The "non-station" of the Japanese railways

Found on a page of esotericism and spirituality usually full of narcissistic trifles and pedantry that lead nowhere. But this was different. Is called Seiryu Miharashi Eki and it is a no-entry, no-exit Japanese station.

No ticket office, no shops, no bars.

The train stops in the middle of nowhere.

You get off, but you can't go anywhere, and to leave you have to wait for the next convoy.

There is nothing to do: no town, no tourist attractions nearby.

So, what is it about?

About a joke?

Absolutely not, the Japanese have an ancient and "serious" culture.

It is a "memento", a signal of "discontinuity", to remind those who use the railway route of the importance of "stopping", carving out time, thinking, reflecting, making peace with the world.

A "stop" to the daily mechanical nature.”

The Japan it is not a perfect place where one lives happily and wisely. It is also the place of Hikikomori, of the childhood suicides of managers who get drunk to the point of paralysis after work.

But I think I can say that the Japanese have understood this: that it is not enough to form a thought if you do not translate it into an action in the physical world that contains and manifests it.

Just as Tea requires a Cup, the decision to create a meditation space of any kind in the "chain gang" of everyday work and study cannot remain in the mind to be effective, but must translate into the concrete gesture of getting off the train and remain still and contemplate being until we are consciously ready to get back on the train of time.

Shalom