Saito: The recent devastating earthquake [January 17, 1995] in the Kobe-Osaka area of Japan served as a painful reminder of the preciousness of life. In particular, the Japanese government has drawn and outrage from around the world for the slowness and lack of compassion displayed in responding to the disaster. People can’t understand why the government didn’t make saving lives its top priority.
Ikeda: 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 of those people was irreplaceable and precious — someone’s father, mother, child, relative or friend. [It was later determined that more than six thousand perished in the disaster.]
When my mentor, Josei Toda, was twenty-three, he lost his three-year-old daughter. Recalling that time during 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 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 reading the Buddhist scriptures, I found the answer to my fears; I understood death at last — though it took 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 questions of life and death could I become the president of the Soka Gakkai.
Getting back to your original point, how a nation handles a disaster says much about its culture. Emergencies reveal whether a country values human life.
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 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 chapter 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,” a chapter in President Ikeda’s The Human Revolution, then being serialized in the Seikyo Shimbun. The work portrays the solemn drama of Mr. Toda’s passionate quest for the essence of the Lotus Sutra’s teachings while in prison during World War II. Although I knew almost nothing then about the Lotus Sutra, Mr. Toda’s odyssey deeply impressed me.
Ikeda: Very simply, Mr. Toda’s enlightenment should be remembered as the moment that clearly revealed the Soka Gakkai as the true heir to Nichiren Buddhism. That was the starting point of all our propagation activities and our development today, and I firmly believe it was an epoch-making event in the history 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 he became enlightened is identical to the ultimate teaching of Nichiren Buddhism. I believe Mr. Toda’s realization opened a path out of the deadlock facing humanity. Our mission as his disciples is to extend that path in all directions and on all planes.
Suda: This drama began on New Year’s Day 1944, when Mr. Toda, imprisoned by militarist authorities, decided to read the entire Lotus Sutra. He firmly resolved to master its meaning completely. Before that, he had tried to send his copy of the Lotus Sutra home a number of times, but somehow it always made its way back to his cell.
Mr. Toda’s copy, which also contained the sutras regarded as its introduction and conclusion, was a Chinese text without any of the Japanese punctuation or explanations that would have made 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 prayer beads he had fashioned out of cardboard milk-bottle caps, he chanted more than ten thousand Nam-myoho-renge-kyo each day. He challenged himself with the full force of his being to understand the Lotus Sutra.
Endo: By early March, he had already read the entire text three times and had just begun reading it again. Then, pondering the meaning of a difficult passage in the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings, an introduction to the Lotus Sutra, he suddenly realized that the Buddha is life itself.
Ikeda: That was the moment when Buddhism was revived in the twentieth century.
Endo: A verse portion of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings containing thirty-four negations begins with the following lines:
His body neither existing nor not existing,
neither caused nor conditioned, neither self nor other….
(LSOC,7)
Ikeda: In context, we know that “his body” refers to the body of the Buddha. But understanding what that really means is another matter altogether. It is something that can only be described by a series of negations, something that does not fit any definition. Yet, no matter how many negatives one uses to describe it, its existence is indisputable.
To say, therefore, that it merely transcends the power of language, that it is unfathomable or dwells in the state of nonsubstantiality (ku), thus elevating the Buddha into some transcendent 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 satisfied with abstract, conceptual understanding.
Saito: Mr. Toda’s state of life at that time is vividly described through the experience of Mr. Gan, the protagonist of his autobiographical novel, 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, from behind his thick spectacles, 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: It was as if he were pounding his robust body against each word and phrase of the verse.
Ikeda: He was truly trying to read the sutra with his whole being. The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people can attain Buddhahood. What, then, is a Buddha? What does it mean to attain Buddhahood? These questions are 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 in 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: His 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 the real 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 can express the most profound essence of the Buddhist Law, a single word that expresses infinite meaning. All humans 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 has enormous diversity. It is rich and filled with energy. At the same time, it operates according to certain laws and has a definite rhythm. The doctrine of “three thousand realms in a single moment of life” describes this harmony of 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 harmonious freedom and an openness to the entire universe.
The infinite and unbounded state of Buddhahood can be described as a state in which the freedom, openness and harmony of life are maximally realized. 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 Buddhist scriptures as presenting a philosophy of life.
T’ien-t’ai Buddhism represents the teaching that the Great Teacher “T’ien-t’ai himself practiced in the depths of his own being.” Furthermore, the Daishonin declares: “The sacred teachings of the Buddha’s lifetime are devoted to explaining this principle. These are what is known as the storehouse of the eighty-four thousand teachings. All these are teachings encompassed within the single entity of an individual. Hence the storehouse of the eighty-four thousand teachings represents a day-to-day record of one’s own existence” (WND-2, 843).
I still remember how Mr. Toda once chuckled and said that he could physically perceive and share “the teaching that the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai himself practiced in the depths of his own being.”
He said to me: “Dai, you have to encounter problems in life. Only when we encounter problems can we understand faith and achieve greatness.”‘ I was twenty-seven at the time, fighting illness, and Mr. Toda was trying to encourage me in this way 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 health, his body gaunt and wasted. Despite that, he was always thinking about how to encourage young people, how to 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 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 Buddhism!”
He also said, however: “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 Nichiren Buddhism.”
Suda: Mr. Toda’s realization was not simply intellectual; it signified a transformation 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 Buddhism is by its very nature a philosophy of life, and the Soka Gakkai is heir to that Buddhism.
Shakyamuni confronted the sufferings of human life — birth, aging, 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 “three thousand realms in a single moment of life.”
T’ien-t’ai also used a concept expounded in the Flower Garland Sutra — that there are no distinctions among the mind, the Buddha and human beings — to discuss the Mystic Law revealed in the Lotus Sutra. Life 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 aspect of life. He inscribed the Gohonzon, the object of devotion, and expounded his philosophy in The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings and other writings so that all could realize the true aspect of life and open the path to happiness.
In other words, throughout its history, Buddhism has fundamentally always been a philosophy of life.
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. Mr. Toda’s “The Philosophy of Life” was not merely an expression of intellectual theory. Nor did he arrive at it through 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 represents the wisdom of the Lotus Sutra.
His philosophy, therefore, not only informs us of the nature of life but has the power to transform our way of thinking. It leads to hope and practical action. It is a philosophy of practical relevance — “actual” philosophy that brings forth a powerful energy for living. When we faithfully translate this philosophy into practice, our personal drama of self-reformation — in which we change a life of powerlessness and despair into one of satisfaction and happiness — begins.
That reformation of the individual spurs reformation on every level. It is the first turn of the wheel in the process to make humanity strong, rich and wise.
Saito: You are speaking of “human revolution” and of “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 resembles that of the rotation and revolution of the Earth, which, while rotating on its own axis, simultaneously orbits the sun. The Earth’s rotation 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 night and day in the course of creating our own history of human revolution toward limitless improvement. We 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 philosophy set forth by Mr. Toda; its essence lies in his realization that the Buddha is life itself.
Moreover, as Mr. Toda continued in prison to probe the essence of the Lotus Sutra, he saw himself attending the Ceremony in the Air as a Bodhisattva of the Earth. However, I will leave a discussion of the significance of this experience for another chapter.
Endo: In the past the priests of Nichiren Shoshu criticized the lay members’ use of the word 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 those who devote themselves to Buddhism 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 purely the product of jealousy.
Suda: In the phrase “The Buddha is life itself,” 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. The word law, in the sense that it implies a rule or phenomenon, suggests the impersonal. Alone, it does not convey much warmth. Essentially, the Buddha and the Law are not two 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 exists in our own lives.
Saito: I agree completely. Nonetheless, I can’t help feeling that all too often we still only understand the word life intellectually — especially in such expressions as “life throughout the past, present and future” or “eternal life.” How should we comprehend life?
Ikeda: Mr. Toda often said, “Though we speak of ‘life throughout the past, present and future,’ or ‘eternal life, it is something that no one has ever seen.” Still, I think it’s worthwhile to try to sketch an outline of the concept of eternal life as a point of reference.
Suda: Here’s one perspective. In each of us there is something called a “self.” That self continues even after we die. That self is the real essence of life.
Ikeda: I see. Where is that self after one dies?
Suda: Let me see…. Well, I don’t think of it as something ethereal, like the image of a ghost, 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 are those bodies and minds. Your [individual] life and that of the of your 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 life.
Suda: Mr. Toda’s philosophy of life states that the universe is life itself, and that life, together with the universe, has always existed and will continue eternally. He said, “Just as we sleep and wake and then sleep again, we live and die and then live again, maintaining life eternally.” He also said: “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 represented by the leaves and flowers of this tree?
Ikeda: Someone once asked President Toda a similar question. He answered:
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 teacup 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. According to Mr. Toda, 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: “There is no separate ‘you’ to get something 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 lives are 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 say our lives are like a flowing river. The river flows continuously, always changing, until it finally merges with the ocean.
Ikeda: I see. But don’t our lives have a deeper dimension? Mr. Toda described them as the very basis of all things, which we perceive as changing and flowing. But, actually, the true nature of life is neither flowing nor still; it is like empty space, he said.
It is a reality that is at once the infinite macrocosm and the microcosms that are each of the countless individual living beings. It is an enormous life entity, always undergoing dynamic change while at the same time being eternal and everlasting. The Buddha and the Mystic Law are names we give this undeniable entity of cosmic life. We are all embodiments of this sublime entity.
The Lotus Sutra teaches “the true aspect of all phenomena❞ (LSOC, 57). “All phenomena” refers to each individual living thing. The “true aspect” of this phenomena is cosmic life itself. Mr. Toda expressed this ineffable truth as “the Buddha is life itself.” Once we understand this, it is inconceivable to think of killing others, because to destroy someone else is only to destroy ourselves.
Saito: American author and educator Helen Keller, who as a young child lost her sight and hearing and was unable to speak, 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 thinking that Helen Keller, despite her blindness and deafness, clearly “saw” the inter-relationship of the macrocosm and the microcosm.
Ikeda: Buddhism teaches five types of vision: the “physical eye ordinary mortals,” the “divine eye,” the “eye of wisdom,” the “eye of the Law” and the “eye of the Buddha.” Helen Keller have looked at the world through her life itself — an eye far sharper and more perceptive than ordinary physical vision. Or, to put it another way, perhaps life truly can be “seen” only when one probes into it on the profoundest 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, self and other. 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 us 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 among living things but between living things and their environment. This has in turn led people to destroy the environment and to exploit the natural world.
Endo: Much soul-searching on this destructive course of humanity gave rise to new sciences and greater ecological awareness in the 1980s. Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics urges a transcendence of dualism and reductionism and outlines truths common to the cutting edge of physics and the wisdom of Eastern thought. Lyall Watson’s Lifetide presents the idea that 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.”
Saito: The unified view of nature, of life phenomena, held by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is also being rediscovered. Goethe writes:
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 are 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 aspect of all phenomena.
As your comments indicate, clearly we are 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, material 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 of life. Quantum mechanics is an example that comes to mind. Some physicists are still trying to find conclusive evidence of the existence of ultimate particles, but they are finding that elementary particles can be defined only in terms of the conditions under which they are observed.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) research in molecular biology is another good example. Up to now, scientists have attempted to take the DNA molecule apart and separately consider the function of each piece of its genetic information. This is an attempt to understand DNA mechanistically — in terms of its material composition.
Although the basic method of study perhaps remains the same, scientists recently have been working 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 this will enable them to investigate the history of the interaction among living things and also the responses of life to its environment since life this planet. Some, incidentally, have even likened DNA to the appeared on Buddhist scriptures or to the Bible.
Therefore, while science still remains rooted in the material, we are beginning to see a shift toward the phenomenal, toward life — a shift from viewing things as static objects to viewing things as having a living story to tell.
Ikeda: The times are changing rapidly. One important point to remember about DNA is that life 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 also see 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, in “simulated life art,” the organic beauty of such things as cells are reproduced by computer. And “healing art” employs certain forms and colors in an effort to comfort and soothe those who are sick and enhance their natural recuperative powers.
Endo: In business too, we see signs of a trend away from the simple production of goods to a restoration of life, a restoration of humane values.
Suda: We also see new efforts to move away from power politics to nonviolence and nonkilling, that is, from government based on military strength to that based on reverence for life. The 1986 “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.
Ikeda: I believe that life and life force will be the keywords for the twenty-first century. In a recent address, Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic (and formerly of Czechoslovakia), 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.”
“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 out 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 “nonmaterial order” can be described as an order of life. Mr. Havel says we must revive reverence for that order and restore the “authority of the universe.” As he has indicated, people around the world now search for a free yet not intemperate form of society, a society rich in spirituality. At the same time, they seek a sound view of life, a reviving wisdom that will serve as the foundation of that society. Political leaders around the world must now pursue such wisdom.
Saito: Speaking of the relationship between democracy and a sound 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:
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 reorganized 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 were lost in that war. I’ve also heard reports that many of the soldiers were little more than boys. Some mothers were so worried about their sons in the army that they journeyed to the battlefront to check on their safety.
Ikeda: No matter how many people may try to justify war, there are no just wars in this world. None at all. Those who suffer in the war are always ordinary people, families, mothers. I lost my eldest brother, Kiichi, in World War II. 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 optimistic words and actions 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 clutching to the urn containing his ashes to her bosom when they were returned to us. Those scenes are forever branded in my memory.
Dr. Tsipko used the expression “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 another 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 objects. But the eyes of life view 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 reality. It was his initial challenge to all warped and twisted points of view that would destroy the dignity of human life. 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 nonmaterial order” or, in other words, a lack of reverence for life.
Suda: Reverence for life was also the final theme of President Ikeda’s dialogue with Dr. Arnold Toynbee. I sensed there a remarkable commitment bidding 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 first opened the 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 philosophy was incredibly insightful, the crystallization of a great truth, as history will demonstrate without a doubt.