The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra
A Discussion on Religion in the Twenty-first Century

Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra 2
This is the second installment of a series of discussions on the Lotus Sutra between SGI President Ikeda and Soka Gakkai Study Department Chief Katsuji Saito and Vice Chiefs Takanori Endo and Haruo Suda. It appeared in the March 1995 issue of Daibyakurenge, the Soka Gakkai study journal.

Making "Life" the Keyword of the Coming Age

Saito: The recent devastating earthquake in the Kobe-Osaka area of Japan [on January 17, 1995] has served as a painful reminder of just how precious life is. The slowness and lack of compassion which the Japanese government displayed in its response to the disaster, in particular, has drawn anger and outrage from people around the world. They can't understand why the government didn't make saving people's lives its top priority.

Endo: That is so true. For those buried and crushed under fallen buildings, the delay of rescue operations by an hour or two can mean the difference between life and death. Rescue teams around the world were well aware of that fact, which is why they mobilized so quickly and stood ready to depart for Japan at any time. But the Japanese government's response made virtually all of their efforts meaningless. Who, when, and based on what criteria, decided to refuse or ignore these offers of emergency assistance? This needs to be made public. The Japanese people, and of course the earthquake victims, have a right to know.

Suda: Dr. Anthony Marsella, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and director of the Psychiatric Research Center of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), whom you met again in Hawaii this past January, President Ikeda, was a member of one of these international volunteer relief teams. Here, we have a specialist in psychology volunteering to offer his services when disaster strikes. This reflects his strong concern for people, I believe.

Immediately after the Kobe-Osaka earthquake hit, Dr. Marsella made all the necessary preparations so that he could leave for the disaster area at a moment's notice. However, the Japanese government did not respond, so there was nothing he could do.

Ikeda: Yes, I heard that directly from Dr. Marsella. When I think of the earthquake victims, it really breaks my heart. Day after day the media blared, "More than five thousand dead!" But you can't measure the value of human life by numbers alone. It is not a tragedy simply because more than five thousand people died, but because each one of those people was irreplaceable and precious-someone's father, mother, child, relative, or friend.

When my mentor, Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, was twenty-three, he lost his three-year-old daughter, Yasuyo. Recalling that time at a question-and-answer session thirty years later, he said, "I wept the whole night through, lying there with her cold little body in my embrace... Nothing has ever compared to the grief I felt then." Even relating this story so many years later, he wept. He also confided:

At that time I thought, "What if my wife were to die?" and I wept the harder. (Some time later, she did in fact die.) Next, I thought, "What if my mother should die?" (I really loved my mother.) Then I took it one step further: "What if I were to die?" When I asked myself this question, my whole body shook with terror...

Then I was put in prison, and after devoting myself to reading the Buddhist scriptures, I found the answer to my fears; I understood death at last – though it had taken me more than twenty years.

I had wept over the death of my child, and feared my wife's death as well as my own. Only by finding the answer to the question of life and death have I been able to become the president of the Soka Gakkai.

But, yes, getting back to your original point, the manner in which a nation handles a disaster says much about its culture. Emergencies reveal whether a country values human life or not.

Saito: We must work to create an age in which life is given supreme value.

Ikeda: To achieve that, it is absolutely vital for us to have a philosophy that reveals the wonder, dignity and infinite potential of life. I mentioned the above episode about President Toda reading the Lotus Sutra in prison, because the ensuing enlightenment he attained there brings the discussion of life into focus.

Suda: In this installment we'd like to discuss with you the significance of Mr. Toda's enlightenment in prison.

Endo: I was a high school student when I first read about Mr. Toda's profound realization in "The Garden of Life" chapter of President Ikeda's novel The Human Revolution, which was then being serialized in the Seikyo Shimbun. It portrayed the solemn drama of Mr. Toda's passionate quest for the very essence of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra while in prison during the Second World War.

Although I knew almost nothing about the Lotus Sutra at the time, Mr. Toda's odyssey made a deep impression on me.

Ikeda: Very simply, Mr. Toda's enlightenment was the landmark moment when the Soka Gakkai was clearly revealed as the true heir to Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. That was the starting point of all our propagation activities and our development today, and I firmly believe that it was an epoch-making event in the annals of Buddhism. Mr. Toda revived Buddhism in contemporary times and made it accessible to all.

When I was younger, Mr. Toda told me about his profound experience in prison. His words left me convinced that his realization formed the religious and philosophical core of the Soka Gakkai. The truth to which Mr. Toda became enlightened is identical to the ultimate teaching of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. I believe that Mr. Toda's realization opened a path out of the deadlock facing humanity. It is our mission as his disciples to extend that path in all directions and on all planes.

Suda: This drama began when, on New Year's Day, 1944, imprisoned by the militarist authorities, Mr. Toda embarked on his challenge to read the entire Lotus Sutra. He made a firm resolution to completely master its meaning. Before that, oddly enough, he had tried to send the sutra home a number of times, but it had somehow always mysteriously made its way back to his cell.

Mr. Toda's copy of the Lotus Sutra, containing also the sutras that are regarded as its introduction and conclusion, was a Chinese text without any of the Japanese punctuation or glosses that make it easier to read. Nor did he have access to any of the commentaries written by the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai or other Buddhist scholars. Moreover, he found himself in the most deplorable of conditions – in prison during wartime. With prayers beads that he had fashioned out of cardboard milk bottle caps, he chanted more than ten thousand daimoku each day. He challenged the Lotus Sutra with the full force of his being.

Endo: By early March, he had already read the entire text three times, and had just begun reading it for a fourth. It was then, when pondering the meaning of a difficult passage in the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings (Muryogi Sutra), an introduction to the Lotus Sutra, that he suddenly realized that "the Buddha is life itself."

Ikeda: That was the moment when Buddhism was revived in the twentieth century.

Endo: There is a verse portion in the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings that contains thirty-four negations beginning with the following lines: "His body neither existing nor not existing, / neither caused nor conditioned, neither self nor other.

The "thirty-four negations" describing the entity of the Buddha appear in the "Virtuous Practices" ('Tokugyo, first) chapter of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings. The entire passage reads as follows:

His body neither existing nor not existing,
neither caused nor conditioned, neither self nor other,
neither square nor round, neither short nor long,
neither appearing nor disappearing, neither born nor extinguished,
neither created nor arising, neither acted nor made,
neither sitting nor lying down, neither walking nor standing,
neither moving nor turning, neither idle nor still,
neither advancing nor retreating, neither in safety nor danger,
neither right nor wrong, neither gaining nor losing,
neither that nor this, neither departing nor coming,
neither blue nor yellow, neither red nor white,
neither crimson nor purple nor any other sort of color.

Ikeda: In context, we know that "his body" refers to the body of the Buddha. But understanding what that entity actually means is another matter altogether. It is something that can only be described by a series of negations, something the reality of which cannot be satisfactorily contained by any definition. Yet, no matter how many negatives one uses to describe it, its existence is indisputable.

To say, as a result, that it merely transcends the power of language, that it is unfathomable, or dwells in the state of nonsubstantiality (ku), and thus elevate the Buddha into some transcendental being, does not help our understanding in the least. Mr. Toda wanted to actually perceive this entity. He wanted to experience it with his whole life. He was never just satisfied with abstract, conceptual understanding.

Saito: Mr. Toda's state of life at that time is vividly described as an experience of Mr. Gan, the protagonist of his autobiographical novel, which is also titled The Human Revolution:

“As Mr. Gan read the "Virtuous Practices" chapter of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings and reached the verse [containing the thirty-four negations], there, in the deep recesses of the thick spectacles he wore, a brilliant white light flashed in his eyes. It was no longer his eyes that were moving down the page. Neither was he reading the sutra with his intellect: he was beating his still robust body against each word and phrase of the verse with all his might”.

Ikeda: This is what we mean by reading the sutra with one's whole being. The Lotus Sutra teaches that all human beings can attain Buddhahood. What, then, is the actual entity of a "Buddha"? What does it mean to attain Buddhahood? These are questions vital to all Buddhist teachings. Mr. Toda deeply contemplated these questions and sought to resolve them.

It was then that the word life suddenly flashed through his mind. He finally perceived that the Buddha is life itself:

Life is neither existing nor not existing,
neither caused nor conditioned, neither self nor other,
neither square nor round, neither short nor long
…
neither crimson nor purple nor any other sort of color.

Endo: Mr. Toda's thoughts raced with excitement: "The Buddha is life itself! It is an expression of life! The Buddha does not exist outside ourselves, but within our lives. No, it exists outside our lives as well. It is an entity of the cosmic life!"

Saito: Mr. Toda used the word life precisely because he had perceived the Buddha as a real entity.

Ikeda: Yes. Life is a straightforward, familiar word we use every day. But at the same time it is a word that can express the most profound essence of the Buddhist Law, a single word that expresses infinite meaning. All human beings are endowed with life, so this word has practical, concrete meaning for everyone. In this way, Mr. Toda's realization made Buddhism comprehensible to all.

Life also has enormous diversity. It is rich and full of energy. At the same time, it operates according to certain laws and has a defined rhythm. The doctrine of a single life-moment possessing three thousand realms (ichinen sanzen) describes this harmony in diversity, and one who has perceived the essence of this principle is a Buddha.

Life is also free and unfettered. It is an open entity in constant communication with the external world, always exchanging matter and energy and information. Yet while open, it maintains its autonomy. Life is characterized by this openness to the entire universe and a harmonious freedom.

The infinite and unbounded state of Buddhahood can be described as a state in which the freedom, openness and harmony of life are realized to the maximum extent. Nichiren Daishonin says myo [of Myoho, the Mystic Law] has three meanings: "to open," "to be endowed and perfect" and "to revive." These are the attributes of life, and the attributes of a Buddha as well.

In one sense, we can regard all of the Buddhist scriptures as presenting a philosophy of life.

T'ien-t'ai Buddhism represents "the teaching which the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai himself practiced in the depths of his own being." And Nichiren Daishonin declares, "The eighty-four thousand teachings [all the innumerable teachings that Shakyamuni preached during his lifetime] are the diary of one's own being" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 563).

I still remember how Mr. Toda once chuckled and said that he was able to physically perceive and share "the teaching which the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai himself practiced in the depths of his own of being."

He said to me, "Dai, you have to encounter problems in life. Only when one encounters problems can one understand faith and achieve greatness." I was twenty-seven at the time, fighting against illness, and Mr. Toda was trying to encourage me with these words to bring forth greater life force.

I was very moved by his words, and I noted them in my diary. Actually, at the time, Mr. Toda himself was in extremely poor physical health, his body gaunt and wasted. Yet despite that, he was always thinking of how he could encourage young people, how he could enable them to attain the same state of life as he.

Saito: This attests to Mr. Toda's sublime state of life and the noble bonds that exist between mentor and disciple.

Ikeda: Mr. Toda once described his feelings after having attained his realization in prison to someone as follows:

“It is like lying on your back in a wide open space looking up at the sky with arms and legs outstretched. All that you wish for immediately appears. No matter how much you may give away, there is always more. It is never exhausted. Try and see if you can attain this state of life. If you really want to, then I suggest you spend a little time in prison for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, for the sake of propagating Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism!”

However, he also said: “The times are different now, so you don't need to spend time in prison. Still, you must fight with every ounce of your strength to spread the Daishonin's Buddhism.”

Suda: Mr. Toda's realization was not simply intellectual; it signified a transformation in the innermost reaches of his life itself.

Ikeda: Yes, that's true. The purpose of Buddhism, ultimately, is to transform one's inner state of life.

The Soka Gakkai was not the first to speak of Buddhism as a "philosophy of life." Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is by its very nature a life philosophy, and the Soka Gakkai is heir to that Buddhism.

Shakyamuni Buddha confronted the sufferings of human life – birth, old age, sickness, and death – and in struggling to understand them, he opened a vast world in the innermost depths of his being.

Later, basing himself on the Lotus Sutra, T'ien-t'ai observed the inner reality of his own life and expressed what he realized in the form of the principle of a single life-moment possessing three thousand realms (ichinen sanzen).

T'ien-t'ai also used the concept expounded in the Kegon Sutra that there are no distinctions between the mind, the Buddha and human beings to discuss the Mystic Law revealed in the Lotus Sutra in terms of those three dimensions: the mind, the Buddha and human beings. The word Life, which Mr. Toda used to express his enlightenment to the entity of the Buddha, is also a familiar contemporary word that can give unified expression to all three of these dimensions.

Nichiren Daishonin, meanwhile, realized that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the true entity of life. He inscribed the Gohonzon, the object of worship, and expounded his life philosophy in the "Ongi Kuden" (Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings) and his other writings, so that all could realize the true entity of life and open the path to happiness.

In other words, throughout its history Buddhism has fundamentally always been a life philosophy.

Saito: The question then is how to enable others to realize this vital point. This has posed a rigorous challenge to Buddhist philosophers and scholars through the ages.

Ikeda: Yes. When Mr. Toda wrote his thesis "The Philosophy of Life," it was not just a mere intellectual theory. Nor did he obtain it from repeated scientific or rational steps of analysis and synthesis. Yet, at the same time, it is not inconsistent with science or reason. Mr. Toda drew forth his philosophy of life from the depths of the Lotus Sutra in his own desperate all-out struggle for the ultimate truth – a struggle that engaged his entire being. Indeed, his philosophy of life represents the "wisdom of the Lotus Sutra."

Mr. Toda's thesis, therefore, not only informs us on the nature of life but has the power to change our way of thinking. And it leads to a sense of hope and practical action in our daily lives. It is a philosophy of practical relevance – an "actual" philosophy which brings forth a powerful energy for life.

When we faithfully translate this philosophy into practice, our personal drama of self-reformation begins, as we begin to change a life of powerlessness and despair into one of satisfaction and happiness.

That reformation of the individual is the first step in revolutions of every kind. It is the first turn of the wheel in the process to make the human race strong, rich and wise.

Saito: You are speaking of human revolution and of an all-embracing revolution.

Ikeda: "Human revolution" is a contemporary expression for "the attainment of Buddhahood" for the individual, while "an all-embracing revolution" refers to kosen-rufu.

The relationship between the two movements resembles that of the earth which, while rotating on its own axis, simultaneously orbits the sun. The earth's revolution on its axis produces day and night, while its movement around the sun produces the four seasons. Bathed in the light of the Buddhist Law, we also experience both "night and day" in the course of creating our own history of human revolution toward infinite improvement. We also experience "winter and spring" as we continue to play out the exciting drama of kosen-rufu through the changing seasons. The Soka Gakkai begins and ends with the life philosophy set forth in Mr. Toda's thesis; its prime point lies in Mr. Toda's realization that the Buddha is life itself.

Moreover, as Mr. Toda continued to further probe the essence of the Lotus Sutra in prison, he had an experience where he actually found himself in attendance at the Ceremony in the Air as a Bodhisattva of the Earth. I will leave a discussion of the significance of this experience for another installment.

Endo: In the past the priests criticized the use of the expression "enlightenment" for Mr. Toda's experience. It seems they were not at all pleased by the prospect of mere lay people becoming enlightened.

Saito: Saying that lay believers are not allowed to attain enlightenment is like saying that those in college are not allowed to graduate. In the end, such warped thinking is the product of pure jealousy.

Suda: "The Buddha is life itself." The word life has a scientific yet warm ring to it.

Ikeda: Yes, and we can see Mr. Toda's greatness in making that identification. With the word Buddha, the image of a supreme being tends to dominate people's impression; it evokes a feeling of the Buddha being somehow distant and separate from them. With the word Law, the impersonal, as in "rule" or "phenomenon," is emphasized, and it doesn't evoke much warmth. Essentially, the Buddha and the Law are not two different, separate things – the word life encompasses both.

All people are endowed with life, and life is immeasurably precious. No one can deny this. The declaration that "the Buddha is life itself" reveals that the very essence of Buddhism – the Buddha and the Law--is in our own life.

Saito: I agree completely. Yet I can't help feeling that all too often we still only understand the word life on an intellectual level – especially such phrases as "life throughout the three existences of past, present and future" or "eternal life." How should we actually comprehend life?

Ikeda: Mr. Toda often said, "Though we speak of 'life throughout the three existences,' or 'eternal life,' it is something that no one has ever seen." Still, I think it's worthwhile to try to sketch even just an outline of the concept of eternal life as a point of reference. Let's start by having each of you offer your thoughts on this subject.

Suda: Here's one perspective. Each of us has a "self" inside. That "self" continues, even after we die. That "self" is the entity of life.

Ikeda: I see. Where is that "self" after one dies?

Suda: Let me see... Well, I don't think of it as formless and amorphous, like a soul, anyway...

Ikeda: Mr. Toda had something to say on this matter:

“We use the word self [to refer to ourselves], but this word actually refers to the universe. When we ask how the life of the universe is different from the life of each one of you, the only differences we find are those of your bodies and minds. Your life and that of the universe are the same”.

We tend to think of the universe and human beings as separate entities, but Mr. Toda declares that they are identical in that both are entities of life.

Suda: Mr. Toda's thesis on the philosophy of life states that the universe is life itself, and that life, together with the universe, is eternal and everlasting. He said, "Just as we sleep and wake and then sleep again, we live and die and then live again, maintaining our life eternally." He also stated:

“When we wake up in the morning, we resume our activities based on the same mind as the previous day. In the same way, in each new existence we are destined to live based on the result of the karmic causes created in our previous lives”.

Endo: Let us suppose there is a tall tree, and that we call this tall tree the universe. Countless leaves and flowers grow on it. Could we perhaps regard individual lives as resembling the leaves and flowers of this tree?

Ikeda: There was someone who once asked Mr. Toda a similar question. This was Mr. Toda's answer:

“I don't think it's correct to say that our lives grow forth from something [like buds or shoots on a tree]. Let's suppose the water in this tea cup in front of me is the universe. When the wind blows, it creates ripples on the water's surface. Those ripples are our lives. They also represent one of the workings of the life of the universe. Therefore, if the wind disappears, the ripples, too, will disappear, and the water will return to its original state”.

In other words, he says, when we liken the universe to the ocean, our lives are like the waves that appear and disappear on the surface of the ocean of the universe.

Endo: The waves and the ocean are not separate entities. What Mr. Toda was saying is that the waves are but part of the ongoing activity of the ocean.

Saito: That reminds me of a remark by the British philosopher Alan Watts (1915-73):

“There is no separate "you" to get something out of the universe... As the ocean "waves" so the universe "peoples"... What we therefore see as "death," empty space or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endless waving ocean of life”.

Suda: I guess this means that our life is fused with the universe.

Ikeda: Yes, that may be one way to describe it. But Mr. Toda said: "Rather than 'fused' with the universe, we are the life of the universe itself. And that life itself causes changes."

Endo: Some people say our life is like a flowing river. It flows continuously, always changing, until it finally merges with the ocean.

Ikeda: I see. But doesn't our life have a deeper dimension? Mr. Toda described it as "the very basis of all things, which we perceive as changing and flowing." However, the true nature of life, he said, is actually "neither flowing nor still; it is like empty space."

It is an entity which is simultaneously the infinite macrocosm and each of the microcosms that represent countless individual living beings. It is an enormous life-entity, always undergoing dynamic change and, at the same time, eternal and everlasting. The Buddha and the Mystic Law are names that we give to this undeniable entity – cosmic life. We are all embodiments of this sublime entity.

The Lotus Sutra teaches "the true entity of all phenomena" (shoho jisso). "All phenomena" refers to each individual living thing. The "true entity" of this phenomena is cosmic life itself. Mr. Toda expressed this ineffable truth as "the Buddha is life itself." Once one understands this, one could not possibly harbor thoughts of killing others, because to destroy something is only to destroy oneself.

Saito: American author and educator Helen Keller (1880-1968), who had lost her sight and hearing, once wrote:

“Here in the midst of everyday air, I sense the rush of ethereal rains. I am conscious of the splendor that binds all things of the earth to all things of heaven”.

I can't help but think that Helen Keller, despite her blindness and deafness, clearly "saw" the interrelationship of the macrocosm and the microcosm.

Ikeda: Buddhism teaches five types of vision: the eye of common mortals, the divine eye, the eye of wisdom, the eye of the Law, and the eye of the Buddha. Helen Keller may have looked at the world with the eye of her life itself – an eye far sharper and more perceptive than ordinary "mortal" eyes. Or, to put it another way, perhaps life can only be truly "seen" when one probes into it on the most profound level.

Suda: Modern science may be regarded as an "eye of wisdom" of sorts, but the tendency of science has been to look at life as a kind of machine made up of various parts. Science has also sought to gain insights into life and human beings by dividing them into opposing elements such as body and spirit, object and subject. It has tried to grasp the workings of life by reducing them all to material things.

But though an aspect of life may be explained by such mechanistic theories, by dualism and reductionism, it does not give one a picture of life in its dynamic entirety.

Saito: Science has in fact encouraged a materialistic view of human beings and life, a perspective in which adversarial relationships dominate not only between living things, but between living things and their environment. This has in turn encouraged environmental destruction and the exploitation of the natural world by human beings.

Endo: In the wake of much soul-searching on this destructive course of humanity, we saw the emergence of new sciences and greater ecological awareness in the 1980s. For example, Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics urges a transcendence of dualism and reductionism and outlines truths common to the cutting edge of modern physics and the wisdom of Eastern thought. Lyall Watson's Lifetide presents the idea that the living things on earth are not discrete entities but live in symbiosis, in a matrix of interrelations. Jim E. Lovelock's Gaia-A New Look at Life on Earth explores the "Gaia hypothesis" that the earth itself is one giant living organism.

Gradually, forgotten values such as harmony with nature, a sense of unity with others, equality and diversity are being rediscovered and emphasized by thinkers such as these.

Ikeda: Science is beginning to look seriously at the interdependence of all things, what is described in Buddhism as "dependent origination" (engi).

Saito: The unified view of nature, of life phenomena, held by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is also being rediscovered. Goethe wrote, for example:

“The time will inevitably come when mechanistic and atomic thinking will be put out of the minds of all people of wisdom, and instead dynamics and chemistry will come to be seen in all phenomena. When that happens, the divinity of living Nature will unfold before our eyes all the more clearly”.

Suda: Some people urge us to change from a material view of the world to a phenomenal view.

Ikeda: Phenomena indeed represent the Law itself. People are coming to see the world as not made up of things but of phenomena. The Lotus Sutra, as I have mentioned, teaches the true entity of all phenomena.

As your comments indicate, we are clearly moving toward a major paradigm shift in our views of life and the world. This view of the world as a living entity approaches, from one perspective, Mr. Toda's realization.

Endo: Even fields of the most "materialistic" branches of science are being forced to consider a phenomenal view of the world and life. Quantum mechanics is an example that comes to mind. Some physicists are still trying to find conclusive evidence on the existence of ultimate particles, but they are finding that elementary particles can only be defined in terms of quantum field theory.

DNA research in molecular biology is another good example. Up to now, scientists have attempted to take the DNA molecule apart and consider the function of each piece of its genetic information separately. This is an attempt to understand DNA as matter, as a kind of machine.

Although the basic method of study perhaps remains the same, recently, scientists have been striving to shed light on the function of entire DNA molecules specific to a particular species (for example, human genomic DNA), and to decipher from them the story of life on earth. Scientists speculate that this will enable them to investigate the history of the interaction between living things and the responses of life to its environment since the appearance of life on this planet.

Therefore, while science still remains rooted in the "material," we are beginning to see a shift toward the phenomenal, toward life – a shift from things as static objects to things that have a living story to tell.

Some, incidentally, have even likened DNA to the Buddhist scriptures or to the Bible.

Ikeda: The times are indeed changing rapidly. One important point to remember about DNA is that life itself created DNA, and not the other way round. The universe is identical to life, and life is identical to the universe. Life itself is the creator, and it is the created as well.

Suda: Speaking of creation, we are also seeing new trends in art. In addition to the inorganic, geometric beauty that has characterized much of modern art, we are beginning to see a more living type of artistic beauty, a revival of life force in art.

For example, there is "simulated life art," in which the organic beauty of such things as cell are reproduced by computer. There is also "healing art," which employs certain forms and colors in an effort to comfort and soothe those who are sick and enhance their natural recuperative powers.

Endo: Business, too, is turning from simple production of goods to a restoration of life, to a restoration of humane values.

Suda: In politics we also see new efforts to move away from power politics to nonviolence and nonkilling, that is, from government based on military might to that based on reverence for life. The 1986 it people power" revolution in the Philippines, the 1989 restoration of democracy to Chile and the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia were all achieved without violence. Many problems remain to be solved in each of these nations, but I think they now have hopes of establishing a foundation of respect for human life.

Saito: President Ikeda, you have met and held discussions with the leaders of all three of these revolutions: Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippines; Patricio Aylwin, former president of Chile; and Vaclav Havel, president of Czechoslovakia.

Ikeda: I believe that "life" and "life force" will be the keywords for the twenty-first century. In a recent address, Mr. Havel asked what was necessary for democracy today to revitalize humanity. He suggested that the democratic societies were afflicted with "materialism" and "the denial of any kind of spirituality." They showed "a proud disdain for everything supra-personal," "a frenzied consumerism," and "an absence of faith in a higher order of things or simply in eternity."

He said: “Were I to compare democracy to life-giving radiation, I would say that while from the political point of view it is the only hope for humanity, it can only have a beneficial impact on us if it resonates with our deepest inner nature”.

In the sense that it is "life-giving radiation," he said, it is vital that democracy spread across the world. But democracy as we see it today has also forgotten something. "Wherein lies that forgotten dimension of democracy that could give it universal resonance?" President Havel asked, and then presented his conclusion:

“If democracy is not only to survive but to expand successfully and resolve those conflicts of cultures, then, in my opinion, it must rediscover and renew its own transcendental origins. It must renew its respect for that non-material order which is not only above us but also in us and among us, and which is the only possible and reliable source of man's respect for himself, for others... The authority of a world democratic order simply cannot be built on anything else but the revitalized authority of the universe”.

From a Buddhist perspective, a "non-material order" can be described as an "order of life." Mr. Havel says that we must revive reverence for that order and restore the authority of the universe.

As he has indicated, people around the world are now searching for a form of society that is free but not intemperate, a society rich in spirituality. At the same time, they are seeking a solid view of life, a reviving wisdom that will serve as the foundation of that society. The time has arrived when political leaders around the world must pursue such wisdom.

Saito: Speaking of the relationship between democracy and a solid view of life, Dr. Alexander S. Tsipko, director of the Moscow-based International Foundation for Socioeconomic and Political Studies (the Gorbachev Foundation), contributed these remarks to a Japanese newspaper at the beginning of this year:

“Now we see the complete collapse of the Soviet Union... The war in Chechen has not only been a defeat for Russia's young democracy: it represents the utter moral collapse of Russia... It is unlikely that the Russian Federation, isolated and its future unpredictable, will be recognized or viewed favorably by the world. What the world has gained instead of a new democratic Russia is a nation that values human life very little and that seeks to solve its domestic problems with tanks and guns, a nation whose government is incapable of exercising control over anyone or anything. It is difficult to imagine a way out of this dead end that Russia has put itself in. Is there, in fact, a way out?”

Endo: Many precious lives have been lost in that war. I've also heard reports that many of the soldiers sent to take part in the fighting have been little more than boys. Some mothers were so worried about their sons in the army that they made the journey to the battlefront to check on their safety.

Ikeda: No matter how people may try to justify them, there are no just wars in this world. None at all. Those who suffer in war are always the people, families, mothers. I lost my eldest brother, Kiichi, in the Second World War. He died fighting in Burma (now Myanmar) on January 11, 1945. He was only twenty-nine. It took more than two years for the news of his death to reach my family.

In the period just after the war ended, my mother said to me joyously on several occasions, "I had a dream about Kiichi. He told me, 'Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm coming back alive,' and then left." Her brave efforts to be optimistic only made our hearts ache for her all the more. I remember her deep grief when she received the report of Kiichi's death and her last thread of hope was cut. And I remember her embracing the urn containing his ashes to her bosom when they were returned to us. Those scenes are forever branded in my memory.

Dr. Tsipko said Russia was "a nation that values human life very little." The real question is whether we look at human life from the point of view of the nation or of life. The "eyes of the nation" are quick to use human life as a slave to the interests of those in power, reducing people to numbers and inanimate objects. But the "eyes of life" look at each individual as a precious, irreplaceable and unique existence.

Mr. Toda's enlightenment that the Buddha is life itself is a declaration that life is the absolute and supreme entity. It was an opening volley to all warped and twisted points of view which would destroy the dignity of human life. And indeed this is Buddhism's fundamental challenge.

Endo: The defeat of Russia's young democracy of which Dr. Tsipko speaks is also a tragedy arising from what Mr. Havel describes as "a lack of reverence for a non-material order," in other words, a lack of reverence for life.

Suda: Reverence for life was also the final theme of your (President Ikeda's) dialogue with Dr. Arnold Toynbee. I sensed there a remarkable commitment to the need to say farewell to an age in which ideology took priority over life, a commitment to make the twenty-first century a century of life.

Ikeda: Yes. And it was Mr. Toda who opened the first door to that century of life. Embracing his spirit with my own life, I have traveled around the world stressing respect for the dignity of human life. Mr. Toda's thesis "The Philosophy of Life" was incredibly insightful, the crystallization of a great truth, as history will demonstrate without a doubt.

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