Kokoro

Some of you will remember the wonderful Japanese wwoofer Ryoko, who stayed here from December 2004 to Summer 2005. She did lots of T'ai Chi with both myself and Mark so you may have met her at workshops or had tea with her in the kitchen... We have always kept in touch (funny it's the three T'ai Chi-practising wwoofers who email and write to me the most) and I hope to visit her in Japan, Chiara in France and Laura in Beijing next year. She is often in my mind and always in my heart as an inspiration. When she arrived, her face was impassive, she had never left Japan and had felt squashed by her office job and parental expectations. She described herself in broken English and by miming as having a 'closed heart'. Over the months, through gentle coaxing, T'ai Chi and her own desire to really engage with life and people she transformed herself. When I said goodbye to her last Summer she would laugh heartilly in public, which was new to her, and was always breaking into a smile. She had a confidence that was not built on maintaining a facade, but seemed to be based on having seen the richness of life which comes from really connecting with it. She knew how impoverished the heart is when it hides in its little cave, whether through one's own fear or by the pressures of a wider culture.

She taught me some Japanese whilst she was here, and she became fluent in English. We often talked about 'heart' and the Japanese term for it (interestingly also the same word for mind or spirit) is kokoro. I was just looking up some Japanese / English dictionaries online and found these words and phrases which caught my attention. I feel a heart connection to Ryoko that is always present, and beyond time or distance.

kokoro - heart, mind, spirit.
kokorogakayou - to understand each other well / to call forth a response in another's heart.
kokoronooku - inner heart.