ICHIU SENZAN O URUOSU -
The one rain moistens a thousand mountains.
(click image to enlarge)
There is a time when nothing seems worthwhile, when it would seem false
to pretend otherwise. A seemingly private rain ruins all plans and does
not let up, producing nothing but misery and self-pity. When that happens,
nobody knows my pain. The time of the one rain is the time when I hike
my private mountain, leading my life on the path that I must tread and
various conditions make life shudderingly miserable.
However, a thousand mountains become visible from the summit of the same mountain, this time moistened by the One Rain that sweeps across all. All times past, present, and future share a thorough soaking by the One Rain. Shuddering with exhilaration, the hiker is soaked by the same rain, this time with no thought of past expectations. The view is too big for personal preferences and comparative judgments. Here there is no room for relative notions of wet as opposed to dry or favorable as opposed to unfavorable conditions. Soaked through and through with the same rain as the thousand mountains, one cannot help but shout, "The One Rain moistens a thousand mountains!" This is the shout of rainbows.
Were the self-pity and worthlessness on the way up a silly illusion? Ask a thousand mountaintops and they would each point down to the path of one rain. They would understand and weep with one rain.
by Robin Fujikawa