The tear gas spread through the group of walkers, They had come to Central America to be part of an international march for peace, but an angry mob of the far-right met them in San Jose, Costa Rica. Supporters fled into a nearby hostel. Children began gagging and screaming. Yet, a group of Buddhist monks continued to chant and beat their drums while tears flowed down their cheeks. "It hurt a little." one monk said. "hut it was important to keep praying for them. We believe prayer will overcome any violence." The Buddhists were the last ones to reboard the buses, bowing deeply before leaving.
Similar walks have brought a message of peace to Eastern Europe. They have called attention to Native American rights, walking through cold and snow. They have focused on prisoners and those on death row, traced the route of the Underground Railway and walked the Middle Passage by which slaves were taken through Afrida. Throughout each of the walks, a prayer is chanted to the sound of a hand drum. It is the prayer of the Odaimoku: "Na Mu Myo Ho Re Ge Kyo."
Until his death in January, 1985 (at the age of 100), Nichidatsu Fujii
dedicated himself to this practice, the Odaimoku, and he worked to
give a universal meaning to the teachings of the Japanese Buddhist,
Nichiren. Nipponzan Myohoji, the order which he founded in 1917, continues
in this spirit.
Fujii believed that the promises of the Lotus Sutra contained a unique hope:
I will leave this good medicine here. Take it and do not fear that it might not cure the illness.
The illness was a perceived was a world in decay, on the verge of annihilation. The medicine was in the Odaimoku.
This meant more than a magical formula for peace. For Fujii, the object of practice was within, "to reveal the Buddha realm of one's mind." Yet, he felt that in a time of crisis it must be made public. The world must be drawn into a new kind of community -- "even by opening the eyes of all beings so that they recognize the Buddha."
"How can humanity live peacefully?," he asked. "We have come to an age when we must have mutual trust to survive. To trust -- this is a religious civilization. To save others and to save the world --- these are the tasks of a spiritual civilization." Nichiren had taught that the "Saha World" -- this world of suffering - was itself the pure land. Fujii believed that this could be made manifest through a transforming nonviolence. The Nichiren ideal of a tranquil nation that was tied to the interests of Japan became the world itself.
This belief took Fujii to India. "I was surprised to see picture, of Gandhi on the salt march or spinning yarn. Could such a movement defeat the firmly organized structure of a modern state and create another world? A world of nonviolence? ... I resolved immediately to go."
In 1931, he arrived in Calcutta. Three years later, after traveling throughout India and Sri Lanka, Fujii came to Gandhi's ashram at Wardha. Sumira Kulkarni, Gandhi's granddaughter, learned to recognize him as "the drum beater." She recalls that Fujii arrived, the Mahatma stopped spinning on his wheel to learn the drum and the chant. "Henceforth, our prayers started with Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. Gandhi gave him the title "Guruiji" and accepted him as an associate,
Yet, Fujii was not simply trying to put Gandhian philosophy into Buddhist robes. He believed that Gandhian nonviolence had its root in the precept "not to kill" and was primarily a religious force. "Gandhi found a power which surpasses violence ... a power that acts in pursuit of truth and justice. It is religion which teaches this power."
This understanding grew during the suffering of World War II. Although Fujii had been critical of Japanese militarism -- and fasted for an early end to the war -- the shock of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki unlocked a greater vision of what peacemaking entails. After a period of fasting in his homeland of Mount Aso, he emerged with a vow to build a stupa dedicated to peace.
While on pilgrimage to Sri Lanka in 1933, Fujii had been given relics of the
Buddha by Theravadan monks. They had urged that the relics be enshrined in
a stupa (or pagoda), one of the most important symbols of early Buddhism. The round dome and central spires of the buildings were meant to be a visible expression of the Buddha.
In the Lotus Sutra a stupa appeared while the Buddha was teaching, and the dome shaped structures had been built extensively as Buddhism began to flourish. It is also said that Ashoka of India, a notoriously bloody warlord, was approached after a particularly wretched battle by a Buddhist monk who admonished him for his wrongdoings. Ashoka became a fervent believer in Buddhism. After his conversion he gave up his warlike ways and began erecting stupas as an expression of peace.
Fujii hoped that such a pagoda could serve as a "beacon of peace. " He taught, "The appearing of a pagoda touches the hearts and minds of all. . . It illumines the dawn of a spiritual civilization."
Momoru Kato, the head monk who built the first pagoda in the United States, noted, "The Peace Pagoda is the crystallization of people's good hearts and the desire to seek peace, which is not something just to be realized --- you always have to make an effort."
The first effort was completed 1954. It took seven years of hard work with primitive hand tools in the poverty of postwar Japan. Over 100,000 people came to the opening ceremony. "We can achieve interesting things," said Fujii. "when we move the minds of people. A good work is peaceful and leads to a chain of other good works." There are now over 80 Peace Pagodas throughout the world including Europe, Asia, and the United States. It has brought different Buddhist traditions together. For Fujii, this gave rise to the hope that a "religious body united for peace" was to be born.
The first pagoda in the United States was built in on a wooded hill in Leverett, Massachusetts. It was dedicated in 1985, after 11 years of planning and hard work by numerous volunteers. The design was based on one earliest pagodas that was built in the second century, B.C, It followed the traditional elements -- a dome with a pinnacle holding the relics of Buddha -- but it was also meant to reflect the Western influences of its designer. When it was finished, it was said to be the first great monument in this country devoted entirely to peace.
Kathleen Flannigan, a worker on the pagoda, wrote, "My life becomes: mixing concrete, making blocks, building trusses, making more blocks... Practicing ways of nonviolence." The work of building the pagoda became that of peace, Rev. Clare Carter, a nun at the pagoda, stated, "Our teacher was always trying to make the point that heaven is also this world. Our life here is a creation of this heaven through human effort." Through this process, a community emerged influenced by both Japanese Buddhism and Western culture. Some of the changes occurred in small, but significant ways. It was the first time, for instance, that the room holding the sacred relics had been built by a woman carpenter.
A second pagoda was built in Grafton, New York, through the efforts of a nun, Jun Yasuda. Yasuda had been close to Native Americans, and her stupa was dedicated to their survival. Before building the pagoda, Yasuda had walked across the country four times in support of peace and Native Americans, beating her hand drum as she chanted the Odaimoku. In 1983, she was fasting and praying in New York, when she met Hank Hazelton, a long time activist for Native Americans. Hazelton offered her a parcel of land. In October of 1985, work began on the structure soon to be called the Grafton Peace Pagoda.
The pagoda was dedicated in 1993. Native American symbols ring the pagoda, while other images inlaid into the dome depict various aspects of the Buddha's life and teachings.
While the Pagodas have been one expression of their call for peace, Nipponzan Myohoji has also carried its prayers to the world in numerous walks. Since 1976, when a group joined the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice across the United States, their presence has been an important part of many movements for peace and justice in this country.
The Lotus Sutra describes a Bodhisattva who venerated all as the Buddha -- despite any persecution he endured. The walks are seen as a way of extending this respect, of realizing that all beings are linked together, without distinction. Mamoru Kato states, "The basic quality of walking is like natural medicine for our confused, aggrieved minds .... It is a continuous practice of nonviolence,"
"We must go out among the people." Fujii taught. "In the Sutra there is a line that states; 'So this man, practicing in the world, shall disperse the gloom of living.' Religion, which does not 'go' will not be able to provide the relief which must be brought about." The prayers of the Odaimoku are to disperse this gloom. "Religion becomes isolated from the happenings of the world because it tends to be occupied in seeking solutions to one's own spiritual matters. If we fall to prevent a nuclear holocaust one's desire for security is nothing but a dream. All must be awakened."
In 1977, the Order put this into practice by joining the Longest Walk for Native American survival. Fujii found the basis for a deep relationship with the Indian people. As he told Dennis Banks, "The daily life of your people is supported by religious faith . . . a way life identical to that of Buddhism."
Banks had encountered the drums many years before. As a member of the armed forces in 1956, Banks was on guard as the Order joined farmers and students to halt construction of an air base near Tokyo, "The Japanese police beat many of the Buddhist disciples." he later recalled. "As I watched in horror I could not realize the strength of their prayers and the weakness of our weapons. Twenty-two years later, we met again at D-Q University [in California]. Only then did I realize the strength of [Fujii's] spirituality and I knew that his prayers would outlast the weapons of war."
Fujii's work with Native Americans continued to grow through numerous walks and actions. A Buddhist temple was established at D-Q, a Native American controlled school where Banks served as chancellor. When he left the state, a Nipponzan Myohoji nun, Jun Yasuda, traveled with him. Banks pointed to the Order as an example of what religious respect could mean. The Sangha, he explained, had not come to convert him to Buddhism, or to tell Indians how to do things, but to offer their support in times of danger. They had stayed constant through their own prayers and practices.
In 1981, Fujii spoke at the World Conference of Religious Workers, which was held in New York. He called them to a new sense of urgency.
The time has come. The time has come when we can no longer contain the urge to do something, but rush out of our houses. The time has come to look up to heaven, prostrate ourselves to earth, to voice our grief, and to share it with everyone.
It is that sense - that a new way of action is so necessary - that led him to an uncompromising and rigorous activity. In many ways, he adopted an ascetic path: he fasted regularly, chanted long hours in practice periods, and stretched himself to his limit in numerous ways. If necessary, hardship became part of the practice, rising from his willingness to share with others.
When Fujii came to New York and saw the devastation of the South Bronx, he compared it to the aftermath of an atomic bomb and called for an "economics of religion . . . not to take from others, but to give what one has."
When faced with the dangers of nuclear war, he called for "nonviolent resistance, a movement through which people are spiritually united." He spoke of disarmament as the last path left for humanity, and counseled that the "prayer for world peace is not for any particular nation's benefit. Religion must indicate a just path."
To accomplish this, he reminded his followers, "To lay down this body of ours to relieve others is to become the Buddha." This remains his legacy today. Not all will find the specific form of practice to be a lifetime vocation. Yet, learning the meaning of nonviolence and sacrifice embodies the deeper meaning of what Fujii taught.
Photos:
Nichidatsu Fujii, 1977, Japan, from the author.
The opening ceremony for the first pagoda in Hanaokayama, Japan, 1954, from Nipponzan Myohoji.
The opening ceremony of Grafton Peace Pagoda, 1993, from the author
Nipponzan Myohoji at the Trident Ploughshares Walk, 2000
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