Keishin's Final Blog

It’s coming up to the last days of the 6 months I have spent in Japan.
I left the Keisei centre and parted with the rest of the group early to tie off lose ends in Ichinoseki –the town I had been previously staying in for 5 months. I have had to say goodbye to many an era, but goodbye’s still seem to be one of the hardest things. For me goodbyes are accepting and letting go of the fact that I will never have this same experience ever again. All I can do is keep these beautiful memories and people close to my heart and embrace the next beautiful thing.



We were thrown a surprise goodbye party the night before we left. To me this is a perfect example of their sincerity in welcoming us and seeing us off properly. It was just so beautiful. With singing and dancing and speeches dedicated to each of us. I know that I cry a lot, but in this atmosphere more people than me were moved to tears. So that was the atmosphere we left.
One thing that I was most surprised by with CARP’s witnessing method, is that most people don’t join CARP because of the Truth. They stayed close to CARP for reasons more like; that they felt a deeper sincerity and love, or because of the family atmosphere.
This is why the atmosphere within the CARP house is so important. It is so important that they keep a family atmosphere. It is important that big struggles aren’t created, because they keep a harmonious house not just for themselves, but for their guests, ultimately the world. If you can create a little heavenly world people will be drawn to it. To me, this seems to be one of the most important things.



Being at the Keisei centre was actually very short. Not nearly enough time to absorb and understand everything. However we did do our best to copy their CARP material, we looked at their structure and the little quirks which create their atmosphere.
However, we are also fully aware of the difficulty in taking one thing and just plonking it in another country/culture. So I guess the big question is how to take everything we have learnt and tie it together and bring it back. I think that will take a lot of trial and improvement… and time. However it is so important to make a start and do what we can! Ganbarimashou!!!