Young Samurai_ The Way of the Sword - Chris Bradford [71]
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
Akiko blinked and her eyes came back into focus. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’
Jack studied her a moment longer. She smiled back in response to his concern, but her eyes looked rheumy.
Beside her, Yori was fumbling with the sleeves of his kimono, which hung too long for his tiny frame. He answered Jack’s question instead. ‘Buddhists believe that man suffers from one hundred and eight desires or sins. With each ring of the bell, one of these sins is driven out and the evils of the previous year forgiven.’
What a curious way to be pardoned, thought Jack, having been brought up believing only God and Christ alone had the power to forgive sins. Despite his scepticism, Jack thought he could still hear the bell ringing inside his head.
Then he realized Sensei Yamada was gently striking a large brass bowl while hammering out a hypnotic rhythm upon a wooden block and chanting softly to each student in turn. The bowl sounded as if it was singing, the note going round and round in an undying circle.
When it became their turn to be blessed, Akiko whispered, ‘Follow what I do.’
Jack had considered not participating in the Buddhist ceremony, but he realized that with the growing animosity towards Christians and foreigners he needed to blend in as much as possible. Showing his willingness to accept Japanese beliefs might help him to win favour. Besides, as Sensei Yamada had once said, their religions were ‘all strands of the same rug, only different colours’.
Jack carefully watched Akiko step up to a large urn full of sand, take a stick of incense from a nearby box and light it with a candle. She stuck the incense among the forest of burning sticks, the urn now resembling a huge smoking pincushion. Akiko then bowed twice in the direction of the bronze Buddha, following this with two hand claps and a final bow. Sensei Yamada beckoned Akiko over. She knelt down before him, bowed once more, then offered the monk her orchid as a gift.
Jack suddenly realized he hadn’t brought a gift to offer the Buddha. But before he could do anything about it, it was his turn. Without any other alternative, Jack stepped up to the urn, a large waft of woody incense filling his nostrils, and repeated the ritual that he had seen Akiko perform. He then knelt and bowed awkwardly before Sensei Yamada.
‘I’m sorry, Sensei,’ began Jack, bowing again by way of an apology, ‘but I don’t have anything to give.’
‘Don’t worry, Jack-kun. You’re not yet familiar with all our customs,’ said the old monk, smiling serenely back at him. ‘The most perfect gift to offer is an honest and sincere heart. It is clear to me that is exactly what you’ve just brought to the altar and in return I will bestow my blessings upon you for the year.’
Sensei Yamada began a Buddhist chant that rolled from his lips and flowed warm and hypnotic into Jack’s ears…
‘Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
pour into the rivers and join together in the oceans…’
…the silken words weaved in and out of the chimes of the singing bowl and Jack felt his eyes begin to close…
‘So may the power of every moment of your goodness flow forth to awaken and heal all beings…’
…Jack’s ears thrummed with each beat of the wooden block and he began to drift, his whole being gently vibrating…
‘Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.’
He opened his eyes, his mind calmed and his heart filled with an expansive joy.
His Zen master bowed to indicate the blessing was over. Jack thanked him and got up to depart, when on an impulse he said, ‘Sensei, may I ask you something?’
The old monk nodded. Recalling Sensei Hosokawa’s riddle of the years, Jack continued, ‘I have to master mushin quickly, but I don’t understand how the harder I work at it, the longer it will take.’
‘The answer is to slow down,’ replied Sensei Yamada.
Jack stared at his teacher, mystified by yet another contradiction. ‘But won’t that take even longer?’
Sensei Yamada shook his head. ‘Impatience is a hindrance. As with all things, if you attempt to take short cuts, the final destination