HIGH IDEALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 941, 7 April 1930, Page 10

HIGH IDEALS

BUDDHA WOULD BE ROTARIAN JAPANESE OPINION “Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha —in fact all the Great Teachers were Rotarians in principle. There was no Rotary when they lived, but had there been such an organisation they would have been glad to identify themselves with it.” So said Mr. Yozo Nomura, of Kyoto, Japan, at the Rotary luncheon today. Mr. Nomura was one ol the Japanese delegates to the recent Sydney conference. Prior to addressing the club today he asked the acting-president, Mr. J. Gentles, to accept from Japanese Kotarians a splendid shield on which was the Rotary emblem in silver and enamel, on a base of polished ebony. The president replied suitably. Referring to the famous Buddha of Kamakura in Japan, Air. Nomura said the ideals of Rotary should be promugated as freely as were the high ideals of Buddhism by Gautama Buddha. Buddha had been brought up in luxury, but becoming sated by it, investigated the causes of death and suffering that he might free men from them. Illumination finally came to him after years of ascetisism, and he attained the Great Truth of the causes of sorrow. As the Lord of Compassion he spread the glad tidings of the way of escape that all men might know and free themselves. Rotarians also should do this. It was not sufficient to have only Rotary ideals. Example in everyday life was what impressed on the world the practibiliiy of the objects of the organisation. J-ic concluded with an appeal for greater understanding between the nations of the world. Another Japanese Rotarian, Air. Yonosuke Shundzu, .also spoke after making a presentation to the Auckland Ftotary. Club of a framed address from Tokyo Rotarians. I-Ie referred to the goodwill and understanding he had found existent between Rotarians in I New Zealand and Australia. ! Dr. Otto Monson, an American delej gate from Santa Monica, California, ; made a strong plea for the development j of internationalism without the loss of j national characteristics or national j love. A wider and more sympathetic i understanding would eventually make | workl-peace a fact, he said. ; The speakers were accorded a vote ! of thanks. A guest at the luncheon was Mr. Eiji Kurosawa, a young man who has come from Japan to study at the Auckland University College.