Full Circle - Return To Trinity

So two years ago i was staying at San Francisco Zen Center for a three week intensive.  Somewhere towards the end of the second week i think, my teacher Ryushin Haller Roshi asked if anyone would like to accompany him to meet a ship arriving in the harbour. The ship was the Nippon Maru and on board were some Zen monks from Japan carring the Atomic Flame. The flame had been lit from the burning embers of Hiroshima sixty years previously and kept alight ever since. They were walking with it back to the military base where the bomb had been constructed. By doing so they were closing the circle of pain and beginning anew.

It was an honour to join these monks in walking meditation through San Francisco. I remember the intense heat of the day, standing in the burning Sun and listening to the anguish, tears, forgiveness, and sheer humanity of a Hiroshima survivor. I remember how he pleaded for people to understand that our protests against injustice must never be clouded by anger.  I remember later that night sitting once more in the zendo and crying a single tear for humanity. I learnt a lot about acceptance that day.

Here's a little film about it made by Steven Segal.