Journey : Ise ~ Kumano to Tenkawa 7

I visited Nachi-no-Ohtaki (The Great Waterfall of Nachi) after a long interval. My last visit here was when I was 20. I thought the place may have become very touristy by now and I wasn’t expecting too much. On the contrary, the closer I got to the place, the more I began to feel the pure energy of the God.

The so-called Kumano-San-Zan (熊野三山- the three mountains of Kumano) consists of three shrines which are Kumano-Nachi-Jinjya, Kumano-Hongu-Taisha and Kumano-Hayatama-Jinjya. Energetically, Kumano-Nachi-Taisha shrine was better than the other two. Hiroh-Jinjya located in front of The Great Waterfall of Nachi was very impressive.

When I got to the first big torii (the vermilion archway) of The Great Waterfall of Nachi, I felt the divine energy and the ozone waves coming from the waterfall.

After I paid the entrance fee of 300 yen and stood in front of the great waterfall right by Hiroh-Jinjya, I felt as if I was receiving the purification. When I prayed before the great waterfall, my psychic sense revealed me the spiritual existence. The spirit was unexpectedly related to Buddhism.

That spirit form was Amida-Nyorai (阿弥陀如来,Amitabha = Mahaavairocana= Avalokitesvara=Kuan Yin) with a shining golden halo around his back. A yellow frame was detected on the picture taken in front of the great waterfall. The frame was exactly at the same place where the sacred halo was seen. When I looked at the actual scenery, I found the grasses on the rocks also turning yellow from autumnal foliage at the same location. The mystery of the nature deeply impressed me.

I didn’t expect the appearance of a divine spirit related to Buddhism at this waterfall. Around this area, for many years, a lot of Buddhist monks lead an ascetic life in the mountains (Shugen-dō monks). And probably, the accumulation of the Buddhist Shugen-dō monks’ worships has led the energy appear in this form.

If people had seriously worshipped the Dorae-mon (a famous character in one of the Japanese animated cartoons) for thousands of years, the spiritual form resembling the Dorae-mon may have appeared. The transcription of the form may take place in the nature as well. This is one example of the Law of Magnetism in this World of Reality.

I believe worshipping man-made idols is not right, and like Shinto, simply worshipping the great nature as it is, is the right way.

On the left of the main shrine of Kumano-Nachi-Taisha is a small shrine where a three-legged crow is worshipped. I actually sensed a big crow spirit enshrined. I felt that the spirit kept his wings spread widely and was as large as the black roof of the shrine. This crow had a same kind of energy I feel from the big fat crow that sometimes comes to my home yard.

After our visit to the shrine, we wanted to stay at a hot-spring inn near Mt.Tamaki and so I set the car navigation system. The navigation system indicated the course by returning to the seaside and then going to the destination. However, the map showed us that there is a very narrow state road going from the deep mountains to Tamaki district. Because I wanted to see the deep mountains of Kumano, I overwhelmed my family’s opposition and took the narrow state road instead of taking the course suggested by the navigator.

The state road was once again terrible. The rough road was at the brink of a precipice and no larger than the width of one car. I greatly regretted having risked the Innate God of my family and myself. I promised myself never to take this kind of road in the deep forest again. On the other hand, I was so moved by the harsh life in the deep mountains and at the same time felt grateful to our life in the urban area.

We visited a famous old shrine near the hot-spring inn, but found the place very disappointing. So many signboards stood everywhere in the territory of God (神域) announcing the forbidden activities . The place was filled with signs telling us things that are not permitted at this sacred ground. It shows the level of spirituality of the administrators of this shrine. The disgraceful and ignoble superintendent seems to disregard the shrine’s duties to the public. They do not trust in the visitors.
This impression and the sense I got stayed the same when I stood in front of the main shrine.

I sensed that receiving a large donation from a new religious organization caused the disappointing atmosphere of this old shrine. This organization has been collecting a lot of money from innocent people. Their energy is evil. Unfortunately a righteous god does not descend to such shrine.

That night, we were resting at the hot-spring inn to prepare for the visit to Mt.Tamaki the following day. We were watching the local TV news and a warning was announced that an earthquake swarm was taking place directly under this small hot-spring town. The ground dragon (地龍) of the area always welcomes me in such manner before my important visit to the specified place. To be continued…

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live

Ise ~ Kumano to Tenkawa - Preface

Something came into my mind around October 26th. It was the time of one ending of the first Bardo/spiritual purification period (see previous articles for Bardo) of this year for the earth.

It was a sense of dark clouds coming from foreign countries to our Japanese society. The dark clouds will affect those who still cling to old values such as status and opulent outlook. If you already see good and healthy values in your heart, you don't have to worry. Yet, the first phase that brought big financial downfall and contagious diseases are definitely creating an emotional turbulence in many of us. I was concerned about the vulnerable children who are most effected by their parents.

The shift is starting from the material civilization to the spiritual civilization. And we cannot avoid the friction caused in the early stage. When you look at the creatures casting off its skin, it doesn’t look like a pleasant experience. It must be uneasy. This is a similar situation. You need to let go of the old values in order to outgrow.

I strongly want to make this shift a smooth and easy one for everybody. Starting from Japan and to the world, as easy as the Othello pieces flipping one after another. As I thought of this, along with my innate god, I decided to go around to important key sacred places to offer my gratitude towards the ancient spirits who reside on the land of Japan.

In order to calm the dark clouds from a foreign land, I thought it is important to go to Tamaoki-jinjya(玉置神社). This shrine was well known to clear off evil spirits from the ancient days. Tamaoki is located in the deep forest between the three mountains of Kumano. Like the saying, an eye for an eye, to clear off evil spirits we need a spirit that can be powerful like a kishin(鬼神) demonic god to work on it. I had to go there to find out for myself if the shrine still had that kind of power.

Another thing is that the location of the three key places, Tenkawa-jinjya(天河神社), Tamaoki-jinjya and the Nachi Waterfall（那智の滝） in Nara positions in a straight line on a map. Visiting these three places has been an important path for the shugendo(修験道), the mountaineering asceticism.

In the past, I had received a revelation about this line. When you extend this line straight into the Pacific Ocean, it is pointing to the location where there was once a giant continent. This floating giant island was made by extinct giant seaweeds that were about 1meter wide. The birds’ droppings piled over the seaweeds for ages and created this island. The land was very rich and human civilization progressed immensely at this period.

Eons ago, these three places were connected to this floating island on the Pacific Ocean by a spiritual pipeline. I wanted to go and check the condition of the spiritual energy of these places.

I reverently gazed at Haku-san shinning by the rising of the sun. And imagined carrying the god of Haku-san on my back, I left to first greet the Sun Goddess in Ise.

The story begins of my five day journey.
(this photo is the sun that welcomed me in the beginning of my trip at Gekū.)

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live