Peaks and blessings
Raindrops leap off my umbrella like ninjas, soaking my shoes but I couldn’t care less. I’ve made it to Mt Koya – a 900-metre high plateau surrounded by eight peaks, said to represent the eight petals of a flowering lotus.
It was this reason that Japan’s founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kobo Daishi Kukai, selected this place in 816 as a sacred centre – the core of a mandala with its eight deities arrayed on the eight petals of a lotus around Buddha.
Today, Mt Koya (Koyasan) remains the heart of Buddhist teaching and practice in Japan, and visitors like us can even stay in a Buddhist monastery.
Standing in a forest of cedar and umbrella pine, it’s the first day of rain that we’ve had on our tour so far but it’s actually perfect. Chanting monks hum undeterred by claps of thunder as the storm rages above us, making everything seem more connected and alive despite the fact I’m standing in front a mausoleum. It’s Kukai’s mausoleum, however, where he’s said to have entered eternal meditation and believed to be alive here today at Okunoin, giving aid to all beings.
Okunoin is the
