I pour green tea in my prettiest tea service. This is how I intend celebrating the last pages of 'The lady and the Monk' by Pico Iyer. Pico Iyer led me to the heart of Kyoto, one of the lovliest of old cities in Japan where he spent the four seasons, reading old poems, wandering round temples and just doing as he pleased...and I followed in his wake, lapping up line after line of beautiful prose, ideas and feelings...with him I tentatively probed the tip of the vast ocean that's Zen. "in order to find ourseves, we've got to learn to stop." How the Japanese secede from time in the genteel art of the Japanese tea ceremony. In "tea", (tea ceremony) said Etsuko softly, we can get a taste of eternity..."tea" gives us a concentration, and helps us empty ourselves out. By concentrating on the ritual, on all forms of details, we can clean our selves out" I read. Somewhere in those pages I learnt to pronounce the word ' piquant' as the English would and then the French...with Pico I went an extra step to find out that Monet's "Soleil Levant" was that haunting impressionist sunrise which I loved from for ever but never put a name on let alone pronounce. I learnt in quietness the art of wrapping a gift and actually went that extra mile to have a friends Birthday gift wrapped so beautifully in order to doubly honour the receiver. I read, " later back home, I peeled back layer after layer of the elegant cloth. Simply opening the temples treasure was an almost sensual experience". In these pages I found the romantic sound of Georges Moustaki,Chopin, Baroque music, Beatles music. Then impressionists, Somerset Maugham, Caucer and Madonna, laid out so temptingly for me to pick up and look deeper into. With Pico Iyre I tried out my first Haiku and bagged a new tattoo...

Thank you for this book...as the gentle Sachiko would say...thank you for giving me dream time....

I pour green tea in my prettiest tea service. This is how I intend celebrating the last pages of 'The lady and the Monk' by Pico Iyer. Pico Iyer led me to the heart of Kyoto, one of the lovliest of old cities in Japan where he spent the four seasons, reading old poems, wandering round temples and just doing as he pleased...and I followed in his wake, lapping up line after line of beautiful prose, ideas and feelings...with him I tentatively probed the tip of the vast ocean that's Zen. "in order to find ourseves, we've got to learn to stop." How the Japanese secede from time in the genteel art of the Japanese tea ceremony. In "tea", (tea ceremony) said Etsuko softly, we can get a taste of eternity..."tea" gives us a concentration, and helps us empty ourselves out. By concentrating on the ritual, on all forms of details, we can clean our selves out" I read. Somewhere in those pages I learnt to pronounce the word ' piquant' as the English would and then the French...with Pico I went an extra step to find out that Monet's "Soleil Levant" was that haunting impressionist sunrise which I loved from for ever but never put a name on let alone pronounce. I learnt in quietness the art of wrapping a gift and actually went that extra mile to have a friends Birthday gift wrapped so beautifully in order to doubly honour the receiver. I read, " later back home, I peeled back layer after layer of the elegant cloth. Simply opening the temples treasure was an almost sensual experience". In these pages I found the romantic sound of Georges Moustaki,Chopin, Baroque music, Beatles music. Then impressionists, Somerset Maugham, Caucer and Madonna, laid out so temptingly for me to pick up and look deeper into. With Pico Iyre I tried out my first Haiku and bagged a new tattoo...

Thank you for this book...as the gentle Sachiko would say...thank you for giving me dream time....