Marathon Monk, Ryojun Shionuma

In 1999, when he was 31 years old, he completed the 1000 Day Circumambulation and received the rank of Great Ajari(master in esoteric Buddhism). During the circumambulation, he had to go up and down the 48km mountain road with an elevation of 1,300m for 16 hours everyday, whether it rained, a typhoon hit or he had a fever, he had to do 1,000 times spending nine years. If he gives up, he should die so he always carried a knife and a rope with him for suicide. Also, he completed another dangerous circumambulation which was fast, no drink, no sleep and no lying for nine days. I’ve heard that he gave the scent of death on the third day. What was the enlightenment gained by his extreme situation? Here you can listen about that with English subtitles on YouTube’s TEDx channel(16’06’’).（H.S）