The Shikoku Pilgrimage

"For human beings, vanity is the most intolerable thing: worrying about causing others offense is the most complicated. Existent and non-existent, visible and invisible, audible and inaudible, how joyful is the artlessly pure and independent mind. In such a mind, a most precious and abundant love arises. Life exists within the vastness of the universe. Detached but not detached, I love everything intensely. For me there is not the slightest uneasiness or sorrow. When the sun sets, I sleep: when the dawn breaks, I walk." (Tennant, p. 29)

-Takamure Itsue

Over the last few years our teacher, Ajari Jomyo Tanaka has been working his way through the four sections of the well known, 88 temple Shikoku Pilgrimage. Ajari Tanaka has been traversing each section on foot and trying to visit not only the 88 temples officially part of the pilgrimage but as many of the side temples as his time allows. This past Spring he walked the third section, which spans Ehime Prefecture. This spring he plans to return to Shikoku to complete the pilgrimage by walking the final section through Kagagawa Prefecture. This pilgrimage has been part of Shingon and Japanese spirituality for centuries. The pilgrimage as spiritual practice provides a very interesting compliment to the deep philosophical teachings of Kukai, the elegant complexity of ritual and the vast variety of meditation method which characterizes the Shingon tradition. Walking 900 miles and visiting 88 temples is a very rugged, direct and uncomplicated practice that Ajari Tanaka speaks quite highly of and always recommends.

There are many accounts of the pilgrimage, even in English. The above quote comes from a very interesting account of a young woman's pilgrimage from 1918. Rendered beautifully into English by the translator, this small quote captures a little of the spirit of her journey.

{"The 1918 Shikoku Pilgrimage of Takamure Itsue (Musume Junreiki)", Translated by Susan Tennant, Bowen Publishing, 2010}