One after the other, the Buddhist clergymen bowed earlier than the altar on the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo, carrying robes of yellow, orange and black.
Accompanied by the chanting of the Coronary heart Sutra in Korean, they dipped a paintbrush right into a bowl of golden lacquer to softly fill within the cracks of a white ceramic lotus that had been handmade for the event.
The ritual, which came about final Could, was drenched in that means. The lotus flower represented the purity and potential of the Buddha’s awakening. The repairing of the cracked ceramic lotus, a Japanese artwork generally known as kintsugi, was a logo of the collective effort to heal the injuries of non secular bigotry.
Right here, simply 49 days after the March 16, 2021, killing of eight folks in an Atlanta-area taking pictures rampage, together with six girls of Asian descent, was a symbolic effort to show brokenness into magnificence.
The timing was additionally vital: The forty ninth day after loss of life represents the tip of the bardo, an intermediate stage between life and rebirth in some Buddhist traditions.
The ceremony was a part of Could We Collect, a historic occasion that drew collectively followers of each main faculty of Buddhism for what's believed to have been the primary time because the custom was based 2,500 years in the past.
“I had by no means seen something prefer it earlier than, and I don’t assume there was something prefer it earlier than,” mentioned Indigo Som, co-director of the Asian American Buddhist Working Group, which fashioned a 12 months in the past. “It was a selected response to an assault on our group that was multi-lineage, pan-Asian and pan-Buddhist.”
Could We Collect served one other goal: serving to to jump-start a dialog amongst a various inhabitants of Buddhists about how leaders and establishments can reply to the anti-Asian violence that has lengthy been a part of American historical past, and which has been exacerbated by the pandemic during the last two years.
“A lot of what has occurred after the occasion is the acknowledgment that there's this shared expertise, and that we have now all, in several methods, confronted racism and white supremacy in America,” mentioned Nalika Gajaweera, a analysis anthropologist on the Middle for Faith and Civic Tradition at USC. “We might not reply in a coherent voice, however we’re having a dialog.”
Students say the historical past of anti-Asian violence in america has lengthy been intertwined with anti-Buddhist sentiment. As a non-Christian religion, it was thought of heathen, pagan and anti-American when it was launched to america by Chinese language laborers within the 1850s.
Within the years after the Civil Battle, Asian People have been denied voting rights partially as a result of they have been seen as too totally different — together with their non secular traditions — to be assimilated into American tradition. Within the Nineteen Forties, Japanese Buddhist clergymen have been labeled as a menace to nationwide safety within the prelude to America’s entry into World Battle II.
Funie Hsu, a professor of American Research at San Jose State College, mentioned that one other sort of anti-Asian violence occurred in the course of the Nineteen Sixties and subsequent many years, as counterculture Westerners, rejecting a society they considered as corrupted by materialism and militarism, turned to Jap religions to hunt enlightenment. As Buddhist books, magazines and retreat facilities started to focus on the work of white converts, and non secular rebels similar to Jack Kerouac popularized the best of the wandering, truth-seeking “dharma bum,” some Asian People felt marginalized in their very own hereditary faith.
“In my expertise, the best way that Asian People have suffered racism essentially the most in america will not be solely via hate and exclusionary legal guidelines, however by erasure and devisualization,” mentioned Mushim Patricia Ikeda, a trainer on the East Bay Meditation Middle in Oakland who spent 25 years making an attempt to construct bridges between hereditary Buddhist communities and largely white convert teams. It was an effort that she mentioned largely failed.
Asian and Asian American Buddhists have been victims of non secular hate lately as nicely. Buddhist temples have been vandalized, together with six in Santa Ana and Westminister and one in Little Tokyo, after the beginning of the pandemic. At one temple in Santa Ana, an individual spray-painted the phrase “Jesus” on a stone statue of the Buddha.
“The injury to property will not be what retains us up at night time or what bothers us essentially the most, it’s the hate crime in itself and the damaging influence to interfaith relations in our group,” the Venerable Vien Hay of the Dieu Ngu Temple, one of many vandalized temples in Westminster, instructed The Occasions on the time.
“The historical past of Buddhism in America is confronting anti-Asian violence,” Hsu mentioned.
As Asian American Buddhist leaders grapple with the present wave of violence within the wake of the pandemic, many are turning to classes from their historical past and faith to encourage resilience of their sanghas, or communities.
“Coverage and political options are vital, however within the face of the struggling persons are experiencing, tending to their spirit and giving them fortitude might be an important factor faith can do,” mentioned the Rev. Cristina Moon of Daihonzan Chozen-Ji Worldwide Zen Dojo in Honolulu.
A method to do this is to assist particular person Buddhist communities bear in mind the braveness and drive that it took for his or her predecessors to come back to America and make a greater future for themselves within the face of discrimination and violence, she mentioned.
“Simply reminding people who we’ve been via robust instances earlier than and we persevered by holding on to who we're and staying true to that religion,” she mentioned.
Som, who co-facilitates the Asian American Deep Refuge Sangha on the East Bay Meditation Middle, agreed.
“Asian People and Asian American Buddhists particularly have been beneath assault the entire time we’ve been on this nation, and there’s a complete story about folks being pressured to transform to Christianity to be ‘extra American,’” she mentioned. Sustaining the dharma — Buddhist teachings — sustaining the religion, and sustaining a temple is “already pushing in opposition to the violence, the erasure and the racism.”
Gajaweera, the anthropologist and co-director of the Asian American Buddhist Working Group together with Som, Louije Kim and Dorothy Imagire, elaborated: “It may not look like activism, however it's the day-to-day activism of maintaining your doorways open and supporting your group.”
Brother Phap Dung, a dharma trainer at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, mentioned between 200 and 300 members of the general public come to the mountain monastery every Sunday to take refuge from the discrimination, loneliness and the fundamental concern and anxiousness that's pervading society.
“We don’t simply look out for Buddhists,” he mentioned. “We attempt to handle all of the people who find themselves going through discrimination — African People, Latinos, homosexual and lesbian, LGBTQ.”
Monastics provide assist by simply being there, listening, taking guests on hikes, exhibiting them a sundown and reminding them of the wonders of life.
“That may also be good medication for taking good care of the psychological toxins and discrimination we have now obtained from others,” he mentioned. “Discovering methods to pleasure and surprise helps us not be overwhelmed and monopolized by the hate in society.”
Hsu mentioned she has additionally discovered solace within the Buddhist concept of Indra’s internet: an infinite net of reference to a single, shining jewel at every level of connection. Every jewel displays each different jewel within the net, and no matter impacts one jewel impacts all of them.
“That was one of many concepts we have been making an attempt to emphasise with Could We Collect,” she mentioned. “That we aren't separate from one another.”
For the one-year anniversary of the Georgia taking pictures rampage, the organizers of Could We Collect revealed reflections from Buddhist leaders and practitioners impressed by the dharma. Contributions got here in from Buddhists in California, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Canada and elsewhere.
They expressed sorrow for these misplaced — and gratitude for the chance to grieve collectively.
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