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September 17, 2005

a much deserved 3 day weekend

so though i know i'm not writing this entry on the day of (saturday) i'm still going to post it as if it were saturday heh.

but yeah, after a fairly long week of my first lessons, a much deserved (well at least it felt that way) three day weekend was upon us. why? well i really don't care why. i was more excited about the fact that this three day weekend was the weekend where i would go to kakegawa and attend the children's festival. but the best part was that i would be able to live with a host family, fukami, for two days XD. /innocentthoughts.

i think pictures speak a lot better than any words that i can ever come up with, so i promise i'll have ALL of my pictures uploaded by the end of this week, but for now i'll just indulge on random antics that i can remember heh.

after a lunch party greeting, we traveled to an お寺(temple) where we were to experience 座禅 (zen training). and just to let you all know. my host mom listens to rap music. american rap music. where they use the `n` word.

yeah.

and then she asked me to translate/explain what it means.

no thanks.

so a few things you need to learn about zen training.

1. you are to sit on a futon facing another person.
2. your eyes must be half closed, and though your face is facing the other person, you will be staring at the floor ~1m ahead of you (this is the toughest part, especially if you're tired).
3. your posture must be perfectly straight.
4. you must sit indian style with your left leg under your right thigh, and your right leg resting on your left thigh.
5. you must hold your hands in a bowl shape with your thumbs touching, but without any excess force.
6. breathe only through your nose, and focus on only the inner being of yourself.

and you must hold this for 60 minutes.

oh, and no noises. none. zip. zilch. nada. zero. you get the point.

zen master: so if you fall asleep, you will be hit. hard. with this. /whipsoutawoodenstick.

this is no ordinary stick either. it is about 1m long, and a little smaller than a 2x4, and it has a flat surface on the end. and then he proceeds to abuse a pillow. and this would be if the pillow happened to scratch your brand new car, in addition leaving corrosive substances on it and then laughing and giving you the finger kind of abusive hit that you would give it. yeah. that hard.

zen master: oh wait... this is the CHILDEN'S stick. this is your stick.
everyone: ...

now this stick, is about 1.5m bigger than a 2x4 and, also, flat ended on the end. this, this is the adult stick... so if you get hit, he whaps you rather hard on the shoulder blades, two for each.

so... how to avoid the stick:

1. don't fall asleep (he hits you where your neck and shoulder meet)
2. keep your back straight
3. don't make a noise
4. optional; he will walk around the area, if you bow to him, he will whap you. this is to keep the mind focused and disciplined - you can see big athlete types cringe as they are about to get hit.

yeah... fear the monk.

Posted by Jeff at September 17, 2005 06:38 PM

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