Monday, August 19, 2019

NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO

In 1981, while stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, with the 24th Infantry Division - I began teaching a weekly Shotokan karate class at the base's Community Center. 

One of the students in that class was the young son of Mrs. Hisako Durbin - who became a dear friend. 

She worked at the  small food court (at the "Shoppette") that was opposite the base's "Moon Theater" - and within a short walk from  my barracks. 

We began our friendship over many months - when she would take her break in the late afternoon - and I would visit to be tutored in the Japanese language. 

Once she learned that I was teaching karate at the community center, she asked me to accept her son as a student. 

The night she came to watch her son train - afterward, she shared with me a compliment of the first order - the memory of which I cherish to this day...a short Japanese phrase that translated means: "Single-mindedness of Purpose"...which is what she felt generated from the floor, as I led the class in their training.

After Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Egypt - she feared for my safety - as I was to be part of a Rapid Deployment Force exercise called "Operation Bright Star", and was scheduled to travel to Egypt soon thereafter. 

She gave me her cherished Buddhist meditation beads to take with me - and I remembered the chant I had learned one weekend when she invited me to join her at a small gathering of followers of the Nichiren Buddhism sect. This was an act of grace, kindness, and friendship - that touched me deeply.