Wednesday, August 18, 2010

                         
" Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again." [Joseph Campbell]

15 comments:

keiko amano said...

Lu,

I love this photo very much. The last time you posted, I didn't take time saying so because I forgot the name. The tree is unusual. It seems it doesn't need trimmings. Winds and lights pass through, and it probably receive less fungus or disease because of it. It must be a low maintenance tree, and the simplicity of the design makes it unique. The photo is such an art. The greenery contrasts with the distinct red soil. Your sacred place has a beautiful mask, Joseph Campbell might be saying to you in heaven.

Luciana said...

Keiko, the tree is called Araucaria [Araucaria angustifolia] and it´s one of the symbol trees of Southern Brazil. It takes no maintenance at all. It´s just there.It´s one of the reasons I like it so much.There are some in front of my city apartment as well. Maybe that´s the reason it is a part of who I am. Part of me is an Araucaria tree :-)
Thanks for the compliment on my photo!
What are your 'sacred' places?

keiko amano said...

Lu,

My sacred place? I love to visit temples and shrines, but I also love to visit cathedrals and churches. If I see a mosque, I'd like to visit also. And when I see the ocean, I feel it sacred. My home is also sacred. And any tearoom is sacred. Talking of tearoom, I have to take care of mine. I've been neglecting it.

Rebb said...

Lu, This was one of my favorite photos from your collection. It's inviting and peaceful.

This quote comes at a time when I need it, yet it makes me sad today--because of having been contemplating leaving my sacred space. I've continued to listen for clues, but I think now I need patience and time. My only solace, if I do move one day, is that I will take my sacred space inside of me--and I will find it as long as nature is near in some way. My other sacred space is writing/expression. Just writing that down makes me feel better. :)

keiko amano said...

Rebb,

I was thinking of the similar matters. I think the sacred place is in us. It must be portable. I was writing to ZACL because of her blog about visiting graves. This makes me think about local and global roots. I guess our sacred place can be a grave, tearoom, the ocean, or a familiar view, but they are all masks of our global roots. What do you think?

Rebb said...

Keiko, I like the idea that our sacred spaces are portable. Because truly, we can have more than one and in the end, most important in my eyes is that we do indeed etch the sacred into our inner beings, so that wherever we go, the sacred goes with us. I will probably sit with the question of, “they are all masks of our global roots.” I think perhaps I scent another story from you! :)

keiko amano said...

Rebb,

This subject has been occupying my mind ever since I came to the U.S. Maybe because I came from a small island country, I was chicken. And it was a huge culture shock to me. I used to wonder how pioneers and immigrants coped with loneliness and homesickness and built the country. Compared to them, I felt very weak because I was here thinking of going back. If I had no option of going back, would I have ever come? Probably not.

It makes sense to me that the country like Brazil and the U.S. were made by those people with strong sense of sacred place in their heart. So when we discuss about disaster or moving or retirement, I wonder what we need the most. I mean what we can do without. And when I think of Japanese traditions disappearing, I wonder what the most important thing is. What is going to be preserved at the end?

Luciana said...

Keiko, I agree with you, but don´t you think it might also have to do with a more pronounced western focus on the 'individual' rather than in the group?
I´m concerned about that, too. I think that nowadays, societies who focus more on the group will have to learn to let their individuals breathe, and individualistic societies, like mine, for example, will have to learn how to find common ground within their members.
We can and certainly should learn from each other. :-)

Luciana said...

Rebb, portable sacred spaces seems to me like a very clever solution for moving on. I like it!:-)
I like to think we are our own homes, and we carry whatever makes sense to us. Coming to think of it, that explains why some people can´t stand their own company. ;-/

Rebb said...

Keiko,

I would say you were not chicken at all. You were very brave to come to a foreign country by yourself. I’m sure it was difficult to leave your family. I would probably not have had the courage at the age you were when you did that. Now I think I see better what you mean by roots. See, my roots are like tattered threads. I appreciate the bare threads very much, but my uncle is the only real last living tie to my roots. I used to ask my grandmother if she ever wanted to go back and visit Mexico. She said no. Mexico was in a bad state of affairs. It seems it’s still true. She never learned English, except just enough to go to the bank and say hello. Grandfather did learn English and learned it well. I think that’s why in a lot of ways I feel like a foreigner, yet I am not. But, I’ve talked a bit about that and you know what I mean. My grandmother was also very spiritual, as you also know, and I think that and her children and grandchildren, and nature, helped with any loneliness she may have felt. I believe her mother crossed the border illegally when she was a young girl, and then my grandmother followed. I don’t know how that all worked out, but somehow she managed.

I think when people are “hungry” like the pioneers—hungry to make a better way, to break new ground—it makes the impossible more possible. It’s amazing.

Those are great questions to ponder, Keiko. “What we need most” and “when [you] think of Japanese traditions disappearing…what is going to be preserved at the end?” very good questions, just pondering the questions themselves is important. It makes me think of what I have learned from my grandmother: Love, strength, kindness, compassion, faith in something far greater than ourselves. As you said, it is global. We each are born into our own cultures and traditions, and mesh with other cultures and in the end, as you say, and it bears repeating, “What do we take with us.”

Rebb said...

I can see it, Lu—each of us with our portable sacred spaces. You can even take the ocean with you! :) That’s so true…some people really don’t seem to care much for their own company. Funny.

keiko amano said...

Lu,

I wanted reply to this important issue last night, but it became too late. About individual and group things, I don’t exactly know what experts are exactly saying. If you find a good argument, would you please let me know? I love to discuss this with you and others. When we have a concrete statement, it’s easier to talk about it. But I totally agree that we can learn from each other, and I think most sensible people in the world agree with us.

I think nurturing a team spirit tendency in ordinary western people in western countries is as difficult as nurturing an independent spirit in ordinary Japanese in Japan. It’s easier if we are born into the culture we like, but we can’t choose, and even if we can choose for a miraculous reason, we still don’t have the country well balanced of the two.

But I hope we all strive to be able to make independent decision at the time of calamity and work as a team at our hardest time. With that in mind, we can train our soul, spirit, and thought daily toward that goal, but without discipline, we cannot realize our dream. This disaster-recovery-kind of discipline benefits us in daily life. What do you think?

keiko amano said...

Rebb,

““what is going to be preserved at the end?” very good questions, just pondering the questions themselves is important.”
Yes, I agree.

When we have no choices, that’s when our ability is tested. When I think about my parent generation, your grandparents crossing the border for their better life, and all the struggles I read and heard, I always question myself. What if it happens to me? Can I come out as gracefully as they did? I don’t have confidence. My mother posed such questions once in a while since I was a child. “What if you are starving and have only one riceball for two, what do you do?” That kind of question. And there is no room for humor. Time to time, I think about it even in the U.S. where we don’t need to worry about rice. Even at my current age, I can only reply to the question as saying “I don’t know until I’m in that situation.” Whenever I watch good movies or read good stories, they always connect to it, and I feel my desire to be more disciplined person.

About coming to the U.S., many people have said as you have, Rebb. I was so trusting. Unless you were born in Japan, it’s hard to explain it. You have to experience it to understand it.

Once, I was on the way to the data center for the Nagano Olympics. I went into a car rental office near the train station. I filled my application, and a man in charge looked at it and didn’t ask my id, credit card or deposit. And the key was already in the car that I was going to rent. I forgot the detail, but I was surprised more when I returned the car. But a young Japanese SE who was with me was also surprised. So, not everyone is like that in Japan, but still, we can meet such trusting people in Japan. We trust each other too much. I have many funny stories like that.

Rebb said...

Keiko,

I wanted to say thank you for expanding on your experiences. It makes me want to read more about your trusting experiences, so I can try to understand what is hard to explain. Trust is an interesting thing to me.

Luciana said...

Dear Keiko, I don´t know what experts think. I don´t even know whether there are experts on this subject. :-)
What I know is that I miss certain collective rituals that make sense. Religion(the way it is presented)doesn´t make any sense to me, and I´m afraid a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions in today´s society come from people not being able to think collectively or to think in sincrony. On the other hand, individual anihilation and massification of thought is not a solution either. People like you are able to find middle ground, but you are a wonderful exception:-) Most people are left with emptiness.