Memorial Day was called Decoration Day at one time. In 1866 a group of women in Columbus, Mississippi visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who were killed in the battle at Shiloh.
Nearby were the neglected graves of Union soldiers. Neglected because they were the enemy, they were evil.
Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, and having compassion for the grief of their families, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.
They decorated the graves of the soldiers who killed their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers and yet, their compassion, beyond measure, moved them to decorate the graves of the enemy.
The Buddha taught universal truths.
Hatreds never cease by hatreds in this world. By love alone they cease.
This is an ancient Law.
Do we have compassion in us like the women who decorated graves of the enemy? It is not easy to overcome our human greed, anger and folly. But in the presence of death, we soften. That tenderness, that empathy, sometimes opens our being to the awareness of our interconnectedness, even with the enemy.
That awareness is not easy to bear. And yet, it opens that little door we guard so carefully; the door of letting go of fear, anger and hatreds. Each time we open it a bit more, we are allowing ourselves to experience not only the giving of our compassion to others, but also the willingness to receive compassion from others.
To say the Nembutsu as a Prayer for Peace (see Nightstand Buddhist below) : “To say Namu-amida-butsu is to repent all the karmic evil one has committed since the beginningless past … to give this virtue to all sentient beings … to adorn the Pure Land” (CWS I: 504).
Am I willing to decorate the graves of my enemies?
Namo Amida Butsu.
In Gassho,
Rev. Anita
rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com
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