Exceptional experiences of N. Kairis in Japan: more than a thousand kilometers walking, miraculous works surprised in the temple | Lifetime

15 minutes OF LIFE The interlocutor assures that, although it was his loneliest trip, he never felt alone. Although he was trapped indefinitely away from home, he never felt that way, unlike us who stayed at home.

As he himself says, he returned after removing all the daily masks, all the rituals with which we are covered in our daily life, but he returned the tranquility and priceless experiences that show how little a person needs to feel the fullness of life. On the other hand, how much is needed: it took the member himself 10 years to prepare for this trip.

– What is special about this pilgrimage route?

– It is a road of 88 temples of more than 1,000 years around Shikoku Island, founded by one of the most important Buddhist teachers in Japan, Kobo Daishi, who comes from the island. Although the area of ​​the island is smaller than that of Sardinia (Italy), there are mountains in many places, the temples are scattered in very different ways, making it impossible to pass directly.

The essence of this trip is to visit the 88 temples and collect their stamps in a special book. Some pilgrims travel clockwise, others counterclockwise. Counter-clockwise is believed to produce twice the success, but this path is said to be more difficult, with steeper mountains on that side. I walked clockwise, it seemed to me that there would be enough difficulties and challenges anyway. But most of the Japanese I met went in the opposite direction.

– How did the idea of ​​going on a pilgrimage route in general come about and why did you choose this particular path?

– I have a strange tradition of going on one of the pilgrimage routes every five years. This time it was a gift to me for the launch of the book. At the end of September, my novel Beyond the Ocean had just been published, which also develops the theme of the pilgrimage, only in Europe. Also, it was my old dream.

When I went to St. Jacob’s Way in 2010, I met an old Japanese man who gave me a brochure on 88 Temple Ways. Since then, the seed has been sown, it only took 10 years to grow.

– When you left, the world was hit by a coronavirus pandemic. How did it feel to realize that you were trapped in a sense?

– In general, the time needed to travel the path depends on the chosen pace. It can be covered in 3-4 days by car, in 2-3 weeks by bicycle and in 40-55 days on foot. He planned to cross the street in 45 days and already had a return home ticket. Although I was completely disconnected from the outside world, I did not read any news, family and friends began to write anxiously that the world was collapsing.

But at first I kept going at my own pace: it takes me about a week to figure it out. One day you can walk 16 km and that is a lot, because climbing the mountains is incredibly difficult: they are steep enough, it seems like a step towards the country and you can fall into an abyss and the next day you travel 45 km.

But as things in the world began to fall apart, I started to slow down. If there was an opportunity to stay somewhere longer, I would. While traveling, you can stay in temples, special hotels, but there are also a number of free accommodations provided by the locals themselves. It is a very old tradition that, it is true, is already disappearing today, but you can still find those places. I tried to use them as much as possible.

So if I were offered to rest and stay another day, I wouldn’t give up any more. I didn’t need to rest, my body responded surprisingly well to physical challenges, I just didn’t see the point of rushing like this anymore because I started to suspect that my plane would be canceled.

I decided not to rush and open myself to the opportunities that are happening along the way.

I felt that my journey could take an indefinite amount of time, and since I came here anyway due to this pilgrimage, I decided not to rush and open myself to the opportunities that occur along the way. I volunteered at the temple for a week, working on a mountain farm for almost three weeks for food and shelter.

– Who made the biggest impression?

– Overall, this trip was one of the most special of my life. Among other things, it took place in exceptional circumstances where everyone, no matter where they were, felt they were in an area of ​​intense experience. Many name very similar things: ignorance, helplessness when you can’t change a thing, loneliness and fear.

In this case, I am very grateful for the journey and I feel a little privileged, maybe even blessed because I was able to go. A friend of mine from New York wrote that for weeks he saw trucks carrying dead people through the window and that he couldn’t get anywhere alone. He had this luxury: the sun shines, the ocean opens …

People keep asking me how I felt trapped. But I never felt trapped. It seemed that others were trapped.

It should be emphasized that there was no quarantine in Japan, just an emergency, so everything worked, so there were no minor inconveniences at home for not finding a place to eat. But in late April, for the first time in over a thousand years, all the temples closed. At that time he had passed 63 of the 88 temples. If I had gone further, I would not have collected all the stamps and would not have been able to visit the temples. So I decided to take a longer break and wait for them to reopen.

When I resumed my trip, I always slept in a store borrowed by a Frenchman I knew, because it was already uncomfortable asking people: I didn’t want to scare them with my arrival. They don’t know that I’ve been sitting here for two months.

I never felt trapped. It seemed that others were trapped.

On the other hand, this situation allowed me to reflect even more deeply on the concept of pilgrimage. In Latin, a pilgrim means a stranger, a stranger. Paradoxical as it may seem, there would be no more ideal conditions for a pilgrimage, because you never clearly realized that you were a stranger. Especially after following this path, you change and look outside: put on a white vest, put on a hat with the mark of a teacher, take a stick and identify from afar that you are a pilgrim. Incidentally, the Japanese themselves do not call pilgrims on this path pilgrims. They have a special term: henro or ohenro-san.

– What was volunteering like in the temple?

– At first I was curious about anthropology: when in life will you have the opportunity to live in the temple and see how it works? It is true that there is no concept of volunteering in Japan: you still get something while working. They have a specific word for this situation: otetsudai, which means “help at work”.

I was lucky that a Japanese speaking French was volunteering there at the time, and it was helpful because it is difficult to speak English in the temples. She married a Japanese who remained in Europe due to quarantine and he remained in Japan. Such a curious situation.

There is no concept of volunteering in Japan: you still get something while working.

So with him and another Japanese pilgrim who has been a volunteer there for two years, we work in the field. Then I spent seven days. They warned me that the job would be difficult. For me, the work is not terrible, but I did not expect it to be after 12 hours or more and no days off.

The agenda looked like this. You get up at five in the morning, you go to the morning ceremony on the sixth, after that you have breakfast for about 10 minutes, then you wash the toilets in the temple, you order certain rooms and from the eighth you leave. When he returns to the temple, he cleans the toilets, fixes the environment, and does other jobs. On the seventh night you have dinner, sit down a little, talk and go to bed.

One of the most pleasant parts was the night washing, since the temple had a hot spring pool that the Japanese value highly. When other people stayed in the temple for money in the pool, we were allowed to bathe in it.

Although I decided to stay for 7 days, after 4-5 days everything seemed nice. Not for the job itself, I am not afraid of the job. Due to the contradictions found in the temple.

Another objection: Although pilgrims receive vegetarian food, the monks eat the meat.

Buddhism declares compassion and vegetarianism, but there was nothing like it. For example, monks hunt animals: wild boars or raccoon dogs, which are considered pests, for which the municipality pays 100 euros for them. They were locked in small cages and not always killed immediately, keeping them for another 2 or 3 days during which the animal tortured. No one cared about alleviating their suffering.

Another objection: Although pilgrims receive vegetarian food, the monks eat the meat. Seeing all this, you realize that the facade and the interior do not coincide much.

In the heart sutra that you sing every morning, the main idea is that the form is the emptiness and the emptiness is the form. So I wonder how empty his words are and how much they mean something.

– And what jobs did you do in the field?

– Several jobs had to be done in the field, from cutting stones when you can’t think of another job, to weeding, digging ditches, collecting plastic, planting plants, etc. Everyone works there, the chief priest dons his ritual attire only during the morning ceremony and walks all day in overalls as a simple worker.

Work is a value and meaning for life for them. All monks work, there is no way that some are black workers and others do nothing.

The priest, who now directs the monks, came here at an early age and from an abandoned temple without water or electricity, made it a modern and comfortable place. However, the concept of work has now become somewhat distorted as you start working only for the job itself: for example, planting lemon trees because people donate land to the temple and need to do something with it. When the lemons ripen, no one picks them up. And raccoon dogs are hunted because they bite into those fruit trees that no one needs. Such a chain of meaningless actions.

But the last straw for me was when one day there was no clear and concrete work, so we had the task of dragging the stones from one pile to another. I calmed down remembering the saying: time to collect stones and time to throw them, but if you had to collect stones from one pile to another every day, no philosophy would help.

And the opposite impression was on the farm in the mountains, where we planted a mountain with trees: the meaning was felt in every action. Also, there was a very friendly, supportive atmosphere, there was no vertical hierarchy, unlike a temple where nothing happens until the priest says so.

The last straw for me was when there was no clear job one day, so we had the task of dragging the stones from one pile to another.

These common people, husband and wife, at the behest of the shaman, moved to this island, settled in the middle of the mountains, and tried to restore the devastated forest. After all, after the war, Japan was severely devastated and the forests were massively cut down to restore everything. These areas were later planted with industrial pines. Basically it is a dead forest, you will not hear a bird in it, although incredibly beautiful, especially in the fog.

– What impression did the locals make?

– It was my loneliest trip of all. However, I never felt alone. The point of this path is that you are like walking with Kobo Daiši. Even the inscription on the hat means “traveling in two”. But where I met people, there were very nice acquaintances.

The Japanese are very warm and hospitable people, and especially on this island where pilgrims visit. The inhabitants of the island have the following term: osettai, which can be translated as “gift”. In other words, the local people give pilgrims something: it can be from food to accommodation, I have also received money, although I have not asked for alms. On the other hand, and I didn’t need it.

I spent less money than when I was in Vilnius, because generally I didn’t have to pay at night, food there was relatively cheap, lunch was available for 4-5 euros. It’s true, after a while you start to wait osettai at every step, so to keep my conscience healthy, I tried to give something in return. At first I distributed amber, and when they were finished, sweets and others.

To keep my conscience healthy, I tried to give something in return.

But most importantly, even though the virus was in full swing and each stranger might have looked like a potentially contagious disease, I never felt any hostility, or sniffing glances, at anyone who wanted to throw a stone. Yes, there were anecdotal situations when you arrived at a hot spring, one of the greatest pleasures was to immerse your body in warm water after the trip, you only enter the pool and the older people sitting in it get up and come out well. But don’t be mad at them.

99 percent. the Japanese honestly wear masks. For example, on the sixth morning, a man cuts grass all over the field alone, but puts on a mask. This is another extreme, which is why the Japanese authorities have even begun to remind people that masks are not always necessary. When it is 30 degrees hot, a mask can even be dangerous for an older person.

– How did you manage to adapt when you returned?

– Because I needed to isolate myself, adaptation was smooth and gradual – I did not immediately attack socialization. Another thing was that he did not have very high expectations. When he was younger, after a longer trip, he looked like a backhill version. Now I do not have that illusion, I know that daily life dictates its own rhythm, that we must do what must be done. After Japan, it’s true, I was surprised that people didn’t wear masks.

I had to fly home through South Korea to Frankfurt, from there to Riga, and then travel home promising not to go anywhere in Latvia. In Japan and Korea, all requirements are strictly met: temperature is measured, everyone wears masks, keeps their distance. As soon as I left Frankfurt, I felt a return to a liberal Europe, where no one scrupulously watches the rules.

– And what did you bring from this trip?

– A calm state of consciousness. I don’t have high expectations, I just try to do what I have to do, of course, I always wish I had more time. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but today I can name two fundamental things that I tamed. One of them is loneliness, when a person stops feeling alone with himself. The second is the fear of death. It is said that following this pilgrimage you are as if you were on the path of death, preparing for death. But passing it is like being reborn. From that, a pilgrim in a white vest and hat becomes himself again, but essentially a new me.

When I went to bed, an earthquake started. Oddly enough, it was a very pleasant feeling.

Others name a very strong cleaning process. And in fact, already in the middle of the road, I felt myself grumbling with all the daily rituals, even though the first night didn’t seem to be like that. The first night I spent the night at the gates of the sixth temple, I used to store bodies here: a concrete base, zero degrees, and you just came from a comfortable world. Naturally, there is a fear: how I will spend the night here, I will freeze, I will die and the girl will play at that door … Anyway, you will not spend the night, you will leave in the morning, it will rain and you will have more than a thousand kilometers waiting for you.

But after a while, the need for comfort disappears. When I got to the last temple and finished the trail, I set up a tent by the creek completely carved out of the mountains. Across the river, the monkeys were talking to me. When I went to bed, an earthquake started. Oddly enough, it was a very pleasant feeling. You sleep on that floor, you feel it tremble, and it seems to be so. If it had happened the first night of the trip, I probably would have gone crazy. So in the end, very little is needed: it is desirable that it does not rain and that there is some food on the head.

I know that little by little the daily rituals will return and there is nothing terrible about it. On the other hand, I understand why people still want to go back there.