When I agreed to become a pilgrim and start the temple walk I also agreed to abide by ten commandments. I had an abundance of time on my hands walking from one temple to the next and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts on the laws that I governed myself by for that month.
The first commandment is, "I will not harm life," (fusesho), the second is "I will not steal," (fuchuto), "I will not commit adultery" (fujain), "I will not tell a lie," (fumogo), "I will not exaggerate," fukigo, "I will not speak abusively," (fuakuku), "I will not equivocate," (furyozetsu), "I will not be greedy," (fukendon), "I will not be hateful," (fushin-ni), and last, "I will not lose sight of the truth," (fujaken). The reason I listed these commandments, and their japanese equivalents, is because I want to open a discussion about what they mean to you and to me.
1. I will not harm life.
I tried hard not to harm life, and even went so far as to help life wherever I could. In the above statement, how does one define life? Are mosquitos alive? I killed a few dozen of them walking around shikoku. Are plants life? Again I broke a few branches and hacked my way through a better part of Kochi prefecture. The lives of the baby bird, kitten, and countless insects I saved may ensure that the mosquitos lives I took cancel each other out, but I don't know. I highly doubt even Kobo Daishi, the omnipotent miracle worker and founder of the temple walk, didn't kill his fair share of insects by accident or on purpose, so I'm going to say I was pretty successful on this one in terms of not harming physical life. This far we have defined the first commandment as, "I will not kill," or, "thou shalt not kill," but harm does not necessarily mean kill. It can also mean harm in an emotional sense. I did not harm anyone emotionally, as far as I know, but I wanted to be clear on the definition of the first commandment for going on to the second. I will not harm life means be kind to everyone and everything, if you cannot be kind then be thoughtful, if you cannot be thoughtful then kill it.
Ill continue later...
2 comments:
Hi Jake;
Hopefully the last part of the last sentence was just you being you. Can't resist the smart ass final comment. There is room between "thoughtful" and "kill it." Today a Buddhist Lama came to UCG and talked about Buddhism and led us thru a short meditation. Makes me wonder what part of your walk really touched your soul. Hope we do have time to talk. No more blogging for 10 days? Love to here from you...Mom
You are a douche, you travel half way around the world to spend a month in bed with a chick in the same town?! Don't they have an IKEA in Tokyo?
Dude, why don't you trek across Bass Drop, Texas, I'm sure some chick in a trailer will be happy to take you in for a month and feed you and sleep with you. Or perhaps you could have just pleasured yourself while watching "Kill Bill" as you waste an opportunity.
Dumb Ass
Love Will (another Dumb Ass)
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