WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:15.100 align:middle line:84% And the last I'm going to read from this collection. 00:00:15.100 --> 00:00:17.920 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:24.690 align:middle line:84% This is Mount-- this is Mount St Helens as it looks now, 1,200 00:00:24.690 --> 00:00:28.143 align:middle line:90% feet lower than it used to be. 00:00:28.143 --> 00:00:30.060 align:middle line:84% You can only climb it from the south side now. 00:00:30.060 --> 00:00:32.700 align:middle line:90% The north side has a little-- 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:37.540 align:middle line:84% not so little-- pool of hot lava going in the middle of it. 00:00:37.540 --> 00:00:43.050 align:middle line:84% This is the way it looked in 1945. 00:00:43.050 --> 00:00:47.010 align:middle line:84% This is a picture that I took of it with my box camera. 00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:50.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:52.800 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:57.230 align:middle line:84% "The Kannon of Asakusa, Senso-ji." 00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:01.520 align:middle line:84% Short grass temple, along the Sumida river. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:02.390 align:middle line:90% This is in Tokyo. 00:01:02.390 --> 00:01:05.540 align:middle line:90% 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:11.330 align:middle line:90% After having a very dismissive-- 00:01:11.330 --> 00:01:13.730 align:middle line:84% youthfully dismissive, arrogant attitude 00:01:13.730 --> 00:01:16.310 align:middle line:90% toward Tokyo for many years-- 00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:19.580 align:middle line:84% living in Kyoto, and thinking that I was a high class 00:01:19.580 --> 00:01:22.580 align:middle line:90% cultured person by comparison-- 00:01:22.580 --> 00:01:24.830 align:middle line:90% I finally took time out to-- 00:01:24.830 --> 00:01:28.190 align:middle line:84% and I had friends I had to go see, its true. 00:01:28.190 --> 00:01:31.340 align:middle line:84% I took time out to actually adapt to Tokyo, and learn 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:32.600 align:middle line:90% what it was about. 00:01:32.600 --> 00:01:37.940 align:middle line:84% And I came to actually love it, in a curious way, 00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:42.110 align:middle line:84% as probably the only mega-metropolis on Earth 00:01:42.110 --> 00:01:44.650 align:middle line:90% that works. 00:01:44.650 --> 00:01:47.170 align:middle line:84% With public transportation going all 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:53.020 align:middle line:84% which directions, above ground and below ground, 00:01:53.020 --> 00:01:58.370 align:middle line:84% multi-level freeways snaking everywhere, 00:01:58.370 --> 00:02:00.470 align:middle line:84% homeless people very neatly organized 00:02:00.470 --> 00:02:06.490 align:middle line:84% with their shoes outside their tents, and people 00:02:06.490 --> 00:02:09.910 align:middle line:84% not running around, actually walking slow. 00:02:09.910 --> 00:02:12.540 align:middle line:84% Slower than they walk in Manhattan. 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:15.440 align:middle line:84% And this is-- I've been watching this for several years now. 00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:20.200 align:middle line:84% I get to Japan about, if not once a year, every other year. 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:22.420 align:middle line:84% There's only one temple in Tokyo that 00:02:22.420 --> 00:02:24.580 align:middle line:90% actually functions anymore. 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:29.260 align:middle line:84% And that's this temple, the Asakusa Temple of Senso-ji. 00:02:29.260 --> 00:02:30.880 align:middle line:90% It's huge. 00:02:30.880 --> 00:02:36.420 align:middle line:84% It is surrounded by bars, restaurants, and brothels, 00:02:36.420 --> 00:02:39.910 align:middle line:84% and little shrines, and other small temples that 00:02:39.910 --> 00:02:40.940 align:middle line:90% are connected to it. 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:42.710 align:middle line:90% It's just a remarkable place. 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:46.090 align:middle line:84% And it is a great pilgrim destination still, 00:02:46.090 --> 00:02:49.810 align:middle line:90% and will doubtless remain so. 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:53.170 align:middle line:84% "At the Buddha-hall of Senso-Ji, hundreds 00:02:53.170 --> 00:02:58.690 align:middle line:84% of worshippers surge up the high stone steps, and into the Hall 00:02:58.690 --> 00:03:01.630 align:middle line:90% dropping coins in a box. 00:03:01.630 --> 00:03:04.130 align:middle line:84% Looking into the the black-and-gold chambers, 00:03:04.130 --> 00:03:10.840 align:middle line:84% somewhere a statue of Kannon, Kuan-yin, Goddess of Mercy, 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:16.600 align:middle line:84% Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattava, peace and compassion for all 00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:21.370 align:middle line:84% in this world-realm this particular time, 00:03:21.370 --> 00:03:24.610 align:middle line:90% old and young people swirl by. 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:28.450 align:middle line:90% Incense in clouds. 00:03:28.450 --> 00:03:33.280 align:middle line:84% We follow the flow out the south side steps, white gravels, 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.370 align:middle line:84% and back down the pilgrim stone walkway that 00:03:36.370 --> 00:03:40.930 align:middle line:84% leads there lined with street shops and stalls, 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:45.640 align:middle line:84% packed with babies in strollers, old folks in wheelchairs, 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:50.020 align:middle line:84% girls in their tanktops back to the gate at the entrance. 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:55.630 align:middle line:84% The Gold Dragon Mountain, Thunder Gate red tree pillars 00:03:55.630 --> 00:03:57.460 align:middle line:90% and sweeping tile eaves-- 00:03:57.460 --> 00:03:59.650 align:middle line:90% back out to the streets-- 00:03:59.650 --> 00:04:05.590 align:middle line:84% traffic, police, taxis, the tempura restaurants of Edo. 00:04:05.590 --> 00:04:09.010 align:middle line:84% Cross to the riverside park space, men 00:04:09.010 --> 00:04:13.270 align:middle line:84% cross-legged on cardboard under the shade tree and step 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:18.160 align:middle line:84% into the long slender riverboat water-bus that 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:22.360 align:middle line:90% runs down the Sumida river. 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:29.410 align:middle line:84% I came here unwitting, the right way, ascending the Sumidagawa, 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:33.010 align:middle line:84% approaching Senso-ji from the sea. 00:04:33.010 --> 00:04:38.380 align:middle line:84% Going under the Thunder Gate, walking the pilgrim path, 00:04:38.380 --> 00:04:43.120 align:middle line:84% climbing the steps to Avalokiteshvara, Bidhisattva 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:45.640 align:middle line:90% of Compassion, asking-- 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:48.355 align:middle line:90% please guide us through samsara. 00:04:48.355 --> 00:04:51.320 align:middle line:90% 00:04:51.320 --> 00:04:59.610 align:middle line:84% 'Form, sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness, 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:05.520 align:middle line:84% are not born, not destroyed, without gain, 00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:09.540 align:middle line:90% without loss no hindrance! 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:11.310 align:middle line:90% Thus no fear.' 00:05:11.310 --> 00:05:14.120 align:middle line:90% 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:22.670 align:middle line:84% For all beings living or not, beings or not, 00:05:22.670 --> 00:05:28.983 align:middle line:90% inside or outside of time," 00:05:28.983 --> 00:05:30.775 align:middle line:84% Those are the teachings of the Bodhisattava 00:05:30.775 --> 00:05:33.195 align:middle line:90% of Avalokiteshvara, actually. 00:05:33.195 --> 00:05:38.560 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] That's how I ended that collection.