Place of Peace
The Place of Peace is a Japanese temple that was dismantled and reconstructed on the campus of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
Origins
The temple was donated to Furman University by Kiyohiro Tsuzuki and his wife, Chigusa. The Tsuzuki family has maintained residency in Nagoya, Japan and Greenville, South Carolina for many decades.Construction
This Jōdo Shinshū temple was built in Japan in 1984 by Daibun Co. and known as Hei-Sei-Ji and Tsuzuki Hondo. The temple is 900 square feet. However, the temple was never assigned a Buddhist priest to serve a practicing lay community. If this had been the case, then the temple would not have been removed from Japan.In 2004 the Hei-Sei-Ji temple was dismantled into more than 2,400 pieces and shipped in four containers across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. The temple was renamed The Place of Peace at Furman and is a learning space to educated students and public about oneness.
Calligraphy
Hanging in the front of the meditation hall is a calligraphy scroll of a poem written and brushed by Koichi Tohei. It reads, "信奉宇宙霊感応即現成." David Shaner translated the individual words of the poem as,- 信奉 - shinpo - Blessed, Respectful
- 宇宙霊 - uchurei - Universal Spirit
- 感応 - kanno - Feeling, Reply
- 即 - soku -
- 現成 - genjo - To be present, to be in the "Now"