Once upon a time, at a temple where homeless families were sheltering after a fire, a girl and a boy fell in love. Months passed. The burned-out neighborhood was rebuilt. The lovers were separated. Oh, misery! Oh, fleeting, unreal world! Brooding and sighing, the girl ...
Four hundred and two years ago this week, a battle was fought near the village of Sekigahara, 40 km northwest of Nagoya. Though short -- it was over soon after lunchtime -- the battle was decisive, ushering in . . . Plato's Republic? What would ...
Bells. Lights. The sound of -- an earthquake? Galloping horses? No -- I'm oriented now. It's monks running through the corridors. Numbly I crawl out of my futon and fold it. My four roommates do the same. We exchange not a word. They are shadows ...
"Just so, Subhuti, I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled, complete awakening, and for this very reason it is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.' " -- The Buddha. The first thing to appreciate about Zen is that it's easy. The second thing to appreciate is ...
OTARU, Hokkaido -- Otaru Onsen Osupa is not a natural setting for the airing of great issues. It is a faded child's-birthday-cake of a building on a windswept highway skirting the Sea of Japan, some 5 km from the center of town. In the ...
Ah, Nihongo. Of all foreign languages, this is the one that keeps you on your toes. An Occidental beginner might suspect that the Japanese did it on purpose -- sowed their language with mines and pitfalls to thwart non-native penetration. To 16th-century European missionaries, ...
Third-century Chinese visitors to Japan were struck by the easygoing equanimity of Japanese women. "All men of high rank," they reported, "have four or five wives; others, two or three. The women are faithful and not jealous." Faithful and not jealous! And the Japanese family ...
HAKODATE, Hokkaido --Kenji Fujita sits among his crabs, the wood fire in a tin bucket at his feet a thin defense against the predawn chill. It's minus 3 degrees at Hakodate's famed morning market, the pitch darkness of 4 a.m. adding layers to the ...
Dear Son, You'll probably never see this. Newspapers aren't your cup of tea, and though I'm sure you'd oblige me by reading something I specifically pointed out to you (a tradition dating back to your early teens, when I worried about your English and supervised ...
