Past Life Story

You were a guide of a thousand cranes, born of legend. While ordinary cranes lived a thousand years and went, you led a thousand cranes. You walked at the head of the path of the immortals. While other cranes were companions of one human, you were the companion of all the immortals. In your first year, you knew your work. The thousand-cranes guide leads the cranes upon the path of the immortals. The immortals fly upon cranes' backs. While ordinary humans walked the earth, the immortals flew the sky upon cranes. Without the cranes, there were no immortals. And you led those cranes. In your hundredth year, you flew with a thousand cranes for the first time. The thousand cranes spread their wings together and flew. The sky was filled with white wings. From far below the earth, those who saw exclaimed. "There they fly. The path of the immortals." In your five hundredth year, you carried an immortal upon your back for the first time. He was the eldest immortal of his time. He sat upon your back. The two of you flew across the sky. He spoke to you. "Old cranes' guide, take me to the world of beings." You took him to that world. In your thousandth year, you came to know the secret of the cranes. The cranes do not merely live long. The cranes are guardians of cleanness. The crane that is clean lives long, the crane that lives long becomes cleaner. Cleanness and long life were one. With deepening cleanness, life deepens with it. In your three thousandth year, you came to lead an even greater number of cranes. Two thousand, three thousand, ten thousand cranes flew with you. The sky was filled with white wings. The path of the immortals widened. More immortals flew the sky upon your guidance. In your ten thousandth year, you came to know one truth. The thousand-cranes guide is not only a leader of cranes. The thousand-cranes guide is the bridge between immortals and humans. Through you, the immortals approached the world of humans, and through you, humans approached the immortals. You were the bridge between two worlds. In your hundred thousandth year, you encountered a young crane. From within yourself, a new thousand-cranes guide had grown. You taught the young one. "To lead the cranes is heavy. Yet that is your destiny. To lead the cranes cleanly is your honor." In your million years, you watched the world's changes. The world had changed much. New people appeared, old people vanished. New mountains arose, old mountains crumbled. Yet the path of the immortals stayed the same. With your guidance, the cranes flew the sky as they always had. In your eternal time, you became the path of the immortals itself. You were no longer just a being that led cranes. You were the path of the immortals. The cranes flew upon your wings, and the immortals walked upon your wings. The path of the immortals where a thousand cranes ride—that was your eternity. You were not just a long-lived crane. You were the bridge between heaven and earth. Your spirit, even now somewhere in some sky, must still be flying. With a thousand white wings, with the cleanness of the immortals. If sometime in your life a flock of white birds passes through your dreams—that, perhaps, may be the spirit of an ancient thousand-cranes guide whispering to you.