there was a large stone statue on the flat crest of the mountain. If I saw it today, I might know what it is. But at that time, I had no idea. Along the way, there had been a number of figures of cannon. So I think perhaps the statue was of Shakyamuni Buddha. In those days, I knew nothing of Buddhism or of paying homage to its founder. I had, however, committed to memory, a text by showing Yoshida that was an inspiring to me. And I began to chanted in front of the Buddha statue. Through chanting, I must have entered into a pure state of mind. Just a footnote, footnote on this show and Yoshida showing Yoshida 1832 1859, one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the late years of the Tokugawa Shogunate doesn't say what what this this poem was that he was reading, reciting, but the reciting in itself, took him into this altered state, and it will be what he calls a pure state of mind. Then I crossed to the other side of the mountain, which formed a precipice a valley had been gouged out below, and beyond the valley stretched the Pacific Ocean. To one side, I could see the rolling hills of the Izu Peninsula, transfixed by the mountain landscape. I was standing just on the edge of the cliff. There, I was asking for nothing I wasn't thinking or analyzing. I was adding nothing. The wind began to gust up toward me from the valley below. I became enveloped by the wind. I felt as if I were growing bigger and bigger. At that moment, I realized that I was supported by heaven and earth, by all things. I was being told, all things are becoming you nurturing you. Looking at that mountain, the mountain was me, the wide wide valley became me. I realize that whatever I heard whatever I saw, everything is always and forever supporting me, caring for me. Happiness gushed from the depths of my belly. My joy was uncontainable, I began to shout my own name. At the top of my lungs seven or eight times. My name rang out over the horizon over and over, I could not stay still. I it was with unsuppressed joy that I began to race back down the mountain. I couldn't, it could have been dangerous. But my steps were natural, my feet was sure. I sped down the mountain was such force. It was my body moving, but not my own body. At the same time, I ran toward the town of Itami, where I boarded the train for home. But my world was changed. Everything now was so intensely intimate. Everything that I encountered was so profoundly close. I remember picking up a small stone beside the path, and carefully holding it and turning it in my hands as I encouraged it to be strong and steady. Good, good. Then I laid it carefully back down in its place, a bright and changed world unfolded for for me, for one or two months after that experience everything down to the pebbles along the roadside brilliantly glistened. I thought, it is an intimate, friendly life. What a turnaround from saying not not was it he said, I'm no good, I'm no good. Who's probably most spectators to his picking up this stone and talking to it would think he'd gone mad. But it's, it's as you could call it divine madness touching into a truth which is all around us, and yet we miss it. Most of us I was filled with the knowledge of being together with all things part of the same life. At the time, I still knew nothing of Zen. But the walls separating me from others had collapsed. My world had become some without discrimination, so I felt as if I could even chat with the chirping sparrows. Without my any Reddit theoretical understanding, and without being able to explain what had happened, I had tapped into the very joy of life. And I determined from then on that I would dedicate myself to repaying my gratitude. I returned to the preparatory school where I was boarding, everything had become different. I felt no I had no feeling of dissatisfaction or disharmony with others. I only wanted to help everyone however, however I could. Everything was so much fun. I was filled with energy and enthusiasm. At that time, I was living in a dormitory room with three or four other boys in the mornings when my roommates and I would get up, and they were slow to get into the day, I would bounce up fold up and put away their futons while they got ready and do my own last, I would then be the last one out to put on my wooden sandals, but I had so much energy that I would still arrive at the sports field first, I was propelled by a joyous life force.