Saint of Mt. Koya
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24

"Around noon the following day I found myself beside a waterfall near the village. There I met again the old man who had gone off yesterday to sell the horse. At the time I was planning to give up my pilgrimage in the performance of religious austerities and return to that lonely house deep in the mountains where I would spend the rest of my life living with the woman there.

"To tell the truth, this single idea had dominated my thoughts ever since I had departed from that house. Fortunately I had encountered no snakes across my path that morning nor any forests of blood-sucking leeches, but the road had been hard going and I was sweating heavily and did not feel comfortable. This led me to question whether my pilgrimage was really worth the effort. What would it avail me to live the life of a holy man, even to someday wear the purple robe of the highest clergy and to live in an abbot's fine quarters? Even if I were to become a living Buddha and people thronged around to worship me, I knew in my heart I was a sinner and that I had experienced the same lusts as ordinary men.


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Intangible