Harmony and Grace

Our world is a conflicted and fragmented place these days. I was grateful being away from all that in the peaceful gardens, temples, and sacred places of Kyoto, one of Japan’s most important sites of history and culture. Japanese gardens reveal the complexity and beauty of the natural world and our place in it. The tea ceremony and kaseki meal were communal prayers, scripted yet graceful. There is a Japanese aesthetic principle called yūgen translated as something that is both profound and mysterious. I experienced this kind of illusive beauty which touched my spirit as well as my senses.