Wherever We Go, There We Are

As we walked onto the temple grounds at Chotoku-in in Kyoto, we saw a very diminutive woman in a large white sun hat sweeping the moss, Mrs. Ogata. Becoming aware that she had guests she looked up and saw Justin. With a voice that embraced all, she said, “Justin Stone”. Her voice was music, and in that moment, her voice was “the voice filling the universe”, a poem that Justin often quotes from the Lotus Sutra. All was Justin Stone and Justin Stone was all. This was to be our introduction to Kyoto, Japan (the Real Kyoto).

The love that is in the hearts of people of Kyoto for Justin, reaches out to embrace, not just Justin, as was beautifully shown by many dear people, but it embraces all of us who share in T’ai Chi Chih. It was a true feeling of ‘coming home’, not to a place, or to something imagined, but to that which lives in our hearts because of our T’ai Chi Chih practice. We know that stillness every time we practice and Kyoto is the embodiment of that stillness, that love. As it is said by the sages of all time, “it is not necessary to travel anywhere to find the Truth about yourself, know the Truth and you will go everywhere.”

* * *

Jade is rich
Healing green
is the hue

Joy of life
it is
you
you
You!

Smile so tender
eyes so bright
that light
penetrates
into the night
and oceans
flow
deserts
grow
Jade green.

– clb