This piece of cloth was given by a monk registering the visitors in the  Eihei-Ji  Temple,  when  I  notified as

I was leaving the Temple.

While handing this, he told me, “ Think, your life is in here, and keep remember it  all of your life ”

This foot square ( 33 x 36 cm ) space is the space, a man occupy all through the life until the moment

when he needs a bit more to lie down to die (hopefully for a Nirvana )

——— And this cloth was meant to be used to eat on it.  (Though, when I needed to washed it some time later,

I found the color was fading —- originally it was dark brown —- I realized even this one is not permanent and

only for a spiritual teaching,  not for actual use.)    Since then, I just placed it in the kitchen where ever I moved.

So,  technically  this cloth has been shadowing and watching my life for the past 36 years, and

kept reminding  me,  who I am and the place where I can be. ( in its one foot square )

——————–

The Spoon on the cloth is shadowing me even longer than that.

I made this fork-spoon, out of ordinary table-spoon by cutting the teeth in it when I was in the first year of my

High-School.   In a tradition among the Japanese mountain climbers,  the eating utensils / spoon, fork  kind

were called ” Buki ” ( weapon )—– the essential tool to fight through the battle field of survival.

The larger the Buki,  we can eat quicker and  more.  Without energy in the stomach we can’t climb or walk.

So that I made the most versatile and efficient one for myself. ( It took whole one night  to make)

And I’m eating all the meal  nearly 50 years with this.  If I was invited someone’s dinner party, I go with this.

This spoon signify my life,  my living existence.——- Literally I’m living on it.

——————–

Pretending not eat a lot is laughable.  How anyone can survive with empty stomach.

And once the food staffs were cooked, while sacrificing the life of rice and vegetables etc,  not

waste even a single grain of rice, is imperative. ( It was the Zen family’s constitution )

So,  this is the foundation of my Life.

___/\___

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