Shikoku – Vocabulary and Commentary Lesson

Hi this is Kristin. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for the conversation Shikoku. So I have the text of
the conversation and let’s begin.

I am first going to describe “Shikoku”, or explain Shikoku. If you don’t know, Shikoku is the name of one
of the Japanese islands, Shikoku, Shikoku trip, as mentioned in the conversation.

“Summarize”, summarize, it’s hard to summarize the whole thing, summarize. Summarize means to give
a short description, summarize. And remember when I’m giving you these explanations, these are
explanations specific to this conversation. So some of these words might have other meanings, but I’m
going to tell the meaning for this particular conversation.

“Ancient pilgrimage route,” ancient pilgrimage route, it’s an ancient pilgrimage route that is over 1,000
years old. So ancient means very old, and pilgrimage is a journey to sacred sites. And route, a route is a
way or a road for travel, so ancient pilgrimage route.

”Disregard”, disregard, in Japan they love to combine religions or disregard religion, as said by AJ. So
disregard means pay no attention to, disregard.

“Shinto”, Shinto, there is a lot of Shinto shrines. Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan, Shinto.

“Gigantic”, gigantic, it was a gigantic island, as AJ was saying. So gigantic means very large, it was a
very large island, gigantic.

“Pilgrims”, pilgrims, traditionally all the pilgrims would wear white, pilgrims. Pilgrims are people who go on
a journey to sacred sites, pilgrims.

“Funeral”, funeral, white is the funeral color. And a funeral is a ceremony for a dead person, funeral.

“Buried”, buried, to be buried traditionally. When you are buried this means someone who has died, their
body is put under the ground, buried.

“Symbolic”, symbolic, it’s kind of symbolic. And symbolic means representative or characteristic of
something, symbolic.

“Highways”, highways, long sections that were on highways. Highways are main roads, highways. They
can be very busy with traffic, a lot of cars.

“Skip”, skip, we decided to skip some of those parts. So what AJ’s saying here is skip means to not do
those parts. They decided to skip those parts. They decided not to do those parts of the walking, skip.

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Shikoku – Vocabulary and Commentary Lesson

“Stretch”, stretch, stretch here means a section or part. So I say “What was your favorite stretch?” What
was your favorite part or section?

“Orchards”, orchards, AJ mentions orange orchards. He mentions seeing orange orchards along his
walk. So an orchard is an area of land where nut or fruit trees grow, orchards.

“Wilderness”, wilderness, wilderness means forests. So AJ mentions wilderness sections. They were
walking through wilderness sections or forest, forested sections where there would be a lot of trees.

“Groves”, groves, a grove is a small forest. So AJ mentions bamboo groves. So that would be in
particular a forest of bamboo, bamboo groves.

“Terrain”, terrain, a terrain is a landscape or an area of land, terrain. It would depend on the terrain,
terrain.

“Camaraderie”, camaraderie, this means a common bond, camaraderie. As AJ says, there is really a
camaraderie. He’s talking about the other pilgrims doing this walk. There was a common bond among
the other pilgrims. There was a camaraderie.

Okay, and AJ mentions “bunch”, a bunch of sites, bunch. Bunch means a lot, a lot of sites, a bunch of
sites.

“Taking in”, taking in the surrounding countryside, taking in. When AJ mentions this he’s talking about
absorbing, taking in, the surrounding countryside. Absorbing it all in.

“Hospitality”, hospitality, there’s just a lot of great hospitality from people. So what hospitality means is
friendliness. He noticed there was a lot of friendliness from the other people doing this walk on Shikoku
and also the people living there on that island, hospitality, friendliness.

“Inspiring”, inspiring, I say “That sounds really inspiring.” So what I’m saying is that sounds really
encouraging, inspiring.

“Pattern break”, AJ mentions that the trip was a pattern break for him, pattern break. So what he’s saying
is that the trip broke him of his day-to-day boring routines, pattern break.

“Habits” and “patterns”, I’m mentioning these two together because here they mean something very
similar. So habits and patterns, AJ says “broke all my old habits and patterns”, so habits and patterns
here means behaviors that are regularly followed, habits and patterns.

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“Flooded with creativity”, flooded with creativity, AJ says “I just found myself just flooded with creativity.”
So he’s saying a lot of creative ideas were coming to him as he was doing this walk. And the idea of
flooded, we take that from when there is a flood. There is a lot of water coming, let’s say like a flood after
a tsunami, for example. So there’s a lot of water coming onto land. And it’s coming at the land all at one
time. So the land is being flooded. So the idea is when we say that we were flooded with ideas, it means
there were a lot of ideas coming at one time, so flooded with creativity.

“Insights”, insights, AJ says “really getting a lot of incredible insights about my life.” So insights, what he’s
saying here is he was getting a lot of understanding or awareness about his life, insights.

“Vision”, clear vision, vision, vision here also means a clear understanding or awareness, vision. You can
see clearly. So in this particular case, AJ could see clearly what it was he was wanting to do with the rest
of his life.

“Mission”, mission, the purpose and mission that I want, AJ says “the purpose and mission that I want,”
mission. Mission here means responsibility.

“Clarity”, clarity, a lot more clarity, clarity means clearness, clarity.

I say “Yeah, I bet.” So when I say I bet, I’m saying yeah, I’m agreeing with AJ, yeah, I think so. Yeah, I
bet.

“Fantastic physical shape”, fantastic physical shape, AJ says this. He says “You end up getting into
fantastic physical shape.” So what he was saying was his body got really fit from all of the walking that he
was doing, fantastic physical shape.

“Top shape”, top, top shape, I got into such top shape. So top means great, great shape.

“Ton of momentum”, ton of momentum, AJ says “It kind of gave me a ton of momentum.” So what he’s
saying here is it gave him a lot of motivation, a ton of momentum, a lot of motivation.

“Longevity”, longevity, AJ says at one point “amazing energy, incredible longevity.” Longevity means long
life, longevity, the ability to live your life for a long time.

“Barring”, barring, barring any accidents, barring. Barring means except for, barring.

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“Health nazi”, AJ describes himself as he’s going to become a health nazi. What he says is, well he says
that very thing, “I’m going to become a health nazi.” So what he’s saying is I’m going to be very
committed and determined to having good health, health nazi.

And AJ says at another point “Well, normal sucks now,” well normal sucks now. Sucks here means the
standard is not very good, sucks, not very good, normal sucks now.

“Crusades”, crusades, that’s one of my new crusades. Crusades are purposes or passions as specific to
this conversation, crusades, purposes or passions.

“Up to the walk”, I say do you think that you were physically up to the walk. So what I was meaning here
was do you think that you were, your body, was prepared for all of the walking, up to the walk.

“Tough”, tough, the first week was tough, AJ says this. He was saying the first week was tough. He’s
saying the first week was very difficult, tough.

“Packrats”, packrats, AJ says “we all become little packrats in modern day life.” Packrats are people who
collect things and maybe a lot of times they’re unnecessary things. But they just collect a lot of things,
packrats.

“Ruthless” and “mercenary”, ruthless and mercenary, AJ says “You become kind of ruthless and
mercenary.” So what he’s saying is, for both of those words, ruthless and mercenary means you become
really strict or disciplined, ruthless, mercenary.

“You cut it down to only the bare essentials”, you cut it down to only the bare essentials. So the first part
of that, you cut it down to only means you get rid of everything except. You cut it down to only, you get
rid of everything except the bare essentials. The “bare essentials” means the things, only the things that
you really need. So you get rid of everything except only those things that you really need. You cut it
down to only the bare essentials.

“Simplicity”, simplicity, AJ says “I like that simplicity.” So simplicity here, what AJ’s talking about is how he
likes not having a lot of material things, simplicity.

“Greater abundance”, greater abundance, AJ says “a feeling of greater abundance.” What he’s saying is
having plenty, greater abundance, having plenty.

“Paradox”, paradox, it’s a paradox but its true. A paradox is a contradiction. So in this particular
conversation, the paradox, the contradiction is that…what AJ’s saying is having less is actually having
more. That’s a paradox. It’s a contradiction. He feels that when you have less you actually have more.

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“Highly”, highly, I highly recommend it. Highly here means very much, I very much recommend it. I
highly recommend it.

*****

Okay, that’s all for the conversation, I’m sorry, for the vocabulary part of the Shikoku conversation. So I’ll
be right back in just a few moments with the commentary. Bye.

*****

Hi, this is Kristin again. Welcome back to the commentary part of the conversation Shikoku. Now I first
wanted to talk about how one of the things that I really liked about AJ and Tomoe’s trip, doing this
pilgrimage, was that there was a, y’know, AJ decided to go do this in Japan and instead of just going to
Japan, visiting as a tourist, there was a deeper purpose to his trip. And I’ve done a good bit of traveling
myself. And I just find that the more traveling I do, the more that I myself feel like there’s something
missing if there’s not a deeper purpose to the trip. And I get kind of tired of visiting temple, going from
temple to temple, and visiting different tourist sites.

I personally like the idea of trying to get in a little bit deeper to parts of the culture in whatever country I’m
in. And that’s exactly what AJ was doing by doing this pilgrimage in Japan. And language is always a
barrier to getting in deeper. He was fortunate enough to be with Tomoe who is Japanese. So she was
able to translate a lot with people that they, other Japanese pilgrims, that they would meet along the way.
And also with the people living there, the Japanese people living on this island who would, as mentioned
in the conversation, would give them food and were very friendly towards them and would ask them
questions about doing the trip, what may be their reasons for. He was able, if they didn’t speak English,
and since he doesn’t speak Japanese, he was able to have Tomoe translate. Which made it a little bit,
y’know, he was able to get a little bit deeper perspective.

But also just, as I mentioned, the fact that he was doing this walk that was done many, many years ago
by Buddhist pilgrims and has been done all these years still. And I really admire also how he walked it.
They both walked it together. Nowadays many people will take buses and go around. And the fact that
he walked it, which made it that much more challenging, was, yeah, pretty, pretty admirable and made me
start thinking, as I mentioned in the conversation, gave me some inspiration and thinking of how I would
like to plan out maybe future trips, for having some sort of deeper purpose, a deeper way to connect with
the people whose culture I would be coming into, and also with the land.

He, he definitely connected with the land. And that was the next thing I was going to talk about. This
walking for 30 to 40 days, I don’t remember how long it took. He was walking through a lot of very

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forested area. So he was very submersed. He was surrounded by nature. That, to me, was what I loved
hearing the most about his trip, actually. Living here in San Francisco, being in a city, I feel cut off from
nature a lot. And I feel that it’s very important and necessary to get out in nature, for many reasons. I
think when we go into nature it allows us to kind of calm our minds and quiet our minds down. And we
naturally become more in sync, or more in rhythm, with the earth’s rhythms.

So in that sense, it’s very good for our mental health. And it’s a way to recharge, like kind of like a
battery, to recharge and then when we come, or, y’know, I’ll say when I come back into San Francisco
then I just feel like so much more full of life, like I have so much more energy because I had a chance to
recharge, being out in nature. Also I find that nature has a lot of things to teach us. For example, I tend
to be someone who is kind of out in space a lot of times. I don’t feel like I’m grounded or rooted. I feel
like I’m just in my head and floating around, and spacey, as we would say.

And so sometimes I’ve, I’ve noticed when I go out into nature I’ll notice a tree. Like actually I’m looking
out this window right now at these trees and there’s wind blowing the trees. And the trees are just very
solid. This is what I’ve learned from trees. They’re very solid. Y’know, the leaves might blow if the wind
is blowing them but they remain very solid. And I just think that’s a good lesson to learn. That if there’s
things that are upsetting us or things that are disturbing to us. For me a lot of times it can be anger that
kind of can blow me off track. If I remember how a tree is, a tree can have lots of wind coming, or all
different kinds of conditions, lots of rain, cold, nothing disturbs the tree. It just remains as the tree, solid in
the ground.

Another good example are mountains. Mountains are the same. They’re, they’re very rugged. They’re,
they’re strong. They don’t let anything, snow, wind, rain, volcanoes, eruptions coming from them, nothing
disturbs them. They’re still there. And so if I can remember these images, that helps me to not let so
many things kind of knock me over mentally, or to bother me would be an easier way to explain that.

So another good, or something else that I’ve learned that I find are good teachers actually, are animals. I
was in the state of Florida, back in, back a couple of months ago. And I was at a wildlife sanctuary. So
this was a place, some land, where there were wild animals in cages. Kind of like a zoo. But these
animals had been brought here because they had been people’s pets or they had been owned by movie
companies and the movie companies…they were used in movies but the movie companies no longer
wanted them. Anyway, these animals, maybe the animals had been injured in some way. For some
reason, these animals could no longer live in nature.

So anyway, I was at this wildlife sanctuary and I was observing. I was watching an iguana. And iguanas
are these big lizards. And like I said, I’m someone who can just be kind of not grounded, just kind of out
here a lot. And I was watching this iguana. And iguanas look really old. They look like little dinosaurs.
So I was watching him. And he just seemed really old and like he was, he had a lot of wisdom. And the

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energy I was feeling from him, because animals, plants, people, we all give off energy. The energy I was
feeling from him was this solid energy, like the trees or like the mountains. He just seemed very rooted,
very solid in the ground. And I realized, wow, what a great teacher to me. That’s another image yet for
me to, to remember if I start feeling like I’m too much in my head or I’m out in the sky, out in space, or I let
something kind of knock me over like anger or frustration.

All three of those, like trees, mountains, the iguana, by remembering the, those images of what they
represented to me, I find it very helpful. So we can connect to these when we go out into nature. And
keep that with us then as we’re, y’know, living day to day, most of us in cities. So yeah, that’s a reason I
think it’s very important for us to go into nature when we can. And so I remember one of my teachers, I
think it was Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan master, said…I was watching this DVD of him and he said
something about…let me think. Let me try to remember. Oh, I know what he said. The best thing about
nature is that it is natural. Nature is natural. And what he meant by that is it just is.

So there are many lessons that we can learn from going out into nature and connecting more with nature.
So I recommend that. Anytime you get a chance, you do that. Whether it be with animals or plants or
trees, water. Water’s another good one. This just came to me. Water, if you watch, if you really observe
or watch water, if it comes to a rock it doesn’t stop. The rock doesn’t stop it. It goes around and it
continues going. There’s a constant flow. So, yeah, if you get a chance go out and just play in nature
and observe these things. Watch these things for yourself. And use them as lessons.

Alright, that’s all for the commentary. See you next time. Bye.

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