Opening Remarks

Masami Saionji, Chairperson of Byakko Shinko Kai

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished participants and guests, welcome to the sixth annual Symphony of Peace Prayers ceremony at Fuji Sanctuary! I am so very happy and honored to welcome you here today.

In today’s society, wherever we look we can see people living uneasy lives, filled with struggle and conflict, discrimination, and religious antagonism. For as long as human beings continue to live in this way, how can a peaceful future take shape on Earth?

So that all people might free themselves from their deeply-rooted habits of confrontational thinking, the Symphony of Peace Prayers emerged as a stepping stone in the evolution of the human consciousness.

For more than fifty years, at Fuji Sanctuary and other locations, peace-minded people have been praying each day for peace on Earth—in the rain, in the snow, and under the scorching sun. Thanks to this great pooling of prayerful energy, in May of 2005 the ground was prepared for the first annual SOPP ceremony.

Fuji Sanctuary is a sacred land, open to all people and embracing all faiths and spiritual traditions. It is a place filled with light, free from all negative thoughts, words, and actions. It resonates with truth, love, peace, life, happiness, potential, ability, power, and energy. Even people visiting the Sanctuary for the first time can feel its high dimensional vibration, and in praying here, they say that they feel cleansed, purified, and enlivened, with bright new insights surging up from within.

To all of you who have come here today to join in this SOPP ceremony, I would like to say that your presence here is no accident. Through your daily decisions and sincere way of living, each one of you has forged the course of your life toward this day. And so, you have and gathered here with others who share in your high dimensional consciousness, and in your heartfelt desire to safeguard all life on Earth.

Each one of you is a creator in this SOPP ceremony. Each one of you is building a field of peace-consciousness that will expand through the Earth. As a result, in the space of an instant, people in all places will suddenly feel that their prejudices and fixed ideas about other religions and traditions have mysteriously vanished, so that they can love, cherish, and respect all people equally.

The SOPP was born here at Fuji Sanctuary, but by the year 2018, I believe that the phrase ‘Symphony of Peace Prayers’ will burst forth from the Sanctuary and sweep across the world. This is because ‘Symphony of Peace Prayers’ is a powerful, light-filled phrase that contains within it a wish, a vision, and a mission for humanity to live in peace, health, and harmony, and for each individual to lead a happy and meaningful life.

The phrase ‘Symphony of Peace Prayers’ will be commonly spoken, like the term ‘eco’ or the idea of ‘switching genes on and off.’ It will be adopted by people in all walks of life who hold high aims and a deep belief in peace. As these words are spoken in more and more places, the field of peace-consciousness will further expand and take root on Earth.

This year, more and more SOPP ceremonies will be held throughout the world. From the bottom of my heart I thank each and every one of you for making it happen. May peace prevail on Earth.

 

Following these welcoming addresses, a group of about one hundred presenters entered the Prayer Field, lining up in front of the stage to perform a prayer without words expressed through deep, peaceful breathing. Byakko Deputy Chairperson Yuka Saionji led the prayer from the center of the field. Then, the ceremony progressed to its central program of peace prayers from the religions of the world.

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