Renewing Yamabushi Training, Vermont Style

We're having a really nice dry and mild early summer here in Vermont.  Inspired by my recent trip to Japan (where I walked for hours every day), I've been getting out and hiking all the smaller mountains and hills nearby.  Mount Philo, Chipman Hill, Silver Lake, Snake Mountain and Buck Mountain are all small hills and mountains that are open for early season hiking.  Together they are a great way to get in hiking shape, to get ready for longer hikes on our bigger mountains later in the season.

Yesterday I was hiking up Buck Mountain and I remembered how Ajari Tanaka during his time here in Vermont used to hike, especially Mount Abraham.  He has described leaving his house in Lincoln on foot, walking the few miles to the trail head and then hiking the west slope of Mount Abraham to its summit.  Afterward he would hike down the southern trail to Lincoln Gap and walk the long road back home.  It was often a day long affair.  He called this his "yamabushi training".

In his youth, Ajari Tanaka spent a lot of time with his grandparents and he credits his grandfather as his first teacher.  Ajari has often said his grandfather was from a yamabushi family and introduced him to shodo, pilgrimage and dharma.  His grandparents maintained a "Fudo Myo-o" house on their property and held goma fire ceremonies there.

Ajari Tanaka invited us on his hikes periodically back in his Vermont days and also brought us to a few local waterfalls to do what he called "taki-gyo", waterfall practice.  This entailed standing or sitting under the cold water of our local rivers and chanting the Fudo Myo-o mantra while holding Fudo Myo-o mudra.  Brrrrr.

These were the practices included in his idea of yamabushi training, our local version of what he had inherited from his grandparents.  Getting out into Vermont's mountains, challenging yourself to hike every step to the summit, and then after that effort, take in the spacious view and the deep green of both wild and rural Vermont.  Then hike back down to our everyday lives with a little something special to bring back home.   Other times, he encouraged us to dunk under the bracing cold water of our local rivers, chant the mantra for as long as we could stand the cold to feel the natural invigoration of the whole experience.

It might sound a little kooky, but it was actually pretty awesome.

So this year I'm back out hiking again.  To be fair I hike every spring, summer and fall in Vermont, but never as much as I used to and certainly not as much as I usually hope.  But this year I am genuinely inspired.  I want to hike a ton and do my yamabushi training right.

So if you ever want to go for a hike and later in the summer when things really warm up, brave a local waterfall, let me know (mandalavermont@gmail.com) because this summer is a yamabushi summer.