Sanjusangendo Temple was hard to miss. It was long and low and painted orange. We paid our fee to get in, then followed the signs through the courtyard to a low building. We took off our shoes in the vestibule. Grant had some trouble figuring out how to make his motorcycle boots fit on the little shoe shelves, but eventually we made it work.
We put on the little slippers provided for tourists and followed the trickle of people into the temple.
I wasn't supposed to take pictures, so you'll have to imagine it: 1001 statues in a low, dark, unheated room. They are staggered so you can see each face. And each is slightly different. Forty-two arms fan out around each one, 21 to a side, delicate hands outstretched and holding the tools of the Buddha.
They are like a forest of Buddhas, standing in a building that was old when Columbus first set foot on the new world. The slippers force you to shuffle across the wooden floor. Incense wafts from somewhere ahead and, in the same breath, chanting.
Eventually, you see a break in the Buddha-trees. It is as though you were walking through a forest of birches and suddenly you came upon an ancient sycamore. The Buddha in the center is twice as tall as the others. It glitters int he darkness. It's hands hold the tools of the Buddha, tools that save humans, tools that save worlds. And at its feet the monks are chanting.
Tears prick your eyes. You catch your breath. It is heavy with incense. The chant goes on and on. Others stop to bow, clap their hands and pray, but you are a Westerner, raised in a Western Church. It is enough for you to stand and stare. to let your awe become a prayer, your breath - praise, your heart beat - chanting.
Then you are moving again, shuffling past another 500 Buddhas. The chant never fades from your ears.
To see pictures of the inside of the temple including the 1001 Buddha's, click Here.
I leave you today with a quote from Shakespeare's As You Like It, "and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
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