How is everyone doing? Sorry for not posting sooner!

After a 5-week break back in Malaysia, I'm back in Melbourne for Uni. It's already Week FIVE. HOW. It's actually terrifying how quickly time passes.

When I got back to my apartment, I started feeling funny – like homesickness? Which was strange because I don't think I ever properly felt very homesick for the past 5 months that I was here. I met up with Angie that night and she said it's what usually happens when we come back from a trip home – because there is a change, so we're bound to feel a little funny about it.

But the feeling faded very quickly and I found that I returned to that contemplative, introspective 'mood' that I tend to have when I'm here. It's strange but awesome.

Going home was very nice though. It was so delightful seeing my family, Bro. Tan, Nalandians and my friends. There really is no place like home – though that being said, I feel like I have the best of both worlds: when I'm at home, I feel great; when I'm over here, I feel great. The 5-week break seemed longer than my 5-month semester, which makes sense because it was a chill time, not as hectic. I got to spend time with my brother who is just a ton of fun, got to volunteer at Nalanda and hang around Bro. Tan (haha). It's inevitable that you learn something new when you go to Nalanda, and that's exactly what always happens. My heart feels so nice just thinking about it.

Bits and pieces of home:

We visited the old town of Yanaka, and then headed to Shibuya where the Japan Theravada Buddhist Association was located. I've always been interested in the development of Theravada Buddhism in Japan, so I just had to go. It was so wonderful.

The centre is called 'Gotami Vihara' and is a nice little 4-story house located in Hatagaya. Venerable Sumanasara Thero was the monk who started the association.  The Venerable is a Sri Lankan monk who went to Japan to study Japanese Buddhism and then began guiding the locals in Dhamma practice. He gives Dhamma talks in Japanese and English and has published Dhamma books (one of which I happened to spot at Kinokuniya in Singapore). I didn't have the honour of meeting him personally at the time, but I heard many wonderful things about all he has done for the community there. He seems very well-respected among the devotees, and it's so incredibly uplifting to see the missionary spirit of monastics in propagating the Dhamma – to relocate to a completely foreign country, pick up the language and culture, and begin sharing the teaching with the people. The Venerable is already 72 but is still travelling all over Japan to give talks. What are the rest of us doing with life.

I had arranged to meet a new friend at the centre – Panduka, who I was connected to by my friend and fellow committee member in the Melbourne University Buddhist Studies Society, Damayanthi. Yuzu, Panduka and I got to offer food to an Indonesian monk residing at the centre. After that, we spoke with Japanese devotees. One of them happened to be the Japanese translator for the late Ven. K Sri Dhammananda. From what I understood, she helped him to translate Dhamma books from English to Japanese. Presently, she still does translations for Dhamma talks. It's so crazy awesome and inspiring.

One of the devotees told me that that weekend, they were having a huge Dhamma talk which would be attended by 400 devotees. When I expressed my surprise, he mentioned that this was a regular, monthly affair.

On the whole I was pleasantly surprised with the steady and amazing development Theravada Buddhism has made in Japan. We usually associate Japan with Zen Buddhism or Shintoism, so it really was something that went against the stream. Furthermore, having investigated Japanese culture and Japanese attitudes towards religion for the past year or two, to find acceptance towards something as foreign as Theravada Buddhism among the Japanese people was something quite unexpected. The Japanese aren't a religious people, or even very open to religion, even though they observe many rituals and ceremonies, like going to pray at the shrine during the New Year, and conforming to certain superstitions. I think this was made quite apparent by how shocked the devotees were to hear that Yuzuru was not a Buddhist, yet had been open to the idea of visiting the centre and learning more about Buddhism.

When I was acquiring knowledge about Japanese culture, I discovered that although it was one of countries (like Korea) that received the Dhamma from China, there aren't many practising Buddhists among the people at all. It's strange because a lot of their apparent mannerism, attitudes and culture is similar to those of Buddhists.



After a super eventful trip to Tokyo, I went back to Narita for a briefing on the Mt. Fuji climb and to rest. At 2am, with like 3 hours of sleep, we departed for Shizuoka prefecture with maybe 20 other people who were also part of the climb. At 5am, we arrived at the 5th station of Mt. Fuji. LOOK AT THE VIEW



At around 6am, we began the climb, aka one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life physically. We hiked along the Yoshida trail; the terrain was quite rough but sort of friendly. The path initially mostly consisted of loose gravel (hardened lava, the mountain is actually a volcano) but as we edged higher and higher, the rocks got bigger and we had to rock-climb our way above boulders.




What made the climb an amazing experience was not the fact that we were climbing the highest mountain in Japan or the scenic view or the fresh mountain air (and mind you, they actually sell the air in bottles up there), but the amazing, amazing, amazing company throughout the journey. You must be thinking 'how basic', 'how cliché' but it's true and it's worth blogging about. Throughout the journey, the cousins were supporting one another constantly. It was not about any one person making it to the peak and completing the climb in the shortest time, but about helping one another get there together. As we got higher and more tired, some of us started moving slower and slower. Some of us were actually sick, extremely sleep-deprived, and just, plain, no excuses, unfit. Very naturally the elder cousins started taking the lead and looking after the younger and sick cousins. My eldest cousin Gor Khin, though he himself was sick, was like superman – at one point he was carrying three bags (two belonging to my other cousins). My other cousin Jie Peng would stay in front of me and pull me up when needed so I wouldn't literally fall off the mountain. We would wait for each other, give one another a hand and cheer each other on. Eventually we all got to the top, and it would actually have been quite unbelievable and totally impossible if any one of us weaker ones had to do it on our own. We made sure everyone got up and down the mountain in one piece. This was actually very normal and typical of my cousins because they have the biggest hearts in the world but it was just so heartening seeing it in that context and I felt so incredibly lucky to know them. I love you guys to death!!!!!!








So this is the top of Mt. Fuji:



Woohoo!

The peak was actually very potong stim because, ironically, stim (mist) was literally everywhere and we could not see anything, and this is such a wonderful example of why journey > destination because you might not actually like it when you get there. Some of the group (like Ryan and Rhu Jie) had been waiting at the top for two hours because they were just too energetic and fit, so they were fine, but I personally was so dead I just wanted to sit my butt down. Also it was my first time experiencing altitude sickness, here is a picture of me clinging on to life and trying to revive myself this part was not fun



After hot ramen and a mere THIRTY MINUTES of rest, we had to begin our descent. It was ridiculous at the time and my head was exploding and I seriously, seriously wanted to go down by helicopter but that was not an option so like a baby I whinged and whined and so we began going down. This is when things went crazy.

Half-way through the descent, it began to HAIL. There was lightning and thunder (fun fact: my two worst fears) and we were on one of the highest points in all of Japan and so we reverted to survival mode. We had to make ourselves small so we didn't get struck and DIE, but still try to get down ASAP. I learned lots of survival skills here. At some point I could smell something burning in the air and it was seriously super scary. We eventually found shelter and waited for the rain and thunder to stop, and when it did, we rushed down the mountain to make it to base before nightfall. I might have PTSD trying to recall the entire journey so let's just skip to the end – we all survived and I'd never been so tired in my 20 years of existence and we stayed in a cabin with like 30 other people and did not shower.



In hindsight it was a super awesome experience which I will never repeat for the life of me, but the whole process has given rise to a few reflections:

1. Journey > Destination!!!
2. Success is better shared.
3. When you think you can't, you actually can, and by three times more
4. People can conquer a mountain in just one day – how are we actually making use of our time everyday?

Metta from Melbourne!


For those interested in checking out the Japan Theravada Buddhist Association:
http://www.j-theravada.net/