Coughing my way to enlightenment
5:43 AM
Good morning! I had a hearty breakfast at 7am, coughed my lungs out, and reared to go!
Today we are leaving the shady piece of the trip (the not so mindful part of Japan. Don't worry, I'm aware that Japan is not immune to evil) and headed to meet with Kosho, a man who appears in the documentary Shugendo! He is a buddhist monk who lives a mindful life in the mountains, where many people hike up to connect with their spiritual sides.
More often then not, people who aren't monks volunteer to climb up this mountain where Kosho is taking us, to get away from the busy, heavy hearted cities. In the documentary, we saw Kosho making his own conch horn for meditation. The reason why he uses a conch shell is because, when blown, the sound is similar to the "ah and um" chanting in buddhist traditions.
This is Kosho! This guy was so funny. He reminded me of my grandpa. He couldn't speak full on english, but we still learned so much!!! He and I bonded on the mountain and had a great convo 8).
After seeing him in the documentary we felt like we were riding with a celebrity.
And off we went, to our journey up the mountain to the waterfall called Taki!! Together we chanted Sange Sange, Rokanshoujo which means confession (sort of. its hard to explain) and the purification of our 6 senses. The 6th being our spiritual third eye.
All of these rocks got thrown here by a typhoon from 2 years ago :0
Shit got real as we entered into the mountain. (so did my cough)
This water was so clean and fresh. We got fo drink from it and it tasted amazing. If only we got this kind of water everyday!!
Hiking all of this, we finally made it.
The Taki waterfall! These pictures do not do justice to what I just experienced. I have never hiked through anything like this. The air was clear, and all you could hear was the waterfall.
Most of us went under the cold water to purify themselves! I couldn't or else I'd probably sneeze my way off a rock and that'd be the end.
Climbing up this mountain really brought me a lot of perspective on certain things in my life. Not to say that I now understand quantum physics, but I think I did have an epiphany.
Back home, especially with school and friends, everyone including me is so worried and stressed. Anxiety builds in me and my peers, until we drop. Something so little makes us so sad. This is something that I live with, and have accepted; sadness. My friends and I are so sad. Not 24/7, we have happy moments, but overal we're just sad. But when you climb something as big as the mountain I did today, I realized how small the things that made me sad were. No one could reach me and tell me that climbing that mountain was wrong. I went and followed my instincts. Rocks pulled me up, twigs scratched the surface of my clothes, and the mist from the waterfall hit my face. I was happy.
I want to be happier when I'm back home. I want to look at the little things that make me sad from a big mountain and think, its not so bad. I want to focus on the here and now. I want to be as happy as I was on that mountain! I hope that my friends who read this blog post, or anyone who may be experiencing sadness, can also gain this perspective one way or another.
When we got back, Kosho performed a fire ceremony for us! We each wrote our names, age, and what we wanted right now on a piece of wood. Those pieces of wood were then cast into the fore after several chants from Kosho. Then our wishes would come true!
then finally (FINALLLYYYY) Kosho fed us some rice balls that he grew himself, and special noodles! The noodles were delicious and the riceballs were better than the average riceball. We were all really happy.
Then it was time to go! We rode on the back of a pick up truck! Goodbye Kosho! We're off to Koya-san! (another mountain) This will be a much better place to stay than the shady station hotel 8") 3+1/2 hour cat bus ride gO!
KOTATSU. This temple is beautiful, I feel like a Japanese princess. The baths are to die for and the rooms are so cozy <3
Our dinner was so filling. We also had a very interesting talk from the former chief priest's wife about her life. 93 years old and the woman gave us a lengthy lecture completely in english. Bamf.
I am so honored to be in this womans presense. She was the treasure of the temple during WWII after studying english in tokyo before hand. Ugh, amazing.
It's time to head off to bed! My cold is getting better after that nice hot bath! We're going to make sure not to fall asleep under the kotatsu. Tomorrow is more adventures in Koya-san! OHH!!
Love,
Mana
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