Committing Evil

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1) FROM THE WISDOM OF THE LOTUS SUTRA

This excerpt is from SGI President Ikeda's collection of dialogues with Katsuji Saito, Takanori Endo and Haruo Suda entitled, The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra. The following excerpt is from volume 3, part 2, on the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Devadatta was a follower of Shakyamuni, thought to be his half-brother, who started his own order.

NOT FIGHTING AGAINST EVIL IS THE SAME AS COMMITTING EVIL

Saito: There are various ways of looking at the relationship between good and evil. One is as fixed forces that are in opposition to each other. This is the perspective we find in the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings. Another view holds that good and evil are different sides or aspects of the same thing, like the front and back sides of a coin.

Ikeda: We might surmise that the oneness of good and evil corresponds to the latter view, but it does not. If that were the case, good and evil would be merely differences in perspective, and life itself would become static and unchanging. From that standpoint, it would be impossible to capture the dynamism and ceaseless change that are the true aspects of life.

We must recognize that, while one in the essence, life at times produces positive value and at other times produces negative value.

Suda: That gives us three ways of looking at good and evil. These correspond to the three interpretations of the concept of oneness given by the Chinese Tendai priest Chih-li. They are dualism of separate entities, dualism of the same entity and an integrated whole.

The view that good and evil exist separately, such that good appears when evil is extinguished, corresponds to the first interpretation. The view of good and evil as like the front and back sides of a coin corresponds to the second interpretation. The third interpretation is the view that while good and evil always manifest in opposition, they arise from the true aspect of all phenomena, which itself embodies the oneness of good and evil.

Ikeda: That classification is rather complex. The Daishonin says, Anger can be found in good and evil alike (Gosho Zenshu, p. 584). Anger directed toward evil is good. Anger that derives from egotism is evil. Anger itself cannot be called either good or evil. Good and evil exist in the context of relationships. It is important, therefore, that we actively seek to create good relations.

President Makiguchi continued to conduct dialogue even in prison. He would ask, loudly enough for people in other cells to hear, Isn't not doing good the same as doing evil?

In that way, he encouraged them to think about what was going on around them.

Ordinarily, most people probably suppose that doing evil is worse than simply not doing good. Not doing evil, but not doing any good either -- this is how most people in the modern age live. President Makiguchi, however, argued that not to do good is the same as doing evil.

To illustrate, let us say that someone places a rock on a railroad track. That is evil. Let us say that someone else sees the rock on the tracks but fails to alert anyone to the situation and just lets the rock be. It may well be true that this person has not committed evil, but neither has he done any good. If as a result of his inaction the train gets derailed, then it is the same as if he had committed evil.

Not to fight against evil is itself evil. It was with this conviction that Mr. Makiguchi taught the importance of leading a life of actively creating good, a conviction he put into practice. He also argued that the accumulation of minor good is ultimately to no avail. It has been said that the accumulation of particles of dust will form a mountain, but at most all you can create from specks of dust is a mound of dust.

President Makiguchi had an interesting way of putting things, and his words were really on the mark. He concluded: Mountains are formed by upheavals in earth's crust. Unless we change human beings and society from the very foundation, it will be too late for humankind. Creating such change is great good; it is spreading the Lotus Sutra.

Saito: In other words, not fighting against evil is the same as committing evil. It seems to me that this is a shrill warning to the people of the present age, who are inclined to live their lives oblivious to what is going on around them.

Ikeda: That was certainly the attitude of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King believed those who stood by quietly in the face of evil were aiding and abetting evil, and that not to oppose evil was to comply with it.

Twelve in a series.

2) THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT IS STRICT

This is an excerpt from a speech by SGI President Ikeda, given at the 25th Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting, held at the Tokyo Makiguchi Memorial Hall in Hachioji, Tokyo, on Aug. 27, 1998. It originally appeared in the Sept. 25, 1998, issue of the World Tribune.

THE CAUSAL WORKINGS OF THE MYSTIC LAW

[The first installment of this series describes the fate of Hei no Saemon, a government official who set out to destroy the Daishonin, including ordering his execution. Hei no Saemon was betrayed by his son Munetsuna. Later Hei no Saemon and his younger son, Sukemune, who had harassed the Daishonin¡s followers, died wretched deaths and all of Hei no Saemon's relatives and retainers were slaughtered by the authorities as well. Munetsuna was exiled to Sado Island. Hei no Saemon's entire line was wiped out.]

The 26th high priest Nichikan wrote about the downfall of Hei no Saemon in a commentary on the Daishonin's writing Selection of the Time, saying: The distant cause is the offense of striking Nichiren Daishonin, while the near cause is the offense of executing the three martyrs at the time of the Atsuhara Persecution. How severe is the retribution that befalls those who persecute the mentors and disciples of the Mystic Law!

Nichikan clearly elucidated how the offense of attacking the votaries of the Lotus Sutra will bring inescapable retribution upon the perpetrator, in accord with the Buddhist principle that he injury will rebound upon the originator (The Lotus Sutra, p. 304). In the same commentary, he writes, Hei no Saemon's beheading was retribution for the offense of striking the Daishonin across the face, while the beheading of his favorite son [Sukemune] was retribution for the offense of attempting to behead the Daishonin, and The exile to Sado Island of his son [Munetsuna] was retribution for the offense of exiling the Daishonin there. In conclusion, he says, [The prophecy of strict retribution in accord with the law of cause and effect] has already come true. It is impossible to escape retribution for this most serious offense [of persecuting the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra].

I read this commentary shortly after I joined the Soka Gakkai at the age of 19. The causal workings of the Mystic Law are strict and unerring. All who have harassed, persecuted and betrayed the Soka Gakkai have incurred, and will definitely continue to incur, strict retribution. If this were not true, the teachings of Buddhism would be a lie. I have learned this plainly through my life-and-death struggles to propagate Nichiren Buddhism over the last 51 years, and I wish to make this clear for future generations.

In his famous writing On Persecutions Befalling the Buddha, the Daishonin writes, In the past, and in the present Latter Day of the Law, the rulers, high ministers and people who despise the votaries of the Lotus Sutra seem to be free from punishment at first, but eventually they are all doomed to fall (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1190). It is exactly as this passage states. For though one may be able to commit an offense and evade prosecution and punishment by the laws of the land, one cannot run or hide from the inexorable workings of cause and effect of the Mystic Law. As the Daishonin says, those who hold the practitioners of Buddhism in contempt might seem to be free from punishment at first, but ultimately they cannot avoid suffering the retribution that is due them. The Buddhist law of cause and effect is very strict.

Two in a series.