Читать книгу Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai - Donald Richie - Страница 7

Excerpt from the deposition of the Priest Rensei

On the thirteenth day of the first month in the first year of the Genkyūera [1204] I, the lay priest Rensei, declare the following:

It was in the fourth year of the Kenkyūera [1193], now eleven years past, that I began to pray for my rebirth in the highest paradise of the Pure Land.

I well know that to be reborn among the lower would bring an after-life of bliss. But I also know that he who is reborn into the highest paradise may then lead the dying into the Pure Land.

It is for the sake of these others that I, Rensei, wish to be reborn into the highest paradise. Otherwise, I would refuse to be reborn into any of the other eight.

MS.

Seiryōji, Kyoto