Beautiful Greetings

Na Mu Myo *Ho* Ren Ge Kyo

This is the proper greeting to a monk or nun of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist order. Three times, with deep bows, hands in prayer in front of your heart, a warm smile.

If you have trouble with that for any reason, "hi - how are your feet? have you had lunch?" works just great.

It is a relatively small sect, started in 1947 as a response to the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They do two things - they walk very, very long distances - across continents, it can take years - and they build peace pagodas, or stupas.

On September 1st, Jun-San Yasuda, the nun who started the Grafton Peace Pagoda, will begin a walk from Grafton, New York, to the site of the World Trade Center to promote awareness of the global climate change. She will arrive on September 11th.

I spent some time with Jun-San in the summer of 1993. With little else to do - no job, no debt, no larger intentions - I showed up with a puppy and a tent, and worked: lifted rocks, cleaned potatoes, chased my puppy out of the moat.

Inspiration for the entire summer came at a Finnish sauna party at the Maine home of a dear friend. When I expressed concern about the enormous amount of time in front of me and my questionable lack of direction, people volunteered their projects. Among them was Debbie Chess, a sculptor commissioned to create the scenes of Buddha's life for the peace pagoda.

There was no grand excitement in those weeks. From Jun-San I learned many things: not to worry when my puppy ran across a freshly raked Zen rock garden; the unspoken secret of truly exceptional - and organic - flower beds; the etiquette of the outdoor Japanese bath; and to love the grace in the lilting cadence of that greeting.

I learned my first vegetarian lesson - to eat whatever a loving person cooks for you - whether it is vegetarian or not. I was not a vegetarian at the time but was concerned that well-meaning Girl Scouts were dropping off pork buns for Jun-San.

I also learned that when the group ran out of money for the scaffolding under which the giant dome of the peace pagoda was to be built, a Japanese structural engineer miraculously showed up and taught volunteers how to cut saplings from the surrounding woods and tie them into a sturdy scaffolding. And so the giant dome continued upwards.

The peace pagoda was in every respect a wonder to me. At 5:00 am volunteers sleeping in the main house walked the grounds with drums, blessing the site, each morning newly scaring me and the puppy into an awed awakening. I'd peek out the side of the tent, praying they wouldn't come over, lift the flap and invite me to join them.

I watched people carve prayers from different languages and traditions into the cement bricks we poured, like teenagers carving their love lives into fresh sidewalks. And from this vagabond group of volunteers reflecting on the passion that had erected the giant stupa, I saw that Buddhists love miracles as much as Christians do.

Jun-San's walk is being supported by many spiritual organizations along the road from Grafton to Lower Manhattan. I heard of this particular walk from some Quakers in Westchester. She will sleep at night in homes as people offer and eat as loving people feed her.

It isn't the longest walk she has taken, but I have learned that her loving-kindness will touch people's hearts and hopefully illuminate the value and art of thoughtful, low-impact living.

Here is Jun-San's most recent schedule:

Millerton 9-2-07
Ten Mile River / Dover Plains 9-3-07
Pawling 9-4-07
Brewster 9-5-07
Yorktown 9-6-07
Peekskill 9-7-07
Ossining 9-8-07
Dobbs Ferry 9-9-07
Fort Lee 9-10-07