The young nun who is my guide and escort tells me that “it ALWAYS rains this week”, apparently next week it stops!

The plane from Japan to Taiwan was delayed about three hours because of an engine problem. The United pilot, attempted to pacify the passengers, gaily said “We wouldn’t want to fly in a bad plane would we”?

At Immigration in Taipei the officer seemed amazed to see a Western Buddhist Monastic, I was the first one he had seen. This has often been the case here in Asia, people are surprised to see a Western monk. I was greeted at arrivals (they were holding up a large sign with “Welcome Mugo Master”) by a novice nun and three lay people. The couple I found out trade in rosaries and there is a young woman studying Business who, I think, was on board as an interpreter. We climbed into a modern SUV all decked out with rosaries and the like and charged off into the night which soon become early morning. The humidity is high and it’s about 23c. Thankfully it had been arranged for us to stay at a hotel for the night to rest before going on to the next destination…where ever that might be. We traveled for about two hours to get to this place. I see we are in Taichung…

(For those who are interested in technical matters it is a relatively normal feature of hotel room to have a LAN connection to the Internet and that is how I am able to write this blogger on my laptop.)

The plan, as far as I can understand it, as language is difficult, is to have lunch with the Master who has arranged all of this and then go to the mountain temple after that.

There is Sumo wrestling on the TV to my left and beyond that is a United plane stocking up with supplies. I’m at Narita Airport Japan preparing myself for Taiwan where I will be in just a few hours from now. It has been arranged that a monastic contact, one made via Rev. Oswin in Eugene Oregon, to pick me up and whisk me away to a mountain temple in the middle of Taiwan. It is the Buddha’s Birthday celebrations tomorrow and I understand that there will by a whole series of visits and events arranged for me while I am in Taiwan.

Iain will be back with Edera now, drinking tea and absorbing all that has happened these past weeks while we have been traveling together. It has been an unforgettable journey and I am, once again, very grateful to have been escorted through what was, at times, rather difficult circumstances. Catching a taxi in China is not like falling off a log, believe me!

Described as Lotus Pond Resort! This is just a small part of West Lake in Hang Zhou.

The halls and temple grounds are crowded with tourists and pilgrims and then in late afternoon, as we experienced at Tiantong, the gates are closed and the place returns to silence. The resident priests continue to walk about much the same as they do when there are visitors around. There seems to be nothing, not even the gathered crowds, the cell phones ring etc. that can shake the grounded stability of these ancient sites where Buddhism is being practiced, still.

Pilgrims.

Here are a few photos from a visit made today to this amazing temple near to where I have been staying in Hang Zhou. It is old and the halls and statues are breathtakingly huge. There were said to be 3000 monks living and practicing at Lingyin which reached it’s heyday when Zen Master Dogen was in China. We saw many monks walking about amongst the crowds, in addition a number of them were celebrating a ceremony in one of the (five) great halls.

Standing before Buddha statues in these majestic halls, one just wants to bow and bow and bow again, and that is what I did. The living link to Buddhism coming from India to China came through so strongly. Seeing the forms within this temple and seeing how they have been adapted in Japan and then how we, as an Order, have taken them up and show the teaching through them is moving beyond measure. Not so much the forms themselves more the verification of the living continuation of what they point to and that we/I am part of that great ancient tradition. Coming to this temple was the perfect end to this tour in China.

Iain and I had a celebratory lunch to mark the end of our time of traveling together this past month. Tomorrow will see us in Shanghai again and then I fly to Taiwan, via Japan, and Iain will be back with Edera in Sanbu.

Offering Incense.