A lonely poet and zen priest "Ryohkan"

Ryohkan's peculiar melody
Everyone of us has his own melody given at the time of birth. But not so many people live through
with their own melody all their life and make the 
ultimate form of its realization. Let's see the statue
of Ryohkan shown above. There we can see everything  of the realization of his own melody, that is say, tranquility, selfless mind , self-abandonment, purity, transparency, modesty, detachment, inward smile, innocence; all these are
the inner outcome of Ryohkan when trudging toward his simple dwelling in woods at dusk in the
shower of fallen leaves holding the Buddhist's 
walking stick. 
Towards the end of his life an old man asked Ryohkan when begging for food, "Why do yo live in woods? " Ryohkan replied " Why do you live in town? " This dialogue shows the symbol of the essence of his own melody and tells the reason why he abandoned his good social position and wealth, and started the life of a lonely and poor zen priest.

Why he abandoned the worldly life?
Then Let's think of the reason why he abandoned 
the worldly life from the spiritual viewpoint. There
seem to be two reasons in my opinion. One is his
sharp and sensitive perception as a poet to respond the voice of young girls , dressed up in
fine clothes , echoing under clear sky. The other 
is his disposition of pessimism created by the lack
of worldly desires. Such a type of person usually 
is drawn toward spirituality rather than material
pursuit and often find himself out of place in society. In extreme case he is labelled a failure.
Because of this , the degree of his loneliness is so
great that his craving after absolute spiritual foundation can be abnormally immense. The very
question, " We all die . Despite the fact how come
people can laugh like that? " is adhered at the back of his dry mind just like the transparent morning light penetrating everything . Making a 
step to live on the mentally firm ground or escaping into desires to run away the agonies of 
life? The choice is only these two. But for such a 
person as Ryohkan the path to mentally healthy
citizen life is out of question.
 Ryohkan's disposition & Zen
Death or living? The problem is critical. And he chose the path to a priest putting the more importance on spiritual peace than material pursuit. In a word the only choice left for Ryohkan
was the hermit-like life in woods. Ryohkan became
a priest at the age of 18. The temple he chose was 
that of zen sect , which tells Ryhoka himself  and a
special meaning for the development of his own melody. Compared with other Buddhism sects , zen puts the importance on seeing inside the mind
thoroughly. That is why zen is considered to be suitable for individualists in comparison with other Buddhism sects whose aim is mainly to save people. Ryhokan was an inward lone-wold rather than type of people showing the outstanding leadership . The downward shoulder and his eys
looking downward seen in the statue of Ryhokan
tells above disposition. The practice he experienced over ten years must have been more than severe and intense. But Ryohkan' s type is,
generally speaking, gifted with spiritual storengh
as individualist although he is not strong in human
organization. Most likely  Ryohkan got to know a 
true happiness and a feeling of fullness  and felt a firm spiritual ground being built through hard practice. The experience must have supported his
spirituality in the latter of his life. He experienced
above awakening through his body. There we can
see the development of his own melody. 
What is Ryohkan's zen?
Ryhokan was far from a typical type of zen priest
with sharp penetrating eyes, overwhelming appearance to overpower with its presence there,
insulting toned words and a roar of laughter.
He was, after all, a poor looking idle priest walking
around in the light of his hometown dragging his
weakening body in the dancing fallen leaves. In the eyes of children he must have looked a strange
priest. To remain an existence who abandoned everything of himself with acceptance of being called "Dumb" as penniless priest walking all over
Japan for pilgrimage may have been an imposition
on himself. Needless to say, even in leading such a
life what was the center of his life was zen. In such
way of life we can see the uniqueness of Ryohkan's
zen different from that of any other zen priests.
One may find typical zen in a great priest like Dohgen with outstanding gifted spiritual strength
who grasped absolute truth in inspiration beyound
human comprehension after severe zen practice but the zen of Ryohkan who played the Japanese
harp or wrote poems on lonely nights melting himself into light of his hometown is also one of 
zen forms. For average people the zen of Ryhokan
with human weakness may comfort us more than
any other zens when we are lonely.