Coffee and Kukai

My friend Nori came to visit me yesterday from Tokyo. The night before I could barley sleep because my body was hurting so much (all my muscles, particularly my back, aching) and when I woke up to meet him at the bus stop I could barely walk I was in so much pain. So, I did some research on the internet and found that quitting caffeine cold turkey can cause all sorts of horrible withdrawal symptoms such as body aching and vomiting and headaches, and its better to reduce your amount slowly. So, with that in mind, I went to mister donut (called misudo in Japanese) and had two cups of coffee and, I'm not kidding, in about one hour my body was back to normal. Scary. I will drink one cup of green tea today at the temple after meditation, and then Nori, Dennis and I are off to visit Zentsuji, birthplace and home temple of Kukai. (Kukai is primarily credited for establishing the escoteric teachings of the Buddha in Japan. His sect, called Shingon, is the one that most resembles Tibetan Buddhism, with visualizations of deities and elaborate mandalas and chanting sacred sanscrit sylables and making mudras or hand signs, etc . I will write more about it later.