Then, about two months after starting various studies in Swami Sivananda, someone suggested, “If you have another month left on your visa, why not travel around India a bit?” That got me thinking, “Since I've come all this way to India, maybe I should go on a trip.”

So, I left Swami Sivananda for a while and took a bus to New Delhi. I stayed at a cheap hotel in New Delhi and ate something called ‘samosa’ – an Indian dumpling made with potatoes – from a nearby street stall. Then the diarrhea started again.

Having experienced diarrhea before, I figured this time I'd have to treat it with medicine. India does have Western medicine anti-diarrheal drugs, but I'd heard the antibiotics were harsh and caused serious side effects afterward. When I was in Rishikesh, I'd visited a Tibetan temple in the town of Dehradun. I heard the Tibetans there all used Chinese herbal medicine for treatment, so I thought, “It would be great if there was a Chinese herbal medicine shop in New Delhi.” I borrowed a bicycle from the hotel and went looking for one. My stomach was really upset, but I happened upon a Tibetan-style hospital. I explained my symptoms, and a female doctor came out to examine me. She said in English, “Your symptoms are like this, so take this medicine,” and gave me some pills. They looked like big, round chocolates.

She told me, “This medicine is made entirely from natural ingredients. Take it four times a day.” So, I did. And it really worked—I was cured in about three days. What's more, my recovery was incredibly fast.

She learned I was a Japanese and told me she'd been to Kobe. Then she asked, “Do you know the Dalai Lama?”

This was before the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize, so I thought he might be a monk I'd heard of and answered, “Yes.”

She said, “A friend of mine is the Dalai Lama's doctor. If you want to meet him, I can call him and arrange it for you.” I replied, “I'd love to meet him if possible.” She then gave me the name of her doctor friend and the phone number of the hotel where he was staying.

Back at the hotel, I called the doctor and asked, “Can I meet the Dalai Lama?” He replied, “No, you can't meet him today. But instead, the Dalai Lama will be performing a religious service tomorrow morning in a place called Sarnath. If you have time, why not go there and watch the service? You might be able to meet him there.”

Sarnath is where Shakyamuni Buddha first gave his sermon and began teaching Buddhism. I decided to take this chance to visit Sarnath and went to buy a ticket. Nowadays you can buy them instantly online, but back then I had to go to the New Delhi station and buy a handwritten ticket.

So, I stood in line at the station window for about an hour, thinking, “Is it my turn yet? Is it my turn yet?” When I was almost at the front, there was an elderly gentleman behind me. When my turn finally came and I was about to buy my ticket, I thought, “Wait a minute. Instead of me, a young person, going first, maybe I should let the elderly gentleman behind me go ahead since he's been waiting so long.”

When I told the elderly gentleman, “Please go ahead,” he was incredibly happy, said “Thank you,” and bought his ticket. Watching him, I saw he bought the best seat, so I thought he must be wealthy. I was wondering where he was going, when he suddenly asked me, “Where are you going?”

“I'm going to Danas.”

“Same as me. Did you book a hotel in Danas?”

“No, I didn't.”

“If you can't find a place to stay, I'll put you up at my place. Call this number.”

“Okay, understood.”

I tucked the note with the phone number he gave me into my pocket, thinking, “It's a big city, I'll find a hotel anywhere, probably won't need to call,” and didn't give it much thought. After staying one night in Sarnath, I headed toward my destination, rocking along on the train.

But when I got off the train and tried to find a hotel, They were all booked to the brim. I asked around and found out the Dalai Lama was coming for a religious ceremony. People from all over the world—Indians, Tibetans—were arriving, and there was simply nowhere left to stay.

Stuck, I remembered the elderly man I'd met at the station. I called the number, and a woman who sounded like his secretary answered. She put me through to him. When I said, “I'm the one who bought the ticket at New Delhi Station,” he remembered me and told me, “Tell the taxi driver the address, and he'll take you there.”

I took a taxi to that place. It was a large entrance, a mansion like an old king's residence, and there it was written in Hindi: “Theosophical Society.”

The Theosophical Society is an Indian mystical organization, and its affiliated elementary, middle, and high schools were special institutions where children could receive education in human spirituality and spiritual development. The elderly gentleman who invited me was, believe it or not, the chairman of that school!

He showed me to the room where I would stay. "I'm attending the Dalai Lama's lecture in Sarnath and will take the bus to the venue tomorrow morning at ten. I'll be coming and going for about a week, so I apologize for any inconvenience. " Since the elderly gentleman was from the Theosophical Society, he naturally understood spiritual studies and simply said, "That's wonderful."

The next morning, I went to the memorial service venue. Tents were set up on a vast grassy field. Monks gathered beneath them chanting sutras, while the Dalai Lama sat in the center speaking. I was about one kilometer away from where he was stting. Around him were huge crowds of Tibetans. There were foreigners too, probably over ten thousand people.

It was the Kālacakra ceremony. Whenever the sun rose, a rainbow would appear there without fail. They say that attending the Kālacakra ritual spiritually brings everyone's feelings one step closer to enlightenment. Because it was such a sacred ceremony, people gatherd from all over the world.

However, I could only participate for three days. Why? Because I suffered from a heatstroke partway through. Being exposed to the sun the entire time during the ceremony, from 10 AM until 3 PM, made my head spin terribly. I thought it would be better to rest for a day, so I went from Monday to Wednesday and decided to rest on Thursday.

When I told the Chairman, “I'm not feeling well, so I won't go to the venue tomorrow. I'll rest in my room for the day,” he said, “Danjō, tomorrow is a special day. It's a good day. It's good you can rest. At 11 a.m. tomorrow, go to the elementary school's Dharma Hall and sit right at the front with the children. I'm sure you'll hear something wonderful.”

I asked, “Is it okay if I don't understand Hindi?” He replied, “Probably fine, there will be an English interpreter.” So, I said, “Understood,” and decided to follow the chairman's advice. I had absolutely no idea what was about to start, and I couldn't read any of the Hindi written inside the school either.

The next day, I sat in the front row and waited for a while. Then five Tibetan monks entered. I recognized them as the monks I'd seen the other day at Sarnath. And following behind them was none other than His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The chairman introduced the Dalai Lama in English. Right in front of me! Behind us were dozens of the school's children. We listened to the Dalai Lama speak about Shakyamuni Buddha and Buddhism for over thirty minutes. I later learned the Dalai Lama is a friend of the chairman of the Theosophical Society.

When the Dalai Lama fled Tibet across the Himalayas, the Indian government granted him a place called Dharamsala. The chairman was the very person who proposed Dharamsala to Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister at the time. The connection is incredibly deep.

Jakusui: What an incredible series of coincidences. Knowing the Dalai Lama was coming to speak at the school, why didn't that chairman tell you, Priest Danjo?

Priest Danjo: Well, I wonder why? There must have been some reason. The founder of the Theosophical Society was a woman named Blavatsky. She studied Tibetan Buddhism and was the pioneer in incorporating esoteric Buddhism into Hinduism.

Furthermore, she opened a Theosophical Society school in England. It was at that school that a saint named Krishnamurti appeared. Blavatsky sought out such individuals to provide elite education for highly spiritual geniuses who could guide humanity spiritually in the 21st century.

When Krishnamurti was about ten years old, Blavatsky found him and believed he would become humanity's future spiritual leader. Later, he indeed became that. Blavatsky eventually went to America and passed away there.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. After the lecture, there was a luncheon, followed by a signing session. Children lined up holding notebooks. Usually, monks rarely sign autographs, but the Dalai Lama smiled and said, “Oh, sure,” and signed.

I took out the book I had and asked, “Could you please sign it?” He signed in one corner of the book's cover. Unfortunately, when I moved to SAIKOUZENJI, that book got lost somewhere.

The chairman invited me, saying, “Danjō, we're all having lunch now. Would you like to join us?” So I went to the school cafeteria.

At that time, I was dressed rather shabbily. Just like that, I ate curry with the Dalai Lama, his accompanying monks, the chairman, and the chairman's wife. It felt surreal to be eating with the Dalai Lama on our first meeting. When tea was served, the Dalai Lama asked me, “You're Japanese, aren't you?” I replied, “Yes, I am. Actually, I'm not working or doing anything right now; I came to India to study yoga.” The Dalai Lama then asked, “What do you plan to do in the future?”

Actually, on my way to Sarnath, I saw Tibetans performing throwing down the whole body on the ground (※). Witnessing their profound faith moved me to tears. Not just adults, but even small children joined in, throwing down the whole body on the ground as they circumambulated Sarnath.

It was my first time seeing this practice, so I asked a monk nearby who spoke English, “Why are they doing this?” The monk replied, “In Tibet, this is a very common practice. They do it to show respect to the Buddha and nature.”

It seems they do it with prayers, hoping their lives will lead them to a good place, not a wrong path, but a proper, good destination. By chanting the mantra “Om Mami Padme Hum” there, it means we can become Buddhas by guiding our impure body, speech, and mind onto the path of the teachings of perfectly unified order and wisdom. Tibetans carve that mantra into stones everywhere. We Japanese have sutra copying, writing on paper, but Tibetans carve it into stone. That's amazing.

“Seeing the Tibetans' deep faith moved me profoundly,” I told the Dalai Lama. That conversation with him became the decisive step in my resolve. Buddhism is truly profound, so I wanted to study it. When the Dalai Lama asked me, “What will you do in the future?” I answered, “When I return to Japan, I want to study Buddhism more deeply.”

At that point, I had already decided to ordain. When shaving my head, I asked Zen Master Mori to leave half my hair, showing I still had some hesitation. But being encouraged by the Dalai Lama at Sarnath removed all doubt.

Jakusui: Priest Danjo, you truly have profound Buddhist connections.

Priest Danjo: My connection with Buddhism is truly profound. If I hadn't gotten diarrhea from eating that samosa, I probably wouldn't have gone to Sarnath and wouldn't have met His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Even now, whenever I eat a samosa, that memory comes flooding back.

Jakusui: Is the photo of Priest Danjo and His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the main hall of SAIKOUZENJI Temple from that time?

Priest Danjo: No, that photo is from when we met five years ago. We also met in Hiroshima. For some reason, my connection with the Dalai Lama keeps overlapping. I think it's probably because the Dalai Lama is an incarnation of Kannon Bosatsu.

Jakusui: You've met him multiple times? Please tell me more about that story sometime.