Serpent
09-25-2003, 10:15 PM
From: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/19/1063625225647.html
Buddhist marathon monk completes seven-year run
September 20, 2003
A Buddhist priest dubbed the marathon monk has completed a seven-year ancient running ritual in the remote Japanese mountains.
The run in the Hiei mountains, a range of five peaks that rise above the ancient capital of Kyot, covered a distance equivalent to a trip round the globe, said an official at Enryakuji Hoshuin, guardian temple of the gruelling tradition..
The 44-year-old monk, Genshin Fujinami, returned on Thursday from his 1,000-day, 40,000-kilometre spiritual journey.
Dressed in his handmade sandals and flowing white robe with a straw raincoat draped over his head, Fujinami was greeted at the end of his journey by a crowd of worshippers, who knelt to receive his blessings, said the official, who declined to give his name.
"I entrusted everything to god. I am satisfied," Fujinami was quoted as saying in a newspaper report.
Since 1885, only 46 other so-called "marathon monks" of the Tendai sect have lived through the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.
A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, the monks, known as gyoja, who can't continue to the end must take their own lives either by hanging or disembowelment.
A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey's first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along a 30-kilometre trail around Mount Hiei - stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food.
In the next two years, he has to extend his runs to 200 days.
In the winter, the pilgrim runner takes a break and spends the days doing temple chores.
His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called "doiri," or "entering the temple."
In the sixth year, he walks 60 kilometres - slightly longer than a marathon race - every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 84 kilometres for 100 days and then 30 kilometres for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 374 kilometres south-west of Tokyo.
AP
Buddhist marathon monk completes seven-year run
September 20, 2003
A Buddhist priest dubbed the marathon monk has completed a seven-year ancient running ritual in the remote Japanese mountains.
The run in the Hiei mountains, a range of five peaks that rise above the ancient capital of Kyot, covered a distance equivalent to a trip round the globe, said an official at Enryakuji Hoshuin, guardian temple of the gruelling tradition..
The 44-year-old monk, Genshin Fujinami, returned on Thursday from his 1,000-day, 40,000-kilometre spiritual journey.
Dressed in his handmade sandals and flowing white robe with a straw raincoat draped over his head, Fujinami was greeted at the end of his journey by a crowd of worshippers, who knelt to receive his blessings, said the official, who declined to give his name.
"I entrusted everything to god. I am satisfied," Fujinami was quoted as saying in a newspaper report.
Since 1885, only 46 other so-called "marathon monks" of the Tendai sect have lived through the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.
A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, the monks, known as gyoja, who can't continue to the end must take their own lives either by hanging or disembowelment.
A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey's first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along a 30-kilometre trail around Mount Hiei - stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food.
In the next two years, he has to extend his runs to 200 days.
In the winter, the pilgrim runner takes a break and spends the days doing temple chores.
His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called "doiri," or "entering the temple."
In the sixth year, he walks 60 kilometres - slightly longer than a marathon race - every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 84 kilometres for 100 days and then 30 kilometres for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 374 kilometres south-west of Tokyo.
AP