Kyudo Practice

These photos are of my first attempts of shooting at the target. I shot about twenty ya (arrows), and hit the target one time. Even that one time was completely luck, but thankfully luck does help out sometimes. There is still much work to do before my focus is good enough to be precise.

New Haiku

Quick through trees
Spider web face-wrap
Autumn cleansing

Tai Chi

“In a very real sense one can consider Tai Chi Chuan [Supreme Ultimate Force] to be a physical expression and manifestation of the principles and philosophy of Taoism.” (Taoism and the Philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan--http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/taoism.html)

On a balmy Monday afternoon, EAC students in the Area Studies Course participated in a two-hour Tai Chi class. It took place on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto next to an old gnarled pine tree on a patch of manicured grass. The instructor, Taka-sensei, was a long-time Tai Chi practitioner. The course consisted of easy warm up movements, stretches, basic kicks and punches, and a short sequence of the Tai Chi form. Taka-sensei used very few words, only the most necessary to convey his intended meaning. His used simple explanations, performed examples with animated and clear movements, and gave encouragement and correction in a very soft and unassuming manner, making it easy for every student to participate. When a student was frustrated he softly guided him or her into the correct form, without criticism. The effect of practicing Tai Chi was both centering and relaxing, but why?
Tai Chi was first introduced to Taoist practice as an exercise to compliment the intensive meditation of Taoist monks who spent nearly their entire time sitting. Bodhidharma was said to have brought the forms from India, but it was the Taoist philosophy that cultivated Tai Chi into the sacred practice that it is today. Tai Chi is considered a martial art, but it is, more importantly, an internal contemplation of nature, producing an outward representation. Many of the techniques are named after animals, weather, or constellations as they were invented after observing the natural world. For example, “white crane spreads its wings” is the embodiment of that action.
Taoist practitioners often observe nature to find harmony and balance. In Tai Chi, the path--or Tao-- is performed outwardly with the body to compliment the inner meditation. The internal and more esoteric practice of the Tao involves recognizing duality such as light and dark, life and death, masculine and feminine, form and emptiness, movement and stillness, simplified into the yin and yang—or the essential truths of duality. Taoists believe that these qualities cannot exist independently of each other, but are in harmony, pushing and pulling, expanding and contracting. This harmony represents the ultimate truth of oneness through the trinity of polarity of each opposite and the harmony between them.

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight.
Tao Te Ching (22)

He who stands of tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
-- Tao Te Ching (24)

Returning is the motion of the Tao.
Yielding is the way of the Tao.
-- Tao Te Ching (40)

These few quotes from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching depict the guiding principles of Tai Chi, for the form is fluid in motion, grounded in mind, controlled in action, and yet based in inaction. Tai Chi is an art of combining feeling with movement, and using forces greater than the self. These forces are the yin and yang, which, when working together, are the path of balance. There is no goal beyond the path, but only existing in harmony.
The forms of Tai Chi consist of contracting and expanding—in contraction there is the yin, in expansion the yang—but in the fluid movement between forms, and in the embodiment of nature there is harmony and non-duality. Taka-sensei cut right to the truth of this in his class on Monday. Each form either consisted of a closed stance, drawing yin energy, or an open stance, channeling yang. Movement followed each to the complimentary stance, and the transitions were slow, silent, and full of grace. That is why it was centering, and that is why it was relaxing. He taught a method of finding balance and harmony in this turbulent life of ups and downs, rights and wrongs, miracle and catastrophe.

Haiku at Basho's Grave

On friday, we had an introduction to haiku poetry at Konpukuji, a temple where Basho often stopped in Kyoto and where he is believed to be buried. We learned of the history of Haiku, the structure, the content, and the translation of famous poems. It was facinating to see how many different meanings can be derived from one seventeen syllable peom. Haiku is said to be able to capture "the expression of a live moment in its pure suchness." Instead of giving you all a blow by blow account of what has been happening lately I thought that I would try a hand at haiku. I hope that they will paint an image of experience.

Walk by city farm
Mud caked on tractor plow
Home in foreign land

Smoke drifts far away
Green mountain of sturdy rock
Basho's grave we sit

Burning tobacco
Thought about life cycle
Rain on brown leaf

Confusion

Today, I went to the new elderly home again. I attempted to lead an exercize in feldencrise therapy, which is based on bringing awareness to the simple act of walking. I thought that it might have been useful since so many of them spend much of their time sitting. It turned out to be much more difficult than I originally thought. The explanation that I gave was much to complicated for me or Yukako-san. Within just a couple short minutes there was only one participant left, but I think that she liked it. It consisted of coordinating movements of the lower body with the breath, and the movement of energy. I did my best to show by example, but sometimes words are very necessary.
The lunch at that place is much different from Hanasaka-so. There is a chef, who uses very expensive ingredients, but his food lacks that important ingredient that I speak of so much when speaking of food, love. In fact, the whole feeling of eating there is lacking that. The staff wears aprons, and hovers over the clients, and me, waiting for something to do. It reminded me very much of restorants in India, where there are five costumers and ten waiters. It just feels like they are watching your every move. It is very hard to relax like that.
Then after lunch, I spent the afternoon massaging the folks. Massage for me is very unpredictable. Sometimes it is a sacred experience in which both the client and I have break-throughs in relaxation, emotions, or spiritual growth. Other times it is a struggle at every moment. My mind can wonder, my energy can be extreme going from almost nothing to overwhelming amounts which can cause pain or sickness, and my center can be very hard to find making my body mechanics horrible. Unfortunately, today was not one of the sacred massage experiences; although I have learned enough in the last four years to prevent anything really bad from happening. I always try to return to the idea of not causing harm. If I can not heal then at least I should not cause suffering. There were several people who fell asleep today, and I think part of it had to do with my wondering attention span. I have noticed that often when my mind wanders then the client's mind wonders, or when my stomach grumbles so does the client's. some people call that sympathetic reaction.
After all of that, I just felt like I was in the way the whole time, and that i have been trying to hard to help, and have not been simply observing enough. Half of the semester is over, I have been spending no less then ten hours a week interacting with Japanese elders, and I feel like I don't really know what I am learning about elderly care here. At least I don't know where all of this time is taking me. I know that it is pointless to come up with generalizations, but I guess i was kind of hoping that I would be able to put elderly care in Japan into a 30 page report. It is good that this is finally coming up, but it was so shocking to my brain and heart that I got home and took a long nap instead of studying or going to Kyudo like I usually do. Now, I feel like I am back at square one because I need to figure out what exactly my angle is, and why I am studying this. For some reason I have been drawn to spending time touching and talking to elderly people, but how can I turn that into my semester project, and later into my senior thesis? I think that these next few days are going to be a little rocky because of this dilemma. I hope that there may be some sign of where to turn next, and how to become more silent to listen rather than trying to put my own ideas others' experiences.

Buraku Discrimination in Japan

In Japanese culture there has long been a distinction between purity and pollution. This has manifested not only on the inanimate level, but also has included discrimination between pure people and impure people. In the feudal ages of Japan there were the specific social class distinctions of a warrior/ruling class, artisans, peasants, and merchants. Below all of those existed a group of people considered too impure to be within the class structure. The “outcastes,” as one might consider them, often performed occupations such as executioners, butchers, tanners, handlers of the dead, and, oddly enough, entertainers. They were not limited to people with those jobs, but they were a community of people, many of whom held the polluting occupations.
Those outcaste communities were referred to as Buraku, and the people in them Burakumin. The origin of discrimination of those people has been debated, but two theories remain accepted. One is that during the feudal times the victors of war forced the conquered people into poor employment situations as a strategy of “divide and rule.” The other theory is that the distinction developed more slowly as Confucianism and Buddhism developed as dominant belief systems. These -isms along with Shinto-ism upheld the taboo of impurity, and so promoted the idea that the above-mentioned types of employment polluted the individuals in those professions. Whichever the origin of the discrimination, the idea of the Burakumin being lesser people in society became fixed firmly among Japan’s majorities.
In current times, Burakumin make up an estimated three million of Japan’s 150 million population. The determination of Burakumin is no longer limited to occupation, but is based on communities and family origin. There are around 6,000 acknowledged Buraku communities in Japan. The Japanese government has identified these communities as special areas of need because of past and current discrimination based wrongs done to the Burakumin.
Discrimination of the Buraku has manifested in areas such as gaining employment, at the workplace, in schools, in communities, by public officials, by religious agencies, and by the media (“Buraku Discrimination” p. 8-9). Burakumin have consistently been below the national averages in the areas of high school admittance, employment, and high school and college graduation percentages due to discrimination. In 1998 the Buraku Liberation League discovered that many companies in Osaka had performed background checks of perspective employees to determine whether the individual was of Buraku origin. Similar types of companies have been known to advertise not hiring Burakumin to show the company’s inclinations towards purity.
The discrimination of Burakumin is not simply done in larger scales, but also at the personal level. One example in a report given at the Global Conference Against Racism and Caste Based Discrimination located in New Delhi in March 2004 gave the examples of discriminatory violence, graffiti, harassment letters, and discriminatory remarks on the Internet (p.7). These type of discrimination are very clear as to why they are inhumane and callous, but the most common form of discrimination happens in much more vague situations. This is especially true with discrimination like that done to the Buraku as compared to racism, sexism, or religious discimination because Burakumin are indistinguishable from other Japanese in appearance and religion. The other, and more prevalent in the world, types of discrimination have much more clear reason, even if irrational.
Yuki-sensei, the teacher introducing Buraku discrimination to the EAC students, explained hearing about individuals of non-Buraku origin being jealous of Buraku people because of social programs like free health care, even though there are only just 892,000 Burakumin actually receiving such welfare. On one such occasion she heard a non-Buraku individual complaining about a Buraku woman drive up to a dentist’s office in a valuable car and present a healthcare fee waiver at the desk. This is an example of the vagueness that exists in the discrimination of Buraku peoples. The discrimination takes the form of resentment rather than direct aggression or antagonism.
Anti-discrimination Buraku movements have been able to accomplish the acquisition of social assistance programs for Burakumin such as welfare, healthcare aids, community centers, and after school programs through lobbying the Japanese government for many years. The EAC students visited one such community center in Kyoto called the Kodomo Center, which has after-school programs for Buraku children. After introductions to issues of discrimination, the students of the EAC were split up, and asked to participate in some of the activities with the Buraku children. The activities involved papermaking, bamboo vase making, and constructing and decorating gift boxes for pottery that was made on a previous occasion. The purpose of this activity was to introduce the EAC students to a social program for the Buraku community in Kyoto.
The children at the Kodomo Center seemed to average in the sense that there were smart ones, hyper ones, quiet ones, and every other quality one could expect of a child. At first the kids were a little shy with the older college students, but it did not take long for them to warm up and enjoy the presence of the foreigners. They were so normal that it seemed impossible for anyone to think them lesser beings.
When attempting to assist the children with making gift boxes I felt a slight feeling of rejection from some of the kids. It felt a bit like grade school again because some of the kids formed groups, and did not allow others to use their tools and supplies. My first attempt to help a group was rejected. Moving further down the table there was one girl who seemed to be a little lost. She was willing to receive help in outlining the shapes of the box in order to cut them out. She was rejected by the same girls as I when she asked to use the first group’s scissors. It seemed as though there was a popularity rift between them. I felt a connection with her because of memories of similar rejection at a young age. After feeling that connection, it seemed as though helping her make the box as beautiful as possible was a good way to show some appreciation for her as a struggling individual.
I made a small rose for the top of her box, and when finished I presented her with the gift. She seemed to be truly grateful, and accepted it with a small laugh. Afterwards, her friends kept pointing at me and giggling. Throughout this experience there was an undercurrent of in groups and out groups. Some say that it is a normal social pattern among children and adults all over the world, but being that these children were already from an oppressed community I assumed that they would have been less exclusive. People often feel that they must reject others in order to give themselves a higher status, but it is a very sad way to increase self-esteem.

Days of Change

On Thursday morning I woke up with an itching to change my appearance, and shave my beard. It is always shocking to people because my face looks so different. There are those who recognize me, and those that do not. My friend, Chen, from Kyudo did not recognize me for nearly ten minutes even when we were talking. Shaving my face was only the first step in a series of events that will change my experience in Japan for the entire duration.
Later on that day, I went to Hanasaka-so for my normal visit. It seemed like a normal day except for a birthday party, but a short time before people started returning home Kobayashi-san asked if I was interested in going somewhere in the evening. I did not understand where we were going to go, but I knew that it would probably be interesting. I found out that we going to visit another day service elderly home. Kobayashi's friend, Yukako-san, runs a center in downtown Kyoto. Kobayashi-san explained that it was an excellent place, and that she wants me to go there too.
The facility was also a small scale place, only taking twenty-five clients a day, but it was much larger and fancier than Hanasaka-so. The archetecture was odd in a sort of post modern and traditional fusion way. There were some walls and floors that were completely glass. There were sharp angles everywhere, and things like a bathroom door that was two walls of the room. It was an L-shape, and swung open so that a wheelchair could enter. The traditional aspect was that prior to this place, there were two traditional timber-framed storage vaults located there, and they were incorporated into the design. A few of the rooms had high cathedral ceilings with ancient beams exposed. They were very beautiful. My impression of the place, which has not yet included seeing it in action, was that it was too spacious and too expensive. There was way too much emphasis put into the archetecture, and not enough into the interior. It did not feel cozy at all, but there were some nice parts which show some potential. The first thing I asked was if it gets cold in the winter. The woman who was leading me around said that indeed it does, and it gets very hot in the summer. I asked that because Japanese buildings do not commonly have central heating, and that place was so spacious and exposed with the windows. The nicest thing about the whole place was the garden, which was a traditional rock, tree, and flower garden. It looked as though it had not been altered from its original state because there were huge trees that had been pruned with care for many years, and there was moss and lichen growing on the rocks.
Yukako-san was very excited to meet me, and was very interested in having me work at the center. She asked me what I was interested in doing there. I was kind of taken by surprize, but said that I am interested in learning about elderly care in Japan, and getting more experience in helping with massage and other types of assistance. She asked me what I would do if a person wanted to die even if they were not physically ready to do so. I said that I would encourage the person to accept life and death as part of a whole, and that if he or she would benefit from not dwelling on death, but trying to fully experience life until death comes. She told me that her grandmother is depressed and that she wants to die even though she does not show physical signs of dying. She asked me if I would take care of her grandmother every day to help her through the suffering. I had to tell her that I have a very busy schedual, and that I am still a beginner in healing. I said that I could only afford to visit the home one day a week, but that I would do my best to help in any way within my capabilities. I told her that i would talk to my adviser on Monday, and then we could arrange the logistics of me helping at her facility.
Kobayashi-san was very excited that I was interested in helping there as well, and she kept thanking me over and over again. she said that it is very important that I visit more places than only Hanasaka-so. I could not stop a tear coming to my eye for all the help that she is giving me in finding my path.
On Friday night I went to Kyudo practice where the next big change happened. My sensei told me that my form was beautiful, and presented me with my first practice arrow. The difficulty of the form increased three-fold with the presence of the arrow. First of all, it is hard not to get a little nervous that I might slip and let the arrow fly into God know what. On top of that, trying to be aware of every aspect of the form, form the stance, to the grip on the bow, to the positions of my arms, the opening of my chest, and the collecting of ki in my hara, was challenging. The grip of the arrow it the drawing hand changes a little too, and the hand mush be laterally rotated slightly to ensure that accidents do not happen. Practicing the way of the bow takes every ounce of my attention and consentration to perform, and yet I am still not able to focus on the target during the movements. I am only starting to realize the intricacies of this art, and am not yet able to fathom the difficulty once there is a traget to hit that is 28 meters away. I think that soon I will be able to shoot at the practice target four feet away, but now my hands are quite full with just learning how to hold the arrow.
Yesterday was another full day. I spent the entire day at Hanasaka-so bathing people, giving massages, and eating a fantastic lunch. Just before people starting going home, Kobayashi-san called me into her office. She told me that she had something to teach me. She brought out many pamphlets with pictures of people lying in caves and on top of rocks. She said, with great difficulty and the help of a dictionary, that this healing method was a way that I might be able to put my intentions of helping people to use. She said it was "rock power", and pointed to a sentence in katakana. I sounded it out, minus ion medicine. She explained that in Austria and in Hokaido, Japan researchers have found that certain geothermally heated rocks have the capability to heal many ailments, and even cancer. The process is through negative ion transmission, and people have started making their own healing rock beds with certain types of rocks to heal people. She said that I could be able to spread this knowledge in other places. She said that it is important to try for peace and compassion in this world, and that there are so many people killing eachother that it is important to help people to try to find peace. It seems so simple now, but when she was telling me this there was passion and intensity coming from her, and each word was such a struggle that the meaning was coming from a different place. The words only ensured that I would not loose track of what she was trying to convey. She asked me to study this type of healing so that I might be of use to this world and help to spread peace.
Later that night, I went out to a bar with some of the employees of Hanasaka-so to watch Japan vs. Latvia in a world cup soccer match. It was a great time, and I think that I used every single japanese word in my repetiore. After the game I took them over to the reggae bar, Rub a' Dub, for some dancing. None of them had ever danced to Reggae before, so I had to teach them a little about listening for the drum because the music is so different form other types. It was a blast, and I was glad to build a few more friendships.
Today, I am focusing on papers and schoolwork, which is a little sad because the day is so beautiful. I have been moving so much from one activity to another that I have not had time to sit down and write my papers or do research for my independent study, so today I have to focus.
I hope that you all are well, and life is still interesting. I am sending out my love to all my people, and especially my new cousin, Brianna.

Forgot the Maitaki

These mushrooms are priced at 10000 yen for a small bunch, which translates to approximately $100. I have not tried them yet, for obvious reasons.

A Few Photos for your Viewing Pleasure

Buddha Statue, Water Dragon, Angry Kami, Expensive Mitaki ($100), Kiyomizu Temple (my favorite because it has natural springs everywhere, and Kiyomizu means praise water)

What's Going Down in Kyoto?

It has been a few days since I wrote anything about the activities here, so here goes a little update. Time has been flying by because of such a busy schedual with classes and independent study. Learning Japanese is a slow process, but interacting with the elders and the Kyudo senseis allows for practice of the new words learned. Communication is still limited to very simple words though, and I am just starting to realize when I say something that is not very polite. For example: I learned yesterday that it is very impolite to say the word nan (what) to anyone who is higher than the sepeaker, like a sensei. Just the day before that I had asked the top sensei in our dojo, "Sensei no namae wa nan desu ka?" (What is your name, sensei?) He looked at me a little strangely, but answered my question. He is a level 8 in Kyudo, which means that he is one of the top 15 Kyudo participants in the whole world. I guess he realized that I did not know any better, but that was not very respectful of such an accomplished person.
I have been learning so much in Kyudo. Each day I attend the dojo, I learn something new. I have been working on my grip of the yumi (bow) lately. It is very imporant that only the base of the thumb, the index finger, and the base of the pinky finger should come in contact with the grip, so that the release can be smooth and the bow can rotate in the hand as the arrow takes flight. This is very hard to learn when the language understanding is almost nil. There is a lot of mime, and some very basic descriptive words. I often hear the word, muzukashi (difficult), in the descriptions. I am really loving that activity, and hope to find a dojo in NY when I am there in the spring. There are also dojos in Seattle and Boulder, so hopefully I will be able to continue the practice later on too. I think that I am almost to the point where I can use the arrow for practice in my form, which will be another big step in the journey of shooting.
I have been going to Hanasaka-so, the elderly home, a couple times a week, and I really love that too. I use various methods of communication to interact with the members there, from Japanese, to writing on an eraseable board, to asking the nurse to help me translate. It is really funny communicating with Kobayashi-san because her english is very limited. I have been trying to help her order these chiballs (colored balls for excersize and increasing the chi circulation) from Australia. It is probably a hilarious sight to see us talking because we have to be so animated to understand eachother.
Last week I started bathing the old men as well as massaging the members. I really love it because it is like taking care of a baby with the same gentleness; although, I had to shave Mishima-san on Saturday, and I am not very practiced as you might have guessed. He ended up taking the razor from me, and teaching me how to shave. It was hilariously embarassing to have to be taught how to shave at age 22. I have done it before, but I usually cut myself and it takes a long time. He is one of my favorite people at the home because he is so animated. He has severe Kiphosis (bent thorasic spine), but is a lively soul. He really loves singing time. At 3:30 everyday the folks get together for singing, and he starts passing out the lyrics at 3 o'clock in anticipation. He is an old Taiko drummer, so he gets out a small drum to play during the songs. He has a little trouble singing because his dentures keep falling out, but that does not stop him. I have had to learn a couple of the traditional songs they sing, but it is pretty muzukashi. They have been nice enough to write them all out in Hiragana rather than Kanji, so that I can at least sound out the words. They even had me teach them a song, but I am a horrible singer so they got the butchered version of summertime, my favorite lullaby. I have been asking some of the students who are musicians to come with me, so that I don't have to be the focus musically. I love music and really love listening to people sing, especially Eva, but I do not think the song writers would appreciate my terrible renditions of their art.
School definately keeps me busy with writing and studying, so it is hard to get out much, but I have been hiking every weekend to maintain my sanity. Last week, my friend, Chen, from Kyudo came along. We had a great time tromping through temples and forests. There were some very large Japanese cedar that had ropes around them signifying that they are sacred. It is so wonderful that this culture respects beauty and nature so much. Well, that is all for now, but I will make an effort not to let it go so long next time.
Sayonara