A few days earlier, I had been in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy, with my wife on a sightseeing trip. As usual, I felt the deep discomfort that almost always accompanies me when I step outside my comfort zone. Among various monuments and museums, we visited the Museum of Oriental Art (MAO Torino), where I knew several Buddhist objects, statues, and paintings from Asia were displayed. I have always been attracted, since childhood, to Eastern aesthetics, particularly Sino-Japanese, which even influenced my first steps into the Dharma when, in 2008, I set foot in my first Zen temple.
Since then, many years have passed, during which I practiced zazen and vipassana, attended retreats (sometimes fleeing from them), and visited various Dharma ...