Since 1990, I have learned Body-Psychotherapy and Body Work from many teachers who’re from Europe, the United States of America, and Brazil. As I’d my study progressed, I wanted to integrate the knowledge of Western culture into the one of Eastern culture. Originally I was interested in Zen Buddhism and Japanese Animism. I needed to deepen my own self by Japanese way. Because I had to treat my clients who had Japanese Character Structures.

And I had an experience of Inner Silence, Emptiness, Fullness, Calmness as if a surface of the pond became a mirror when my Hara was opened, softened, filled with energy, and centered in 1994. Since then, I have really felt a deep sense of “Japanese Spirituality” in my body and in the therapy sessions. And I had searched for an environment and Japanese traditional house where we could feel Inner Silence.

In 2009, I bought a Japanese traditional house which was built one hundred ago in the mountainside of Niigata Prefecture. I wanted to feel how the environment influenced our bodies, emotions, thoughts, and energies in a Japanese traditional house. I thought that our ego structures unconsciously received a lot of influence from the environment, especially the structure of houses where we lived. I choose the Joetsu region of Niigata Prefecture in Japan. Because this area is not a tourist resort and remains Satoyama before modernization, especially this mountainside is one of the heaviest snowfall areas in the world. the heavy snow leads us to inner silence naturally. I like to call “Echigo” instead of Joetsu (Echigo is the old name).

Daisetz Suzuki who was Japanese eminent Buddhist scholar wrote the book, “Japanese Spirituality” and he explained two streams of Buddhism which had deepened Japanese Spirituality, one was Zen Buddhism, the other was Pure Land Buddhism this book. He emphasized very much that Japanese Spirituality never could happen in Kyoto and must happen by grounding the essence of the earth. He mentioned that Shinran Shonin who was a Founder of Jodo Shinshu (Pure Land Buddhism)  had deepened Japanese Spirituality by living in Echigo.

I put two extracts from Daisetz Suzuki’s “Japanese Spirituality” on this site.

The Nature of the Earth

Japanese Spirituality and the Earth

And some famous Buddhist monks, Kenshin Uesugi, Hakuin, Ryokan, and Nichiren had lived in Niigata Prefecture.

This is the reason why I choose this region to be embodied Japanese Spirituality.

I have been sure that this region still has remained Japanese Spirituality and I would like to share with people who are interested in this essence.

Notice

Inner Silence Hermitage does not belong to any religious organization.