Two Days Longer by Beth Lueders

Author:Beth Lueders
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Publishing
Published: 2006-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Breathe Deep

Your Patient God

Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.

Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon

Chanting mantras while sitting for nine days without water, food, or sleep pushes Genshin Fujinami to the edge of collapse. Yet this doiri, or “entering the temple,” trial is only a small part of the regimen the Buddhist priest undertakes for seven years while pursuing the “path to enlightenment.” The ritual, which dates back to the eighth century, requires the devoted to complete a grueling spiritual journey while climbing alone the five peaks of the Hiei Mountains above the ancient capital of Kyoto, Japan.

Numerous “marathon monks” of the Tendai sect have attempted this quest. Since 1885 only forty-six have returned alive. According to tradition, any monk, or gyoja, who cannot endure to the finish must kill himself by hanging or disemboweling.

Genshin vows not to let this be his fate. Wearing a handmade white robe and flimsy straw sandals, Genshin leaves the Enryakuji Hoshuin Temple, southwest of Tokyo, Japan, in 1996. He plods mile after mile along the arduous course and faces numerous iron-man challenges along the way. During each of the first three years, the determined monk rises at midnight for one hundred consecutive days to run along an eighteen-mile trail around Mount Hiei—stopping to pray 250 times. His only companions: candles, a prayer book, and a sack of vegetarian food.

In each of the next two years, Genshin makes these difficult runs on two hundred days straight. In the winters he takes a break to do temple chores. In the fifth year he also faces the nine days of chanting and fasting. The next year he walks 37.5 miles every day for one hundred days.

In the seventh year Genshin hikes 52.5 miles for one hundred days and then eighteen miles for another hundred days before returning to his home temple. When the forty-four-year-old monk completes his trek in September 2003, he has covered 24,800 miles, a distance almost equivalent to a trip around the globe—every step in thin straw sandals. 1

Can you imagine taking on this herculean challenge? Can you imagine enduring all those miles without your favorite hiking boots or walking shoes? My feet ache just thinking about this marathon monk’s feat. I’ve climbed four of Colorado’s fourteen-thousand-foot mountains, all in back-to-back Saturdays, but I had appropriate gear and fun snacks. Even though I don’t endorse Genshin’s religion, he’s still a noble model of endurance and patience to me.

I’m nowhere close to having Genshin’s patience. I used to consider myself a fairly patient person until I started working on this chapter. Even now, as I type, I’m getting a bit antsy. Last week I learned that I have a separated shoulder with partially torn ligaments, an inflamed tendon, and bone spurs. I’m now wearing a contraption that looks like a straitjacket with arm slots. What fun!

What’s even more delightful is when my physical therapist tries to move my arm and shoulder to increase my range of motion.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.