The Last Samurai
Day 43 – 15:35 – Temple 87
The essence of zen is an acceptance of the transience of existence. The impermanence of everything, the fact that everything comes to an end, including a 1,200 km pilgrimage. That each moment exists in isolation from the past and distinct from the future. Nowhere can this feeling have been more intense than in the life of a samurai, where honor and duty may call for him to end his life at any moment.
This sentiment is also prevalent in the art of tea ceremony which the samurai loved. The coming together of guests and the tea master at a certain time of their lives, at a point in the changing of the seasons will only happen once and this singularity needs to be celebrated with great reverence. Thus the phrase 一期一会 which means a once in a lifetime encounter. I have heard this a number of times whilst walking around Shikoku. Everything you do. Everyone you meet. Everywhere you walk. Every moment is unique … so, time for a cup of green tea to celebrate another day on the road.
“Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, “form is emptiness.” That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, “Emptiness is form.” One should not think that these are two separate things …
When one has made a decision to kill a person, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about doing it in a long, roundabout way. One’s heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success. The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong …”
– from the Hagukare (Hidden by the Leaves) an eighteenth century Samurai code of ethics.
