Takafumi Kawakami is a US-educated Japanese Zen priest based at Shunkoin Zen Buddhist temple.

I’ve been to Kyoto many times. Sometimes, you need to travel thousands of miles just to find peace. Sometimes, the stillness finds you.

Here’s a great talk by Kawakami-San.

“Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, by my spiritual advisor urged me to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was correct. I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next door.”

Steve Jobs