France - stage 1 at Ryumonji

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Thank you all once more for your replies to my last blog post that I wrote in juli.

A lot has happened ever sinc and that is why it took me some time to write a new post. But here it is and of course I will also reveal what exactly has happened :). But not quite yet, haha!

On the 12th of July I left the Johanneshof in the Black Forest heading Zen Temple Ryumonji, Weiterswiller, Alsace (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). You might not expect it, but again I had to travel via Basel in Switzerland and then via Offenburg to Strasbourg. Once there, my connecting train to Ingwiller would not show up. I had looked it up quite some time ago and there should have been a direct train from Strasbourg to Ingwiller. It just didn't show up, neither on the information boards nor in "reality" (whatever that is...). I asked a guard when the next train would arrive and he said: "Within short notice!" So I kept waiting.

But after that short notice (which took quite long actually), no train had arrived and I went into the entrance hall to the information desk and asked. Turned out, no trains to Ingwiller at all, due to maintenance on the track. Instead, I had to take a train to Mommenheim and there I had to take a shuttle bus to Ingwiller. So I did. When I arrived at Mommenheim the train was delayed and the bus had already left. You may ask yourself: with whom?

Welcome to France!

And there still were buses, but just take a look:

"I do not take any passengers" - Okay, so if you don't, what the hack are you doing there?? With your bus?? :)

Even the French were quite displeased and we were just heading towards another Storming of the Bustille (!), when one of the bus drivers apparantly felt some pity with us and agreed to negotiate. So after an hour or so, we left. In the bus on the picture!

In the meantime I kept my contacts at Temple Ryumonji informed about my whereabouts as I would be delayed. They told me that there would be someone to pick me up at the trainstation of Ingwiller.

And this time, no waiting. Do I have to mention that the guy picking me up is of German origin? ;)

The temple is amazing as you can see on the pictures of the website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). So that is why I did not take any pictures of the temple itself. As you can also read on the website, the temple is situated on the edge of a National Park of several thousands of acres and my first hike took me into the forest. I loved it! But I am also a wood person :)

In that forest there is an old riding school that has been taken over by a foundation that is related to the temple and has been transformed into a home for abandoned pets and animals. It is called La Ferme Kibo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)and it hosts several Island Ponies, some rabbits and cats also. I will come back to the cats later...

You can have retreats there and help with the gardens and animals and even bring your own pets!

This is the sign at the entrance of the animal farm.

There was also a sign "Beware of the dog". So I was quite curious what kind of dog and encounter this would be.

But once I approached the buildings I only found this:

And this pony was off leash and freely walking around. It even followed me a bit when I wandered around on the site. I thought, maybe this is just a joke and the pony's name is "chien" (=dog).

It turned out later that this was not the case and that the dog had died a while ago and nobody had removed the sign.

On the day of my arrival a retreat started so I did not have a lot of time for long walks the next days.

The sesshin was very interesting by the way. There were about 70 participants - excluding the residents - and some of them, I think about ten persons, were about to take Jukai (lay precepts) on the last day. So the entire sesshin was dedicated to the preparation of those participants for that day. Topic of the dharma talks were the precepts and how to live according to them in daily life.

This kind of sesshin is being organised twice a year, so people who want to receive Jukai can sign up for those dates. And in the weekends before those sesshins there are opportunities to sew your rakusu under professional guidance. Very nicely organised.

After the sesshin there was one day off. I took a walk to Ingwiller which is about 6 km from the temple. And as it was summer this was a typical picture in France...

Sunflower field.

A lovely view on my walk.

French countryside.

A "Wild Western" town, with a saloon even!

Storks circling in the sky.

The Temple is situated against a mountain, so there is quite some gradient. I was staying in a building on the lowest part of the Temple area and whenever I wanted to do a phone call the connection was quite bad. So I took a small walk of ca. 15 minutes and climbed the mountain next to ours and did my phone calls there.

Good connection plus an amazing view...

The previeous pictures I took from the top of "my" mountain where I went to call people. Not very often by the way. ;)

This is the village of Weiterswiller. No bus connection even. Very remote.

Beautiful and quiet. This is the quietest place I have visited during my journey so far. No traffic, no planes. Only nature.

These are the three wooden houses on the foot of the mountain where the Temple is situated.

My lodging. Maison Pierre. "Stone" House, sounds a bit odd as it is made of wood, but there were stones lying in front. The others were called "Bamboo" and "Herbes". So guess... ;)

Another walk, another view.

And now for something entirely different...

May I introduce to you: the cats of Ryumonji Temple!

I forgot the name of this fellow. But he seems to be quite unreliable, nice and sweet and cuddly at one moment and biting and scratching the next. Here he is lying on my lap. It is not affection that did him do it. It is actually his chair and as I already sat on it he decided to sit on me. Cats logic.

This is master Yoda, one of the most social ones from the whole bunch. When you call him, he comes and he keeps you company while you are working in the garden. He also pays visits to the guesthouses. Always nice, always playful, always cuddly.

Here we see little Bibi on the chair of the Zen Master. Yes, a little daredevil, doing what nobody else dares to do. On the evening of my arrival after dinner Roshi (the Zen Master, everybody calls him Olivier all the time btw, except in the dojo and during dokusan) made some announcements. And this cat jumped onto the table and started cuddling the Zen Master, who returned the favour while continuing with the announcements. Nice to see.

Bibi also very often pays visits to the dojo (=zendo=meditation hall) and sits on laps or lies down for naps.

On one occasion we were doing prostrations in the dojo and Bibi was there on my mat. And every time my forehead touched the mat he was throwing himself against my head, cuddling me. So sweet <3

This is Osiris, Bibis brother. A lot more shy en a lot less often spotted. But when there is food around...

This old lady is partially paralysed. But still walking around and enjoying herself. Espacially in the dining hall, where she lies down on the black mats. Where you can barely see her and as she is not moving very fast anymore one is being warned not to go sit on her.

The cats are actually part of the Ferme Kibo but are almost always to be found on the area of the Temple. Don't get sentimental. Kankyo, who is the nun taking care of them, feeds them there.

Time is always going fast, especially in Zen Temples. During the last week of my stay the weather finally changed from very hot and dry to cloudy and cooler and we were all glad, especially Anette, who is the nun taking care of the vegetable garden. It would finally rain.

Sunflower field under a dramatic sky.

After my stay of two and a half weeks at Ryumonji Temple I had agreed to accompany the whole bunch to the summer training in the Center of the Soto Zen School in Europe, the Gendronniẽre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), founded by Taisen Deshimaru., the first Japanese Zen Matster that settled in Western Europe. That was quite an opportunity and I did not refuse.

The half week before our take of to the Gendro (= short for... and everybody says that btw) we had a very light programme with lots of time to do our laundry and our ironing and of course also time for long walks.

I decided to pay a visit to Bouxviller that is supposedly much more "pittoresque" than Ingwiller. As you might recall, I did not take any pictures of Ingwiller, did I? This is Bouxviller, doesn't it look very German?

Another nice anecdote about the people in Alsace. During my walks around the temple the neighbours would always greet and mostly even start a conversation - in French. But once they realized that I spoke German, they would switch to German. And they were not only being polite, I once witnessed two ladies having a talk over the fence speaking Alsacien which is indeed some kind of German dialect that I was able understand. So they do not only use it when wanting to be polite to some German tourists. :)

On my last day before our departure I went for a walk to the "Pfannenfelsen" which is located in the National Park Les Vosges Nord close to the Temple.

It is quite a hike with some gradient and you really have to be in a good shape.

Amazing views on the way.

It turned out that it was a great bunch of sand stone formations all covered with moss like in a fairytale forest.

And at this point I stopped - but I should have continued, because the most beautiful part was still ahead of me Anette told me later. And as you can see on the picture this is not the summit of the Pfannenfelsen. So I will have to return some day. :)