Myself, Gee (my partner) and two daughters – Mei-An and Kai-Lin – got in the car and drove from our home in Sutton (Southwest London) to Battersea Park! The roads were relatively clear considering it was a Saturday – but unbeknownst to us was that the BHS Chelsea Flower Show was being held opposite Battersea Park – a happening that led to a delay in parking to the East of the Park! A Police Constable directed us to a different car-park directly to the West of the Park and we found a space within a few minutes! In the car were our two ‘new’ puppies (Basal and Niko) – now 15 weeks old and still in their growing and training period! They are being ‘socialised’ in London’s parks – getting to know different people, other dogs and unfamiliar circumstances! Although we have visited this interesting structure when Mei-An was around 3 or 4 years old – Kai-Lin has never been there!
The history of this (Japanese) Buddhist artifact can be read above. As Chinese Buddhists – we support the concept of World Peace – and sympathise with the Japanese victims of the US Atomic Bombs. However, between 1931-1945 – the Imperial Japanese Army murdered over 9 million Chinese men, women and children – with countless more victims throughout Asia (including many Westerners)! To date, although individual Japanese Buddhists and Japanese Buddhist groups have called for World Peace – the successive post-1945 governments of Japan are puppets of the United States! This an unfortunate situation which has turned Japan in to a colony of American fascism and anti-intellectualism! Whilst calling for World Peace – the governments of a defeated Japan refuse to take responsibility for its War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity committed in China (and throughout Asia)!
Furthermore, the Japanese founders of these movements remain ‘silent’ as the US (and its allies) continues to rain-down ‘death’ upon the multitudes of the Earth! The concept of this kind of ‘Peace’ seems only to apply to the victims of US neo-imperialism – who might be forgiven (or at least ‘understood’) for daring to occasionally ‘defend’ themselves (as even the Buddha acknowledged the existence of soldiers)! Whether ‘Chinese’ or ‘Japanese’ Buddhists – we all admire and respect the same ‘Indian’ (historical) Buddha! When politics are clarified and acknowledged – we may ‘look beyond’ the very real surface realities and unite through the underlying empty mind ground where ‘wisdom’ and ‘compassion’ combine to make our physical and psychological existences a far better (and progressive) place!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 