Onsen: Part Two, Spiritual Healing

There is so much to say about onsen that just isn't possible to cover in one, or even two, blog posts. As follow up to the introduction I gave in the last post, I would like to talk about the more ephemeral qualities of onsen.

Ironically, once you have experienced the onsen, there isn't anything magical about them: when you step in, all artifice of your daily life, your mundane routines, your petty obligations and feuds, all are steamed away until you are left with the essentials. Onsen are a retreat from the hectic, brow-beating world and a force feeding of actual reality. You are as you are in an onsen, nothing more nor less. Naked and submerged in the elements and boiling to a point between sleep and total lucidity, you are brought down to your basic parts. Gone is the ego, gone is the psychological hurt, erased are the joint aches from lugging the briefcase.

And it is here, at this point, when there is nothing left of "you", that the word ephemeral can be properly used: as you soak in an onsen, the most important things in your life, whether you think they are important or not is irrelevant, surface from the depths of your mind and allow you to consider them at leisure. There havebeen times when I had absolutely nothing to think about as I sat in an open air onsen and gazed at the pine covered mountains. And when I stepped out of the springs, rinsed and dressed, I felt light and free. Truly within the moment and comfortable.

There is a reason cultures with richly integrated values concerning nature and spirituality are also cultures with hot springs. With this hasty generalization is the recognition that among the world's cultures, it is communities with hot springs that seem to be more earthy, more together than others I have experienced in my travels. Even the animals recognize the value of onsen. I once sat in a spring and across the way, I saw monkeys gingerly and shyly enter their side. After a while, we all relaxed and the totally human way they reposed in the springs amused me; when I got over my initial awe, we were able to simply let ourselves be ourselves and heal whatever a man and a monkey needed healing in the springs.

Special thanks to the National Geographic Foundation for permission to use Snow Monkeys for my blog, with permission granted on non-transferable use. You may not copy this image from this blog without express permission from the NGF.