THE TEN FOOT SQUARE HUT

"Tea House" photo by S. Auberle

The flow of the river is ceaseless;

and it's water is never the same.

The foam that floats in the pools

now gathering, now vanishing

never lasts long. So it is with man

and all his dwelling places on this earth.

-Kamo No Chomei

The man who wrote this poem lived in Kyoto in a time when the chaos of war, earthquakes, famine, floods and fires engulfed the city. Chomei took the vows of a Buddhist priest and went off to live in a rustic mountain shack. There he spent his days writing poetry, walking in the woods, and contemplating the tragedies and simple pleasures of life. In 1212 he wrote the Hojoki, a moving record of the disasters of his time and of his solitary life in the The Ten Foot Square Hut. The book opens with this poem, Chomei's meditation on the impermanence of life.

- WABI SABI - The Art of Everyday Life

Diane Durston

Some things never change...