! Actually, I’m not a Buddhist. I don’t believe in reincarnation or the cycle of life. I believe that we are here just once. So make the most of it now! While saying that, I do still find comfort in the concepts explored in Zen. Be here now! The past is finished and gone, so don’t dwell on it. The future hasn’t happened yet, so don’t worry about what hasn’t happened and may not happen. There is only Now. Live to the full. I attempt to live this way, but mostly fail. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try.

We take our leave ‘karate’, empty-handed and head out along the Philosophers Path. This is a lovely winding, gentle walk along the canal, from the Silver-less Temple back toward the city. The cherry blossom is still lingering on some late trees and the petals drop down into the water and float along with the steady current of the canal in a soft pink carpet.

This walk culminates back near the Nanzen ji temple, so we make our way there. This is one of the first Buddhist temple sites Established in Kyoto. It is quite extensive and is a National Cultural Asset. It was established in the mid twelve hundreds and subsequently burnt down and re-built in 1600. It also has a raked gravel garden with rocks and mosses, but not as imposing as Ryoanji. However, because this temple is quite out-of-the-way and a long walk from anywhere. There are very few people here. So it is very quiet and peaceful.

It’s been a very full couple of days of long walks around this lovely city. We finish up by visiting the Kodai-ji Temple in the evening to experience the gardens under artificial light. There is a bit of a projected light show in one of the pavilions, but the best part is the garden walk up the hill and around the extensive site. Very beautiful with the almost full-moon rising. A lovely day and night and we have the sore feet and legs to prove it. What more could you want?