Her Holiness Shinso Ito, Head Priest of Shinnyo-en, an international Buddhist order, visits New York City on the occasion of the opening sessions of the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (June 28-30), the world’s largest gathering of service and volunteer leaders, of which the Shinnyo-en Foundation, a secular and philanthropic arm of Shinnyo-en, is a lead sponsor.
On June 28, Her Holiness will address the conference in a speech about service to community and the values of an altruistic spirit, which are keystones to Shinnyo-en’s teachings and core to ancient Buddhist wisdom. Her Holiness will illustrate Shinnyo-en’s role in bridging these messages as part of its humanitarian mission to promote social change by fostering compassion and universal sense of service.
Her Holiness Shinso Ito will also present a gift to the City of New York, the statue of Prince Shotoku, which symbolizes a universal wish for peace. Master Shinjo Ito, the founder of Shinnyo-en, cast the statue in 1967. A small version of the statue will be presented at this time, while the original life-size version of the Prince Shotoku statue will be brought to New York City for public display when a location is confirmed. Prince Shotoku was a seventh century Japanese prince credited both with expanding and supporting Buddhism in Japan as well as incorporating Buddhist teachings into governing principles and promulgating a constitution.
Her Holiness Shinso Ito strives towards greater harmony between different cultures and religions. She meets regularly with religious leaders from other faiths. In 2002, in cooperation with the Catholic Church in Japan and in Europe, religious concerts with Buddhist chants (“Shomyo”) were held in churches in Krakow, Cologne, Paris, Milan and Rome. In 2008, for the first time, Shinso Ito performed a Buddhist ceremony in at St. Peter’s church in New York City as a prayer for world peace. In 2009, she officiated an ancient Buddhist fire rite at the interfaith ceremony in Berlin, bringing together groups from different faiths such as Judaism, Moslems and Christianity.
Source: pr-usa.net
