https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/us/asian-american-attacks-buddhism.html
Credit.Rozette Rago for The New York Times
Repairing Generations of Trauma, One Lotus Flower at a Time
The lotus flower, blooming out of muddy waters, has long been a symbol of rising above suffering. In the wake of Anti-Asian attacks, spiritual leaders hope it can help heal the trauma of racial violence in the U.S.
Credit.Rozette Rago for The New York Times
Published May 5, 2021Updated May 6, 2021, 9:15 a.m. ET
It is one of the oldest religious symbols: the lotus flower, blooming out of muddy waters.
The mud represents our suffering, pain and delusions, said Duncan Ryuken Williams, a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, retelling the ancient lesson. And the purpose of Buddhism is to rise above.
Buddhists from many cultures and communities gathered to repair the nation’s racial karma. The ceremony was held at a Los Angeles temple that had recently been vandalized in an arson attack.
Buddhist temple attacks rise as COVID-19 amplifies anti-Asian American bias
Incidents have included vandalism of temples and Buddhist statues outside private homes, as well as verbal harassment of Asian Americans at their houses of worship. Recent vandalism at the Huong Tich Temple in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Los Angeles. Photo and security footage via Huong Tich Temple
December 10, 2020
(RNS) A few weeks after Thai Viet Phan was elected the first Vietnamese American City Council member in Santa Ana, a town south of Los Angeles, she discovered that the Huong Tich Temple, in the city’s Little Saigon neighborhood, had been vandalized. As a child she had spent her weekends at the Buddhist temple, learning prayers, traditional dances and how to read and write in Vietnamese.