The local temple in our area is a perfect place to walk with the kids and get out of the house before dinner.It's called "Tou-kou-ji" 東光寺 and contains the kanji characters for "east," "light" or "shine" or "brightness" and
"temple."
It has a fairly steep entranceway for cars that must be at a 45-degree angle. We often go up the spirally back road, also a bit steep but safer for me to drag a wagon or push a tricycle up.
This temple on the night of the New Year will ring its bell 108 times for each of the 108 temptations of man. Locals can also come at midnight and ring it and pray for a healthy and prosperous New Year, which my son and I did last year.
A graveyard also sits atop the hill, but more natural and functional and acceptable than a plotted funeral land back in the States.
Cherry blossoms up the steep grade are awesome as they rain soft, pink petals on your head as you work your way around.
This sounds lovely! However, I am worried about these '108 Temptations of Man'. How many have already gotten me??? How much trouble am I in?
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot more than those 10 rules westerns are supposed to worry about. Sheesh, we can't even handle those measly 10!!!
Buddhism is great, because you keep getting lots of chances through reincarnation to reach enlightenment. As far as I know, you won't run out of chances ... but apparently you can regress to a slug if your karma doesn't hold.
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