Not Enlightenment But the Way
Once, say about 100 years ago, there lived one young man seeking truth in life in Japan. He learned Christianity as a member of a church. But as he could not get confidence that he became enlightened, he decided to train himself in a mountain although he became a kind of sick.
He visited a notable shrine in a mountain in winter without money, but his sickness became heavier, so that he almost fell down in snow. But, a strange mountain man appeared and led him to a small wooden hut to save him. Next morning, when he awoke, he could not see the footprints of the strange man but only his own ones on the snow. But, his illness was cured. So, he decided to further go deep in the mountain to train himself among some disciplinants and a mountain hermit.
He was tested by them in terms of his resolution. As he passed those tests, he was accepted by them. Then he trained himself in the mountain taking only native grasses as foods and living in a coarse hut. In time, he realized that his spiritual power grew and increased. Then, he sometimes went down the mountain and into villages around to perform preaching in the street. He even healed a sick girl, a haunted woman, and a depressed boy. Finally, he competed with the mountain hermit in terms of spiritual power to defeat him. Finally, he got confidence that he had obtained enough spiritual power as he mastered a way of astral projection or having out-of-body experiences.
So, he left the mountain to a city. While he was walking through a rural zone where no private houses were seen, he found a poor beggar walking toward him on a narrow and straight but long road in the middle of agriculture fields. The beggar hanged a placard reading "I AM BLIND." The young man saw sometimes such beggars hanging such placards to arouse a feeling of compassion of people to earn money. So, he did not feel strange seeing such a beggar, but rather tried to give some words of compassion to him. But, the moment they passed each other, the beggar pre-emptively said to him, "Not Enlightenment But the Way!"
The young man could not see in what sacred books the words of teaching were written. So, he admitted that the beggar was in a superior position to him. He turned around to ask the beggar what the words meant. But, there was no beggar in the narrow, straight, and long road through agriculture fields. The beggar evaporated. The young man was struck by light from the sky and sat down on the road, beginning to weep.
At the moment, he realized that the process of pursuing and performing love and truth was more important than seeking enlightenment and super-natural power.
In this context and from this point of view, the young man started to read the books of Swedenborg to further have spiritual experiences. He later became notable among believers in his circle and respected by them as a private religious man, but he did not become so famous in Japan. Yet, even today, some people called him a genius of religion, since he continued to have remarkable faith in the Japanese Shinto religion as well as Christianity of the Swedenborg's version through WWII till his death around 1980.
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Matthew 12, King James Version
18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.
21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.