I had an earlier post on the 10th Century priest, Kūya, but this is a better image for detail. The full picture puts him in context as an itinerant monk. I recall that the small statue, at Rokuharamitsu-ji (六波羅蜜寺) in Kyoto, could not be easily photographed in this detail, so this is likely a professional photograph. He is chanting the nembutsu, the six small figures representing na mu a mi da butsu (南無阿弥陀仏). Perhaps the "Jesus prayer", "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me", often associated with the Orthodox faith, is a Western analogue. "For some there comes a time when the 'Jesus prayer' enters into the heart, so that it is no longer recited by a deliberate effort, but recites itself spontaneously, continuing even when a person talks or writes, present in his dreams, waking him up in the morning". (The Orthodox Church, Timothy Ware, Penguin books, 1963). He goes on, "Orthodox spiritual writers insist that those who use the Jesus prayer systematically, should, if possible, place themselves under the guidance of an experienced director, and do nothing on their own initiative".I feel much the same about Ch'an or Zen: it is a hazardous path, once on it, you can't go back. We rely so much on those who have gone before.
(The image is from yowaiobake (in Japanese). The route there was via a blog search on Kyoto).
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