特講 Tokkoh

April 29 – May 5, 2016:
1944th Special Course in Kensan Meeting – Yamagishi Association

“Hello, and welcome. You will be involved in this special tokkoh course for a full 24 hours every day, for seven days; you will work, live and sleep in this building and its immediate premises. We ask of you that you hand us over your watch, cellphone, computer, books, and anything that may connect you to the outside world.
Only once in your lifetime will you be allowed to participate. Treasure this opportunity.
There is no teacher here. You might find it hard to comprehend some of the questions that are being asked, but please do not give up, and keep thinking. Think as hard as you can.”

So it’s finally over. What a week… Too much to say, too much to write — will do this later.

In the meantime, curious souls can head over to this page for a quick overview about tokkoh, and the Yamagishi Association. The content is nearly 30 years old, but things haven’t changed much since (except that there were only 9 of us in this tokkoh).

I’ll now be staying three weeks at the Kasugayama jikkenchi (春日山実顕地), in Mie Prefecture, to hopefully gain a more hands-on understanding of Yamagishism. Stay tuned.