I live in a traditional farmhouse in Shiga, next to Kyoto, where I share elements of Japanese culture—including Zen—with a global audience. All phenomena are beyond purity, impurity, and even the divide between samsara and nirvana.
I would like to introduce a passage from Three Years in Tibet, written by Ekai Kawaguchi, who traveled to Tibet in the early 1900s.
The passage is:
“My original intention in coming to this country was to glorify Buḍḍhism and thus to find the way of saving the people of the world from spiritual pain. Among the several countries where Buḍḍhism prevails, the only places where the true features of the Great Vehicle are preserved as the essence of Buḍḍhism are Japan and Tibet. The time has already come when the seed of pure Buḍḍhism must be sown in every country of the world, for the people of the world are tired of bodily pleasures which can never satisfy, and are earnestly seeking for spiritual satisfaction. This demand can only be supplied from the fountain of genuine Buḍḍhism. It is our duty as well as our honor to do this.”