How long is eternal time?
The wisest, oldest monk swayed his head as he struck the chime bowl.
"There is a Diamond Mountain: it takes one hour to climb over it, and one hour to climb back."
"Every hundred years, a little bird flies here to whet its beak upon Diamond Mountain."
"Only when the whole mountain has been worn flat will eternal time have passed by a single second."
The memories of the past rose and fell like the tide; for the woman, this question had already receded a very, very long time ago—so long that she had lived through an eternity.
Before her stretched a boundless sea as flat as a mirror; the wind carried a bitter, salty tang. She began to ponder why she had first set out on this journey.
So the woman sat upon the island, year after year, day after day; spring, summer, autumn, and winter turned in their cycle, and a very, very long time went by.
