Kitaguni teien engi
A long time ago, there was a quiet village nestled at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains. This particular village was called Canton.The inhabitants of this village were hardworking and honest people. They respected each other and the land upon which they lived. However, their lives were not without problems, for the people of Canton were not very spiritual.They did not believe in the kami, and as such they made no efforts to honor the spirits of the land. This lack of faith upset the local kami, but none were more offended than the Yatsu no kami. These snake kami did not take being ignored lightly. And when they grew angry, they descended upon the village from their home on Waterman hill. Once they reached the village of Canton, the Yatsu no kami went everywhere they could making life unbearable by ruining the crops and breaking the tools, whatever the villager’s used to make a good living off the land.
Time passed, but the Yatsu no kami remained among the villagers causing problems. They grew so violent that they began to dance in the fields so furiously that they stirred the winds—raising a gale of snow that fell everywhere, freezing the land and blowing things away in the icy blasts. Homes were ripped up from their foundations, farms collapsed, and the townspeople were swept away every time they went outside. Life was miserable with their world was in shambles, destroyed by forces they failed to believe in. Finally, the villagers sent people out to the mountains in search of holy man ascetics who were said to live among the peaks. All their hopes rested upon the compassion and spiritual power of the fabled holy men of the mountainsThe Kannn
Days turned to weeks, yet they did not return to the village. It seemed the blight of the Yatsu no kami would extinguish all life. Yet just when all hope seemed lost, an old man with a long white beard and wearing an old Northface jacket walked into the village. Pulling an old copy of the Heart Sutra from his pocket, he chanted the words of Avalokita and said, “You, Yatsu no Kami---Let go of anger, greed, and delusion, and live compassionately with all your fellow sentient beings. Pulling out a small red bag, he tied it to the branch of a tree, saying, this amulet, filled with the compassionate power of Avalokita, is a Lotus nectar of wisdom and compassion that soothes all suffering, be they as many as all the sands and pebbles in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The light that shrined from red amulet, made it look like the sun melted the ice and snow, and the Yatsu no Kami were carried by the flowing waters back to their home outside of the village.Once the bright light died down, the villagers were shocked to find that the old man had disappeared. Where he had stood remained the small red bag. Noting the miracle, the villagers erected a small Gorinto on the spot that remains to this day to honor the bodhisattva Kannon’s power. This living symbol of Kannon is enshrined now at Kitaguni no niwa at the heart of St. Lawrence University.
Days turned to weeks, yet they did not return to the village. It seemed the blight of the Yatsu no kami would extinguish all life. Yet just when all hope seemed lost, an old man with a long white beard and wearing an old Northface jacket walked into the village. Pulling an old copy of the Heart Sutra from his pocket, he chanted the words of Avalokita and said, “You, Yatsu no Kami---Let go of anger, greed, and delusion, and live compassionately with all your fellow sentient beings. Pulling out a small red bag, he tied it to the branch of a tree, saying, this amulet, filled with the compassionate power of Avalokita, is a Lotus nectar of wisdom and compassion that soothes all suffering, be they as many as all the sands and pebbles in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The light that shrined from red amulet, made it look like the sun melted the ice and snow, and the Yatsu no Kami were carried by the flowing waters back to their home outside of the village.Once the bright light died down, the villagers were shocked to find that the old man had disappeared. Where he had stood remained the small red bag. Noting the miracle, the villagers erected a small Gorinto on the spot that remains to this day to honor the bodhisattva Kannon’s power. This living symbol of Kannon is enshrined now at Kitaguni no niwa at the heart of St. Lawrence University.
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