Iwona

I didn’t really have any clear aim in mind when I arrived at Antaiji. My decision to go had been made several years before, when I first started meditating and would closely monitor myself for signs of Progress. Staying at a Japanese monastery had seemed a good step along the way. Come May 2012 and I’ve long given up on being the Best Ever Meditator, and yet somehow or other there I stand waiting for the bus outside Hamasaka station.

I may not have had much of an aim in coming to Antaiji, but I definitely did have some expectations. I envisioned it as a sort of labour camp where I would have to sling down my food at top speed while being closely observed for indiscretions. And I suppose that was accurate, at least to some extent. But it was not the complete picture. In the short time that I stayed at Antaiji, I shared with those I worked alongside a joy that I had not thought to expect at all.