Daitokuji Zen

There is a complex of temples in northwest Kyoto. Some of the gardens are the ones you see in the travel brochures. I needed a little Zen in my life; so I went to the nearest subway stop and walked west about 15 minutes to this walled community. A man at the ticket gate gave me a small map with the public temples circled. Some are only open for special occasions, and others are always private. The roads are paved with stone and cement, and the odd car of resident abbots or monks will occasionally drive by, but otherwise, it's very quiet. There were "moss" gardens - actually covered with those little teeny pine-looking plants that areall tied together in one community. There were stone and sand gardens with the sand raked high representing stormy seas. As you enter a temple through a garden, you will make 3 turns, giving you the sense that you are making a long journey and leaving the outer world behind. You pay a fee at each temple (about $5) but you can stay in each as long as you want to. My favorites were Ziuhou-in and Kouto-in. Zuihou-in has several of the stone gardens, and you can sit and contemplate the patterns quietly. I have heard that it's not the rocks and stones and plants, necessarily, but the space between that should draw ones attention. Kouto-in has a bamboo grove surrounding it. I had never been amidst bamboo like that. It's lovely and mysterious. You can put on these little rubber slippers to walk on the stone path and look at the little grave plots tucked into the trees. Izumo-no Okuni, the creator of kabuki, is said to be buried there, but no one knows where. I like to think of her dancing among the bamboo trees.