On mindfulness, Japan and the moments we decide are over too soon
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Once I'd taken my last sip of matcha at a tea ceremony in Kyoto, I'd have called it complete. Yet there was still the chawan, the tea bowl, to appreciate, and we were invited to take our time over it. It made me wonder how often we decide a moment is over simply because we've got what we came for.
I've been meditating and studying the Vedic tradition for nearly ten years, and teaching Vedic Meditation on the Coffs Coast hasn't changed what it means to be a student. A fresh perspective can still deepen my understanding, even of something I've done a thousand times.
This year I'd pictured myself in India for Navaratri, the nine-night festival honouring the Divine Feminine, yet I kept feeling a strong pull towards Mount Fuji. Then the teacher who guided my yoga teacher training announced a Zen retreat in Japan. It fell on exactly the same dates. In the Vedic tradition we speak of following charm, which simply means noticing what you're drawn to and trusting it, even when your mind has other plans. India made sense. Japan stirred something in me. So I followed my charm and booked Japan.
The retreat introduced me to Zen, a tradition I knew little about. Zen and the Vedic tradition grew from the same ancient Indian soil, and both are centred on being present. They simply arrive there by different routes. Mindfulness, as it's often taught, invites us to bring our attention to what's in front of us. In Vedic Meditation, the stillness we gain twice a day opens our awareness to the bigger picture, so we're in the moment with the person in front of us and everything happening around them, without any effort to hold it there.
It was in the ordinary moments that I noticed the practice of zen most. Before entering a hot spring in Japan you sit and wash thoroughly, and I realised I'd been treating the washing as something to get through on the way to the bath, rather than part of the experience.
In my latest Substack reflection, Stay a Little Longer, I share what a tea bowl, a Zen priest, Mount Fuji and the one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo, showed me about presence, along with a few invitations to try in your own week.
→ Read the full reflection on Substack
From my unbounded heart to yours,
Kazzie x
Kazzie Argyle is a certified Vedic Meditation teacher and holistic wellness practitioner based on the Coffs Coast, NSW, Australia, working in person across Australia and globally online.
