MAMUMYOHORENGEKYO

  WORDS FROM FUJII GURUJI…

“Just as cucumbers grow from cucumber seeds and eggplants from eggplant seeds, the outcome and the cause is preached to be of the same nature according to the law of causation. Consequently (for a nation to renounce war thus) choosing to avert evil and do good will bring the desired result of protecting the true security of the land and the people. “

“When we believe in the just truth of the law of causation, we must completely abolish armaments, not only nuclear weapons, but all tools of killing and destruction and all means of war…Preserving the precept against taking life taught by the Buddha is the assurance of Peace and Tranquility in this world.”

“The single gate open for humanity to escape the  conflagration that consumes the three fold world is none other than Nonviolence…that is the nature of religion.The Path for genuine liberation is there for humanity to choose with courage, faith in humanity, and spiritual values.”

                                                                   Most Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii Guruji

The New England Peace Pagoda was completed and inaugurated in 1985.

A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most (though not all) peace pagodas built since World War II have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order. Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to World peace.

Peace Pagodas were built as a symbol of peace in Japanese cities including Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombs took the lives of over 150,000 people, almost all of whom were civilian, at the end of World War II. By 2000, eighty Peace Pagodas had been built around the world in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

The Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks of the New England Peace Pagoda were awarded the Courage of Conscience award June 5, 1998 in Sherborn, Massachusetts.