Mount Wutai, East Peak

Every visit to Mount Wutai has felt like a stroke of good fortune.

On my first trip, I arrived in the spirit of an explorer, carrying a twenty-pound backpack and determined to complete the circuit of all five summits. But after the very first climb, up the South Terrace, I realized how greatly I had overestimated myself. Luckily, we met kind strangers who took us under their wing, helping us arrange transport and places to stay. Without them, we might never have completed the journey.

By my second visit, ambition had given way to reverence. My wish had become a modest one: simply to watch the sunrise from the East Terrace. Before we set out, local authorities had issued a thunderstorm warning. Lightning had struck cattle on the summit, and people had been injured. Yet when we arrived, we were greeted by the sunrise I had dreamed of.
Mount Wutai is sacred to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, and is surrounded by countless miraculous stories. One of them says that whoever reaches Mount Wutai will encounter Manjushri in an unexpected form.

I believe that encounter has already happened—in the kindness of strangers, and in the sunrise after the storm.