Me 1 - Ego 0, or, more samu

Written originally May 12, 2008

Today I finally did it! :D

Got up at 4.45 am in the morning and dragged my sorry and protesting ego to the morning zazen, that is. And as I was told on my first time, it was very different from the wednesday evening... First of all, there was only 9 of us, instead of the 40+ people who come for the evening zazen. Also, the outside streets were so much more quieter - think about the difference between any city at 6.00 am and 8.00 pm. We actually heard birds singing, and not people on their way from work to izakaya (japanese bars).

I've come to notice that zen temples are way noisier than what I thought. If it's not the giggling office ladies going past the temple when you try to do zazen, it's the old ladies/teenage girls chattering away while you try to meditate on the beauty of a famous zen garden. Makes you think very un-zen and un-enlightened thoughts, mainly about shoving your sutra book down their throat and strangling them with your prayer beads. But I digress...

On a related note to my last post, the morning zazen includes samu: cleaning the temple grounds, scrubbing the toilets etc. Guess who got the toilets? ;) Not that I mind of course, they were almost spotless anyways, and that's supposed to be the "worst" job there is (at least for the japanese), which of course means best for taming your ego. After that there was still cleaning the cemetery and the morning meal. The temple meal was also an interesting experience. I was very grateful for the nice calligraphy teacher lady who helped me through it, how to hold my cups and chopsticks, how to wash my bowl with tea, how to this and how to that. I'm becoming very good at imitating people at only a seconds notice. I also learned how to do the full prostrations that we usually don't do in the evening (too many people). I was expecting to just bow standing and suddenly everyone is on their bellies on the floor... Once again the budo training of being able to go on your knees and raise yourself up quickly came in handy. :)

There wasn't any booze included (it WAS morning, even we don't drink all the time!), but after the meal was cleaned up we still sat for a while drinking tea in a more relaxed atmosphere, and the assisting priest (whose name I still don't know) told about his experiences in winter sesshin. I also explained a bit about my studies - and I once again got the "what, you've been in Japan only since last september?" -line because half of the people there talked with me for the first time today. Maru-san also taught me how to serve tea properly so that if it spills I have the towel in my hand. After some years of budo training I have the "pouring reflex" in me (the one that makes you subconsciously notice how much tea/sake/etc. there is left in your sensei's cup and then pouring more before he thinks of asking it), even though it's not yet as strong as in japanese women. But it's still strong enough that I do get up and start serving tea after a while has passed... When I do it on my own without no one asking, it usually both amuses and impresses the japanese - both because a foreigner who in some ways is very unladylike (at least by the japanese standards which I resist until the end) knows how to behave like a woman should (again by the local standards). Keeps them on their toes, it does...