And Toda sensei also accepted the lotus sutra as interpreted by Nichiren Daishonin in 1928.The two great men have many points in common, a long tradition. Toda Sensei, came in the way of Makiguchi sensei ,the first president of the SGI .This tradition of the lotus sutra is very important from two points of view, power and virtue .The political system and the system of values have been traditional in the perception of the Chinese state, inherited by the Korea and then by the Japanese state .Power came first ,values came afterwards .so, Toda sensei ,represents the Lotus sutra from the days of Kumarajiva who translated the lotus sutra from Sanskrit in 404 AD Daishonin Nichiren made this sutra a very central point in the Japanese perception of the state .Nichiren in fact means, Nichi means Sun, Ren means the lotus .Nichiren represents Japan, Nippon and ren represents this sutra, the enlightenment that Japan should follow problem that faces us really in the coming century, globalization or no globalization, computerization. Information technology, but the declining minds which perhaps in the perception of humankind, Kumarajiva, Nichiren Daishonin ,Makiguchi and Toda Sensei and Ikeda Sensei represent the five fingers of the advance of humanity, to value ,to order at least in the eastern part of Asia. In 1928, Toda sensei started to practice Nichiren’s Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin was politically oriented .He suffered from the states did Toda sensei and Makiguchi Sensei. . They had to revolt against the power of the Japanese military .The Emperor’s centric power of the Japanese power structure .The Japanese are moving in the direction of power and virtue. Power was becoming more important. Virtue was becoming less important .For anyone in Japan who has studied Buddhism and Chinese history and Japanese history, these two concepts are very crucial. Whether we follow the path of virtue or we follow the path virtue, something, which I think, is very central to the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and to the coming century. So, Toda sensei chose to practice Nichiren’s Buddhism and in this the equation of power and value was over. Because Nichiren accepts value system as more central to human advancement and power occupies second position or in fact no position at all. Nichiren Sensei for the first time wrote the character for country .In Chinese and Japanese there are very special types of ideograms .If you do not understand an ideogram, you do not really understand the perception of any East Asian nation .He wrote the Chinese character for country in the centre not with the King but with the world people .It was a departure from the classical tradition of the East .So, He for the first time from power and virtue he created a new expression “Value Creation, Soka ”And this most important point in the life of Toda sensei is not his fight against nuclearisation and which itself is a part of the value creation system .So ,the emphasis should be on Value Creation. ,not creation of Money, or that is necessary which is a part of value creation but which has primary in human life, values or money or power .So, first primacy accorded by Toda Sensei was to the values and he called a society for creation of value ,”Soka Gakkai” In 1943, the Japanese government gave him a golden opportunity ,he was put behind the bars being a ‘Thought Criminal’
They should not be found either by the state .So, he was put behind the bars as a ‘thought criminal’ .It gave him a martyrdom and an eager desire to see that the value system dominates over the state system. So the first thing that I would like to emphasize
Is the life of Toda Sensei .The other factor in the life of Toda sensei is the emphasis he places on the Youth .Why does he place the emphasis on Youth? The Lotus sutra itself is initiated by Manjushree .The charming or the handsome Boddhisattava .”Manjushree Kumara Buddha”, so, in the second chapter when Maiterya doesn’t understand the doctrine being expounded in the Lotus Sutra ,Manjushree comes to his rescue and in the Sanskrit version it reads
Katha Katha Maitryo boddhisattvo,mahastavo.
He is not purely a Bodhisattava but he is also a mahasattava, a supreme being, one who is embedded in this life itself and this is the start of the Lotus sutra .so manjushree “kumaram buddham aver gatha avyakshya kakshya artham
So, In the Lotus sutra the emphasis is laid on the youth. Emphasis is neither on Shakyamuni, nor on clergy nor on the laity but the emphasis is on the youth .So, we find in the system of Soka, youth occupies a very important position that is our vision of the future, because Toda sensei always speaks of the vision of the future. What that vision is, will of course, have to change with time. But you know I am trying to take a very basic concepts that he evolved within the state .The thought structure of the Japanese state, so this emphasis on the youth became very crucial and in 1947, he met the young Daisaku Ikeda and I think that Ikeda Sensei has also conditioned to a very great degree the ideas of Toda Sensei. Though in the official documents I do not find much proof but his attraction to the youth and the emergence of Ikeda sensei on the scene, a very sensitive person, a poet. One who understand the deeper processes of history and who at the same time has the vision of time to come. So, he comes on the scene and only 10 years later Toda sensei holds the festival of youth. It was a very interesting festival because it again reflected the Lotus sutra .It is said ,”mayari sarvam detavya maha dechyo na daechi”
I have to conquer everything .I am to be vanquished by none.
“mayesho manav moragyo”
I have to carry this message
“genasyo tingyo tohum”
For I am the son of the lion of shakyas.
So, the flag of this festival had the image of the young lion on a light blue field .The young lion represented the dharma, the youth who will carry forth the message of values, values which are relevant to the time in which they are functioning. I emphasize on the relevance of time. And the light blue in the background represented the enlightened mind. The blue colors in Buddhism means meditation .The lighter the color the greater is the intensity or the purity in the meditation. That is why the green porcelain which came into existence in the Chinese monasteries of meditation in the Zen monasteries and the third point which I think emerged because 1957 was not very far off from the nuclear devastation brought in Japan by the American forces .so, the whole idea of nuclearisation was very strong .it was fragile on the one man in the national level .It was nuclear weapons of the international level; so Toda sensei, was reacting to the whole state as such and I sometimes resonate with him on this idea, that the over dominance of the state in the human affairs is something which is destructive for the human advancement of the mankind. So, he in September 1957 gave a certain vision for the abolition of the nuclear weapons and the right to live which he emphasized and I think which was not being emphasized sufficiently and has to be emphasized and he again spoke in terms of the Lotus sutra that we are all boddhisattvas of the earth, we have a right to live on this earth .so, the Sanskrit word is”tritighata” we don’t have boddhisattvas of poverty, we do not have boddhisattvas of illness .We have only boddhisattvas of the earth having right to live on this earth ,the right to life ,we have right to work ,we have right to perhaps education and so on. But the right to life is even more crucial so the emphasis on right to life is again something very unique in the future perceptions of the humankind .The twenty-first century will have to recognize the human right. Prof. Panda spoke before and emphasizes the destructive role of globalization .I see globalization as major threat of the twenty-first century rather than nuclearisation. More sophisticated instruments of destruction of humankind are being manufactured in the most powerful, super state, and these are not pure militaristic but are also psychological .the psychological warfare is even more devastating than the physical warfare .so, Toda sensei spoke of this right of life and the great teacher Nichiren Daishonin in the thirteenth century spoke of “Rissho ankoku ron”
You know, it means a zone of peace, a century of peace, a shanti shetra.
But a shanti shetra which also has a system of values .Peace without values does not help mankind to move onwards so we have also to have values along with peace so that the values and peace have to go together not power and peace so this whole idea of Rissho Ankoku Ron ,I think the abolition of nuclear weapon but at the same time what it means in philosophical terms .it is the acceptance of the right of life(No.1).acceptance of this right has to be ensured by peace and this peace does not emerge only from state but every individual has to accept that I have a right to live and a right to live in peace .I think, India is facing ,a terrible future .we do not know what will help us ,but the future holds for us .
No.4 To see that this right to life is insured peace is insured and all the laid values brought by mankind during the last few millennia, it is very important to awaken Buddha nature “Buddhanpurna” is the Sanskrit expression .so, in every individual is supposed to be an individual of values, he is to be a Buddha in potentiality, so these potential Buddhas have to remain actually Buddhas and in the words of Nichiren Daishonin, “they must aspire to the Buddha realm” so this aspiration was enshrines by President Daisaku Ikeda in his revolution of seven bells in a few months after the death of Toda sensei .so, to awaken the Buddha nature again is crucial because the whole right of existence is here ,is not in this state alone but in the individuals who compose the state.
No.5 Global family .For the first time in human history they spoke of global family. Toda sensei, was again borrowing this expression which you know, we in India say “Vasudev Kutumbika “ the world is a family, the universe is a single verse so ,to make the universes a single verse of human aspiration , he spoke of his global family ,no ethnic rivalries and all based on the sharing of the universe.
So the idea of sharing becomes very important and at the same he said, that what arises in Japan , what arises along with the sun, in the Nichi, that has to flow back in the land of the Lotus, that is India and that is how the Soka Gakkai has a very special program for India>in awakening the consciousness which we once shared with them and which become dormant with passing of centuries , it should find resonance In this country once again and the great Soka Bodhi Tree garden which has been created only a few kilometers away from Delhi is an experience of that great dream of Toda sensei , that a global family should emerge. He again, made another very important statement, is what were his perception is of the future and the Japanese expression is “takai ji zai zen”a king who makes free use of the fruits of the others efforts, something which is very? Say forecasts the more or less process of globalization .The East Asian tigers have suffered these problems of globalization they are at a brink of holocaust of the process of globalization. So, these points from my point of view give Toda sensei a very important position in the twenty-first century and his great successor and disciple Ikeda sensei. He I think of the most brilliant individual who is putting these ideas into a very modern context. That’s very important that outside we form the classical norms into the contemporary powers and make that classical value system, relevant to the future of mankind. So the sun rises in Japan and I think it does shed its brilliance once again on the whole world. Japan is seen with power and virtue since the second half of the nineteenth century, seen again in the first half of the twentieth century moved on to wealth and virtue but now the twenty first century has to be submitting more humanity and virtue. Wealth, will have a place, defense will have place and economic development will be there but humanism and the virtue of values will go hand in hand and message in being conveyed by Ikeda sensei in a big way, I just put it in a very simple words ,”Bhavishya ke upar amrit varsha kar rahe Ikeda sensei ”.He is showering nectar on the coming twenty first century. |
