1) okay, maybe not so magical, but for a rude hawaiian, hey, it was pretty cool... shodo called it hitachi or hibashira, or something, i think it was intended to mean a pillar to the sun. one freaking cold winter's day, when my nostrils instantly froze shut, and the water vapor was freezing out of the air (what's the opposite of sublimation?) and turning into diamond dust, we looked up and out over the temple grounds, and we saw the sunlight rising up in a vertical shaft to the sun. no, it wasn't a jacob's ladder, it was an actual pillar of light. it had something to do with ice in the air, or something. but to me, it was a sign that, yes, perhaps kannon sama or avalokitesvara, or whatever, was rolling out the golden carpet for me, so that i too could become an enlightened and compassionate being... and then i had to rub my nose and my ears because my blood was turning into red shave ice inside the cartilagenous extremities, and when i told shodo this, my numb and frozen lips made me sound even more like a retard... so that sort of spoiled my sublime moment (again, what's the opposite of sublimation?).
2) a pillar of tea leaves. so, we were drinking tea, and shodo asked if i had ever heard of reading tea leaves. yes, i said, and then stared blankly at the tea leaves in my cup, trying to find a pattern. uh, it looked like a raccoon sliding a crescent moon between his legs to clean his ass... and then shodo showed me his cup. to my amazement, and i'm not shitting you, the tea leaves in his cup were STACKED, forming a near perfect pillar. and i'm not talking about just a couple of leaves that happened to be one atop the other; it was a real pillar of leaves, extending halfway into the depth of the cup!
3) a dragon of clouds. so i remember it being like new years eve, or new years day or something. and shodo and a bunch of his high school friends (an interesting bunch) decided to drive up to some cliff overlooking the sea to enjoy the view...
*side note: i remember us stopping over at a friend's house. this friend had just recently gotten hitched, and was, no doubt, at the time we bothered them, "enjoying her company." but just like rude high school kids, we went to this guy's house (musta been like 3 am) and we made a lot of noise, and demanded that this guy accompany us on our drive to this cliff. and i remembered standing in the poor guy's house, and the wife was just huddled in bed with the sheets pulled up (her shoulders were bare) glaring at us... and meanwhile, on the tv was some late night japanese show, pretty risque: at first, it looked like scenes from a japanese av, close ups of breasts, of hips, accompanied by that distinctively high-pitched barking (sorry?) you hear on japanese porn... and then, it was revealed that that clip was all MEN. the breasts (YUCK!) were actually the man breasts of one fat dude. the ass shot was of one really skinny dude. and the voice, why that was yet another dude, with a prepubescent voice! i kinda felt dazed. dirty. disappointed... i recall wanting to get out of there, leave the two lovebirds alone... but i guess shodo was just being chummy, wanting to get "the guys" together...
so we got to the hill leading up to the cliff. and the car got stuck. so i and a couple of the other guys got out to push... i was wearing these stupid looking purple knee high boots that i'd bought just for the winter... and as i pushed and pushed, i suddenly lost traction, and wound up landing on my face in the snow, much to the amusement of everyone there... ANYWAY, we finally pushed the car out, proceeded to the cliff on foot the last 100 feet or so, and as we exited the tree cover...
i swear to you...
we saw a clear silver sky, with a white sun, and just off to one side, a cloud formation IN THE SHAPE OF A CHINESE DRAGON.
i will never forget that.
No comments:
Post a Comment