Tower of Light – Aladdin’s Lamp Became a Relic
Chapter 1: The Day I Met Aladdin’s Tower
The train passed through the tunnel and glided into a small station in the mountains.
Shinnosuke was the only one to get off.
In the silence of the silence of the people and the sounds of the cars, he took a deep breath as he left the ticket gate. The cool, clear air brought a long-forgotten sensation to his chest.
It had been ten days since I had applied for a leave of absence from my workplace, exhausted by the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. No one blamed me. Rather, my boss and colleagues sent me off with a look of relief on their faces. ──Ah, maybe I was already an empty shell.
It was an unplanned trip. By chance, the name of this small mountain temple was listed in a guidebook I picked up at a bookstore. It simply said, “Windy Road with a Forgotten Pagoda.”
It was the word “pagoda” that attracted me.
The sign said it was a 40-minute walk from the station to the temple. On the way, we climbed a mountain path with peeling pavement, and the temple was hidden in the shade of the trees.
The temple was very modest. It had no history that would be listed in a tourist guide, and no signboard. It just stood there, quietly enveloped in the scent of wood.
In one corner of the temple grounds, there was a small tower. It was made of stones and was covered in moss, but strangely enough, it had not collapsed. Its shape was filled with nostalgia, as if I had seen it somewhere before, but couldn’t remember where.
In front of the tower, an old man was sitting. Dressed in a white robe, he had his eyes closed, with a rosary on his lap.
Shinnosuke hesitated to call out to him. But the old man spoke first.
“…Here he is.”
“Eh?”
“Finally, the first person has arrived.”
His eyes were deep and clear. It was as if he had been waiting for someone for hundreds of years. “This is not just a tower.”
The old man gently placed his hand on the tower.
“This is Aladdin’s lamp.”
Shinnosuke was confused but gave a wry smile. “You’re joking, right?”
“I’m not joking. This is a tower that grants wishes… no, it awakens the ‘desire of the soul’. Why did you come here?”
Shinnosuke couldn’t answer that question. There was no reason. But for some reason, he felt that he should come here.
“I have been waiting for someone like you. Someone to inherit the Buddha’s relics.”
“Buddha’s relics…?”
The old man nodded quietly.
“From now on, you will embark on a journey. A journey to visit the three towers and collect the three jewels. But this is not a journey to grant wishes. It is a journey to change the ‘meaning of wishes.'”
Saying this, the old man took out an old scroll from his pocket. Sanskrit characters were written on it in vermilion ink.
“Chant, ‘On, Shintama ni, datte, un'”
It was at that moment. The wind blew, and a faint light spilled from the top of the tower.
Shinnosuke just stood there. He couldn’t comprehend it. But something touched him deep in his chest. The wind blew on the embers of his heart that should have burned out.
“Go. Until your soul awakens.”
And at that moment, Shinnosuke knew.
This was the beginning of a journey to find his “true self.”
Chapter 2: Walk the Path of Wisdom (Sri Lanka Edition)
From Narita to Colombo, it was a ten-hour flight. Shinnosuke’s heart was still drifting with a kind of unrealistic premonition.
The blue of the Indian Ocean seen from the plane window was endlessly deep, and had a tranquility that seemed to swallow up his past.
A journey to visit the relics.
This was not just a metaphor, spoken by the old monk of the mountain temple, Gendo.
“Receive wisdom. The first pearl is in Sri Lanka.”
The scroll he handed me had the following written on it in Sanskrit:
“In the southern land of light, the gate of wisdom opens.
In the pure tower, when the clouds of desire clear,
the first pearl will become the seed of truth.”
When I showed it to the taxi driver who picked me up at the airport, he seemed to understand immediately.
“You’re going to Mihintale, aren’t you? It’s the place where Buddhism first arrived on this island.”
The driver’s name was Chaminda. He was a small man with kind eyes. He spoke English and a little Japanese.
“Are you a Buddhist?”
“Maybe so. No… maybe I want to be one from now on.”
Chaminda smiled at Shinnosuke’s words.
On the way, the car passed through lush forests, passed the ancient capital of Anuradhapura, and entered the hills. Mihintale was a sacred place built on a quiet rocky mountain.
At the top of the stone steps, a pure white stupa (Buddhist pagoda) stood silently.
The wind blew through.
Shinnosuke stood there in front of the pagoda. He was at a loss for words.
The white pagoda seemed to be connected to the sky.
It was at that moment.
From behind him, he heard the voice of a man who sounded like an old monk.
“Don’t give up your desires. Illuminate your desires.”
Turning around, he saw a monk. Dressed in brown robes and barefoot, he stood with his back to the light.
“You are…?”
“I am just a guide. I am the one who holds the wisdom of this place.”
The monk led Shinnosuke to the back of the stupa. There was a meditation room carved into a round rock, and inside it was complete silence.
There was no light. No sound. But as he sat there, his mind mysteriously became calm.
The monk said,
“Face your desires here for a night. At dawn, the pearl will appear.”
The night was long.
But the “wishes” in Shinnosuke’s heart gradually changed shape.
–I want to succeed at work. I want to be recognized by someone. I want to prove my worth.
The voices of such desires peeled off one by one.
And what emerged was–
“I just want to live and be someone’s light.”
Dawn.
A single shining bead was placed in the center of the meditation room. It was unclear who had placed it there.
Shinnosuke gently picked it up.
The bead throbbed faintly and warmly in his fingers. It was as if his own inner life had transformed and appeared.
The monk was no longer there.
Going outside, the morning sun was illuminating the tower.
Shinnosuke was alone in that light and remembered the words of the scroll.
“When the gate of wisdom is opened, a true bead is born for the first time.”
His journey after obtaining the first bead had only just begun.
Chapter 3: The Snow Buddha – The Sacred Tower of Tibet
The Tibetan sky was high and close.
At an altitude of over 3,000 meters, the air of Lhasa was thin and pure enough to seep into his lungs.
As soon as Shinnosuke left the airport, he felt as if his feet were floating slightly off the ground. And it wasn’t just the air pressure.
He felt another layer of silence flowing beneath the hustle and bustle of the city.
It was a stream of prayer.
Old people spinning prayer wheels, pilgrims prostrating themselves, a monk in red, and a girl silently gazing up at the tower.
Every single one of their actions purified the land.
“The air itself is breathing in prayer here.”
As he muttered this, a girl appeared in front of him. She was in her late teens, or maybe a little older.
She had crystal clear eyes.
“You… from Japan?”
She spoke fluent English. The girl had a linden rosary hanging from her neck.
“I’m Rei. I grew up in a monastery. I feel like I’ve been waiting for you.”
Shinnosuke was surprised, but he also felt a sense of nostalgia. Her voice was very similar to the sound of the wind.
Rei led him to a nunnery on the outskirts of the city. There, mandala murals spread out before him, and Buddhas and bodhisattvas stood out in colorful light.
“You’re looking for the ‘second jewel’…isn’t that right?”
“Why…”
“All who come here are tested by their compassion. Your ‘wisdom’ alone will not open the next door.”
Rei pointed to the center of the mandala. There, Kannon Bodhisattva sat silently.
His eyes reflected all the suffering in the world, and at the same time, they embraced everything.
“Please sit in front of this mandala tonight. Let your words and wishes flow. Compassion is not something you can obtain by seeking it. Just wait until it wells up.”
The night drew on.
Shinnosuke sat alone in front of the mandala. It was as if all of his “weaknesses” were being laid bare before Kannon’s gaze.
–The days when he wished to help someone, but was unable to save himself.
–The regrets he was unable to put into words as he tried to protect his smile.
–The silence of that night, when he could only see his loved one off.
All of these things seeped out along with his tears.
“Please forgive me.”
As he murmured those words to himself–
The mandala began to quietly glow.
A ray of light flowed from Kannon’s chest, and a single bead emerged in the center.
It was a transparent, pale pink light. It was like a lotus bud wet with morning dew.
Rei silently picked it up and placed it in Shinnosuke’s hand.
“This is a pearl that has crystallized from your ‘tears’. Compassion is overlapping your own pain with the pain of others. At that moment, the world turns to kindness.”
The pearl trembled slightly in his palm.
And at that moment, what came to Shinnosuke’s mind was the image of people living in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.
Faces passing by, a girl laughing with no one to rely on, a man struggling with sleepless nights.
He realized that they too were seeking the light of compassion.
That night, Kannon appeared in his dream.
She said nothing, just smiled, and chanted a mantra to him.
“On maka kyaronika sowaka…”
When Shinnosuke woke up, tears were flowing. Not from sadness. His soul was enveloped in warmth.
The journey continued.
But his steps were no longer those of a “searcher.”
The next place – to the ancient road where the northern wind blows.
