Celibacy, Tolerance, Time (2013)

I am Tanzan.In my forty-seventh year I gave my modest home to my wife and set off to lead the wandering life of a monk. The twenty years that have come and gone since are travellers, like me. My home is now a long road that has no end. Along it are the places I have lain my misshapen head, the minutes and days but stone markers along the side of that narrow path. The people I have encountered, the Wonders of Nature and moments bestowed upon me are more precious than the gold and jade of Emperors.I had spent a few weeks in the generous company of the monks of Matsue Castle Town. One of the younger Brothers, Ekido, expressed his wish to join me in my pilgrimage to the Holy Shrine of Ise. It had been my wish for many years to complete this journey of faith to serve our Lord Buddha. A younger companion would ease the loneliness and allow me to share joys and privations which might well last more than the Four Seasons.And so, having prepared a coat of paper, a cotton yukata for summer and a tatami straw cape to keep off some of the rain, we set off on the Twenty-Seventh day of The Tenth Moon, in the Thirty-Second Year of Genroku.We left just before dawn, with the autumn sky as soft and misty as the shores of Lake Shinji in rain. We must have looked a comical pair, both in black robes, with shaved heads; his head smooth, like a mushroom, mine bumpy like a Summer melon left till Winter. He, tall and handsome as a bamboo, I, short and gnarled as a neglected old plum tree. My companion, thirty years my junior, was more heavily laden. He wanted to be prepared for anything that Fate might throw at him. We can never be thus prepared.We divided the mochi and daikon that our farewelling brothers had given us. On his back Ekido had a rather larger pack than mine and extra clothing.It seems to me that I have had many advantages by dedicating my life to God later in life. I was blessed with children and a good wife. I had made a good deal of money to provide for my wife and grown children. A life of celibacy and poverty is not to be entered without much thought.Young Ekido was little more than a youth. He was hard-working and devout, but had little tolerance for others who were not. He had taken vows of celibacy at a time when his body yearned for the flesh of another. Perhaps this fuelled his occasional flashes of anger. There were times he would go off into the forest and I suspect, though it is not for me to judge, spill his seed on the ground.As we headed generally south, the rising sun warmed our left cheeks on that first morning. Yet Ekido was testy. He wanted to put as many ri behind us as possible by nightfall. He became impatient with my old bones. He would surge ahead, angry that I couldn't keep up, then wait, annoyed that I wasn't there yet. He rarely spoke, but his deep sighs and clicking tongue spoke to me loudly. I suppose at his age I too grew frustrated by old men.In the afternoon we passed through The Forest of Giant Bamboo That Talks. This forced my friend to slow his pace. Perhaps he was less experienced at stepping through the roots and choosing the Path of Ease, which is often not a straight line. The weight of extra possessions brought droplets of sweat to his brow, which resembled a paddy-field before planting. His pack was wider than his shoulders and turning sidewards did not help. Twice he misjudged the space the bamboo so that his belongings were a double-burden, causing him to fall heavily.I recited old waka and sang folk songs to cheer him. The poetry failed, but my singing voice was so bad that he began to laugh. Then a breeze sprang up. The leaves over our heads washed like the waves of the Inland Sea and the bamboo trunks hit together, clattering the xylophone music of Nature.Soon we came out of the bamboo to a clearing with a small stream. God had provided. Following the twitterings of small finches, we found berries we could eat with our mochi and bamboo shoots and bountiful water beside which we camped. …