Paradoxes

"I made a photograph of a garden in Kyoto, the Zen garden, which is a rectangle. But a photograph taken from any one point will not show, well it shows a rectangle, but not with ninety degree angles."

David Hockney

Tenryuji is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been ranked first among the city's "Five Great Zen Temples." (Just BEING in a city that ranks its Zen temples leaves me speechless.) Had the opportunity to sit zazen in the zendo there with an American-born Zen priest. And get whacked on the back with the keisaku or "encouragement stick." Found out that they actually hit an acupuncture point; no wonder it felt kind of refreshing.

After the sweet silence of the zendo, it was party time in the real world. The banks of the Katsura were crowded with cherry blossom viewing parties on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon.

Rickshaws, taxis, buses of junior college girls on an outing and Korean tourists - the street was jammed and the scores of people crossing the bridge looked like a parade.

Junko-san generously agreed to write the name of the river on my sketch.

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