Sensei Tony Stultz with LeVar Burton at the Gettysburg anniversary ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Tony Stultz.)
November 19 marked the 153rd anniversary of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address; as usual, an annual ceremony was held, but this time, a Buddhist clergy member delivered the invocation — which had never happened before. The speaker was Sensei Tony Stultz of the Blue Mountain Lotus Society, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Stultz provided Lion’s Roar with a brief recollection of the event, which included a naturalization ceremony for new citizens, and a speech by guest LeVar Burton:
During a war that divided the United States and would leave 620,000 soldiers dead, Abraham Lincoln gave his iconic Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony of the Soldier’s National Cemetery. It would become one of the most important speeches in American history. At the 153rd Address Anniversary, award-winning actor LeVar Burton joined a list of speakers that includes presidents Truman and Eisenhower as well as director Steven Spielberg and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Beginning with a wreath-laying ritual and ending with a moving naturalization ceremony, Burton’s speech highlighted the synchronicity between the battles that took place there in the name of liberty and the current issues facing our nation. Honored by the Lincoln Fellowship to be the first Buddhist minister in history to offer the opening Invocation, I spent days carefully contemplating the words that I would offer.
Using a language that I hoped would connect both historically and universally, I began with the spaciousness of silence and then offered what I believe is the healing message of our faith: to behold the flowering of a humanity where boundaries are broken and freedom expanded and fulfilled; to bear witness to the struggle of those whose voice is not heard, whose plight is not perceived; to bear witness to our fears, anger, and sorrows so that they may be transformed into courageous compassionate action and creative opportunities for healing. That places like Gettysburg can awaken and compel us beyond the fashion of our fears and the walls of our dualities, to recognize the wholeness of our inherent oneness.
At the end of the ceremony, LeVar and I bowed and embraced, our words karmically connected as one.
Burton’s speech can be found online, along with more information, at the Lincoln Fellowship.
