I was once travelling in an area of high mountains. I was driving an old van, and I went to visit a monastery that was at the head of a remote valley in the mountains. The journey there took longer than I had anticipated and when I finally arrived it was after dark. The monastery was all in darkness, too, and it was clear that the inhabitants had all gone to bed. Rather than disturb them in the night I simply rolled out my bedding and slept in the back of the van.

In the morning I woke up in the cool mountain air feeling very refreshed. I stood outside my van. The mountains were swathed in cloud. You couldn’t see anything. It was all this swirling mist.

I could hear that, not far away, there was a large waterfall and I thought “It’s probably magnificent if you could see it,” but you could see nothing.

And then I looked up… and there was a break in the cloud, and high, high above me, there was the peak of the nearby mountain. It was such a surprise, this light in the darkness, suddenly there, high above me.

It was dawn. The light from the sun, with a slight pinkness, was shining horizontally onto the mountain top. It was magnificent! Radiant! Glorious! I was stopped in my tracks. Such beauty. Amazing!
I can understand why people risk their lives to go and climb up to such glorious places.

In due corse the mist cleared, the whole mountain was visible; the waterfall, too. More glories unfolded. Non quite so glorious, but still magnificent.

The monks woke up and I went and joined them and had a wonderful stay at the monastery.

In the larger Pureland Sutra there is a passage at a point where Dharmakara Bodhisattva meets the Buddha of his time, Lokeśvararāja Buddha, and he exclaims at this point:

Your radiant face, like a mountain peak, catching the first burst of morning light, has awesome and unequalled majesty!

When I read this, I’m always taken back to that day in the mountains when I saw that magnificent mountain top.

In the spiritual life, there is a certain sentiment which is, if you like, the flavour of the transmission; and this flavour is the feeling of awe. Of course, the term “awesome” has been trivialized by common usage and nowadays we talk just about any old thing as being “awesome”. But on the spiritual path one encounters things that truly are awe-inspiring, and one feels an awe that penetrates deep into the heart and becomes the mainstay of one’s spiritual life.

The most awe-inspiring thing is the Buddha, the Tathāgata, and you may see the light of the Buddha reflected in those who live the Buddha’s life. We reflect that light into the world.

Your radiant face, like a mountain peak, catching the first burst of morning light has awesome and unequalled majesty.

 

Namo Amida Bu
Thank you very much

Dharmavidya
David

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