A firsthand account of encountering the true heart, beauty, and tradition of Japan, through which a lost homeland was rediscovered. A foundational reflection explaining why the words of Sekihei must reach the world.

I believe that his words also need to reach people all over the world.
If they do, the world will become a far better place.
2016-11-19.
At the same time that I discovered “Japan” for the first time in my life, I also, for the first time, discovered what was in my own heart.
2015-11-27.
What follows is a continuation of the chapter I am introducing after being deeply moved by Mr. Sekihei’s book.
I believe that his words also need to reach people all over the world. If they do, the world will become a far better place.
One month after coming to Japan, I encountered the true “Japan” for the first time and came into contact with the Japanese heart and tradition.
However, for me, it was not merely sightseeing during an overseas trip.
Nor was it simply an encounter with a foreign culture.
For me, this first encounter with the Japanese heart and Japanese aesthetics, Japanese tradition and Japanese culture, was at the same time the first encounter with the vestiges of the lost traditions and culture of my own homeland.
As a Chinese youth with a nostalgic temperament, it was the first encounter with the solemn and pure faith and refined world of the good old days of my homeland, which I had secretly dreamed of in my heart.
At the same time that I discovered “Japan” for the first time in my life, I also discovered, for the first time, the “homeland” within my own heart.
At the same time that I encountered the world of Japanese religion and beauty for the first time in my life, I also touched, for the first time in my life, the world of true faith and refinement in the real sense of the word.
It was on a certain Sunday in May 1988, with a light rain falling.
This manuscript continues.