Thursday 17 February 2011

experiencing true encounter...

"Taya life is a way of living daily life in which one experiences true encounter."
Fragrant Light No.257
well, it's a matter of days now until i move down to London and enter into taya life. no doubt it may well be a prevelent theme in my postings here over the coming months. a Dharma friend recently asked me to tell him a little bit about its significance and i replied that the best i felt i could do was to share this essay, "The Meaning of Taya" by Rev. Kemmyo Taira Sato with him.

it's funny really that in talking with Kyoshin recently (whose latest postings over on Echoes about his temple stay in Japan you should read asap), i realised i am only just coming to understand how profoundly important a part encounter plays within the Shinshu tradition. to illustrate from Rev. Sato's essay -
"In personal encounter, two people become united at a deeper level than before, through their confrontation or facing one another. Through confrontation both people become themselves. In other words, through encounter one discovers oneself in a deeper dimension by letting the other person be himself / herself just as he / she is. Ideally one might thus achieve complete self-development. The two people are two and one at the same time."

as you may know, this idea of acceptance, of  "letting the other person be himself / herself just as he / she is" is something which i've been struggling with of late and will no doubt come up against during my time there. although in any other circumstance i would feel daunted at this thought, amongst good Dharma friends and in the light of the Tathagata, i am confident a space in which to move forward positively will reveal itself.

namu amida butsu

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this Jon. I think that it is important that Sensei doesn't deny confrontation. It's not just that we simply accept others as they are at a superficial or face value level. There is confrontation but in that confrontation we are thrown back on ourselves and discover all that is preventing us from true enocunter ... from feeling the reality of the other. When we face that truth the barrier or horizon to encounter becomes transparent, or something like that. So confrontation is OK, its part of a dynamic process.

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