President Ikeda has been stressing the relevance of wisdom in the world today in his lectures on the Hoben and Juryo chapters of the Lotus Sutra. Barbara Cahill stresses the importance of taking his guidance to heart in an address originally given to SGI-UK leaders in January 1996.

“This is a time of change. With the dawn of the twenty-first century just ahead, the world and its individual nations are undergoing profound transformation. What is most needed at this time of great change? To give a single answer, it would have to be wisdom.
Whether individually or as a group, when people view the affairs of the age and society with a discerning eye and manifest fresh wisdom, they will not be dragged down by even the most tumultuous of events. Instead, they can steer change towards development, towards victory and towards value creation.

By contrast, those who adhere to inflexible and out-dated modes of thinking will be left behind. To respond to change incorrectly results in defeat. The present is a time of such unforgiving strictness; we must not underestimate the challenge it represents. Therefore, for the sake of happiness and victory, the wisdom of the Thus Come One who ‘perceives the true aspect of the world exactly as it is’ is becoming increasingly important”.

Most of us do not welcome change. We hold tightly on to what has been; we fear change and close our eyes to it. What President Ikeda says in this lecture is very important. He is presenting us with the challenge of the next century. He wants us to lift ourselves out of our old attitudes such as complacency, self-criticism, cynicism, hopelessness, fear, or a sense of failure. He is telling us that to respond to change simply by using these old attitudes will result in defeat and that we can respond in a different way. He spells it out: ‘What is most needed at this time of change? To give a single answer, it would have to be wisdom.’

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of wisdom coming right out from within our own lives:
the sudden flash of intuition when you’ve made the right decision; an understanding of a situation that really amazes you because it seems to come from within your life; a reaction or comment that seems to carry things forward and even triggers off a clear and beneficial response in another person.

Living with wisdom
It is possible to live at this level virtually all the time. Think how very different every situation, how very different you yourself would be, if you were living like this all through the day. It can’t be impossible because President Ikeda is recommending it to everyone, not just special people. But do we ever think to ask this of ourselves? Do we see ‘living with wisdom’ as the major change we want to make in our lives?

President Ikeda says it represents a challenge but he tells us how to do it. He tells us that ‘faith is a treasure house of infinite wisdom.’ So, faith is the key to wisdom. In the Gosho On Prayer, Nichiren Daishonin talks a lot about faith. This is not faith in some abstract concept like God, faith in something outside ourselves which, if we have enough faith, will grant our wishes. It means the concentration of one’s whole being on the Gohonzon, on one’s own Buddhahood. It also means the concentration of one’s whole being on whatever one is dealing with in daily life.

Praising our Buddhahood
In front of the Gohonzon we struggle to really concentrate on our Buddhahood. When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we are actually praising our Buddhahood. But what are we to thinking about? Are we worried or fearful about the day ahead, or hating ourselves because of some ‘failure’? Why not think about praising the Gohonzon and our own Buddhahood? When our words and our thinking are as one, praising the infinite power of Buddhahood within us, we have faith; we have opened ‘the treasure house of infinite wisdom’.

Of course, we often have to pour out our worries or suffering to the Gohonzon. But we should not leave it at that. I feel that every time we are in front of the Gohonzon we need to spend some time praising and concentrating on the wondrous world of Buddhahood that exists in us. This is taking real responsibility for our lives and our own happiness. This is challenging ourselves to make significant change, not waiting for changes to appear out of the blue, but feeling responsible for bringing about the changes ourselves.

In other words, we are not trying to have faith that the Gohonzon will answer our prayers, we are struggling to have faith in our infinite Buddhahood. There is a world of difference between these two ideas. We have to struggle with ourselves to believe in ourselves. In a sense, to have faith in ourselves.

Caring for others
I think that most of us have misunderstood a fundamental point for the whole time we’ve been practising Buddhism, a point which is crucial to us in allowing the glory of Buddhahood to work in our lives. When we were young, most of us were told not to be selfish or self-centered and always to put others first. This teaching has a lot to do with Christianity, and even if we were not raised in a Christian household, it permeated the culture we experienced as children. It was not just occasional, it was often the main teaching we received from our parents. We learnt to negate the ‘actual me’ and substitute a pretend person – one who pretended to care about others and who subdued his or her own needs and desires.

This subduing of oneself is not what Buddhism teaches. Buddhism teaches that each individual life is essentially Buddhahood. We cannot realize this within ourselves by negating ourselves. But there are probably very few people who have not spent the major part of their lives negating what is really at the centre of their lives, in other words, negating their own great value and dignity.

Many of us have applied this same teaching to Buddhism and to our Buddhist activities, always trying to think of and give to others, and meanwhile negating ourselves.This has then led us become disillusioned with Buddhism because we are trying to give without being aware of what there is to give.
For as long as we hold this viewpoint, our activities, our very practice of Buddhism, is at risk or in jeopardy. Because we haven’t thought of changing this view of ourselves, we can end up blaming the organization for asking something of us that we don’t have to give.

Treasuring ourselves
What can we do about this? We each need to address this situation through our daimoku. It is essential that we find a way to treasure and work with ourselves, in order to nurture the idea that the reality of Buddhahood exists within us.
One way we can do this is to apologize about holding on to this deep feeling of being unworthy or of being ‘selfless’.
In fact, we can’t do or accomplish anything, unless it comes from and is motivated and directed from within us. So, if there is a void inside, and no sense of self, there is no resource to use. We must not deny that we ourselves are at the centre of everything we try or hope for. The extent to which we believe in ourselves determines the extent to which we succeed.

Co-dependency
In the December 1995 issue of the UK Express there was an excellent article entitled ‘Co-dependent or Bodhisattva?’ I think the concept of co-dependency applies to us all really. The co-dependent’s life is based on the problems of another person. Generally these problems will be quite severe, like alcoholism or drug dependency, and the co-dependent’s life is spent trying to ‘help’ the addict. The co-dependent’s life and happiness is completely dependent on how the person he is trying to help is doing - how was she yesterday, how was she this morning, how will it be when he or she comes home tonight?

The efforts the co-dependent makes are never enough to really help. But why? Because they don’t arise from something powerfully established from within. They are based on the weakness in another person. The one unique difference between the help the co-dependent tries to give, and the help that the Bodhisattva of the Earth gives, is that the Bodhisattva establishes within him or herself the infinite resource of the Buddha state.

The Bodhisattva must establish and renew the resources of the Buddha within his or her life every day. To do this, we, as Bodhisattvas of the Earth, need to centre on ourselves when we chant. It is the change we produce within ourselves that allows us to help another. The help we give must be coming from strength within us, not weakness or dependency If we are to be any use as Bodhisattvas of the Earth we must achieve the ‘centred self’. This self is not directed outside but, rather, looks within for the way forward in response to a problem, and finds it there in response to heartfelt daimoku.

The centred self
We have learned that to be ‘self-centred’ is the worst thing we could be. It is selfish to be self-centred. We are repulsed by it, in ourselves and in others. But let’s turn it around. Instead of ‘self-centred’, let’s say ‘the centred self’. This is what we badly need. It is without doubt the biggest change we can make in our practice of Buddhism - to focus on ourselves, to stop avoiding ourselves but instead centre directly on ourselves and discover our Buddhahood our own very real strength, our infinite compassion, wisdom and courage.

I think after a certain amount of practice we come up against a really big problem which demands that we change significantly the way we think about ourselves. At first, the problem might seem to be outside us, to do with someone else, or a particular situation that seems insurmountable. Yet, in reality, the problem only exists because of the way we view ourselves, because of the way we limit ourselves.

Overturning this established viewpoint is exactly what the practice is about. It is about changing ourselves, changing our hearts so that we have confidence and belief in our own humanity and wisdom. We must strive for this. We must now make this the priority in our practice.

Mustering hope
In his 1995 Peace Proposal, Daisaku Ikeda said, ‘Our future depends on whether or not we can muster enough hope to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves’. To me that presents a different meaning of the word ‘hope’. I used to think that some people were naturally optimistic and hopeful and others were not. But President Ikeda says that we can muster hope, and he quotes a French philosopher as saying, ‘Pessimism comes from our passions; optimism from the will.’
If we can muster hope, we can see an opportunity when it comes along. Everything depends on us, on how we see the world. This is why we practise, not so the Gohonzon will answer our prayers, but so we can establish a very different view of ourselves and the world. President Ikeda went on to talk about the importance of establishing optimism, ‘Now more than ever, we require a vision, backed by a solid philosophy and we have to work to realize that vision through actions rooted in a strong, dynamic optimism.’
In other words, we need to establish a willingness to change our burdened hearts into hearts filled with hope and optimism. Developing the will to do this is very important, far more important than chanting for help from the Gohonzon for a particular problem. Learning to develop hope and optimism allows us to feel differently about ourselves and to respond to life positively.

Ichinen
Looking within does not mean analysing the causes of a problem or trying to solve it with our rational minds. Rather, it means assuming that Buddhahood exists within us and therefore the answers exist within us too. Rather than pleading with the Gohonzon, we should be expressing our own infinite ability with every daimoku we chant. In this case, our ‘will’ is our ichinen. Can we establish the ichinen to be optimistic?

We usually think of ichinen in terms of making a determination about something, ‘I will get that job: for example. Of course it’s important to have that conviction, but consider how much more benefit we would derive from actually having the ichinen to be optimistic and hopeful. Establishing these two qualities is the kind of inner change, or change of heart, I was talking about earlier. Determining to do this will affect us far more significantly than getting a new job. When we are able to bring forth hope from within our lives we can also give it to others.

It’s time to develop a really vibrant ichinen so that we aren’t just reacting to the problems we’re presented with as a co-dependent but are actually bringing forth the great spirit of Bodhisattva based on centering ourselves on our Buddhahood.

Unconditional optimism
In a speech he gave in India in 1992, President Ikeda spoke about the ‘relentless and unshakeable optimism of Mahatma Gandhi:
“Because it was unconditional, his optimism knew no deadlock or impasse. So long as he adhered to his convictions, his optimism promised a vision of unbounded hope and victory.”

Gandhi’s optimism was not some airy-fairy thing, it was something he struggled for through what President Ikeda describes as ‘a rigorous process of introspection’. This introspection produced an optimism that was unconditional - a belief in humankind’s essential humanity and non-violence, even in the face of terrible persecution and imprisonment.
I feel that our efforts for kosen-rufu should be based on our own optimism. Not the optimism of a fool, who feels optimistic just because he can’t imagine the trials ahead, but the optimism of one like Gandhi, which is unconditional and drawn from the inner struggle with our pessimistic self. We have to have this unconditional spirit, because what we are up against in terms of cynicism, lack of understanding and indifference is so great.

President Ikeda said recently: “Our activities might be thought of as a movement to expand the state of mind, the inner realm of life, and the humanism of both ourselves and others. Our life grows only to the degree that we give hope and courage to others and enable them to develop their lives”.

Inner development
Our own lives are inextricably linked to the lives of others and we develop only in relation to what we do to give hope and courage to others. We cannot develop without this spirit to give to others. But conversely, you could say that if we are giving to others and yet not expecting, or looking for development within ourselves, then we are not practising the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin.

If we are giving only from some misguided idea of selflessness there will be no inner development and we will be left with nothing but exhaustion. We must look to our own inner development as the only thing that can make kosen-rufu a reality.

“Simply put, knowledge corresponds to the past; it is technology. Wisdom is the future; it is philosophy. It is people’s hearts that move the age. While knowledge may provide a useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future. By contrast, wisdom captivates people’s hearts and has the power to open a new age. Wisdom is the key to understanding the age and creating the ‘time’”.

Wisdom versus knowledge
One of the biggest obstacles to our development is our absolute trust in knowledge. We live in an age of technology and we do not question its ability to lead us into a bright, fulfilling future. But technology can only respond to our dreams, not create them. However, most people today are basing their dreams on what technology can accomplish. This means that what we aspire to is very materialistic, because technology deals with a materialistic culture.

We are presented with the results of a particular product or development – how much it costs, how fast it goes – and told that it’s up to us to sort out its value. Yet it would seem that most of us are willing to allow others to decide values for us because we can’t see what we can do about it. Then we wonder why we are not happy. It is the ability to ascertain and to create value that really determines whether we live happily or not. If we are not willing to take the responsibility for creating value within our own lives then we go on being unhappy.

President Ikeda tells us we must develop our wisdom, because it is wisdom which ascertains value and allows us to establish value for ourselves and others. Science and technology can never do this. Knowledge is something we acquire from outside, and because we have allowed this outside influence to become so strong, we no longer believe in ourselves. Our subjective, inner nature, is lost. What can we do to empower ourselves, to find and treasure our inner subjective sell? What can we do to establish, believe in, and use our wisdom?

Firstly, we must accept that there is a need to change, to concentrate on ourselves when we chant. It is essential that we stop basing our lives on what is ‘out there’ and start basing everything on what is ‘in here’.

Secondly, we must challenge ourselves to bring out compassion. President Ikeda says, ‘The source of the Buddha’s wisdom is compassion. The Buddha wisdom arises from and is one with compassion.’ Isn’t this interesting? We tend to associate wisdom with the mind and the intellect, but here, President Ikeda explains that it comes from the heart.

In another lecture President Ikeda explained how wisdom comes from compassion. He gave the example of a mother who, so long as she feels compassion towards her baby, has the wisdom to know how to help when he is crying. But if she feels anger at the crying, her wisdom is blocked and she doesn’t know what to do.

Compassionate action
Kazuo Fujii (SGI-UK Vice General Director) made many important points about faith and wisdom in a lecture he gave to the study department in December 1995. He said that because we are originally Buddhas, each of us already possesses wisdom. He said faith would reveal our wisdom, or, we would reveal our inherent wisdom through faith. Then, the most interesting point of all, faith is not something we attain. Faith is simply a change in our thinking. We change our thinking to the Buddha’s point of view. And the way we do this is to take the action of the Buddha, compassionate action.

Doesn’t this make sense of our role in the organization of SGI? Participating in SGI activities enables us to change our point of view to that of the Buddha, to actualize our Buddha nature by taking compassionate action. Mr Fujii said we should not aim to become a Buddha but, rather, accept that we are Buddha and take the action of Buddha, compassionate action. The more we do this, the more our wisdom opens up.

We need have no worries or anxiety about the future. We are, at this moment, endowed with the wisdom to enable us to live brilliantly fulfilled and happy lives. The key to living this way lies in our taking compassionate action for others. So, we must change from being those who hear the Buddha’s teaching, to those who enable others to hear the teaching. If we endeavour to do this, we will find that we are living wisely. As President Ikeda says in the lecture we have been studying today, ‘The wisdom arising from the Buddha’s compassion to help others become happy is the underlying power that causes the Buddha to appear.’

Here are some pointers I’ve found helpful in making the kinds of changes I’ve been talking about. You may have your own, of course. Use whatever works for you.

• Chant plenty of daimoku. That is the main thing, because daimoku is our life-line to our centre. Our determination to do this is so important. Even increasing our daimoku a little will help. We can acknowledge that we have been relying on something other than our Buddhahood.

• We need not know what this is, and it isn’t necessary to analyse ourselves and find out. Just let’s say, ‘I’m determined to put the Gohonzon at the centre of my life, to base my life on my Buddhahood.’

• We can find within us our own determination about kosen-rufu, our own mission for kosen-rufu. It’s up to us to determine the way forward. We should not be doing anything out of habit. We should really be seeking our own role and making determinations every day to actualise that role.

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• Take the action of the Buddha based on our daimoku and our great desire for kosen-rufu. This is how we become centred and how we become wise.

This page was last modified on Sunday, August 20, 2006.