Daitoku-ji Zen Rock Gardens

After the buzz and constant influx of people at Ryoan-ji, Dad and I were shocked to arrive just at Daitoku-ji`s Daisen-in garden and find the place almost deserted.  There were no guided tours, no mandatory school trips, only the occasional solitary businessman in Kyoto for a trip with a few extra hours on their hands.

Daisen-in is a small sub-temple of the sprawling Daitoku-ji temple complex, where we saw several young Buddhist monks walking in single file line wearing somber navy frocks, raised wooden sandals and carrying small parasols, perhaps to protect their shaved heads from the bright sun - ?

Daisen-in is famous for its rock garden that surrounds all four sides of a beautiful old Japanese style building.  The garden is somewhat unusual in that it is not meant to be contemplated from a fixed point, but rather that you are supposed to walk around the veranda of the house and watch as the story of the garden progresses.  The garden has three distinct parts, which are said to represent Japan`s Inland Sea, the river of life, and the great ocean.  The progression of the water through the different patterns of stones and trees tells a cyclical story of a human journey characterized by suffering, doubt and acceptance of The Way and its eventual convergence with eternity.

Daisen-in was particularly meaningful to me because Sen-no-Rikyu, the father of the Japanese tea ceremony, often sat here and practiced The Way of Tea while contemplating these gardens that have remained completely unchanged since the late 1500s.  I participated in tea ceremony club when I was an exchange student in Tokyo and am still very interested in this part of Japanese culture.  Dad and I were able to take a peek at the collection of bamboo tea whisks and hand painted calligraphy scrolls displayed in a tatami room in the back of the temple and sip a cup of thick matcha green tea with a Kyoto-style cinnamon cakes.

The real surprise of this temple was its gregarious and extremely outgoing head priest who sat with us on the porch as we looked at the eternity garden and asked us for help translating some Zen phrases.  He spoke excellent English and no doubt could have translated these sentences himself, but he was probably trying to engage us and look for a more expressive and poetic way to render the meaning of the sentences.  This whole experience was unusual for both of us in that it seemed to be the first time that a religious institution seemed to have it as a priority to make its texts and founding principles accessible in any language other than Japanese.  Not only was the head priest coming out to joke with us, not only was he asking for help with native translation, but he had put together a thoughtful, in-depth materials explaining the significance of this place.  When I asked him about how he planned to use our English translation, he told me that what he was really after was an Italian translation, and he thought it might be easier for an Italian to translate from English rather than Japanese.

As for the translation,  my role was to put the stark Japanese phrases into stark English phrases, and Dad`s role was to draw upon his past studies of East Asian texts and wordsmith.  Here is what we came up with.

If you immerse yourself in study while you are young, you will become an exceptional human being.

If you never stop studying, your spirit will be immortal.

If you study until the end of your life, other humans will follow your example.

If the path you follow is true, your spirit will be strong every day.

Certainly there`s room for improvement, but on the whole not too shabby for an on the spot out of the blue three-way translation attempt of esoteric Zen thought, right?

Here`s one of the texts the head priest wrote.

Each day in life is training Training for myself through failure is possible Living each moment equal to anything ready for everything  I am alive - I am this momentary future is here and now for if I cannot endure today, when and where will I? 

Words for each day.

Soen Ozeki.