The courtyard of Kikoku Temple was deep and silent; the shadows of ancient cypresses lay slantwise across the moss-mottled flagstones.
Within the Abbot's meditation chamber, a wisp of blue smoke curled up from the incense burner. The old Abbot sat cross-legged upon a cushion, pushed a cup of clear tea toward Amamiya Rin, and slowly recounted the origin of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing.
"It is said that at the great Dharma assembly, the Buddha asked the great Bodhisattvas and great Arhats each to relate, in their initial practice, by which Dharma method and through which faculty they had begun, and ultimately realized perfect penetration."
"Twenty-five sages in all rose to report. They spoke of their respective paths of practice, beginning from differing points of entry—the six dusts, the six faculties, the six consciousnesses, and the seven elements. And the Dharma method that Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva related was precisely the Chapter of Perfect Penetration through Hearing, which begins from the faculty of the ear."
"Manjushri Bodhisattva spoke plainly: 'The true teaching-essence of this realm lies in purity through hearing sound.' He pointed out that perfect penetration through hearing most perfectly suits the spiritual capacities of the beings of this world. Why so? Because we beings have the sharpest faculty of hearing, and the mind-consciousness most readily flows and turns following the dust of sound—hearing wondrous music, we rejoice; hearing wicked words, we grow angry..."
Amamiya Rin held his teacup, inhaling the rising warmth of the steam, and nodded slightly.
His twenty-odd years of practice had let him appreciate this point more keenly than anyone.
"The root of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing is to turn the hearing inward to hear one's own nature—the ear is not for hearing sound. Know this: when the ordinary person hears sound, the mind turns with the sound, clinging to the sound's good or ill, strength or weakness, content, falling into the cycle of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. The Bodhisattva turns the hearing inward, clinging not to the marks of sound, and instead casts Contemplative Sight upon the self-nature capable of hearing sound."
"What is self-nature? Self-nature is the origin of all things, the substance that is neither born nor extinguished, neither increasing nor decreasing—also called Buddha-nature, suchness, the original mind."
"And what is the hearing-nature? The hearing-nature is the manifestation of self-nature in the sense of hearing—it is the faculty of awareness our original mind reveals through the ear. It is neither born nor extinguished, and does not change according to the presence or absence of the dust of sound."
"The cultivation of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing is to tame one's own hearing-nature: to turn from outward pursuit of the dust of sound toward inward awakening of self-nature, ultimately attaining the perfect state where, birth-and-death itself having been extinguished, quiescent extinction manifests before one..."
The Abbot of Kikoku Temple seemed to be expounding to Amamiya Rin the nature of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing; in truth, the old Abbot was the manifestation of Amamiya Rin's own Buddhist knowledge and cultivation, and this discussion was Amamiya Rin questioning his own heart.
Beyond the window, light seeped in.
The morning sun spilled over the mountain ridge, quietly enveloping the temple.
The milky dawn mist began to flow, growing gradually thin; the outlines of the cypress branches became clearly visible, and the moist flagstones revealed their original blue-gray hue. The last few gauzy threads of lingering mist vanished soundlessly as they touched the bronze bell at the eave of the hall.
Amamiya Rin's inner heart was utterly clear, and the road leading forward, without his even noticing, was free of all haze.
Murata Yukichi's theory of Hypnosis had, through Buddhist knowledge, taken on a concrete path within his heart.
Sound has birth and extinction; the hearing-nature has neither. All beings share the same origin, with no distinction. The so-called hearing-nature is the auditory substance innate to all beings, the revelation of self-nature on the plane of hearing. Once self-nature is awakened, the sound one emits is no longer mere sound waves, but the manifestation of self-nature, the outflowing of mind and will.
When the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing reaches perfection, all clinging to that which is aware, that which is perceived, and emptiness is utterly severed, and one realizes the state where, birth-and-death having been extinguished, quiescent extinction manifests before one—so that all phenomena of birth and death—sound, consciousness, thought—vanish, leaving only the self-nature, unborn and unextinguished, perfect and pure.
At that time, Amamiya Rin's voice would be like the light of self-nature, illuminating the depths of another's consciousness, awakening the same self-nature within them, making his own will become the will of his target.
Amamiya Rin had already understood: Murata Yukichi's Hypnosis was fundamentally not merely a technique—he had given concrete form to his own inner heart through sound.
Not only Murata Yukichi, but also those demons who displayed all manner of magical power through sound—their powers were all similar manifestations.
In other words, when Murata Yukichi called his own Hypnosis "mind control," he truly was not talking nonsense.
That was mind control! Using one's own powerful mind to influence the mind of another! All techniques and methods were but surface appearances—otherwise it would be impossible to affect the target's very soul.
Having seen the road ahead clearly, Amamiya Rin once more entered the world, cultivating the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing by means of the myriad states of worldly life.
The cultivation of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing was, for Amamiya Rin, an exceedingly difficult journey as well.
Though the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing was praised by Manjushri Bodhisattva as the method most suited to ordinary people and the easiest to perfect, to cultivate it to perfection was by no means an easy matter—its final attainment was, after all, Buddhahood.
Even with several decades of foundation in Dhyana, to become a Buddha... Amamiya Rin did not lack confidence, but he also had to admit that, given his attainment and experience, he had no way yet to achieve the fruit of Buddhahood.
Fortunately, he did not need to cultivate to perfect penetration, that final state transcending the world; he need only reach the state where self-nature manifests... probably?
Amamiya Rin was not certain either, for he was merely borrowing the theory of the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing to create his own Hypnosis—he was not truly cultivating Buddhahood. The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through Hearing recorded in the sutras belonged to the realm of the supernatural and uncanny—wildly exaggerated divine powers.
The sixth stage: birth-and-death itself extinguished, quiescent extinction manifesting before one, so that the unborn and unextinguished suchness-nature fully manifests—this is the key mark of seeing one's nature and awakening, the attainment of the samadhi of perfect penetration through hearing.
The seventh stage: one suddenly transcends both the worldly and the transcendent, breaking through the dualistic opposition of life-death and nirvana, no longer clinging to nirvana, nor fearing life and death.
The eighth stage, perfect brightness in the ten directions, is being perfect and without defect, encompassing all dharma-realms of the ten directions and three times, penetrating without obstruction, the six faculties used interchangeably, pervading all dharma-realms, the light of wisdom illuminating the ten directions, seeing all, knowing all.
The ninth stage, attaining two surpassing excellences: above, uniting with the originally wondrous awakened minds of all Buddhas of the ten directions, sharing the same compassionate power as the Buddha-Tathagatas; below, uniting with all beings of the six paths in the ten directions, sharing the same sorrowful yearning as all beings.
The tenth stage, achieving the ultimate fruit of Buddhahood: the six faculties perfectly penetrated, divine powers fully possessed, able to manifest thirty-two responsive bodies, to expound boundless wondrous Dharma, and to deliver immeasurable beings.
The first seven stages still held meaning for cultivation; as for the latter three... if any Buddha-Tathagata had truly cultivated them to success, this universe would not have ended up so dark.
Still, Amamiya Rin could understand—when spreading a teaching, did one not always have to make one's own Dharma method sound a touch grander?
Cultivation knows no years; once one sinks into it, the clamor of the mortal world and the markings of time lose all meaning.
He walked through the marketplaces, sat in quiet meditation amid the mountains and wilds, mingled within crowds.
Year after year—who knew how long passed.
Ten years? Twenty? Or longer still?
In the Dream World, the passage of time was ambiguous to begin with, and to Amamiya Rin, immersed in cultivation, it was closer to a blurred backdrop.
The turning point came on an utterly ordinary dusk, the setting sun painting a layer of golden afterglow over the streets and alleys.
The giant electronic billboards began to flicker, scrolling through images of idol groups and mobile games; trains rolled across the elevated tracks with a dull rumbling; the surging laughter of young people and the weary silence of corporate drones formed the scenery peculiar to evening.
Amamiya Rin walked down the main street holding a crepe. He did nothing special, just like the multitudes of beings—no different from the men and women, young and old, passing by his side.
He took a bite, and the sweetness dissolved on the tip of his tongue. In that very instant, on that ordinary evening, suddenly, something was different.
In that single thought, the marks of birth-and-extinction of the dust of sound and the unborn-unextinguished substance of the hearing-nature presented themselves simultaneously, perfectly fused and unobstructed.
A sense of quiescent extinction—encompassing all sound yet transcending the opposition of sound—spread quietly from the depths of his heart, like the surface of water.
The flashing of the billboards, the fragmented clicks of heels striking the ground, the moan of wind sweeping through the gaps between buildings... in this moment, all faded into transparent shadows.
Yielding to this indescribable sensation, Amamiya Rin opened his mouth.
Not to eat the crepe, but to calmly utter a single syllable.
"Oṃ—"
Like an ancient temple's morning bell passing through the noise of the city.
The bustling corporate drones felt their furrowed brows quietly smooth. The few students in the midst of an argument froze, then froze again, and broke into relieved smiles. A small dog by the roadside ceased its barking, tilting its head in confusion.
The clamor did not stop, but all the sharp edges within it had been smoothed away; a profound tranquility, like flowing water seeping into sand, spread slowly outward.
Amamiya Rin took another bite of his crepe.
"So sweet."
As though commenting on the taste of the crepe, Amamiya Rin walked into the crowds of dusk, like a drop of water returning to the river.
Unlike Amamiya Rin, the other Tomies did not choose the road he had walked.
"That kind of thing is too much trouble."
One Tomie, skilled in kendo, chose a far more brutal approach.
Having tried over a thousand times yet still unable to implant suggestions into a target through language alone, Kawakami Tomie gripped her own tachi.
The cold ray-skin hilt pressed against her warm palm, and a sense of certainty utterly different from holding a microphone or listening to a heartbeat spread from her fingertips.
"Sound, breath, aura... didn't that man say it himself? Not just these—the effect of suggestion can also be strengthened through other factors, like body language and the like."
She murmured to herself, her beautiful face showing not the slightest trace of defeat, but rather brimming with sharp aggression.
The road Amamiya Rin had chosen was exquisite and profound, to be sure, but it did not suit her.
The permeation of sound, the resonance of emotion, the fusion of awakening... that required too long a sedimentation, too delicate a Contemplative Sight.
Was she someone suited to cultivating Zen?
Of course not!
For her, what difference was there between studying Zen and abandoning the self?
So then, what other means was there to master Murata Yukichi's mind-control-grade Hypnosis?
Kawakami Tomie had another line of thought.
What was the essence of Hypnosis?
It was influence—it was letting a thought take root, silent and unnoticed, in the soil of another's consciousness.
Sound was one path, but by no means the only one.
What of vision? What of body language? What of that most primal fear, stirred up by an instant's sense of oppression and the threat of death?
Kawakami Tomie slowly drew the tachi out an inch or so.
The blade reflected the light beyond the window, a sliver of cold, frigid color flowing across it.
Her gaze fell upon it, as though appraising an instrument—an instrument more direct than any string or wind.
She began to recall the kendo training experience she had synced from Amamiya Rin.
No-thought, no-mind; heart and sword as one.
When an opponent's blade came slashing down, what she saw was not merely the blade itself, but the trajectory of that cut, the direction of that killing intent, and the result that the end of the trajectory must inevitably reach—death!
So then, what about the reverse?
What if this perception of the slash's trajectory and inevitable result could, by some method, be projected onto the opponent?
Not a real slash, but making the opponent see the trajectory of being cut, feel the result of being cut.
—To see is to feel.
—To become conscious of the slash is for the body to register the pain of the wound.
This would be her voice, her suggestion.
Using the arc of light traced by the tachi as words, the swordsman's aura and killing intent honed to the extreme as tone, the blade-edge reflected in the opponent's eyes as resonance, and the low hum of the blade as the result.
Tomie conducted observation anew.
Only this time, her observation was different from Amamiya Rin's.
What she observed were the micro-expressions of people when they were wounded; the postures of bodies hunched from being struck. She even entered a medical school, observing surgeries, watching the unconscious trembling of the human body as the blade sliced open skin and separated fascia.
Not only observation, but practice as well.
She used bamboo swords, wooden swords, unsharpened real blades, and real blades—striking or slicing across various parts of her test subjects' bodies with the same and with differing forces and angles.
"A bamboo sword strike—a dull ache, accompanied by widespread concussion and the burning sensation of subcutaneous bruising."
"A wooden sword is worse—the pain sharper, with the deep dread brought by the risk of fractured bone."
"An unsharpened real blade—first oppression, then the violent pain of flesh crushed beneath heavy metal."
"A sharpened real blade—the cold touch precedes all else, and then the intense pain."
...
She matched each combination of weapon + slashing method + struck area to its specific description of pain sensation, its physiological-response data, and the core type of fear it triggered, organizing and filing it all away one by one.
Beyond the slash, there was also sound.
She employed her profound mastery of vocal control to simulate all manner of vocal tones capable of reinforcing the image of a slash.
Through repeated experimentation, Tomie began to consciously fuse her breath, her aura, and the tachi in her hand to great depth.
When she held the blade, her breathing was long and low, resonating with her gaze, her heartbeat, the rhythm of the blade, and the blade's hum.
The oppression-laden aura gradually changed—no longer merely a powerful aura pressing upon the target, but becoming directional and aggressive, even taking on a presence of its own.
It made the opponent's gaze become firmly fixed upon the blade-edge—not merely because of the cold glint of the edge, but because of that sword-intent that seemed to have come alive.
To see the blade was as if to see the slash about to fall upon one's body, thereby producing a faint phantom pain.
After undergoing who knew how many permutations and combinations, failures and adjustments, accumulations of data, the decisive moment was about to arrive.
The swordswoman Tomie hauled over another idle Tomie, forcibly demanding she become her experimental subject.
That Tomie was naturally unwilling, but—unwilling, and then what? Inferior in strength to the swordswoman Tomie, she could not resist.
The blade-edge swept through the air, emitting a strange ringing sound. It was not any sound she had deliberately simulated, but the blade-hum produced in that moment by the perfect resonance of her breath, her intent, her muscle movement, the blade's vibration, and the friction of the air.
Clear and resonant as a chime, yet carrying the resolute, lingering aftertone of severing all things.
The instant the blade-hum rang out.
The Tomie opposite, the target, had neither been struck by bamboo or wooden sword, nor touched by a real blade.
Yet her whole being was as if thunderstruck, her entire body convulsing violently—from the crown of her head to the center of her brow, a phantom pain like being cleaved by a red-hot blade suddenly erupted!
She could even feel her own skull seem to give a faint "crack," her vision going black, staggering backward, instinctively raising a hand to touch her unharmed forehead—yet she touched nothing, and yet that sensation of pain was far too real.
The Tomie who had swung the blade slowly sheathed it; the faint sound of the tsuba closing against the mouth of the scabbard was as if drawing a period to this formless slash.
Her unique Hypnosis, the Consciousness Slash, was complete.
____
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