Linda Leicht (news-leader.com 7/11/09)
ROGERSVILLE, Missouri -- Joanne Banks sits on a low stool in front of an elaborate cabinet of enamel black and gold that serves as an altar. Her face is soft, punctuated only by a tiny dimple in her right cheek, as her lips barely move:
ROGERSVILLE, Missouri -- Joanne Banks sits on a low stool in front of an elaborate cabinet of enamel black and gold that serves as an altar. Her face is soft, punctuated only by a tiny dimple in her right cheek, as her lips barely move:"Nam Myoho Renge Kyo," she chants in a voice that reveals more power than her serene look implies.
Banks is a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and an active member of a lay organization called Soka Gakkai International.
The daughter of a Japanese mother and American father whose military career took them around the country and the world, Banks has tried many religions. "I kept searching," she says.
After moving to the Ozarks in 1997, she decided to "reconnect" with her Buddhist roots. She began studying, met some other SGI members, and learned the most important lesson of her life: "I have all the answers within me." More>>
