How I arrived in Echigo

Born in 1961 and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. After finishing primary scholing I was bitten by the travel bug and traveled Eastward. After several years of bumming around India, Nepal, Tibet, Hong-Kong, China, Thailand and Japan I was caught by the Teaching that was to change my life: Buddhism. It was not until my return to Antwerp however - after a jolt of homesickness - that I came to meet my Teacher and dharmafriend Shitoku A. Peel, the resident priest of a small Jodo-shinshu temple in Antwerp called Jikoji - Temple of the Light of Compassion. It was here, and under his tutelage, that I encountered the profound teachings of Shinran - the Path of Tariki Nembutsu. On Shitoku's advise I resumed my studies at the Faculty for Comparative Study of Religions where I graduated 5 years later. The day of my graduation, Oct. 6th 1994, was also the day I entered the Priest Training Program of the Jodo-shinshu Hongwanji-ha in Kyoto. After ordination I returned to Antwerp and Jikoji, where I was installed as Shitoku's assistent priest and heir apparent. In 1997, however, love intervened when the woman I was to call my wife for the next 12 years stepped into my life. Diane was from Alaska and since "le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point" that is where I followed. Together we started a family and founded the White Lotus Center for Shin Buddhism - Myoko-in in Anchorage. In 2009 at the end of winter, the family dream ended and I find myself back in Antwerp...except now I call it Echigo.