Only a few of them escaped to bring the sad news to other communities, and for five generations no attempt was made to re-occupy the place.
At length it was revealed to him, our friend Kou-en, when a young man, that he was a re-incarnation of one of the old monks of this monastery, who also was named Kou-en, and that it was his duty during his present life to return thither, as by so doing he would win much merit and receive many wonderful revelations.

So he gathered a band of zealots and, with the blessing and consent of his superiors, they started out, and after many hardships and losses found and took possession of the place, repairing it sufficiently for their needs.
This happened about fifty years before, and here they had dwelt ever since, only communicating occasionally with the outside world.

At first their numbers were recruited from time to time by new brethren, but at length these ceased to come, with the result that the community was dying out.
"And what then ?" I asked.
"And then," the abbot answered, "nothing.

_We_ have acquired much merit; we have been blest with many revelations, and, after the repose we have earned in Devachan, our lots in future existences will be easier.

What more can we ask or desire, removed as we are from all the temptations of the world ?" For the rest, in the intervals of their endless prayers, and still more endless contemplations, they were husbandmen, cultivating the soil, which was fertile at the foot of the mountain, and tending their herd of yaks.