The Path of Dreams
A novel by Eugene Woodbury
PEAKS ISLAND PRESS
Portland, Maine
Copyright © 2008 by Eugene Woodbury
All rights reserved. Published in the United States of
America by Peaks Island Press, Portland, Maine.
Second Edition
ISBN-10 143825797X ISBN-13 978-1438257976
This is a work of fiction. The characters and plot are
solely the product of the author's imagination. Any
resemblance to the appearance, personality, or actions
of any person, living or dead, should be considered
purely coincidental.
I run to you
ceaselessly
on the path of dreams
Yet no night of dreams
could ever compare
to one waking glimpse
of you
Ono no Komachi
c. 833-857
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Preface
The Buddha's Disciple
After New Year's, Obon is the most important of Japan's national holidays.
Also known as the Feast of the Lanterns or the Festival for the
Dead, Obon is the time set apart for the veneration of our ancestors.
The time dedicated to the restoration of familial and generational ties.
The time when we remember the dead.
The Japanese is an abbreviation of Urabon, a phonetic reduction of
the Sanskrit Ullambana, meaning "to hang upside down." It represents
the suffering of those "hungry ghosts" whose sins have forestalled
their reincarnation and consigned them to the torments of Hell. On the
final day of Obon, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month (according
to the old calendar), the Ruler of the Earthly Realms grants forgiveness
to all such benighted souls and thus upon all humankind. For
none of us pass from this life pure.
The Festival finds its beginnings in the Urabon Sutra and the story
of Maudgalyayana, a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. Soon after his
mother's spirit passed from this life, Mokuren Sonja (as the Japanese
pronounce his name) discerned her to be suffering the tortures of
Ullambana. Water boiled upon touching her lips. Everything she ate
turned to ash.
In despair, Mokuren sought out the wisdom of the Buddha, who
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told him that his mother's bad karma was the consequence of a life
given over to petty greed and stinginess. To merit her release from hell,
