This coming weekend my “Highland Views” column highlights the fascinating Ise Jingu temple in Japan.  Built with wooden dowels instead of nails, and rebuilt every 20 years, this ancient site is considered the “Soul of Japan.”

“Listening to an episode of the BBC podcast “Heart and Soul” was like a meditation itself.We enter the ancient Ise Jingu temple in Japan whose 125 shrines are hidden deep in a forest.A stream flows through the grounds of what some call the “soul of Japan.”We learn the amazing history of the sanctuary, that the buildings are dismantled and rebuilt over and over, century after century.Even carpenters are considered priests as they perpetually perform this sacred cycle of deconstruction and reconstruction.Though trees are removed, others are planted.In their devotion, each person participates in this endless cycle of renewal.”

Mirrors of Reflection inspired by Japan’s Ise Jingu Temple