連翹奏/RenGyoSoh - Blog

Vol. 99 Connection between words & body-mind experience

12/1/2023

Our bodies-minds
Have been receiving words
Since our births;
Or even before our births.

Family, culture, community, society,
Ancestor, history, memory,
Imaginations, fantasy and
metaphysical world...

Words are in us.

The moment when
Those words are coming out from the body,

The moment when
The words express
How our body-mind experiences;

Those Moments...
Shake my soul.

I fall in love with such a moment.

Yokko

Vol. 98 A mission of a soul: Dharma

10/27/2023

What I am supposed to do on earth in my life time? Such question I have been asking time to time since I was dying myself at the age of 19. I did survived the time, but it made me live with the illness. There were several moments I had to ask the question to the universe such as the moment when I was defeated, challenged and limited. I got lost, and asked the reason for my existence on earth. I believe that every souls have a mission. Some could be a parent, and some would be a scientist, a leader, and a public service --- what is my dharma? This on going dialogue with the universe is getting clearer- yet not solid. But every day morning meditation and prayer have been helping me to live simply and serve people I work with, and opportunities I have received. I do not know the clear answer for my dharma, but I do know I want to do my best to live every moment. I guide people age group 17-84 years old. And I perform to tell a story in front of audience. I may have had not be able to be a parent, but maybe this is my spritual mission in this life time. Every morning, I face the question of Dharma, and surrender to the Universe. I decide to live fully till the moment comes. - Yokko

vol. 97 "Power of Water"

9/28/2023

Water flows,
Falls down,
Be moved by winds;
cannot stop moving:
pliable, tranquil and phlegmatic

a pond, a lake, a river, a waterfall;
quick and slow and wide and narrow;
down and down into...

Ocean...
The expansive water

It evaporates into the sky
Foaming the clouds,
Transforming into raindrops,
mist, haze and fog;
mysterious, unformed, and subtle...

Till the moment comes...

The crying sky is now mourning,
The growling waterfalls;
Coming from the deep inside of the cave.
Wind and Earth undulate water
To let them roar and howl
to swallow the land.

Haku-Ryu, the deity of Water
Appears its presence.

When the moment passes,
Back to the gentle face;
shinning;
The reflection of the light
On the surface of the water

As if nothing happened,
Yet; we knew it happened.

Un-limited
The power of Water

Aug. 31, 2023
Yokko

Vol. 96 "An Action of Affection vol.2"

8/29/2023

Listening…

...

Listening…

...

I feel...

The sound
Of a life

A life of the tree
Is being born;

Shedding the skin
To let them go

I reach

To a light…

A light;
Possibility, Hope and...

…love

The love…

The light…

Falling onto
The earth;

Showering on
My soil

Being wrapped;
An Action of Affection

This is my sacred ceremony

To be ready
To the unknown future

Graphic Design by Saki Kawamura
Installation by Dann Disciglio
Original Photos/VIDs by Chris Ignacio

June 16, 2023 (edited June 20)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Yokko

Vol. 95 "An Action of Affection vol.1"

7/30/2023

A stream of light
Invited me
To touch
Be touched
A light of a life
A life of a tree

Touch
Be touched by the tree
The light
An action of affection

June, 16, 2023
Santa Fe, NM, Yokko

Vol. 94 Art of Seeing

7/2/2023

"The Action of seeing is affection."
- Tatusmi Hijikata

I have been reading a book by one of my Butoh Teachers, Seisaku san who is the last pupil of Tatsumi Hijikata sensei. He talks about "whole body seeing". And it resonated me.

"listening like seeing, seeing like smelling, running like blind"
- Tatsumi Hijikata

We normally use our eyes to see things, ears to listen things, nose to smell things, tongue to taste things, skin to sense of touch, temperature, light....

is it?

why not see through a different body parts?
When we really want to see things, we use our whole body.

"Are really your mouth, ears, and nose are in the right places?
Why not change the places?"- Tasumi Hijikata

(From a book "Butoh Fanatic" by Seisaku 2022)

Vol. 93 Megan Cattau (Guest #2)

5/31/2023

walking with the river

the waters does my thinking

-Bob Boldman

I live in the western US near a large river. It's dam-fed, and sometimes quiet and impossibly still, other times fast and incredibly powerful. Hours-long walks along the river have kept me (mostly) sane during drastic life changes, including now as I anticipate the birth of my second child any moment.
When there is a disturbance around me, the waters make it possible to withstand. This is true whether the disturbance is a joyful rearrangement or a devastating disruption, and whether it happens on an individual-, family-, community-, or societal-level. The waters don't clear my mind so that it is empty; they set my mind in a direction and they reconnect the waters inside my very body with forces much larger than any disturbance could be.
We will be opening the UNFIX NYC 2023 Film Festival this weekend. I hope that the film work in the festival sensitizes you to the power of the ecological world around us. May we all find our waters!

Written by Megan Cattau 

photo by Martha Wirth

VOL. 92 SAKI KAWAMURA (guest #1)

4/30/2023

“There is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
a space
and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times
we will know it
we will know it
more than
ever
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
and
we will wait
and
wait
in that space”
No Help for That

by Charles Bukowski

I was hustling so much for the last 4 years. I was also struggling with having a balance in me. There were so many mornings that I couldn’t get up from the bed, and so many night that I wasn’t able to sleep until 4am because I was so scared. I recently moved to another apartment. It feels it’s an end of an era because I experienced so many things when living here. I have grown so much. I’ve never felt so sad when I moved. But I am also so excited for my fresh new start. I am ready to start my new chapter, and fully embrace all the opportunities to learn and grow.

Written by Saki Kawamura, Interdisciplinary Artist
Associate Artistic Director
Ren Gyo Soh

VOL. 91 peace

4/2/2023

When you produce

peace and happiness

in yourself, you begin

to realize peace

for the whole world.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

I have been thinking of living, breathing and dying lately.
Why I am in this world, and why I am alive. Maybe because my loved one passed away a month ago, and I have been lost.I have been chaos for along time.

The other day, I had an opportunity to dance in public. I was asked to embody chaos itself. When I do such performance, I not only meet chaos in me, but I meet chaos in spectators. We meet and have some chemistry and evolve something else in a moment. I felt chaos in the whole world. That could be one reality. But now, I am interested in finding peace and happiness in me and outside me- which maybe gives me a guide or path to my healing- maybe this is the next stage of grieving process. - Yokko

Vol. 90 Challenge

3/1/2023

Life sometimes challenges us on many levels.
pushes us down, pulls us down, shrinks us
and breaks us to small pieces.
How we stay present ourselves in such situations?

I would say,
breathing moment by moment,

those challenges ask us
what we really want?

Do we give up here?

no, I do not.
I will get up, pull myself together
and walk again
with my passion.