The first time I looked up at the East Pagoda of Yakushi-ji, I stopped in my tracks.

Known as "frozen music" for its breathtaking beauty, this pagoda has stood in this very spot since the Nara period. Through rainy days, through wars, through the turning of ages — it has simply remained here.

A thought quietly rises: the people who lived in that era, and you standing here today, are both living in the same kind of moment called "now." The difference? They were not living while waiting for "tomorrow." Everything they had was contained within "now."