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Tenryu-ji Temple, in the lush Arashiyama district, is one of Japan's most famous and influential Zen temples.

Originally, Tenryuji was the opposite of a monastery: it started as an imperial villa built by Emperor Kameyama, and was intended for the extravagant pastimes of a decadent court. Here Kameyama's grandson, the great Emperor Godaigo, grew up to become the erudite statesman and connoisseur that history remembers.

About 1340, the powerful general, Ashikaga Takauji, worn down by the noisome and continual attacks of the warrior monks of Mount Hiei and Nara, sought to exploit the rising influence of Zen and establish Tenryuji as the headquarters for what he hoped would be a network of compliant Zen temples.

The warrior monks were not having it. In fact, it was only through the brilliant diplomacy of Ashikaga that the warrior monks abandoned their designs to disrupt the inauguration ceremonies of the new temple, and returned to their pastoral retreats.
From that time on, even though Ashikaga's dream of a Zen network never materialized, Tenryuji served as one of the eight chief temples of the Rinzai Sect of Zen Buddhism, and has continued to baffle the intellect and feed the soul ever since.

Most foreigners know Zen through Thomas Merton's writings, or through the enormously popular Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Abroad, Zen is renown for its spiritual practicality, its wit, and, well, the axle grease on your hands. So what to do when confronted wi...