T.A.

I realised with my body, not my head, what ‘the prosperity in everyday life' means

Thank you very much for allowing me to participate in this Temple Stay. I am very grateful to all the staff. After the Temple Stay, my body is exhausted, but my head is clear. I have realised so many things that I can’t write about after spending a week with you all.

First of all, I realised with my body, not my head, the meaning of “the prosperity in everyday life” as Osho Taigu said.
At home, I did cleaning and cooking with reluctance, but at the temple, in order to keep up with everyone’s speed, I did it without thinking about likes and dislikes (I didn’t have time to think about it), and learnt the procedures with my body and did them without thinking. Then, surprisingly, my dislike of cleaning the toilet, which I usually disliked the most, disappeared. In addition, I realised that I didn’t need to set aside time for exercise because I was using my body to move when cleaning. So it’s quite an efficient use of time.

To achieve this ‘everyday prosperity’, I think you have to manage your time well, set up procedures and prepare the right tools. I was surprised at the variety of wiping towels and cleaning tools at the temple. Each one has a proper role and is neatly organised. As for procedures and tools, I don’t immediately find the best ones at home, but I would like to do it by trial and error. First of all, I would like to set a firm time for household chores, set a shorter time than usual and focus on speed to reproduce the state of peacefulness I experienced at the temple at home.

The second thing I would like to introduce is how to use the time of the day. At home, I would like to practise a time of gratitude, hope and vow at the beginning of the day, just like the ‘morning routine’ at the temple. I would like to continue the early morning routine at the temple at home, as I am busy during the day and I think the only way to set up this morning routine is to get up early in the morning. In fact, I have been suffering from insomnia for a long time and cannot sleep at night, so my body is sluggish in the morning and I cannot move very quickly. However, the pressure of being ‘made to do’ at the temple has enabled me to finish cleaning and other tasks properly, even if my body is sluggish. So I decided to continue to get out of bed at a certain time in the morning and do certain things, even if I can’t sleep at night.

Thirdly, I want to make time in my daily life for the ‘laser beam’ mentioned by Daiyuu. My current life is so busy with housework and child-rearing that I hardly have time to work on the things I want to do, and I was frustrated, but I realised that it was a matter of time usage and concentration. I experienced life at the temple and realised that I had been very naive. From now on, I want to decide on the procedures for housework and the time to do housework, and in addition to that, I want to make time for laser-beam concentration practice for about one or two hours a day.

I now understand what Monk Eiko meant when he said, “Your training has not started yet”. I realised that the Temple Stay period is only a time to ‘experience’ the temple, and that the real practice comes after returning home. The real question is how much of what I learnt at the temple I can put into practice in real life and how far I can continue.
It was a short time, but it was very beneficial for my life to meet you all. Please take care and keep up the good work! I will do my best too!