The Sleeping Amitabha

In a ten-tatami mat room of a detached house, the head priest was quietly sleeping under the watchful eyes of the statue of Amitabha Tathagata. He was said to be three years younger than Dr. Tokuhon, but in appearance he looked ten years older. His wrinkled face had a slight sheen to it.

It must have been the effect of the Jūzen-daiho-tō (a Chinese classic herbal formula also known as Kampo #48) that my sensei prescribed last night. Still, his complexion was as black as dirt. His legs were so thin that I thought they were made of sticks, but they remained straight and motionless. Only his chest was moving slightly up and down as he breathed.

The doctor approached the head priest gently so as not to wake him up, and put his hand on his lower abdomen to check for tension. Eventually, he turned to me and said in a whisper, "Nisuke, examine him like this."

I did so. The area below his navel was bulging, but when I pressed on it, it depressed without any resistance. That was a sign that the kidneys were very deficient in ki.

"Can you feel the lack of strength?" the doctor asked me.

"Yes, I can."

"Let's leave him to sleep. It'd be better for him."

"Sure."

According to the doctor, sometimes a good sleep is better than any medicine.

As I looked at the patient's sleeping face, I was suddenly reminded of my father's. I wondered how he was doing; I hoped my mother was fine, too. I wanted to go home once I finished that trip. I wanted to see my big brother for the first time in a long while.　

While I was thinking about my family with my eyes full of memories, my sensei was looking at my face. As if he could see into my mind, he asked me, "Are your parents well?"

"Yes… probably."

"Wouldn't you like to go back home for a while?"

"I would love to, but are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you so much, sensei!"

I unintentionally said it so loudly that I panicked that I might have woken the high priest; however, the latter was in a deep sleep and as quiet as ever.

We went back to the guest room and took a break. The little monk from earlier came to ask us if we needed anything, so we asked him for some tea. We waited for it to be served while looking out over the garden.

About half of the trees in the garden were neatly trimmed, but the other half were overgrown with branches and leaves.

Yesterday, I saw the young priest wiping sweat from his brow as he pruned the trees, but I supposed that the amount of work was too much to be finished in one day. I didn't care much about the unpruned sector of the garden because it was not a bad view if you focused on how rich in wildness it was.

I grew to like the temple a lot more than I thought I would. The air wass fresh and clean; it calmed me down and cleared my head. I commented, "It's so quiet here."

"Indeed, but hardly any temple is noisy."

"You're right."

Having said that, I started to hear noisy sounds.

I wondered if it was the neighing of a horse or a man's angry voice. The physician shrugged his shoulders and said, "A samurai."

"So it seems," I replied.

When the little monk brought our tea, I asked him what was going on. He told us that about ten samurais had arrived to the temple and asked for the priest, to which a monk responded that he was asleep. The samurais got worked up and said, "Go wake him up immediately!" But the little monk replied, "It's impossible. I can't." That made them even angrier, "What do you mean you can't? We have no time to waste!"

"We've called a chief priest now, so I think it'll be settled soon," said the little monk as he put down the tea tray and hurriedly left."

The doctor made an unpleasant face and complained, "It's a shame that samurai are so quick to anger. It's because they drink so much that they all have bad livers."

"You're right. That's why heavy drinkers shout at each other."

"They should drink tea, instead!" cried out Dr. Tokuhon. He also seemed to be furious as well. Was he having a bad liver? Then, he calmed down and said, "It tastes very good!"

I drank it too; it was bitter and sweet. According to the teachings, the bitter taste goes into the heart and the sweet taste goes into the spleen. I tried to imagine the components of the tea going into each organ. But I couldn't picture it well, so I gave up and started thinking about something else.

I wondered what purposes the samurai had in mind. Were the Oda forces finally going to attack the Takeda ones?

Would Takeda's forces stay in Takato Castle? I hoped we would leave before that happened. The doctor seemed to be thinking about the same thing, "I guess it's time to leave this place, it's starting to get a bit too… noisy."

"I think so too."

"Unfortunately, there is nothing else we can do for the high priest. He may pass away in his sleep."

"I see. Then our role here is over, isn't it?" I asked.

"That's right. Let's inform the chief priest about it and leave tomorrow."

"Then I should pack our bags," I said. While I was doing that, the little monk came running towards us and cried out, "Dr. Tokuhon!　The young priest collapsed again!"

"Oh, did he!?"

"When Samurais went out, he fell in the main hall!"