Separation, Culture Shock, Death

Honda-shoni is dead. Honda-shoni became a close friend in a very short time. Honda-shoni stands for humanity's cure.

"CIVILIZATION IS NOT ABOUT installing electric lights, having airplanes or producing nuclear weapons. What defines civilization in its entirety? It is not to kill; not to destroy; not to wage war. It is about people holding one another in mutual affection and respect. There is nothing else that defines a viable human civilization. The foundation for these conditions in our communal life is not to be found in the enactment of laws nor in institutions but in religious faith that nurtures tenderness and integrity in our hearts." From Tranquil is this Realm of Mine, DHARMA TALKS AND WRITINGS OF THE MOST VENERABLE NICHIDATSU FUJII.

Honda gave me this book as I left his ashram in Milton Keynes at the end of the walk, when he took me to catch my bus to Birmingham. Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of Nipponzan Myohoji order, spent time with Gandhi and taught him how to chant. (I have not found mention of this relationship anywhere in all my Gandhi readings.)

I received word yesterday by email that Honda was killed in a tractor accident at the ashram.

The Walk spent two nights during the walk at the Peace Pagoda, and also concluded the Walk at the Lantern Ceremony on August 6th. (I mentioned this in another blog.) Honda joined the Walk for a week as did the nun, Martha-shoni. A few memories of my experience with Honda: walking rapidly through a crowded shopping mall looking for a toilet, "the young people have strong blatters" (honda is 50, I'm 69.); Honda's powerful chanting Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo troughout the week walk, not missing a beat during the day, even on the day that the six inch headlines said "TWO MONTHS RAIN IN A DAY"; making coffee to satisfy my need; lending me his poncho to finish the Walk, because mine was held together by tape (A sport's vender told me that "We don't carry ponchos, no need for them here!"); driving me all around Milton Keynes to find batteries for my hearing aides; talking about peace and life. Thank you Honda.

I do not understand many expressions of Honda's Zen practice, except through the spirit. One are the the words in the bowing ritual at every greeting and separation, the practice of Tangyo-raihai. It means "the mission of peace--call it non-violence or ahimsa, passive resistance or not taking life--... the singular practice of bowing and venerating the Buddha in others, is the active precept of cultivating good." How civilized!

Thank you, Honda.

I am going through a "culture shock" of sorts after the Walk. News of Honda's death only accentuates its meaning. The intense living for over two months with a community of Walkers who have nonviolence as their effort to be civilized only accentuates the inadequacies of Western civilization. I remember similar experiences in 1964 when returning to the US after travel to Mexico with a family.

I will continue this blog because so much is accentuating Walk experiences.