I go back to Natsukashi again and again. For me the group is simply a celebration of Mystery. I don’t know what will happen; I don’t know what breakthroughs will occur (and they do.) Each time is very different from every other time. In the simplicity of the process, I go on coming home to myself again, again, again – in, somehow, a vertical way – as if I arrive at myself here, and again here, and again here.
I come because I love Kohrogi-sensei, whom I’ve known since the mid-90’s; I come because in the room with him, love is; I come because of poetry – a thing that arrives by itself sometimes without my asking or interfering. I come because I enjoy the interactions with people, always in some beautiful location, where we can sit outside and enjoy good food. I come because whatever is cooking with me is going to find a way to show itself and clarify itself – sometimes with tears or laughter.
I don’t know what the Original Face is, but allowing the question to be there, without exactly bothering the question – is enough; the whole room is open to the question, to whatever grace wants to show itself to our hearts, to our light. Whatever light wants to meet us.
I go because it feels like family – a family of the heart, and of an endless possibility. And yet, in this family I get to be totally myself. Otherwise I would not go!
Kohrogi-sensei is unconditional, egalitarian, surprising, friendly, magical, and so alive his face dances with the most amazing variety of expressions. His voice is deep and beautiful, his humour alight – and so I return to Natsukashi, again, again.