life on the edge

 

photo: bruce behnke 2023

a dip in the archive ocean

photos: Oahu, Hawaii

© bruce behnke

welcome 2023

 

Welcome 2023

May the year be filled with 

Happiness and Good Health.

photo: Pohai Bay, Oahu, Hawaii

Bruce Behnke 

Bodhi Tree descendant joins my garden

The Bodhi Tree ("tree of awakening") is a large sacred fig tree located in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India.  Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha, is said to have attained enlightenment or Bodhi under it.  In religious images, the Bodhi Tree is recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves, which are usually prominently displayed

In 1913, Anagarika Dharmapala took a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi to Hawaii, where he presented it to his benefactor, Mary Foster, who had funded much Buddhist missionary work. She planted it in the grounds of her house in Honolulu, by the Nuʻuanu stream. On her death, she left her house and its grounds to the people of Honolulu, and it became the Foster Botanical Garden.

A cutting from this tree was raised by a member of the Soto Zen Temple in Aiea, Hawaii.  Today, in celebration of Bodhi Day, this descendant tree joined my garden as a meaningful addition.  

Bodhi Day is generally seen as a religious holiday, much like Christmas in the Christian west, in which special meals are served, especially cookies shaped like hearts (referencing the heart-shaped leaves of the Bodhi) and a meal of kheer, the Buddha's first meal ending his six-year asceticism.

photo: bruce behnke 2022

a walk in the late autumn woods

 

 

photos: bruce behnke 2022

persimmon season

It's persimmon season both in Japan and the U.S.

What to do with so many persimmons all at one time?

At Kenrokuen, turning them into dried fruit is a great idea.

At Yuya Onsen they become decorations.

And some are just too difficult to reach.

...and then winter comes.

photos: bruce behnke

all rights reserved

print: Crow and persimmon in the snow, Tanaka Ryohei (b.1933) - 2008

hidden away?

 

This idyllic scene exists along a stream cutting through hard minerals in a hidden valley in the mountains of Aichi Prefecture, Japan.  

Our world is filled with so much beauty, yet how often do we notice it? 

Celebrate it?  

This beauty is not really hidden away.  

This valley is not really hidden away;

 It's just waiting for you to enjoy it.

photo: 2022 bruce behnke