“Both Karla and Ranjini were wonderful teachers. I loved how they worked together and obviously cared so much for one another. I feel I got some great tools to deepen my practice as a Buddhist and as a writer.” ~ Sydney Osborne
Celebrating the upcoming Goddess Temple Café: Joyful Art & Storytelling Virtual Retreat on the weekend of October 29 – 31, we share with you two blog posts from Ranjini George exhibiting two types of writing that give voice to the meditative mind and soul.
To register for this virtual retreat, please click here.
Memoir excerpt from Days and Nights in Tokyo: The Edo 33-Kannon Pilgrimage
In this memoir piece, Ranjini shares her interaction with the deity Guan Yin.
A woman, Maria, approached me at the Buddhist temple on Millcreek Drive in Mississauga, Ontario—“I feel I have to talk with you”—and introduced me to a female Buddha with toenails and fingernails painted pink, one foot stepping forward, holding a vase and the wish-fulfilling jewel of the enlightened mind.
“Could you please spell her name?” I asked Maria.
Guan Yin.
It was love at first sight.
Ever since that day, I’ve been on pilgrimage. At first, I was confused by my overwhelming devotion to an unknown goddess. One night, I prayed to Guan Yin—“Am I on the right path?”—and I dreamed of her that very same night.
She stood before me. “Hello, I’m Guan Yin.”
She was in her thirties, medium-height, beautiful, slender, dressed in gray robes, her black hair coiled in a topknot.
“You must be very busy,” I stammered.
“Yes,” she said, smiling as if she were my sister, my friend, before taking off, one leg gracefully folded like an Indian goddess, flying like a dakini into the air.
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Guan Yin at the temple at Millcreek
The December morning of our first day in Tokyo, Lee and I go down to the lobby of the Grand Prince Takanawa hotel, and see the gardens. We sit in the meditation room, and then walk until we spot her. Here in Japan, her name is Kannon.
Sakura Gardens
She is in a miniature temple of white walls with red trimmings, green window shutters and silver-gray shingle roof. The sun reflects off the glass, and to see her I have to shield my eyes and press my face to the glass. This is the eleven-headed Kannon, rare in China but more common in Japan.
After lunch, we head to our room. I use the hot water dispenser and make roasted green tea. At 4 p.m., the gong in the sakura garden sounds—ten chimes—and I am reminded of the words of my spiritual father, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Listen to the sound of the bell. It is the voice of the Buddha, inviting us to go home to ourselves.
The sign says that the bell has been rung once each day since April 1, 2009 at the occasion of our hotel’s 55th anniversary: March through October the bell is rung at 5 pm and from November through February at 4 pm.
4:30 pm and it is already dusk. I go downstairs and climb the stone steps that lead me to Kannon. I see that the shrine is lit up. She is so beautiful. My eyes fill with tears.
When Lee and I return, after dinner with a friend in Ginza, the shrine doors are shut.
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That night as Lee falls asleep, exhausted by jet lag, I sit on the window ledge of our room, 1256. Ornamental carp lie still at the edges of the koi pond—silver, orange, red, white skin jeweled with red and blue, sleeping with eyes open: emblems of compassion. The wooden fish drum, mokugyo, is used during the recitation of sutras.
Ornamental Carp
In this city of the 33-temple Kannon pilgrimage, she is there, hidden, behind red doors.
She Who Hears the Cries of the World
Namo Guan Yin Shih Pusa
Please let me see your temples, Kannon.
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Dear Marcus Aurelius, Love Ranjini
An earlier version of this letter to Marcus Aurelius, Philosopher-King, Emperor of Rome (161 -180 C.E.), author of the Meditations, his Notes to Himself, placed a joint third in the Odes to Aurelius competition hosted by Modern Stoicism and posted on the Modern Stoicism blog, 24 April 2021.
21 November 2020
Dear Marcus,
The Ontario sky darkening outside my window, my Guan Yin lamp turned on, at an online Zen writing retreat*, I read my first letter to you to a group of nine women.
Soon after, Anna, a woman I’ve never met, messages me privately.
My mother died in February—we read her Marcus Aurelius in the days before she died. He was the one she wanted.
Just as you did with your statuary of your beloved Stoic tutor, Junius Rusticus, I do with you.
In this video, listen to Ranjini reading her work.
Bk. 2. 2: At every hour devote yourself in a resolute spirit, as befits an Indian-Canadian and a woman to fulfill the task at hand.
Bk. 5. 1: In the morning, when you find it hard to rouse yourself from your sleep, have these thoughts ready at hand: ‘I am rising to do the work of a human being. Soon I will have a mug, (with Marcus emblazoned on it, or another with the words Amor Fati, Love your Fate, not just accept it, but desire it), steaming with dark-roast coffee.
I ask my students to write their obituaries. Most find the topic unsavory, morbid, even terrifying. I exhort them with the words of Socrates: death the bogeyman. I recite your words: “Submit yourself to Clotho with good grace,” die with a “cheerful heart,” a ripe olive falling, blessing the earth and the tree that bore you.
When my time comes, someone I love will read your words to me and say that you were the one I wanted.
Love and gratitude always,
Ranjini
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The Goddess Temple Café: Joyful Art & Storytelling – Virtual Retreat
With Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer and Ranjini George • October 29 – 31
Treat yourself to a cross-cultural weekend of storytelling, poetry, oracles, music, recipes and goddess stories in The Goddess Temple Café: Joyful Art & Storytelling Virtual Retreat on October 29 – 31. Karla Jackson-Brewer and Ranjini George will lead you through this divine gathering, connecting with the sacred feminine, so that we may be empowered, refreshed, and as bountiful as the great mother herself. Discover her within you, and you within her. … Read more »
These blog posts are republished here with permission from Ranjini George.
