Here it is appropriate to note some of [the impact of Tendai] thought on the broader intellectual life of medieval Japan. This discourse did not remain confined to Buddhist scholastic circles but was quickly assimilated to other vocabularies and found other modes of expression. It can be found, for example, in didactic tales and poetry of the medieval period. Shasekishū (Sand and pebbles), a collection of setsuwa (tales) by Mujū Ichien (a.k.a. Dōgyō, 1226—1312), relates the following:

The Shou-leng-yen Ching tells the story of Yajn͂adattā, who looked in a mirror one morning and could not see her face because of the way she was holding the mirror. Believing that her head had been taken by a demon, she ran about distractedly until someone showed her how to hold the mirror correctly. Then she thought that her head had been restored. Both her wretchedness and her delight were without foundation. The unenlightened man is like one who looks for his lost head. The mind of original enlightenment (hongaku) is not lost; the loss comes only from thinking that this is so. Thinking that we have discovered and attained something for the first time is what we feel when we experience enlightenment for the first time (shikaku). But how can we attain it for the very first time [when it has been there since the beginning]? (Page 39-40)