Shunkō-in Temple

Inside Six Senses Kyoto, the New Hotel That Might Be the City’s Zen-est Yet | Vogue

"Cross-legged on the tatami floor, I tried to follow Reverend Takafumi Kawakami’s zazen guidance—pushing my breath toward my tailbone and noticing the air’s texture (crisp), temperature (spring-rain cool), and aroma (ancient wood, sweetly perfumed with incense)—but my attention drifted to the wisps of smoke and the rain tip-tapping the shoji-paper screens. After a long, suspended silence, a copper bell rang to end my first-ever meditation, and over matcha and sweet mochi Kawakami—whose family has cared for this 16th-century temple for 120 years—offered a primer on Zen, from the difference between wisdom and knowledge to the idea that our wordy thoughts are mere metaphors for existence, noting that “human culture is increasingly focused on controlling the things around us,” and that the pandemic taught us to accept and deal with what life brings." - Chris Schalkx