The Holy Man Ippen 700 Years Ago in Japan
As words issued by Jesus Christ have never been copyrighted, history and incidents have never been copyrighted.
"Development of Underlying Spiritual Events of Mankind:
GOD
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Abraham (around 1900 B.C.)
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Moses (around 1200 B.C.)
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JUDAISM (around 500 B.C.)
Brahmanism Enlightened (around 500 B.C.)
Buddha (around 500 B.C.)
Confucius (around 500 B.C.)
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CHRISTIANITY (around A.D. 100)
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ISLAM (around 700)
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Japanese Buddhism Enlightened (around 1300)
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American Denominations Expanded (around 1900)
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The 21st Century: The Present Day"
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Let us just jump back to "Japanese Buddhism Enlightened (around 1300)."
Some pro-Japanese citizens in the world may be interested in how Japanese holy monks looked in the 13th century.
Please refer to a Tokyo National Museum site at http://www.emuseum.jp/cgi/pkihon.cgi?SyoID=1&ID=w052&SubID=s000.
It introduces pictures created 700 years ago to present situations of the Holy Man Ippen who abandoned his status as samurai and ventured into a journey for salvation of his spirit as well as preaching to people.
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In one of those old pictures, you may find that some samurais have a very long bow.
As with the case of swords, Japanese bows developed in a unique way different from those in Korea, China, Mongol, and Europe.
It is long, almost seven feet, since Japanese warriors liked to use natural materials, woods and bamboos, as they are. And, an arrow was set at a point of the one-third height from the lower end of a bow.
With this method, it is said that a strong samurai could shoot a target more than 300m (or 1000 feet) away, swiftly repeating the shot.
The opposite is a Mongolian bow. It was designed to be used by a cavalryman, though there were almost no foot soldiers in troops of the Mongolian Empire. (Even one trooper used three horses for relentless move and fight.)
Mongolians' bow is shorter, and thus easy to handle on a horse in a battle field. They used a bow and arrow as a sword. They were basically undefeatable in a battle on a plain 700 years ago.
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The Holy Man Ippen told people to step and dance in a circle and continue to dance until exhausted, chanting a prayer to the Buddha and leaving every worry outside the practice of dancing. (But, prayer is first, and dancing follows it.)
It is a kind of Nenbutsu (praying to Amida Buddha) folk dances.
He moved around Japan like a homeless ragged pastor with his earnest followers, though he was once a samurai with a wife and a daughter.
(The Holy Man Ippen is not the one who is respected today by a certain Japanese political party which forms the coalition regime with the Liberal Democratic Party.)
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The Holy Man Ippen's famous words are: "Abandon everything. It is the very act that saves your soul."
Buddha told people to leave the world of desire leaving every dirty thing.
Jesus Christ, nonetheless, said: "If you abandon all for me, you will get everything you need as the God knows what you need before you ask for it."
"...Which is More Important, the Gold or Temple which Makes the Gold Holy?..."