BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 3

[Jigetsu]

Re: BOOK OF EQUANIMITY - Case 3

[Dokan]

While at Nan'yoji temple in Nara, the head priest performed a small ceremony for me before leaving. In it, he faced me and with my head bowed in gassho, fanned the sutras over me, tapping me on each shoulder. What is ingrained in my memory was the smell of the old paper, the feeling of the air blowing on my face and the the sound of the fluttering pages underpinned by his guttural chanting. Breathing in...breathing out I am grateful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIV1vQuKuyU&t=35s

Gassho,

Dokan

[Jundo]

Thank you, Dokan.

That is likely the "tendoku" ritual reading of the 600-fascicle Large Prajña Paramita Sutra (tendoku ritual reading involves shouting the title and volume number of the sutra, then quickly flipping through the sutra book itself), usually part of the morning service.

The purpose is a bit esoteric, much like the belief that simply praising the name of a Sutra equals the merit of reading the whole Sutra, or that even spinning a wheel containing the Sutra once is equivalent to the merit of reading the whole Sutra. In fact, think of the merit of then spinning a whole bookcase, as in this photo from Japan! Similar wheels are found in Tibet, China and the like.

Talk about "speed reading"!

Gassho, Jundo