#Buddhism #Swastika #Interfaith #Symbol #Dialogue & #Peace: Wonderful Review! Thank you!!!

"Nazi Did Not Invent the Swastika!”

- Swastika has been used as a peaceful symbol for over 2,000 years in many parts of the world -

I found a wonderful review from my long time Muslim friend who lives in West Virginia. Thank you!!! I am glad to know that she really enjoyed my book. I want to share her review with you.

POWERFUL AND COMPELLING; A CHALLENGE TO HITLER's LAST LIVING VICTORY OF PROPAGANDAByaminahyaquinon June 1, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a big “little” book. Packed into its 150 pages is a veritable treasure of philosophy, religion, history, sociology and expedited cultural literacy.

Because it is written so deeply and beautifully, it can be considered an authentically enlightening read by those who engage it as Abraham Joshua Heschel abjured by keeping in mind “the principle…to know what we see rather than to see what we know”. P.140 of the book, a quote from The Prophet.

One can profitably encounter this work by suspending not one’s disbelief, as in a work of fiction, but one’s knee-jerk, deep-seated prejudices, and this in order to transcend the hideous nature of Hitler’s cultural misappropriation of symbols and concepts that have a vital history in Asia and elsewhere of thousands of years of holiness and beauty in the exact anthesis of meaning to Hitler’s perversions and hate-fueled genocidal ends.

This work makes a scholarly and decisive foray into holocaust and comparative religious studies in more than one important way, but of particular note is the differentiation completely of Hitler’s hakenkreuz or “hook cross” from the ancient svastika, more commonly in English referred to as the swastika.

When I visited Germany and saw the prominence of Christian cathedrals and churches in every single town, I wondered how it had been possible that each was not a central sanctuary for the Jews. The description of how the hooked cross or hakenkreuz supplanted the crucifixes is also a history of how the Nazis were corrupted from Christian values to Nazi hatred and it is chilling. Sadly, it is also the story of a good Christian gone amok, for in all my classes in religious studies over the years (and my Fordham degree) I had never read the doctrines of Martin Luther in his 60s, when he became a confirmed anti-Semite, and his last years’ writing fed the Nazi Beast in Germany.

It is certainly beyond time to redirect the blame from a powerful ancient symbol of achieved virtue that was hijacked by a demagogue who murdered millions to he himself and the virulent fascist mob he intentionally misled and incited.

As the holocaust survivors and hibakusha, or nuclear bomb survivors encourage us from The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross , it becomes incumbent upon us to proactively wrest Hitler’s last victory from him, and restore to our hearts, minds and the knowledge of our lives and souls, the respectful and profoundly positive and sacred meaning of the svastika symbol, by , as so many other cultures have done all along, differentiating it from Hitler’s horribly disfigured hooked cross.

I personally found the spiritual maturity, generosity and insightful scholarship of this book to be in complete harmony with the nature of its author, T.K. Nakagaki , whom I have known for many years from interfaith work in greater New York.

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Shotoku Taishi, considered the Father of Japanese Buddhism, and reincarnation of Avalokitesvara (Kannon) to liberate all beings, said "Few human beings are utterly bad. They may be taught to follow it (truth)" - in the Article #2 of Seventeen Article Constitution in 604. Human has potential to learn, and hope that the people are open to learn the true meaning and important history of Swastika and Aryan, not as illusively created meanings recently in the West. I take the view in Buddhism that all beings are potential to be enlightened.

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Here are some Swastika photos I took when I visited south India last fall (2016).