Bumping Into Zen: First Zazen in Japan June 11, Tuesday (2002) Dear ________, Please forward to whomever might be interested. Thanks so much for your reply to my last message. Also, thank you, _______, for yours. Please find attached a couple of photos taken of Daibutsu, the Great Buddha, in Kamakura . I was there on a Sunday not long ago. The site was jammed with tourists, mostly Japanese; many were offering prayers and tossing coins in a tank. I usually try to follow the adage “When in Rome,” but here in Japan I’d look very awkward trying to “pray” to a big statue. (I’m awkward doing most things here in Japan. So…they have their ways, I have mine.) I don’t know what the standard reaction to seeing this bronze colossus is. For me, confronting such a monstrous example of good zazen form made me want to practice more. Maybe that was why it was built in the first place--some time in the 13th century—to make people want to meditate more often and more intently. Kamakura was the first