SELF MUMMIFIED MONK 『即身仏と出逢った。』

It was one summer evening in July, 2018. I was on my way back to a hotel located in Yamagata city in the Tohoku region after I paid a visit to an old friend of mine from high school, who had moved out of Tokyo into Yamagata after graduating from college.

2018年の夏の夕暮れだった。大学卒業後に東京から山形へと移り住んだ高校時代の旧友を訪ねたあと、東北は山形市内のホテルへとクルマで戻る途中のことだ。

As I grew a little tired on a long drive, I was looking for a convenience store or a roadside station where I could take a short rest, to no avail. Actually, however hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to come across a suitable place to stop by. My mood was just about to turn into irritation when I found myself in front of a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, which seemed to belong to an old temple in the district.

長い運転で疲れてきた私はひと息つけるコンビニや道の駅などを探していたのだが、なかなか適当な場所が見当たらない。ちょっとイライラしてきたころ、どことも知れない辺鄙なところに駐車場があることに気づく。どうやら地域の古い寺の敷地内のようだ。

It began to rain, and the drizzle turned into pouring rain before I knew it. I felt like I had no choice but to park my car and take shelter in the temple for a while. Soon the darkness of night settled all over the place. With the permission from the kind priest I made my way across the creaking wooden floors into the main hall. The sound of the rain on the roof drowned out all other sounds.

雨が降り始めた。そして小雨はいつしか土砂降りとなっていた。こりゃあやむを得ない。クルマを停めてちょっとその寺で雨宿りさせてもらおう。じきに夜の闇が辺りを包みこむ。親切な和尚さんの許しを得て、私はギシギシ軋む木の廊下を渡り本堂へ。屋根にあたる雨音ばかりが他の音をかき消すように耳に入ってくる。

I lit a stick of incense, clapped my hands and bowed in prayer. Then what came into sight the very next moment left me completely dumbfounded, confused, making it impossible for me to figure out what “the object” was. It was beyond comprehension!

私は線香に火をつけ、手をたたき一礼する。次の瞬間に目にした「モノ」によって私は混乱した。狼狽した。いったいこれは何だろう。常人の理解をはるかに超えている。

What I saw appeared to be a corpse, a dead human body, or a mummy…there were no words in my vocabulary to appropriately describe the awe inspiring entity in my field of view at that precise moment.

それは「遺体」「死人」、それとも「ミイラ」？その瞬間にわが視界にある、畏敬の念を起こさざるを得ないその「存在」を私の乏しい語彙で正確に描写することは困難を極める。

The priest, with a gentle smile on his lips, explained to me that it was a monk who mummified himself. The legend goes that if a monk has succeeded in making himself mummified, he will acquire the Buddha-like ability to bring about spiritual salvation for all living creatures on the earth.

和尚は口元に笑みを浮かべ、それが「即身仏」、つまり自らの意思で肉体をミイラ化した僧侶だと説明してくれた。伝説によると、僧侶が自らの意思で「即身仏」となれば仏陀のようなチカラを獲得し、地上に生きとし生ける「一切衆生」を救うことができるという。

The process of self-mummification, however, involves extreme measures. First, an individual with this intent is supposed to begin by reducing the amount of food he consumes. He has to refrain from eating cereals, and the kind of food he is allowed to eat is strictly limited to unusual substances such as pine needles and bark. If everything goes as planned, he will die of starvation within several years.

しかしながら、即身仏となるにはきわめて厳しい手順を踏まねばならない。その道を歩まんとする僧侶はまず日々の食料を減らしていく。穀物を食することは許されず、口にできるものは松葉や木の皮など尋常ならざるものばかり。そして予定通りに事が運ぶならば、数年のうちに餓死に至る。

Then, after he has lost a considerable amount of weight, he goes on to the next stage. He abstains from liquid, and takes lacquer so as to prevent his organs from decaying. Eventually, when the time comes, he goes into an underground chamber with a tube to take in oxygen and continues to meditate, in pitch-black darkness, until death arrives.

かなりの体重が減ったのち、修行は次の段階へと進んでいく。水分を控え、死後に内臓が腐敗するのを防ぐために「漆」を飲むという。やがて「その時」が来ると、修行者は空気取りの管があるだけの、地下の小部屋に入っていく。漆黒の闇の中、瞑想を続けるのだ。死が訪れるまで。

The next day I had a dream, where I found myself alone with the self mummified monk in the dark hall in the middle of the night. I was saying my prayers when I suddenly felt something was definitely wrong. I sensed a kind of ‘CHI’ coming over me, and saw the monk beginning to budge as if he were screaming and reaching out for me. I was panic-stricken, unable to move an inch, and completely helpless.

次の日私は夢を見た。真夜中に暗い本堂で即身仏とひとり向き合う自分。祈りを唱えているとにわかに奇妙な違和感を覚える。なにか「気」のような気配が私を包み込む。すると眼前の即身仏がわずかに動き出すではないか。あたかも叫び声をあげ、私のほうへ手を伸ばすかのように。アタマが混乱し、金縛りにあったように身じろぎできない。どうしようもない絶望感。

Do you believe in the existence of life after death?

キミは死後の世界を信じるかな？

by 柳浦