On October 4, the 41st Anniversary Ceremony of the New England Peace Pagoda was solemnly observed, with some 200 people in attendance. The forecast had called for rain, but the day turned out partly cloudy with sunny spells: neither hot nor cold, and altogether fine weather.
Native American opening prayer and dance, led by longtime Leverett Temple friend Annawon Weeden.
In her welcoming remarks, the MC, Ms. Swan Keyes, recounted the history of Nipponzan Myohoji’s peace walks and of the building of Peace Pagodas. She mentioned the 1976 Continental Walk (Note 1), which first brought Kato Shonin to Massachusetts, and asked, “Would anyone who took part in that walk please raise your hand?” Hands went up across the seating area. When she announced that this year marks the walk’s 50th anniversary, cheers broke out across the gathering.
Ms. Hayat Imam, who offered an Islamic prayer, is an activist who joined Kato Shonin in a nonviolent occupation (sit-in) during the 1977 protest against the Seabrook nuclear power plant. That movement took place at the Seabrook Station, then under construction in New Hampshire. It became an emblematic moment of grassroots nonviolent direct action against nuclear power in the United States.
Rabbi Jacob Fine, who offered the Jewish prayer, and guest speaker Mr. Al Miller were also among those who worked to bring this Peace Pagoda into being.
Ms. Jennifer Cannon now leads an active solidarity movement across the Pioneer Valley that works to give as much protection as possible to immigrants targeted daily by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). In her guest speech, she also recalled the protests against the first Gulf War that she joined as a student at Amherst College. She told the audience how deeply she had been encouraged then by the sound of the drums beaten by Nipponzan Myohoji’s monks and nuns.
Between parts of the program and after the ceremony, people coming for the first time gathered with those connected for many years. In circles all around the grounds, they retold stories of long-ago journeys. How many months had they kept walking on the 1978 Longest Walk (Note 2)? Which road had they followed on the 1982 World Peace Walk (Note 3) to reach the million-person peace rally in New York? And on the Middle Passage Walk (Note 4), which set out in 1998 from this very Peace Pagoda, how far had they walked, and how had they crossed the Atlantic? These were not mere reminiscences. People had walked different roads in different eras, and here, half a century on, on this hill in Leverett, they were affirming together that their footsteps had converged once again.
Kato Shonin closed his Dharma talk with the words of his teacher, Fujii Guruji: “The path for genuine universal liberation is there for humanity to choose with courage, faith in humanity and spiritual values…”
Dharma talk by Ven. Gyoway Kato, Presiding Monk
Faith in one another’s humanity and a shared spiritual ground are what Nipponzan Myohoji’s peace work and walks around the world have nurtured over many years. That faith widened the circle of connection and led to the building of this Peace Pagoda. At that day’s ceremony, people who have long cherished old bonds chanted the Daimoku (Note 5) as one, together with those newly connected. It was a precious and wonderful gathering, as though Fujii Guruji’s words, quoted by Kato Shonin, were taking form right there.
After the cleanup, Sawada Shonin spoke a few words of greeting in the main hall, and they still stay with me: “While we were reciting the Rissho Ankoku Ron (Note 6) during the ceremony, the clouds parted and sunlight streamed through the gap onto the Peace Pagoda. The scene seemed to embody the name given to this land of Leverett: Rebaretto (霊晴土), written with the characters for ‘spirit,’ ‘clearing skies,’ and ‘land.’”
Notes:
Continental Walk (1976): A walk for disarmament and social justice across the American continent, from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.
Longest Walk (1978): On February 11, 1978, more than 300 Native Americans gathered on Alcatraz Island. From there, walkers set out to protest bills that would have undermined Native treaty rights. They reached Washington, D.C. on July 15, about five months later. Nipponzan Myohoji monks, nuns and followers walked with them.
World Peace Walk (1982): Walkers converged on New York for the June 12, 1982 anti-nuclear rally, held during the UN’s Second Special Session on Disarmament. About one million people attended. Nipponzan Myohoji’s walkers joined the rally from several routes.
Middle Passage Walk (1998–99): Its full name was the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage, and it retraced the transatlantic slave trade route in reverse. It left Leverett on May 30, 1998, walked down the East Coast and across the Deep South, and continued through the Caribbean. From there, some pilgrims flew and others sailed across the Atlantic to Senegal, then walked down through West Africa. The pilgrimage ended in Cape Town, South Africa, in June 1999.
Daimoku: The chanting of Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, devotion to the Lotus Sutra by its title. It is the central practice of the Nichiren tradition. Nipponzan Myohoji’s monks and nuns chant it to the beat of hand drums on their peace walks.
Rissho Ankoku Ron: On Establishing the True Teaching for the Peace of the Land, a treatise that Nichiren submitted to the Kamakura shogunate in 1260. It argues that peace in society depends on people taking refuge in the true Dharma.
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About the Author:
About the Author:
Mitsutake Ikeda completed a bachelor’s degree in International and Area Studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 2007, and a Master of Arts in Translation Studies at the University of Coimbra in 2017. He is a collaborator member of Unidade de Investigação & Desenvolvimento “Instituto de Estudos Filosóficos” (IEF) and a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Coimbra.
