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 pulsated faintly and warmly in his fingers. It was as if his own inner life had transformed and manifested itself.
The monk was no longer there.
When he went outside, the morning sun was illuminating the tower.
Alone in that light, Shinnosuke remembered the words of the scroll.
“When the gate of wisdom is opened,
the first true bead is born.”
His journey after obtaining the first bead had only just begun.