At some point or another, a child nibbles at the world of questions: "Why are we here, where did we come from, how did the world start?"

Most children swallow down partial answers and move on to soccer balls or Barbie dolls, but for Issho Fujita, 56, a Soto Zen monk, these questions have shaped his entire life.

"At the age of 10, I had an unexpected spiritual experience. It is not easy to describe, since I had no vocabulary at the time to explain such an experience, but I was struck by a big question mark, about everything, the universe and myself, too. Many people do not stick with these questions for a long time, but these feelings guided me."