Mastering Life
Unsui（雲水） is a monk in training; he goes around one temple to the other, in search of his master, or he stays in Sodo, a temple space dedicated to training. After a certain period, they become supermen. This is a little sneaky peek into how through my lens.
One day, Oshosama held a monthly Confucian Analects study class for children. This time we used the Lecture Hall at the Daitokuji temple. A zazen practice, followed by a lecture, happened as usual. We put things back where they were, cleaned up the space, and locked the door.
I was about to leave when Oshosama called me to follow him to the entrance of the Daitokuji temple. I had walked around many times within the complex but had never been inside the actual building.
Oshosama opened one of the large sliding doors and called for someone. A step into the entrance, at a glance it was obvious that my entire Tokyo apartment could easily fit into this entrance space. Oshosama pointed to my left: the tall wall supporting the dark, thick wooden beams. At the bottom of the wall, there were five large openings lined up. The wall colour darkened around them. I bent down to look into one of the holes and as I looked up, there was a sphere-shaped, sooth-covered metal, a bit like a bowl, hanging over my head.
“This is where unsui cook,” Oshosama said.
What looked like a bowl was the bottom of a pot. I was looking it up from the opening of the hearth where they made fire with chopped wood. If all five pots were put on fire for cooking, a few hundred could easily be served. Later it turned out that the sliding doors, which in my eyes were the main entrance to the temple, were merely a backdoor to the kitchen.
This simply exemplified the scale of temple life; cooking for dozens, cleaning incomprehensively vast spaces with basic tools like rugs and bamboo brooms…
And if it’s just about getting it done then that is not enough. It has to be benevolent, quick, serene, sincere, clean… all these complex concepts all communicated through a single Japanese word “kirei.” Oshosama told me many times to “keep the space kirei,” and I was left wondering what exactly he was envisioning. The quality of kirei penetrates many aspects of life.
Oshosama cooks the gentlest and most nourishing vegetable soup; sweeps fallen leaves swiftly and tirelessly; and picks the serenest flower in the garden to throw in a vase. This act of “holding” a space, encompassing every aspect of life, is the crucial part of training, as I came to comprehend it.
A quote from D.T. Suzuki seems to fit perfectly here.
“The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life, a ife of monotonous, unispiring, common-placeness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.” ( “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis”)
So, unsui clean gardens, work in a field, cook and also study Chinese poetry to read Zen anecdotes, memorise sutra, practise Tea, flowers and calligraphy. To me, they are supermen.
A lady came out, Oshosama told her we were done, and thanked her for letting us use the Lecture Hall.
I never went back to the kitchen space after, and grateful that I got to do so on that day.
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