SGIQuarterly

Number 85 | July 2016A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

S o k a G a k k a i I n t e r n a t i o n a l

Healing a Divided World Laura Rediehs When Hearts Grow Hard Mustafa CerićWomen’s Power Is in Solidarity Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng

In This Issue

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“What if the oceans

rejected us? What if the

air refused to yield to

human demands? What if

our food itself became a

deadly poison?”Mustafa Ceric

“In order to construct

societies that are resistant to

xenophobia and incitement

to hatred, people need to be

exposed to and reminded of

different perspectives.”Daisaku Ikeda

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Published by Soka Gakkai International

Art Direction & Design by Modis Design Printed by Japan Print Co., Ltd.

© 2016 Soka Gakkai International All rights reserved. Printed in Japan.

Printed on FSC certified paper, supporting responsible forest management.

ISSN 1341-6510

The SGI Quarterly brings together voices of a diverse range of individuals and groups exploring creative responses to the shared challenges of our time.

The Forum aims to generate dialogue and interest in topics related to building a culture of peace and to stimulate a growing network of global citizens active for the betterment of society. To view an archive of past articles and join the discussion, visit Common Threads, a tumblr page hosted by the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), at commonthreads.sgi.org.

In Focus highlights activities of SGI organizations and affiliate institutions around the world; People & Perspectives presents stories and reflections on a Buddhist approach to life; and Buddhism in Daily Life explores Buddhist principles and their application to modern living.

The views expressed in the SGI Quarterly are not necessarily those of the SGI. For permission to reprint material from the magazine or from Common Threads, please contact quarterly@sgi.org. This issue and back issues can be downloaded from the SGI website at www.sgi.org.

Editorial Team:Anthony George Azumi Tamae Margaret Sutherland Marisa Stenson Michael Salsbury Motoki Kawamorita Richard Walker Sonal Malkani Yoshiko Ogushi Yoshinori Miyagawa

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Contents

Buddhism in Daily Life

People & Perspectives

In Focus

Forum 02 Thoughts Toward Healing a Divided World Laura Rediehs

06 When Hearts Grow Hard Mustafa Cerić

08 Women’s Power Is in Solidarity Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng

12 A Higher Humanism: The Path to Enlightenment Nur Yalman

14 The Restorative Power of Philosophy Interview with Lou Marinoff

18 Seeing Beyond the Expected Daisaku Ikeda

20 Make Me Sound Amazing: Lessons in Life and Leadership James Greening

22 Strengthening the Voice of Women at the UN Ivy Gabbert

25 Young Plants of Peace: Making Dignity Personal in Thailand Chanikarn Mint Wongviriyawong

27 The Gohonzon

1July 2016

There are many dehumanizing forces in today’s world, ranging from the ways we prioritize systems, technologies and money above human well-being to the demonizing that occurs when people

turn to violent force as their way to address conflict. Dehumanizing is rooted in an unfortunate fact of human existence: that while humans are interdependent creatures who need each other to survive, humans are also their own worst natural enemy. Our response to this problem is to form close connections with those we trust and to distrust strangers, at least initially. Our distrust of strangers can turn into dehumanization during times of stress, anxiety and fear.

Unfortunately, this tendency in human nature can be exploited, not only by those who wish to incite their in-group against perceived enemies but also by those who wish to divide groups against each other in order to gain power over all of them (the ancient divide and conquer strategy). The leverage in both instances is to ignite and fan the flames of fear. Fear evokes the fight-or-flight response, where either response is an attempt to distance ourselves from our “enemies” to protect ourselves from their destructive influence. We witness growing fear, anxiety and divisiveness in our world today, but what can we do to counter these forces? Is rehumanization possible during such anxious times as these?

Being the Change

While the healing of our divided world requires large-scale structural changes, there is much that all of us can do to help prepare the way for these larger-scale changes. We need nonviolent methods of conflict resolution to replace war, but meanwhile we can practice nonviolence in our everyday lives. We need the establishment of economic justice to address the resource allocation issues that are at the root of most conflicts, but in the meantime we can practice the basic principles of economic justice by ethically guiding our own economic decision-making. We need our political leaders to work for the common good, but we can model such leadership within our own spheres of influence. We need the educational system and the media to share the stories of constructive

The fractured and conflictual state of our world today can seem overwhelming and insoluble. Philosopher Laura Rediehs considers how individuals can begin to rehumanize society and help prepare the way for larger structural changes.

Thoughts Toward Healing a Divided WorldLaura Rediehs

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work toward creating a better world instead of stirring up fear and anxiety and cultivating what the late biblical scholar Walter Wink described as the “myth of redemptive violence,” but we can do our part by refraining from reinforcing anxiety and despair, instead learning and sharing positive stories of creative problem-solving.

Additionally, we can counter the forces of divisiveness in everyday life by trying to foster a positive sense of community around us. Key to a fulfilling life is to feel connected to a supportive community. We long for this ourselves—we want to be seen, known, respected, appreciated and valued. In our successes, we want others to celebrate with us; in our failures, disappointments and losses, we long for empathy, understanding, forgiveness and compassion. We want and need others to call us to become our best selves and support us in doing so. We ourselves play a role in creating and sustaining such communities. We interact with other people every day, but how do we interact? Are we friendly, generous and supportive? Do we really see the people in our lives, valuing them for who they are and not just for how they might be useful to us?

It is relatively easy to value those we find attractive—those who themselves are friendly, helpful and appreciative, especially if they also live in a world of experience similar to our own, and who think like us. The best community-builders also extend friendliness, support and compassion toward those who may be more difficult to connect to—those regarded as

Bhutanese locals watch dancers perform at an annual festival—a positive sense of community is key to counteracting the forces of divisiveness in everyday life

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socially awkward, or as rude, or those whose ways of thinking may offend us. It is all too easy to avoid such people, perhaps motivated by a self-protective impulse or perhaps in an unconscious or semiconscious intention to punish them for what we perceive as their problematic behavior. But these little ways we shun each other create fractures that can turn into major rifts when acted upon by the larger divisive forces in society.

The Forgotten Virtue of Courage

Rehumanization starts with our rehumanizing each other. Our distancing ourselves from those who make us uncomfortable is rooted in fear. Fear feels compelling, and yet our blind obedience to it can lead us into immorality. It is not that we must ignore fear and become foolhardy but that we must try to cultivate an appropriate relationship to fear: the forgotten virtue of courage. While it is indeed risky to connect with those we find it difficult to like, Richard Gregg, one of the pioneers of the American peace movement, noted in his book The Power of Nonviolence: “Fear develops out of an assumption of relative weakness. Since [everyone has] the innate possibility of moral strength, to be afraid is really a denial of one’s moral potential powers and is therefore very harmful.” His words here resonate with Plato’s definition of

“harm” as “diminishment of virtue.” Plato notes (in both The Republic and The Apology) that truly good people can never be harmed, because they prize virtue so much that they do not let any of life’s challenges turn them into worse human beings. Instead, they face every challenge asking, “How can I respond to this experience in a way that makes me a better person: wiser, braver and more compassionate?”

We must support each other in not being ruled by fear but instead learning how to tap into the superior power that morality gives us, as noted by both Gregg and Plato. We claim this power by initiating rehumanization: by reaching across lines of division to connect with the Other as a valued human being. This act lays the first plank toward building a bridge of trust. This first act of reaching across the chasm of fear may seem irrational. Almost no one, on either side, will like it if they see it happen. Both sides will perceive this first connection to be a breach in the protective wall of divisiveness and will predict that this breach will unleash untold destructive fury. But in truth this first gesture is very likely not risky at all for the simple reason that people like to be valued and find it difficult to keep demonizing those who treat them with respect. It is true that the breach in the wall will release energy, but the energy released can be harnessed to transform relationships and create a new shared community of trust.

People writing peace messages on a replica section of the eight-meter-high separation barrier in Israel, an interactive art instillation in the “Bethlehem Unwrapped” peace festival in London, UK 

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Laura Rediehs is an associate professor of philosophy and cofounder and current coordinator of Peace Studies at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. She is also a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Valuing those who offend us may seem impossible. We may object to their words, behaviors or strategies. We may have even been deeply hurt by their past actions. But if we remain locked into our reasons for mutual hatred, we will never really find the security and protection we seek. Richard Gregg observed that conflict cannot be resolved at the level of the conflict itself because resolution requires finding its deeper causes. The late psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg, in Nonviolent Communication, defined conflict as a “tragic expression of unmet needs.” We often get distracted by the “tragic expression” part—the difficult language or objectionable behaviors—and fail to reach the deeper levels of identifying the actual needs. We mistake our strategies for our needs and thus do not notice that it is the failure of those strategies that has resulted in the apparent intractability of the conflict. Clarifying the deeper needs of all involved provides the opportunity to find new potential solutions.

Clarifying our own true needs and uncovering the deeper needs of the Other is a way of finding common ground, because we all share the same basic needs. Understanding each other at the level of needs builds sympathy and understanding and helps us find each other’s basic goodness. It is when we see the goodness of others that we come to value them. When we succeed in truly valuing our

former enemies, we invite them into a new community that transcends the lines of division that previously divided us. This new community is a community of trust, and however fragile that initial trust may be, it provides new possibilities for genuine reconciliation. A community of trust offers more stability and security than the strongest walls of divisiveness.

Students in Secunderabad, India, celebrate the nonviolence legacy of Mahatma Gandhi on the January 30 anniversary of his assassination

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Imam Mustafa Cerić, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia-Herzegovina, explains why he supported the joint statement “Faith Communities on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons” issued at the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons held in Vienna, Austria, in 2014.

I am neither a biologist nor an anthropologist. I don’t have detailed knowledge of the social sciences. And I am no expert in human psychology and development. I am a humanist with a wearying human mind and a sensitive human heart. I am afraid when faced with the facts

of the nuclear threat to human life on Earth; I am frightened by the menace of climate change—global temperatures that in recent years have ranged from the very highest to the very lowest in recorded history; and I am terrified by the images of the deadly hunger that ravishes so many people in the world, when 1 percent of the richest men possess 48 percent of the world’s wealth.

But, more than that, I am afraid because there are people who are unconcerned by these three looming threats to humanity—nuclear weapons, climate change and hunger. It is as if, for some

When Hearts Grow HardMustafa Cerić

An outdoor exhibition in Paris, France, marking the centenary of the World War I Battle of Verdun, which is considered the most ferocious and lengthiest in world history.

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people, life on Earth does not matter; as if we had another planet we could escape to. No, there is no other refuge for us in the cosmos if we destroy this place in which we have been entrusted to live.

Refugees fleeing the carnage in Syria still have hope of finding sanctuary in Europe or other parts of the Earth. But, what if there were no safe place on Earth for people to go? What if the oceans rejected us? What if the air refused to yield to human demands? What if our food itself became a deadly poison?

Imagine aliens from another planet observing us humans. Would they tell us that we resemble beasts in the jungle? Would we be offended by their appraisal? Perhaps it would be the beasts who would be offended to be likened to humans—humans who kill wantonly, while the beasts in the jungle kill only for food.

“No! No!” the humans would protest. “We are not beasts. We are humans. We have hearts that love. We have minds capable of complex thought. And we have hands that kill. . . But, we are still human. You aliens are wrong. We are not beasts who kill each other in the jungle. We are humans with love for each other! We hold peace conferences around the world to show our love. We are united in one big human soul for peace. Don’t you see, our friends? We confer with each other for the sake of our planet—a planet where we like to live in peace like humans, not like beasts. So don’t call us beasts. We are humans indeed.”

But what if our alien friends, strangers from another planet, ask us about the current wars—not one, but many—raging in our world? What if they confront us with the truth that we humans, who so dislike to be compared to beasts, know how to talk about peace but don’t know how to stop waging war?

What if our alien friends from another world were to tell us that we humans are hypocrites who have a hard time telling the truth but are skilled in manipulation and lies?

These are hard questions, aren’t they? So, how shall we— as humans, not beasts—respond to our alien friends? Each of us should try his or her best to answer them.

As a genocide survivor from Bosnia, I have witnessed the worst war since World War II. The cry of “Never Again” failed in Bosnia. Once again, an intolerable affront to the human conscience occurred: Genocide. I have lived it. And I have survived it in order to testify that law does not exist in books; it exists in the human heart, and in the heart exists the soul,

and in the soul exists trust, and trust is in God, the Loving, the Merciful, the Caring, the Good.

Thus, I would like to ask our alien friends from another planet: How can we find our heart, our soul? How can we recover our trust? How can we earn our trust in God, who is watching us as we seem to lose our minds, our hearts, our souls, our trust in each other?

Yes, we need help, because we are becoming helpless and hopeless.

We need someone to tell us how to help the little Syrian girl who is crying, stained with tears and blood before our naked eyes!

We need someone to show us how to give hope to a little boy who is drifting on the ocean, fleeing for his safety from endless wars!

We need someone from heaven to soften our human hearts, which seem to have become harder than rock.

There are rocks out of which rivers gush; there are rocks which split asunder so that water flows from them; indeed, there are rocks which fall down before Merciful God. But, some human hearts are harder than the rocks. These hard human hearts are the progenitors of war.

What if the oceans rejected us? What if the air refused to yield to human demands? What if our food itself became a deadly poison?

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In November 1994 I joined this vibrant international feminist organization that derives its name from Isis, the Egyptian goddess symbolizing wisdom, knowledge and creativity.

Isis-WICCE (Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange) values justice, fairness and respect for humanity. Its values are my own values, and this is how I was easily woven into the organization.

One thing that struck me when I joined Isis-WICCE was that in the previous year the organization had moved from Geneva, Switzerland, where it had been founded in 1974, to Uganda in Africa in order to tap the voices of African women and ignite their leadership. It sought to amplify women’s voices and deepen their activism at a time when many African countries faced insecurity and militarism.

It was strategic of Isis-WICCE to tap the voices of women in situations of armed conflict and make visible their contribution to peacebuilding as well as their roles in the many so-called “liberation movements,” because in the existing narratives of the time women were simply victims of the armed conflict; there was no cognizance of their inherent strength that has over decades held together the communities shattered by violent conflicts.

In its efforts to profile the power of women in peacebuilding, it was important for Isis-WICCE to revisit the strategies employed in Geneva, if it was to call attention to the genuine voices of women in Africa. The earlier strategy of documenting women’s stories and collecting them in a documentation center evolved into a full-fledged, action-oriented research program that has over the years increased women’s collaboration, agenda setting and knowledge generation.

Providing women space and trust exposed Isis-WICCE to the unimaginable pain and questions of women survivors, but at the same time it brought recognition to their resilience and their urge to transform their lives and their communities. It also pointed Isis-WICCE to one key aspect: women wanted to rebuild their lives and get involved in development, but they were hindered by physical and emotional restraints. All the women we documented told us, “Our priority is healing our bodies, minds and spirits.”

This drove Isis-WICCE to innovate partnerships with medical professionals to restore women’s bodily integrity and dignity. In the process of conducting healing camps for survivors in their communities, we saw how the leadership potential of these women became apparent immediately after the

The trauma of war shatters lives and communities, and most often women disproportionately bear the brunt of violent conflict. But when women are assisted to heal, the effects of this empowerment can be far-reaching, as Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng describes.

Women’s Power Is in SolidarityRuth Ojiambo Ochieng

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healing process had been carried out. We began to involve these women in our cross-cultural exchange program, which aims to strengthen women’s activist leadership and political participation so that a vanguard of women get involved in communicating feminist knowledge for advocacy, visibility and influence. It is through this process that we met Amuge Hellen.

Amuge Hellen: Survivor and Change Agent

Over the years we have seen the tremendous impact of women’s leadership in various communities. One of the most exciting stories is that of Amuge Hellen, a 50-year-old woman from Amuria District in the Eastern Region of Uganda, a survivor of rape whom we met in 2008. She had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, which led to her husband, her family members and some of the community members disowning her.

Her ordeal began in 1986 when Karamojong rustlers from her region attacked her home, looted the family cows and goats (their only source of livelihood) and burned their homestead. Rebels followed soon after, in 1987. They killed her father and tortured her family members, dragged her on the ground, damaging the skin on her breasts, and cut her ears before gang-raping her. In 2003, Amuge experienced another violent

attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army, prompting the family to move from one place to another, staying in displaced persons camps. Amuge recalled that it was at this time that she began feeling pain in her body and decided to be tested for HIV/AIDS.

Amuge came into contact with Isis-WICCE through the outreach initiatives of Cecilia Engole, a woman leader from Amuge’s sub-region who had been through the Isis-WICCE exchange program and established a community-based organization called Teso Women Peace Activists (TEWPA). After meeting Amuge, she invited her to the organization’s counseling sessions, which she had initiated to support survivors of rape and those affected by HIV/AIDS and to help fight the stigma associated with these. Here Amuge had the opportunity to share experiences and laugh and cry together with other survivors—a first step in the restoration of hope.

In 2005, a now strengthened Amuge started a support group in her village for people living with HIV/AIDS. As antiretroviral (ARV) treatment at that time could only be accessed through payment, she suggested her group of 45 people start a revolving fund to which members would contribute 500 shillings (less than US$0.15) a week. Each month the collected funds would be provided to one member of the group to support them in accessing food and other household basics,

Refugees near the Uganda-Democratic Republic of the Congo border; for decades the region has been riven by violent conflict, and women have suffered the brunt

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and allow them to pay for their ARVs. Through this collective action, the health of the women in the group improved drastically.

Enabling Others

During the annual Isis-WICCE monitoring processes in 2008, TEWPA introduced Amuge’s group to Isis-WICCE. We saw a frail but very determined woman who was full of great ideas for the improvement of her group’s well-being. We were humbled to learn of the journey of Amuge and the great resilience that enabled her to sustain others. She told us that what saved her from death was TEWPA providing her the space to be human again and that this gave her the ability to do for others what TEWPA did for her.

Isis-WICCE was energized to take a further step to support Amuge’s dream of living in dignity. In that same year we approached Urgent Action Fund and collectively developed a proposal for funding to support groups for women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, Liberia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. We brought together a selected number of these survivors into a roundtable discussion with funders in Nairobi. Amuge was one of those flown to Nairobi. This was a groundbreaking moment for her, and she has never remained the same. In the conversation with donors she, eloquently shared her story and what she had so far done. She put it to the donors, “I want money for the livelihood of my affected group.”

Amuge proposed the purchase of cows for the group, and was supported

Amuge in the group’s orchard

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Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng from Uganda was, until her retirement in December 2015, the executive director of Isis Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE). In 2015, she was a member of UN Women’s 17-member advisory panel to evaluate the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and remains a strategic adviser on women, peace and human security. She is a member of the board of directors of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).

with 24 livestock. The group agreed to share the responsibility of caring for the cows. Those who were too sickly to do so were able to use money from the revolving fund to hire a helper. Amuge proposed buying cows as they would support the group to till the land and grow nutritious foods as well as provide milk that could be sold to earn revenue. She also suggested capacity building to enhance their human rights drive and HIV/AIDS community sensitizations.

Today, Amuge’s group has 168 cows, an average of 3 for each member. On land given to them by the husband of a member of the group (who still lives with his infected wife), they planted an orange orchard. These dividends enabled the group to access ARVs until the time the government of Uganda was able to provide them for free.

Amuge’s passionate advocacy has provided Isis-WICCE with the challenge to continue supporting her to achieve her mission—that of enabling every infected woman to live with dignity. This vision pushed us to prepare Amuge to influence policy, and in partnership with the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) in Washington DC, Amuge was invited to a roundtable in the White House to engage policy makers on HIV policy in the US. This was an astounding victory for this founder of a group of women with whom no one wanted to associate because they were despised as “walking corpses”!

Following her trip to Washington DC, Amuge began writing reports and inviting Isis-WICCE to document the group’s successes. Instead, we trained the group to document their own stories. Their next goal is to publish a book. In 2015, we introduced the group to the Stephen Lewis Foundation from Canada, which has further supported their livelihood project and their efforts in capacity building through sustainable agriculture and community sensitization.

Amuge’s story is one among many, and it is not yet finished. It is an example of how women who have been the victims of violent conflict and discrimination have, with a little support and encouragement, been able to become a force for peace and upliftment.

We saw a frail but very determined woman who was full of great ideas for the improvement of her group’s well-being.

11July 2016

We are called upon, says Harvard anthropologist Nur Yalman, to discover the common elements of our humanity, if we are to avoid spiraling into destruction.

The essence of anthropology is empathy. The great French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss noted this with precision. Without empathy it is impossible to

understand the mentality of other cultures and civilizations. We have to be able to think ourselves into their states of mind. Only then is dialogue between two minds possible and productive.

Lévi-Strauss was not alone; he was referring directly to the work of French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau whom he regarded as the key figure in French humanist thought. The concern for empathy is directly related to the quest for enlightenment, a higher humanism and the rights of man as they came to be formulated in those heady years of the French Revolution that transformed Europe.

The interest in empathy and dialogue was not only a French preoccupation. We also meet it in the rich German tradition when Max Weber writes of the verstehende Soziologie—the sociology of understanding, the need to enter into subjectivities and to understand other minds and other cultures on their own terms.

What is desperately needed in our world today is indeed a higher humanism: a sense of recognition and respect that can resonate with all world religions; a humanism that goes beyond everyday religious tribalism; a humanism grounded, firstly, in respect for the views of other people and, secondly, in respect for the individual—what André Gide called “the most irreplaceable of beings.”

Anyone who has lost a loved one will immediately recognize that the particular person lost—a mother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a father, a grandchild, a dearest one—is, of course, irreplaceable.

Why is it necessary to speak of a higher humanism now? For Christians, are Jesus and Mary and the Saints not good enough for everyone? Or, for the Muslims, are Muhammad and Ali, the divine poets Rumi, Khayyám and Hafez and the great thinkers Avicenna and Averroes not sufficient for all? Or, for the Jews, Moses and Maimonides? What about Shiva and Parvati, Vishnu and Ganesha, Murugan or Minakshi and all those wonderful myths and rituals of India? And what about Prince Siddhartha, Ananda and the bodhisattvas?

It is awfully tempting to form a closed and familiar community around any one of these venerated figures, thus defining those who are “our people.” All the others are not of “us.” That is a form of barbarism and tribal thinking that we must absolutely reject.

Beyond the Familiar

How do we achieve the higher humanism that most anthropologists and I have in mind? I am thinking of a higher humanism that understands and accepts the need of people for faith and some deeply venerated truth to believe in, for collective public and private rituals, for temples and places of worship, for sacred objects and sacred stories and for collective shared emotions. These are our vibrant world religions as we know and live with them every day. From experience we know how powerful they can be in instances of collective action, but we must also be able to use our great human faculty for dialogue to draw out those common human concerns that exist in each and every one of them. We must then go beyond them to a higher humanism. This is not the denial of religion or of peoples’ own belief systems; this is simply the demand for greater openness and understanding, for reason and rationality in a world threatened by dissension, xenophobia, fear, extremism and organized violence.

A Higher HumanismThe Path to EnlightenmentNur Yalman

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Nur Yalman is professor emeritus of social anthropology and Middle Eastern studies at Harvard University. He is also a senior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. His many publications include A Passage to Peace: Global Solutions from East and West, a dialogue with SGI President Daisaku Ikeda.

Recent terrible events in Paris have made it clear that intolerance of other people and what they hold dear has the potential to destroy us all. The war between the weapons of the weak and the weapons of the strong will not end well. It has already shown its murderous potential in the devastating violence we are witnessing daily in Syria and Iraq, in Libya and Yemen, in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The numbers killed this century are a nightmare beyond imagination. How do we stop this awful juggernaut of war and killing except by a constant and conscious collective effort to work for peace?

Mahatma Gandhi’s farsighted understanding of this critical subject was that the ends do not justify the means. Rather, it is the nature of the means used that determines the character of the ends achieved. Can there be a better invitation for dialogue and peace than the words of that great spirit?

The demand for the abolition of nuclear weapons, efforts to protect the environment and efforts to develop a sense of respect for nature and human rights for the individual all become part of a universal message that is accessible and acceptable to people in various religious traditions.

For example, the term Ahimsa, pity for living beings, is a central tenet of Buddhism and Jainism that is shared in spirit by Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This is, of course, perfectly aligned with our preoccupation with human rights. After all, what are

human rights except a concern for the fates of human beings? It is about empathy for human beings and their rights, which are being trampled upon by nasty regimes of various kinds all over the world.

This sense of pity for living beings is a point that is shared by all the great religious traditions. They are all preoccupied with the question of the sacredness of the inner life of the individual, the preciousness of the particular person and the precariousness of life. These fundamental matters are universal concerns that we cannot and must never forget.

This text is from an address delivered at Soka University in Tokyo, Japan, on October 10, 2015.

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Can ancient philosophies help us navigate the stresses and complexities of 21st-century life? Lou Marinoff is professor of philosophy at The City College of New York as well as founding president of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association. He is the author of several books, including Plato, Not Prozac and The Middle Way, and coauthor of The Inner Philosopher: Conversations on Philosophy’s Transformative Power, a dialogue with SGI President Daisaku Ikeda.

The following is an edited excerpt of an interview between Prof. Marinoff and Masao Yokota, senior adviser to the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Two philosophers debating (miniature from a 13th-century Arabic manuscript)

The Restorative Power of PhilosophyInterview with Lou Marinoff

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What is philosophical counseling, and how does it differ from psychological counseling?

The growth of psychology in the 20th century was partly a growth of psychological counseling, which never existed before. The first psychology laboratory was opened in Germany in the 1870s. But only after World War II did psychologists begin to counsel people. Philosophers, however, have been doing dialogue since ancient times. So it’s not new for us.

The main difference for us is that a majority of psychologists tend to be focused primarily on emotions. If people are upset, angry, depressed—they want to talk about their emotions and go into those. Philosophers are more interested in reason. In the short run, emotions are very powerful. But in the long run, reason is the more powerful agent. So that is one way of understanding the difference.

In contemporary philosophical counseling, we have made use of ancient methods from all over the world. We have practitioners in so many countries now, and they are all going back to the basic wisdom traditions, whether it’s in Greece with the Stoics or the Epicureans or the Platonists or the Socratics—they all have good methods for dealing with problems. Also in Asia there are wonderful traditions—the Buddhist tradition, Daoist tradition, Confucian tradition—for working philosophically with problems. These are relevant today. Philosophy is very powerful and still relevant today. But people have lost touch with it.

Then you add to this medication, which became very big business in the latter part of the 20th century and into this century. Psychologists are part of this system of medicine where they are diagnosing people and diagnosing things that aren’t always medical problems, and then drugging people. Appropriate medication is important. But I think the power of the mind is the main thing that has been neglected. Philosophers who practice are making people more aware of the power of the mind and the resources that come with it.

What are the typical kinds of problems among people who consult you?

There are a lot of things. People going through career change is a big issue now in the US, because many people in their 50s are being fired. They call it “downsizing.” So people have to reinvent themselves. In the past, if you got an engineering degree, you got hired by a company, and that was a job for life. Now things are much more in flux. So people have to be more self-reliant and more entrepreneurial.

The other kind of problem we see is relationship-based. Relationship problems never go away.

Allegory of the Cave

In Plato’s Republic Socrates describes people who have been chained inside a cave for their entire lives who watch shadows projected onto the wall of the cave and mistake these for reality.

15July 2016

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How should people deal with the problem of career change?

We are addressing these questions in the university because we are saying, “How do we educate people for the future?” Nobody knows because the changes in technology are so rapid. In the old days you could say, “This education will be good for a generation.” Now we don’t know. The humanities are more stable, but there aren’t as many opportunities. This is another problem. Technology is driving government. Most politicians think that every problem will be fixed by technology. The humanities are also under siege in the universities. This is not a good thing. People lose touch with their own human roots.

In the US they have eliminated cursive script. People used to sit down and write letters; now they are just texting. If you don’t use language in a deep way, you don’t think in a deep way. This is part of the danger. People are thinking in a very superficial way.

If you look at it as a societal phenomenon, young people are very apt now to mistake appearance for reality. They think the way things appear must be real. This is a huge mistake. Plato, in The Republic, Book VII, presents the allegory of the cave. It’s the most famous allegory in Western philosophy, and the whole point is to distinguish between appearance and reality. We have

Are digital technologies changing the ways we perceive and interact with the world and each other?

In Greek they have a better word for crisis—katharsis, meaning a purification and restoration. So a crisis is also a transformation.

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to develop our minds to understand reality, but it takes work. Whereas just to be fooled by an appearance—this is a very dangerous road. And we see young people now who believe that appearance is everything. So we have some concerns.

What do you think is a practical first step to restore the fabric of society?

Well, everybody can do something. It’s never the case that people have no power. People actually have more power than they know, but they don’t know how to exercise it.

Also it takes work to organize people. By yourself you can do a lot of things, but ultimately social change has to be brought about by collective action. And that requires grassroots organization. So two things, people have to learn to take good care of themselves and live a life that will be healthy, help themselves and the people around them. The second step has to be a large commitment to society to work together to bring about positive change. Then you have to have organizers for this.

We have this incredible power to change our world. So people need to understand their own power in creating their own world, creating their own reality. That’s an old Buddhist teaching, from the ancients: As you think, so shall you become. This is from the Dhammapada, a Theravada text. This is the idea of cocreating reality with our thought forms. We are the only animal that can do this. Philosophical counselors want people to be more powerful. That’s one difference between us and psychology. We are dialoging; there is no diagnosis involved. We are not trained to diagnose anyway. But we are trained to talk to people and to make a general inquiry. What do philosophers know how to do? Nothing really—just how to inquire.

It seems that when we gain some new technology, we also lose something as a culture. For example, when we gained literacy, we lost the ability to store vast amounts of information in memory. The question is, then, what are we losing as we move toward a more stable, affluent civilization?

Perspective, I think we lose perspective on things. Digital technology is very fast. Maybe that’s good. But people also lose patience because they become conditioned to expect everything is going to be immediate and instantaneous.

They also therefore expect achievement to be immediate. That’s the American mantra—quick and easy. “Quick” means immediate and “easy” means no effort. But you can’t live life like this. The whole point of human flourishing is that it’s a process. Things that are worthwhile take time, sometimes. The things that are most worthwhile take the most time.

We live in a very challenging time. The real challenge is not to lose our humanity in all of this technology. We have to always work on the value question. What does it mean to be human? And how do we live a meaningful life? Always, always ask this question.

What is a healthy way of responding to crisis?

A crisis can be very serious. But there is another part of a crisis that is always going to be an opportunity for positive change. People need to be focused on the danger but also on the opportunity.

In Greek they have a better word for crisis—katharsis, meaning a purification and restoration. So a crisis is also a transformation. It’s not just a bad thing. It starts off maybe as a shock or a change, and you didn’t ask for this. But if you keep the view that it’s a potential transformation, then you can shape the direction from there. You cannot change the crisis, but you can change the path going from the crisis.

You have to look and say, “OK, this is not good, but something else must be good. There has to be some positive thing.” Find the good thing, focus on the good thing and then make good causes. We always have this possibility, I believe. That’s got nothing to do with material reality. It’s only state of mind.

In any situation, in principle, you have the ability to find something good in it, to go forward in a positive way. That makes a difference for you, and it makes a difference for the people around you because you set an example.

The main difference for us is that a majority of psychologists tend to be focused primarily on emotions . . . Philosophers are more interested in reason.

17July 2016

18 SGI Quarterly

A key requirement for peace in our diverse and complex world is our ability to embrace different perspectives. Dialogue is what enables us to do this, argues SGI President Daisaku Ikeda in this excerpt from his 2016 peace proposal, “Universal Respect for Human Dignity: The Great Path to Peace.”

As a result of globalization—one of the defining trends of the 21st century—an unprecedented number of people are living outside their country of origin for short-term

work or educational opportunities or have chosen to settle in a new location. Many countries have seen an influx of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, providing new opportunities for interaction and exchange. At the same time, however, there has been an increased incidence of racism and xenophobia.

In the peace proposal I wrote last year, I warned of the dangers of hate speech, noting that, regardless of whom it is directed at, it is a human rights violation that cannot

be ignored. It is crucial that this recognition be established throughout international society. In order to construct societies that are resistant to xenophobia and incitement to hatred, people need to be exposed to and reminded of different perspectives. Face-to-face dialogue can play a crucial role in this.

The Buddhist teaching of the Four Views of the Sal Grove illustrates the way that differences in people’s mental or spiritual state cause them to see the same thing in completely different ways. For example, the sight of the same river might inspire different people to be moved by the beauty of its pure waters, to wonder what kind of fish might be found there, or to

Ousmane, a 20-year-old Muslim refugee from the Central African Republic, stands in a field at Mole refugee camp in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 20, 2015, as nations mark World Refugee Day. Several thousand refugees fled to this area following brutal interreligious violence in 2013–14.

Seeing Beyond the ExpectedDaisaku Ikeda

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Daisaku Ikeda is the president of the Soka Gakkai International and founder of several institutions promoting peace, culture and education. The full text of this proposal is available at www.sgi.org/about-us/president-ikedas-proposals/.

worry about it flooding. What is particularly significant is that these are not simply differences in subjective perception; they can give rise to actions that will actually alter that landscape.

A Fig Tree

An example of this is to be found in the life story of my dear friend, the late Dr. Wangari Maathai (1940–2011).

The people in the Kenyan village where she was born viewed fig trees with reverence, contributing to the protection of the local ecology. Returning to Kenya from the United States where she had completed her studies, a shocking sight awaited her. A fig tree that she had loved since childhood had been felled by the new owner of the land to make space to grow tea. This had not only changed the landscape, but, as the pattern was repeated elsewhere, landslides were becoming more frequent and sources of potable water more scarce.

This is a poignant example of how something that was treasured by one person may appear to another as nothing more than an impediment. The problems arising from such differences in awareness are not limited to relations between individuals but also affect relations among groups of differing cultural or ethnic backgrounds. The things that do not impinge upon our consciousness cease to exist in our version of the world.

While we as humans may be adept at understanding the feelings of those with whom we have a close relationship, geographical and cultural distances can result in psychological distancing. Accelerating processes of globalization seem to exacerbate this, with modern means of communication at times amplifying the tendency to stereotype and hate. As a result, people end up avoiding interaction with those who are different, including those living in the same community, viewing them through a filter of discriminatory preconception. Society as a whole has seen a lessening of our capacity to appreciate others—as they are and for who they are. I believe that the surest way to change this is by carefully attending to the stories of each other’s lives through one-on-one dialogue.

Last year, for World Refugee Day, UNHCR launched a public education campaign that introduces the life stories of people who have become refugees, urging viewers to share these stories with their friends and acquaintances. They are each introduced by name and through easily recognized attributes that bear no relation to nationality—“Gardener.

Mother. Nature lover.” “Student. Brother. Poet.”—and describe their stories and their feelings about their current situation. Encountering the experience and life story of an individual in such real and familiar terms can enable people to see beyond a faceless classification as “refugees.”

When I met with Professor Ved Nanda of the University of Denver in the United States, he recounted to me his experience at age 12 of being forced from his home as a result of the 1947 partition of India and of walking for days with his mother in search of safety. He went on to study international law and became a leading expert on human rights and refugee issues. As he later wrote:

There is no doubt that my early childhood experiences had a deep, lasting influence on my life. I will remember until the last day of my life the grief I felt at being forced from my homeland.

As UNHCR’s effort to show the human face of refugees suggests, our awareness of people belonging to different religions or ethnicities can be transformed through direct contact and conversation with even one member of that group. Such an encounter can bring into view an entirely new and different “landscape.” By engaging in open and frank dialogue, we are able to see things that had been hidden from view, and the world begins to appear in a warmer, more human light.

In September 1974 in the midst of heightened Cold War tensions, I decided to ignore the voices of criticism and opposition in order to visit the Soviet Union for the first time. The belief that motivated me was this: We don’t need to fear the Soviet Union so much as we need to fear our ignorance of the Soviet Union.

Conflict and tension do not in themselves render dialogue impossible; what builds the walls between us is our willingness to remain ignorant of others. This is why it is crucial to be the one to initiate dialogue. Everything starts from there.

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What are the qualities and attributes of a good leader? Is the ability to support and inspire others one of those attributes? Trombonist James Greening delves into his experience as a jazz musician and a Buddhist to answer these questions.

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned came from the late Australian jazz trumpeter Keith Stirling. One day, before going on stage, I asked him what I needed to do. His response: “Just make me sound amazing.” This determination to support someone is

also the key to leadership, in my experience. It is simple, and I still apply this lesson to this day in music and every part of my life.

People & PerspectivesStories and reflections on the Buddhist approach to life

James Greening, Australia

Make Me Sound AmazingLessons in Life and Leadership

20 SGI Quarterly

James Greening has been playing trombone since he was seven years old. Moving to Sydney in the early 1980s, he became a professional musician playing in jazz, Latin and television show bands. Performing at international and local nightclubs and jazz festivals with his quartet, The World According to James, and septet, Greening from Ear to Ear, James also contributes to a music education program. He is a member of SGI-Australia and has been practicing Buddhism since 1983.

It is our focus on the person in front of us that liberates us from and helps us appreciate our own struggles and sufferings.

As a working musician, I have been fortunate to be a sideman in many groups over the last 35 years. With this valuable training, I started my own quartet, and three years ago I formed a new seven-piece group that performs both original compositions of mine and those of the other members of the band.

What is significant is that I display the same attributes as a sideman as I do when I am leading these groups. That is, my role as a sideman is to support the bandleader in taking the music in the direction they wish and to listen intently to the other musicians so that I can support everyone to sound amazing. When leading the band, I support the other musicians with the same intent. In both cases, there needs to be a clear direction, a clarity about our contribution to society and a common desire for us all to succeed individually and collectively. As a leader, it is perhaps more obvious that I need to be clear and take responsibility for the direction when I lead the band. I also need to remind people of their significance, confidently expressing my belief in them, even if I am criticized at times. This is what I have learned about leadership from SGI-Australia (SGIA) discussion meetings and activities.

Smiling confidently is one of the most powerful ways that I can support the leader and the band members. As a leader or as a sideman, I believe I have the responsibility to do everything to make the gig work—whether it’s negotiating with the sound technicians, taping up some leads so people don’t trip or encouraging someone who may have lost confidence.

A wonderfully strict concept you learn as a musician is that the audience doesn’t care how you are feeling. They simply want you to sound amazing. Whether you are exhausted, frustrated, suffering from a great loss or just don’t believe your playing is good enough, the audience has come to be inspired, revitalized and to experience something extraordinary.

Great musicians like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Buster Williams and Bennie Maupin know that their responsibility

is to inspire and transport people with the clarity of their musical dialogue. This sense of common purpose and conviction to inspire people through their music and their lives is a great liberator for musicians to overcome their own doubt and suffering. My understanding is that this is the case for all of us; it is our focus on the person in front of us that liberates us from and helps us appreciate our own struggles and sufferings.

The SGIA discussion meeting is a place where we all get the opportunity to put leadership skills into practice by supporting members of the group. Having the capacity to listen to each member speak and to believe with total confidence in the common desire of the group to create value out of the dialogue is the great training of the discussion meeting. Similar to the training of musical performance, there are also times when we don’t want to open the door because of our negativity, suffering or struggles, but we do open the door, and there are people who have made an effort to come and be inspired and revitalized. This quote from SGI President Daisaku Ikeda makes it clear that we all have a mission to be artistic leaders in life:

To strive even higher, to do even better—the creative process is a desperate struggle to go beyond what we were yesterday. It is a battle against resting on our laurels, against the fear of losing what we have. It is an adventure into unknown territory.

21July 2016

Ivy Gabbert describes how the SGI Office for UN Affairs in New York is supporting the UN’s agenda for women’s advancement.

The United Nations covers a broad agenda that touches the lives of everyone. As a UN-accredited nongovernmental organization (NGO), the SGI works

on various issues within this agenda that resonate with its Buddhist view of life. Gender equality is integral to the philosophy of the SGI, which upholds the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.

As such, I find it interesting to note that the SGI was founded during a year that has special significance for all women. The year 1975 was International Women’s Year and saw the first UN World Conference on Women take place in Mexico City

with 133 governments in attendance. These events brought to attention the discrimination women continued to face around the globe.

NGO Women for Women’s Rights

The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is an intergovernmental body created in 1946 for the purpose of ensuring gender equality and promoting women’s rights. Among all the intergovernmental sessions held at the UN Headquarters, the CSW draws by far the highest number of NGO participants. During the two weeks of the CSW, the

Strengthening the Voice of Women at the UN

In FocusUpdates and reports from around the world

Small roundtable discussion at an NGO CSW Forum event

Ivy Gabbert, program coordinator, SGI Office for UN Affairs

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halls of the UN that are normally filled with delegates in gray- and black-colored suits are instead filled with the lively voices of colorfully dressed grassroots women from every corner of the world.

While the intergovernmental sessions are being held, the NGO CSW Forum also takes place at a venue outside of the UN buildings. This forum is organized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO CSW) in New York. It provides a space for thousands of NGOs to hold parallel events to share experiences and best practices from the ground and gives participants invaluable opportunities to network and connect with each other. The NGO CSW/NY’s mission is to support the work of the CSW and UN Women and advocate women’s rights and the advancement of women and girls worldwide; its membership consists of about 100 organizations.

The SGI’s commitment to the committee’s mission has been reflected in its consistent attendance and active participation in the planning committee, which meets regularly over a six-month period prior to the holding of the forum. The SGI has held parallel events during the CSW for the past five years. Our hope is to contribute to the discussions of the commission through these events, which have focused on education, empowerment, dialogue and women’s leadership. Other activities that we have helped organize to support the CSW in bringing people together have included networking sessions, conversation circles and the NGO CSW Consultation Day.

Women and Empowerment

Since the late 1990s, the SGI has been a member of the NGO CSW/NY, and I am currently serving on the executive committee. Through my committee experiences, I have seen the powerful impact that solidarity among women can have on the world. I am often moved by the passion, genuine care and support among women and their capacity to empathize with human suffering. In the nurturing embrace of these women, I am learning to persevere, find my own voice and truly collaborate.

I grew up with female role models in the SGI—women creating positive change in the place they are, in whatever capacity that may be, in their homes, in their communities and in society. This is the spirit we are striving to bring to the UN. It is the spirit of courage, compassion and wisdom. In reality, the UN struggles to uphold its lofty mission, and it needs the support of the people—that is, civil society or all of us—to ensure its success.

The SGI’s engagement in committees such as the NGO CSW is about collaborating with other like-minded NGOs to be the people’s voice at the UN. The particular strength of the SGI lies in its capacity to bring a holistic perspective and approach. We strive to be a bridge that connects people from different sectors and issue areas.

Participants in a CSW59 high-level panel on women in political leadership

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Ivy Gabbert is a program coordinator for the SGI Office for UN Affairs in New York. She serves on the executive committee of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in New York and is chair of the Young Professionals Subcommittee.

Among my NGO CSW/NY responsibilities, I serve as chair of the Young Professionals Subcommittee. The group recently launched its first series of conversations between young professionals working in government, the UN, NGOs, civil society, academia and the private sector. In an open, inviting atmosphere among peers, the objective is to create a space to help empower and foster leadership skills in younger women, in particular. The topic of discussion was women, peace and security and included representatives from the Office of the President of the General Assembly and UN Women.

Toward a Peaceful, Gender- Equal World

October 2015 marked the 15th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, a landmark treaty acknowledging the role of women in conflict resolution and peace processes and calling for their participation at all levels of decision-making. On a broader scale, former UN Under-Secretary-General Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, who was instrumental in the adoption of Resolution 1325, expressed his belief at recent commemorative events that this resolution is not limited to countries in active, armed conflict but applies to any nation in conflict with itself. This means any country where violence of any kind exists. He emphasized how important women’s leadership is not only in these processes but in all spheres of society. I believe the spirit of Resolution 1325 is alive in the day-to-day efforts of the women of the SGI striving to contribute to the well-being of their local communities.

Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the driving force behind its adoption, is a source of encouragement for me in my work to support the mission of the UN. She said: “Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.’”

People have the potential to change and to challenge the status quo. It starts with our decision to do it. With all of us believing it can be done, we will ensure the 21st century is a century of women. My wish is a life of dignity for all in a peaceful, gender-equal world.

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Chanikarn Mint Wongviriyawong describeshow reflecting on the importance of compassion in Thai culture led to the birth of a youth movement promoting a culture of peace.

Young Plants of Peace (YPP) is a group of young people in Thailand working toward creating a culture of peace based on respect for the dignity of life. It developed

organically in 2013 out of collaboration between Soka Gakkai Thailand’s student group and English language group in Bangkok and currently consists of about 70 members. At the core of YPP activities are our efforts to put the spirit of Buddhist humanism—to value each individual and cultivate their capacity for positive change—into practice in our local communities.

One of the inspirations for establishing the group was a passage from SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s serialized novel The New Human Revolution in which he reflects on his first visit to Thailand in 1961: “Thailand is destined to be an important center from which the light of happiness will shine on all Asia, a lighthouse that will illuminate the way for its many peoples.”

When I returned to my home country of Thailand in 2012 after 12 years of study in the US, I faced reverse culture shock and was struggling to find my sense of purpose. It was during this period that I came across the above passage. It helped me realize that Thai culture is inherently one of compassion, generosity and respect for life. For example, the gesture of putting our palms together and bowing whenever we meet represents respect for one another. It has taken me three years to discover that Thailand has great potential to become a model of a peaceful society. It is just a matter of bringing this potential to the forefront so that it informs the way we live our lives. This has become the aim of YPP activities and the sense of purpose I had been looking for.

A Movement to Encourage

In one of our projects, we studied ways to effectively engage in dialogue and the role that listening plays in the process. We then drove to a nursing home in Chonburi Province to practice listening to the stories of our elders. Through this simple act, we learned a great deal and realized how our willingness to listen in turn encouraged those we had gone to visit.

Young Plants of PeaceMaking Dignity Personal in ThailandChanikarn Mint Wongviriyawong, founder, Young Plants of Peace

In FocusUpdates and reports from around the world

25July 2016

Chanikarn Mint Wongviriyawong is a young women’s leader in Soka Gakkai Thailand and a lecturer at the Institute of Field Robotics at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. She began exploring themes related to peacebuilding and nuclear abolition as part of SGI-USA’s activities around 2010 as a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mint conducts research ranging from building robotic toys that facilitate learning to objectively quantifying learning outcome, passion and happiness.

Focusing on the power of one-to-one encouragement, YPP then began a two-month campaign called “Chain Reaction of Hope” to encourage 20,000 young people—our friends and acquaintances—through sending them handwritten postcards designed by our team. One participant with early onset Parkinson’s disease challenged herself to write 50 postcards a day. Even after the campaign, she still writes postcards to encourage others, and the trembling of her hands has become almost unnoticeable.

YPP meets on a monthly basis to read selected excerpts from books by leading philosophers, peace activists and world leaders and to discuss various topics ranging from global citizenship and nuclear disarmament to the dignity of life, friendship and family.

On August 15, 2015, we hosted a peace festival to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the horrific atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also invited SGI representatives from Cambodia and Laos to join us in exchanging ideas for building peace in our respective countries and in the region. The festival included cultural performances, a film on the devastating effects of nuclear weapons, the signing of an antinuclear weapons petition and a segment where young representatives of Soka Gakkai Thailand shared their determinations to work for peace.

The existence of nuclear weapons is rooted in a silent, passive form of violence that exists in the hearts of individuals

as prejudice, disrespect and a lack of concern for others’ suffering. In the run-up to the festival, the nearly 300 staff members and performers focused on trying to discern and “abolish” these tendencies in their own lives. Through this effort, the often-distant goal of nuclear abolition became a personal one. Each of us was able to reflect on and experience how the establishment of a culture of peace must begin with a transformation within ourselves and our immediate environment.

While peace can seem like a distant goal, we of the YPP are committed to advance along the path of personal transformation as a sustainable means toward making respect for the dignity of life the spirit of the age.

Listening to elders in Chonburi

26 SGI Quarterly

Nichiren Buddhism is revolutionary in that it teaches that all people are capable of manifesting Buddhahood in this lifetime, in their present form.

However, it can be very difficult to actually believe in and respect the infinite potentiality of our lives, much less manifest, on a consistent basis, the sublime life condition of Buddhahood that exists within us all.

The Gohonzon is a scroll containing Chinese and Sanskrit characters that aids practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism in the process of perceiving and bringing forth the life condition of Buddhahood from within their lives.

It is a physical representation of the fundamental law that permeates all life, the sublime reality to which Shakyamuni was enlightened. Shakyamuni’s revelation of this law is distilled within the Lotus Sutra, the title of which is rendered in Japanese as Myoho-renge-kyo. The 13th-century Buddhist teacher Nichiren defined the “Mystic Law” described within the Lotus Sutra as “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” and represented it in graphic form as the Gohonzon, establishing a way for all people to connect with it.

In one sense, the Gohonzon is a blueprint of the limitless potential of our inner lives. It mirrors the qualities of our inherent Buddha nature, such as wisdom, courage, compassion and life force. It is not a representation of something we lack or must acquire from a source outside ourselves.

Gohonzon (Jpn.) can be literally translated as “object of devotion.” Practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism have altars in their homes where they enshrine the Gohonzon. Their daily practice, which consists of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra while facing the Gohonzon, is an act of reaffirming and revering the dignity of their lives as well as the dignity of all life. By revering the Buddha nature inherent within their own lives and depicted in the Gohonzon, practitioners are able to manifest the qualities of Buddhahood.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is written down the center of the Gohonzon in bold characters. Nam, meaning devotion, signifies the intent of summoning or harmonizing with. It

expresses a vow to believe in our Buddhahood and take action in alignment with this vow.

On either side of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo are characters that represent the various positive and negative tendencies and energies within life. All such energies are intrinsic to life, but harmonized by the law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, all reveal an enlightened aspect and function to create value and happiness.

In addition, Nichiren inscribed his name below Nam-myoho-renge-kyo on the Gohonzon, expressing that the state of Buddhahood is not an abstract concept but is manifest in the life and behavior of human beings. His use of script rather than a painted image or sculpted object reflects his commitment to the principle that this “mirror” of our inherent Buddha nature is universal, free of the connotations of race and gender inherent in depictions of specific personages.

The Gohonzon

Buddhism in Daily LifeApplying Buddhist concepts to modern living

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The Gohonzon is a blueprint of the

limitless potential of our inner lives.

The characters on the Gohonzon are arranged in such a way as to depict a scene from the Lotus Sutra known as the “Ceremony in the Air” during which Shakyamuni reveals the essence of the Lotus Sutra and entrusts his disciples, the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, to uphold and spread this teaching and lead others to happiness. Concern and effort for the happiness of others are thus intrinsic to the manifestation of one’s Buddha nature.

The Gohonzon also expresses the concept of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds (ten life states), which reveals that Buddhahood exists as a potentiality in any given moment of an individual’s life and does not lie outside of one’s daily existence or being.

In this way, the Gohonzon represents a state of life in which the inexhaustible power of the Mystic Law is in full bloom as well as an ideal world where all people in society are manifesting their strengths and capabilities to their fullest.

The key, as Nichiren stressed repeatedly, is to believe that we are “perfectly endowed” beings—that we can reveal our Buddha nature in our present form, at any place and at any time. As Nichiren states, “Never seek this Gohonzon outside yourself.”

Inheriting the legacy of Shakyamuni and Nichiren to actualize a world of peace and happiness for all beings, the practice of SGI members is one of striving to reveal their Buddhahood amidst the joys and sorrows of daily life and helping others do the same.

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28 SGI Quarterly

Introducing Common Threads, a tumblr page hosted by the SGI, with the aim of generating

interest in topics related to the development of a culture of peace and stimulating a growing

network of global citizens active in the pursuit of peace. The blog features articles written by

a diverse range of contributors in the hope of providing a space for sustained dialogue and for

exploring creative responses to a changing world.

Visit Common Threads at commonthreads.sgi.org.

We welcome you to join the conversation by following us on tumblr and liking, reblogging

and commenting on posts. If you are interested in contributing an article or recommending a

contributor, please contact us at quarterly@sgi.org.

Common Threads

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Soka Gakkai InternationalBuddhism in Action for Peace

15-3 Samoncho, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0017, JapanTelephone: +81-3-5360-9830 E-mail: quarterly@sgi.orgWebsite: www.sgi.org

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a lay Buddhist association

promoting peace, culture and education based on the profound

respect for the dignity of life. SGI members uphold the humanistic

philosophy of Nichiren Buddhism and are active in 192 countries

and territories.

As Buddhists with a shared understanding of the inseparable linkages

between individual happiness and the realization of a peaceful

world, SGI members strive to actualize their inherent potential

while contributing to their local communities and responding to

common issues facing humankind. Our efforts toward the creation of

a culture of peace are based on a steadfast commitment to dialogue,

nonviolence and a sense of global citizenship nurtured through our

daily Buddhist practice.

As a nongovernmental organization with formal ties to the United

Nations, the SGI also collaborates with other civil society organizations

and intergovernmental agencies in the fields of nuclear disarmament,

human rights, sustainable development, humanitarian affairs and

interfaith dialogue.

Children in South Africa release balloons to mark the birthday of former president Nelson Mandela in July 2013 © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images