"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 -
Moon Festival ("o-tsukimi" in Japanese) is something I enjoy, especially eating moon-cakes!
It is also time for prayer of blessings, as it started as celebration of the harvest. This year, I was invited to join the opening day of the 4th Liberation Ceremony for Land and Water in New York by Chinese Buddhist community on October 5, held in Pearl River, NY. A few hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people gathered for the opening day.
My eyes nowadays go to the swastika symbol. The main Buddha statue in the main shrine has a big golden swastika on his chest. Several smaller shrines have the Buddhas with golden swastika on their chests as well. The decorated cloth also have many swastika designs. These swastikas symbolize auspiciousness, good virtues, good luck to chase away darkness.
After the service, the vegetarian food were served to all the participants. As desserts, I received the mooncake, whose cover has the design of swastikas. The swastika symbol is all over the place for this auspicious ceremony.
For my eyes, they were very beautiful and joyful. It is sad that the western people don't have the same eyes because of misappropriation of the symbol by Nazi Germany and hate group with wrong usage.
My responsibility is to share the truth of the swastika symbol in the Eastern religious traditions and to prevent from perpetuating ignorance about the swastika symbol. May the western society be aware of the firm and long existence of positive and sacred swastika symbol. Publishing is a great step for me!
Peace,
T.K.
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