Myoshin Elizabeth Fitterer – Temple Dedication Poem
And so our ceremony has concluded
And we’ve brought our Buddha home.
But every single place this Buddha has been-
Truly, he’s been at home.
He was at home in a tiny chiropractor’s office
with a small but hardy band of pilgrims
in a nest from which they would grow bigger.
He was at home at the corner of Chautauqua Beach Road,
witness to a steady stream of black robes and beachgoers.
He was at home in a 1930s Westside Highway church
converted after a time into a Jewish Temple.
He kept watch there every night, by the altar’s perpetual light.
He was at home in Shuko Johannessen’s garage.
He loved to hear the sound of the sheep munching the grass.
He was at home in any pickup, hatchback, or station wagon.
We buckled him up and along he rode
to our far flung island retreats.
And even before all of that
Long before we knew him by sight
He was at home in the trunk of a tree
From which his shape was lovingly chiseled out
Just so we might see him more clearly
And so may this Zen Center help us
to live in the way that he does.
May this Zen Center help us to shape ourselves
Into Buddhas that others can see.
May this Zen Center help us to buckle on up
And ride along
Wherever life takes us.
People of the Puget Sound Zen Center-
We have arrived.
We are home.
