Mount Hiei

Mention must be made of the fusion between Buddhism and Shinto.

The Tendai sect, which had its headquarters on Mount Hiei, preached an eclectic doctrine which aimed at becoming the universal religion of Japan.

It combined the cults of native gods with a Buddhism tolerant in dogmas, but magnificent in outward pomp, with a leaning towards the magical practices of Shingon.

The little saint of Yokawa in the play Aoi no Uye is an example of the Tendai ascetic with his use of magical incantations.

The pilgrims of Taniko are yamabushi, mountaineers, to whom reference has been made on page thirty-three.

They called themselves shugenja, portent workers, and claimed to be the knight errands of Buddhism.

But their conduct seems to have differed little from that of the sohei, armed monks, who poured down in hordes from Mount Hiei to terrorize the inhabitants of the surrounding country.

Someone in the Genji Monogatari is said to have collected a crowd of evil-looking yamabushi, desperate stick-at-nothing fellows.

Little by little Heishiro rose in the favor of his superiors, and his learning showed marked progress.

At length he thought he might get on faster if he went to another monastery, and the temple of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei being the largest and most renowned of all places of sacred teaching in Japan, he applied there for admission and was readily admitted.

Twenty years later Joben, for that was the name Heishiro took on entering the priesthood, was known far and near for his erudition and strict application to all observances of a life of the most austere piety.

But he was not satisfied.

Pauses.

i admire his powers of endurance for a long time i went on pilgrimage with him through the deep snows of the mountain roads of the echigo country and there we underwent all sorts of hardships at times we were all but starving and at times we were attacked by robbers in the mountains and when we crossed the dangerous cliffs of oyashirazu and koshirazu he cut his feet on the sharp corners of the rocks and his towed socks were soaked red with blood ryokan for he probably never used straw sandals when he was in kyoto did he jien he always rode in a palanquin a big retinue of disciples accompanied him since the day he incurred the displeasure of the government and was exiled his sufferings have been beyond the power of words to express ryokan you've been with him constantly since that time haven't you i shall follow him till i die when i consider the love i've received from him since then i can't think of leaving him no matter what pain i suffer ryokan you're right pauses the priests of mount hiei and nara are detestable to me why did they bring false charges evilly against such a noble saint and he bore even the disorders of kyoto in those days jien the thought of those times is unbearable his greatest disciples were either beheaded or sent into exile how many who loved each other dearly must have been separated even yet i can't forget the leave-taking of the superior in honen sama ryokan how they must have lamented jien for they loved each other so dearly when the superior went to honen sama's retreat at komatsudani to bid him farewell he found him sitting before a writing-desk repeating the invocation to he lifted up his voice and wept for he knew that in any case far from each other in tosa and echigo they would never meet again and besides honen shonin was an old man nearly eighty ryokan what did honen sama say his eyes fill with tears jien he said shinran don't cry let's part repeating amida's prayer we're sure to meet in the pure land we'll both be beautiful buddhas then namu amida butsu ryokan was that the last they ever saw of each other jien it was the unforgettable sixteenth day of the third month of the first year of shogun twelve o seven when kyoto was just at the height of its glory of blossoms they left on the same day honen sama for tosa and the superior for the north country ryokan what's honen sama doing now i wonder jien he's dead the news came when we were on pilgrimage in the province of the superior fell in the road and wept ryokan then they had truly parted for life hadn't they jien yes wipes his tears with the sleeve of his robe both are silent for a moment daylight is still far off isn't it jien it's only a little past midnight ryokan it's so cold it doesn't seem we'll be able to sleep at all Gien, but if we don't sleep a little, we'll be tired out by tomorrow's journey.

Ryokan, then shall we try to get a wink? Both lie down and close their eyes.

Saemon, groaning.

Simon, your words are different from those of the priests I've heard before.

You talk as if you're a bad man yourself.

shinran i'm convinced i am a bad man it's true i'm all but an irredeemable sinner my heart would curse another child of buddha like myself my flesh would eat another child of buddha like myself if i'm not a bad man what am i jien the master always talks like this okane saemon donna always talks that way too shinran to saemon you've put your mind on a good thing your idea's right saemon then aren't you troubled when i think i become desperate i have a heart that loves good but i can't live without working evil and i can't help thinking of that evil this is fearful i think to myself i feel the unreasonableness of it because there's nothing else for it i sometimes feel like telling myself to go ahead and be bad okane saemon dono says he'll harden himself into a strong man who can bear evil and is going to accustom himself to cruelty deliberately yet he's always blaming his own heart thus goaded by pain he gets desperate and turns to saka he goes on getting rougher and rougher till i'm truly worried saemon for if i absolutely must be bad i hate to think of being insulted by other bad men you see and again i don't want to think of myself good i feel that i want to call myself a villain and go about desolating society pauses honest priest teach me please do paradise and hell really exist shinran i believe they do first of all i feel that there's no reason why there shouldn't be a hell when i've injured the life of another and haven't been able to wipe out that injury i feel like crying out to somebody please flog me please punish me i haven't been able to find any way to make compensation and when i've done something cruel i feel that it can't be left unpunished this is the actual experience of my soul saemon i felt that way a while ago if i should have no opportunity to apologise to you and things should end where they were if you'd gone on your way never to take back your curse i felt that surely the evil i'd done would go solemnly on for ever unextinguished and i always feel this whenever i kill a chicken can such things go unpunished when i think how i struck you i feel like saying please beat me shinran i think there must be a hell and then at the same time i think there must of necessity be a way of escape from that hell i feel that if there isn't this world must be a lie i feel that this existence could not be we're born and this world exists then this world must be a harmonious whole it must be possible for us to be saved somewhere i feel that it must when we repent and confess our sins is there not in our feelings a sense of the existence of paradise somewhere we're all sitting about the fire like this talking intimately those who were fighting before are now mutually forgiving somehow i feel as if i want to cry don't you feel that there must be a paradise somewhere i feel that way too but such feelings are soon upset whenever i run into a new happening my mind immediately changes and in my heart as before hate and anger stand victors and i am filled wholly by a feeling which proves the existence of hell shinran i'm like that too that's the true condition of man's heart the human heart changes according to its stimulations the wise men of old referred to that when they used the words fickle groundlings our hearts are as easily scattered as the leaves of a tree before the wind simon and the organization of this world compels us to sin i tried hard to make a living as a good man but for that i was injured by the men of this world then i knew that i couldn't possibly make a living it was either die or become a beggar but i won't die i love my wife and child and i can't bear to stand before detestable men's gates begging for pity there's no other way for me but to be a bad man but i hate that too my heart always blames me shinran your anguish is the anguish all men must bear only hypocrites are without it men who longing to be good can bear to look honestly into their own hearts verily suffer as you do i consider your anguish noble from the time i took to the priesthood at the age of nine through long tens of years i trained myself on mount hiei and at nara in an effort to make myself good how i suffered trying to cut the curse away from my heart but my hope was not fulfilled i knew that my fate would not allow that in this life i lost hope this is what i believe man can't make himself wholly good he can't leave other lives entirely uninjured he's made that sort of thing simon this is the first time i've ever heard that sort of talk from a priest like you then are all men bad are you too shinran i'm the greatest of sinners the more i meet my destiny the better i understand the depth of my sin to the extent that the appearance of good unrolls itself in my heart my wickedness which i haven't noticed before becomes plain saemon you said there was a hell shinran i believe there is saemon looking serious then won't you have to descend into it shinran if i'm like this i shall i don't think that unreasonable saemon aren't you afraid shinran i am day and night i tremble with that fear all my life i've not doubted the existence of hell when i played with my friends as a child we sang st mokren's mother for her cross heart got the car of fire i was unbearably afraid of that song i've had this horror ever since then how can i escape from hell i've thought in agony it would be all right if i did no evil if i accumulated good i was taught i tried hard to do as i was told then i put myself through religious austerities with pain and hardship i tortured myself sorely at that once in the time of snow i went back and forth in pilgrimage between mount hiei and the rokukudo which is eight and three-quarters miles away every night for a hundred nights in succession but for every merit i accumulated ten evils grew just as it is in the sai no kawara where no matter how many stones the children pile and pile the devils come and knock them down the wickedness twining about in my heart proved to me more and more clearly the existence of hell and i lost all hope of escaping from that evil i decided that in the end i must go to hell i'm terrified as i listen to you i can't doubt the existence of hell a sharp and deep-rooted power in the depths of my soul presses upon me my fate has spoilt me with the thought that there might be no hell me to-day i was asked by my boy whether hell and paradise are true and i said they were lies made-up stories but i lacked assurance i added jokingly that there might be just a hell and laughed but really i felt that there probably is and was strangely uneasy having met and talked to you i've lost all desire to be flippant the deep wisdom of my soul's been summoned and awakened and the fear of hell assaults me okane i somehow feel very uncomfortable at the story of last night's dream saemon as the noise of the tempest passes outside is there no way to escape that hell shinran if it were necessary to become good to reach paradise there would be no hope but even in my wickedness i can by another way get to paradise i believe that way is love it's forgiveness it's the power that makes it possible to go beyond good and bad this world's supported by that power it's deeper than the distinction between good and evil but it also gives birth to good and evil up to this time priests have taught that paradise is to be attained through good actions i no longer believe that if that's so i go to hell but the buddha saves us in our evil he forgives our sins that's the love of buddha i believe in that if i didn't i couldn't live saemon with sparkling eyes though one take life though one whore shinran though one commit the ten sins and the five disobediences ryokan his compassion is uniform g n reliance on a power outside ourselves is the way of salvation opened up by our master saemon sits in silence with a pale and serious face then he begins to speak in a voice strained with a great emotion saemon i have a strange feeling i feel as if i have suddenly heard the voice of a great and mysterious bell it resounded clearly away down into the bottom of my soul i have an intimate and responsive feeling as if that for which i've long waited has finally come i'm full of thanks i'm able to believe in that salvation at once that's why it's not a lie it must be true i've become aware of it it's mine now as if i'd known it before it's wholly mine now i feel thankful and as if i want to cry shinran that's true when i met honen shonin at yoshimizu that salvation entered into me all at once i felt just as you do now it was as if i'd recalled a thing forgotten it was truly a simple thing it seems strange that everybody didn't understand this near at hand and simple fact look at the reality of our souls we love we forgive we pardon others faults then our hearts are most peaceful we do but evil we hate and curse but in the midst of the diverse workings of our soiled hearts we know love and we forgive we all know the thankfulness and tears of those moments the fundamental truth of our salvation is the same simple law that simple thing is resurrected again from the depths of our souls and it becomes faith g n you've tortured yourself sincerely for a long time you've examined your own heart faithfully the steps taken by your heart have been ample preparation for acceptance of faith in the saving grace of another when the necessity arises of that which went before giving place to that which is to follow then it's as easy to make the sure transition as for water to flow to lower levels shinran i believe your faith is firm saemon to-night i'm happy i feel as if the peace that's been absent from my soul for years has now come back his eyes become moist okane really that's true for a long long time now your richness and peace of heart have been gone shinran you said you were trying to accustom yourself to evil didn't you saemon my native spirit's too weak that making it hard for me to get along in the world i thought i must become a worse man okane so he began to hunt to kill chickens and to quarrel with the farmers shinran i sympathize with your feelings but that's unreasonable haven't you thought of the thing called karma though a man work to make himself bad he can't get bad that way and again in the hands of his fate you'll commit the most heinous crimes please don't be unreasonable but follow obediently the true dictates of your heart since your nature's good you can't help it saemon then is it unreasonable to strive to be good shinran if a desire to be good wells in the heart it isn't unreasonable when i say obediently i mean to follow the true inwardness of the soul it's natural for man's soul to be good but obstructed by his accumulated karma he's not able to fulfil the soul's desires we're being punished we can't put off evil redemption means our salvation with the evil in us but i can never lose my desire to become good it's determined that i can never attain that desire on earth by repeating amida's prayer i believe i can satisfy that longing when i leave this world as spirit i mean to carry it with me till i die won't it be impossible to make a living in the world shinran not to make a living is natural it's natural for a good man to be poor if you grow poor naturally since there's nothing else to do please grow poor man's able to live no matter how in the sutras it's written that idaten speeds about through the three worlds gathering food and raiment for the children of buddha and nourishing them osaka sama too went about as a mendicant i also am walking as a pilgrim as you see but i've lived up to this day my son's living somehow too okane have you a son shinran yes i left him in kyoto i parted from him when he was six and haven't seen him since okane oh dear and his mother shinran we parted when i left kyoto and she died when i was in echigo okane and you weren't with her at the hour of death jien for the sake of the law the master incurred the displeasure of the authorities and was exiled when his wife died since he was in disfavor he couldn't go back she was only twenty-six when she died ryokan her name was tamahi and she was a beautiful woman after that his affliction was tremendous anyway for the son of a prince shinran don't speak of that Okane, tearfully, surely you must long to see your son.

Shinran, yes, at times I worry about him.

Mention must be made of the fusion between Buddhism and Shinto.

The Tendai sect, which had its headquarters on Mount Hiei, preached an eclectic doctrine which aimed at becoming the universal religion of Japan.

It combined the cults of native gods with a Buddhism tolerant in dogmas, but magnificent in outward pomp, with a leaning towards the magical practices of Shingon.

The little saint of Yokawa in the play Aoi no Uye is an example of the Tendai ascetic with his use of magical incantations.

The pilgrims of Taniko are yamabushi, mountaineers, to whom reference has been made on page thirty-three.

They called themselves shugenja, portent workers, and claimed to be the knight-errants of Buddhism.

But their conduct seems to have differed little from that of the sohei, armed monks, who poured down in hordes from Mount Hiei to terrorize the inhabitants of the surrounding country.

Someone in the Genji Monogatari is said to have collected a crowd of evil-looking yamabushi, desperate stick-at-nothing fellows.

Yeah.

So the Marathon monks, they're Tendai Buddhists from Mount Hiei, which is northeast of Kyoto.

And it's an ancient Tendai Buddhist practice.

They practice actually going around Mount Thierry.

know.

But so I forget which year it was in the 90s.

I was going around Mount Hiei and there was a point where I came out of a sort of tunnel of canopy of trees.

the path came out onto a flat area, and I was just standing there looking around, and then out came from the same tunnel a marathon monk, because you don't ordinarily see them in the daytime because they run at night.

He was the first Japanese commander to grasp the full tactical implications of the arquebus, the Portuguese firearm that arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century, and to deploy massed volley fire in a way that rendered traditional samurai cavalry charges catastrophically obsolete.

He destroyed the military power of the great Buddhist temple complexes that had functioned as independent political actors for generations, burning Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei to the ground in 1571, killing thousands of monks and civilians, in an act so extreme that it shocked even hardened contemporaries.

He moved, always, with a speed and totality that his opponents could not match because they were still operating according to assumptions he had already discarded.

He was, in the most precise sense, the kind of man the Shinobi clans should have been most careful not to antagonize.

And he's at the, uh, um, Japanese Tendai Buddhist Center, which almost all monks, uh, studied at outside of, uh, Kyoto.

But, um, and, and this was a period in Japanese history when a lot of the monks were questioning the elders and starting to, uh, uh, break down some of the traditional structure at this famous temple on Mount Hiei, and, and, and beginning to leave the temple to start their own movements.

And, and Dogen was one of the people in that category.

And at the age of, uh, 14, they said he challenged the, uh, elderly monks, and he held forth.