Word 116
East of Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall, along a stone stairway lined with trees, visitors climb quietly, day after day. The path leading up to Nigatsu-do is steep enough that there is no room to look back partway up; one can only watch the single step ahead and keep moving.
The hall standing today was rebuilt in the ninth year of Kanbun (1669). It stands quietly facing west, on a rise reached by climbing the stairway north of Hokke-do. The stone steps are said to be carved with various patterns, including arabesque and tortoiseshell motifs, though few who keep climbing ever notice them.
At last, out of breath, one reaches the stage, and almost everyone, without exception, turns their body around. Looking back, a sweeping view opens up all at once: the great roof of the Great Buddha Hall, the city of Nara spreading below, and even the distant ridgeline of Mount Ikoma.
Your surroundings may change, and faced with new challenges or new work ahead, you might feel a sense of anxiety.
At times like that, pause for a moment, turn your body around 180 degrees, and look back at the path you have built — the path that is yours alone.
You will surely notice countless achievements you hadn't even realized were there.
Carry that confidence in your heart, and move forward!!
The view from the stage of Nigatsu-do is not a scenery someone else prepared for you. It is a view that only those who have climbed here, one step at a time, on their own, encounter the moment they turn around. No one climbs while counting the steps. And yet, for exactly as far as they have climbed, the view opens quietly before them.