It is one of the oldest religious symbols: the lotus flower, blooming out of muddy waters.

The mud represents our suffering, pain and delusions, said Duncan Ryuken Williams, a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, retelling the ancient lesson. And the purpose of Buddhism is to rise above.

But there’s an even deeper metaphor: In pure water, a lotus flower will not grow.

It is in the mud that the nutrients are found.

“And so our liberation is actually not about transcending or distancing ourselves from trauma or pain and suffering, but it is to acknowledge how we can transform ourselves, our communities, our nation, our world, from all that pain,” he said.

This was the symbol at the heart of a national memorial ceremony in Los Angeles on Tuesday, offered by 49 Buddhist monastics, priests and lay leaders for healing amid recent anti-Asian violence across America.

They gathered 49 days after a gunman killed eight people including six Asian women at spas in the Atlanta area, to mark the moment many Buddhists believe the deceased transition to another realm. They met at a place of pain, a temple in Little Tokyo that had recently been vandalized in an arson attack.

“We join today to repair the racial karma of this nation, because our destinies and freedoms are intertwined,” said Dr. Williams, the chair of the University of Southern California’s School of Religion, who helped to organize the ceremony.

“And though the mountain of suffering is high and the tears of pain fill the deepest oceans, our path compels us to rise up like a lotus flower above muddy waters,” he said.

Together the ordained sangha, or clerics, chanted and offered mending rituals to heal what has been broken. Some 350 Buddhist temples and hundreds of individuals participated via livestream, from Hawaii to Nebraska to North Carolina.

It was a uniquely American, and uniquely modern, moment. The sangha represented the vast range of Buddhist lineages and ethnicities, including Chinese, Khmer, Korean and Vietnamese traditions, coming together as one spiritual community. A Mexican-American monk serving a Buddhist temple for the Thai community in North Hollywood shared a message in Spanish. About two-thirds of U.S. Buddhists are Asian-American, and many temples are increasingly multiracial.

In the 2,500-year history of Buddhism, ceremonies with such diverse participants across traditions are rare. Laotian Buddhists do not typically practice alongside Japanese Buddhists, or predominantly African-American or white Zen centers alongside immigrant Buddhist communities.

Buddhist philosophy has something to offer in this moment of fear, said Sister Kinh Nghiem, 38, a Vietnamese-American Buddhist nun who came to participate from Deer Park Monastery near Escondido, Calif.

“It is about bringing the human inside of us. Your suffering is also my suffering, and my suffering is no different than your suffering,” she said before the service. “If we are openhearted, we are in nirvana.”

The leaders lit candles in front of memorials, honoring ancestors. For Yong Ae Yue, 63, a Korean Buddhist mother killed in Atlanta. For Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, an immigrant from Thailand who was fatally assaulted while taking a walk in San Francisco. For Chinese immigrant coal miners shot and killed in Wyoming in 1885.

A Rise in Anti-Asian Attacks

A torrent of hate and violence against people of Asian descent around the United States began last spring, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

• • Background: Community leaders say the bigotry was fueled by President Donald J. Trump, who frequently used racist language like “Chinese virus” to refer to the coronavirus.
  • Data: The New York Times, using media reports from across the country to capture a sense of the rising tide of anti-Asian bias, found more than 110 episodes since March 2020 in which there was clear evidence of race-based hate.
  • Underreported Hate Crimes: The tally may be only a sliver of the violence and harassment given the general undercounting of hate crimes, but the broad survey captures the episodes of violence across the country that grew in number amid Mr. Trump’s comments.
  • In New York: A wave of xenophobia and violence has been compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic, which has dealt a severe blow to New York’s Asian-American communities. Many community leaders say racist assaults are being overlooked by the authorities.
  • What Happened in Atlanta: Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in shootings at massage parlors in Atlanta on March 16. The motives of the suspect, who has been charged with murder, are under investigation, but Asian communities across the United States are on alert because of a surge in attacks against Asian-Americans over the past year.

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