Reference Materials: 1. Soka Spirit: Caring on Many Levels

Danny Nagashima
SGI-USA General Director

My own experiences over the course of more than four decades of Buddhist practice in the SGI have taught me the importance of patiently listening to others with the intent to help them open their hearts and to share their greatest joys and deepest sufferings.

Several years ago, I met a woman from San Diego who was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism by a Soka Gakkai member in 1963. She practiced diligently, but in 1991, for some reason, she joined Nichiren Shoshu. I made it a point that whenever I was in San Diego I would meet with her.

 Nichiren Shoshu is the organization of priests with which the SGI was previously associated. In 1991, after decades of amassing a substantial financial base -- mainly through the support of SGI members -- Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated all SGI members. The intent was to manipulate our membership through fear into leaving the SGI. Instead, SGI members around the world were galvanized into studying more deeply the tenets of Nichiren Buddhism, which stresses the equality and inner liberation of each individual.

Compared to our entire global membership, only a small percentage fell sway to the priesthood’s manipulations. Nonetheless, we view each of them as a precious individual with whom we are fully dedicated to sharing, once again, the supremacy of the true doctrine of Nichiren Daishonin so that he or she can practice happily and unfettered. It is our utmost conviction that each person can do so as a vibrant, prospering member of the SGI-USA.

Facing the Gohonzon together with my San Diego friend, I would chant to somehow touch her heart and do whatever I could to support her. I prayed with my entire being for her happiness. Also, I tried to listen very carefully with all my heart to whatever she had to say. I would thank her for spending time with me and return home, chanting that she would decide to make a fresh start with the SGI.

Because of our developing friendship and the fact that she noticed no significant growth in her life after five years of practice with Nichiren Shoshu, she did decide to come back to the SGI. I was elated and filled with appreciation to the Gohonzon.

Since then, my friend has helped many of her friends in turn to reawaken the feelings they had when, through the efforts of an SGI member, they first encountered Nichiren Buddhism. My friend and her friends have refreshed their lives and their faith, and they are receiving numerous comments on how happy they look as they renew their friendships with fellow SGI-USA members.

Although it has found its name in recent years, our Soka Spirit movement has always existed in the SGI within the countless actions our members in expressing human-to-human care and concern, encouraging one another, especially through listening.

“What is the most important point in conducting dialogue?” SGI President Ikeda challenges us. “It is to be a good listener. Though seemingly simple, listening well is actually quite difficult. The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno said, ‘Two ears to one tongue, therefore hear twice as much as you speak.’ It is often the case that just being able to share one’s problems with someone else is all it takes to put a person’s troubled mind at ease. The Chinese character for ‘ear’ is central to the meaning of the characters for ‘wise’ and ‘sage.’ A person who listens well is wise; and the wisest of the wise is the sage” (Faith Into Action, p. 184).

Warmhearted dialogue, centered on really listening, has led to expanding my own circle of friends, and it moves me deeply that each of you have undergone your own similar expansion. Always, it seems, we learn anew how each individual we care for is attached to innumerable others seeking the way to health, happiness, prosperity and confidence in the face of all of life’s challenges.

And our concern for individuals is not only expressed on a one-to-one scale -- indeed, in stark contrast to the activities of Nichiren Shoshu, the SGI is truly engaged in bringing Nichiren Buddhism’s humanism to the world.

In recent weeks, the SGI-USA has participated in some momentous and moving events. For instance, at the U.N. headquarters in New York, our organization oversaw the presentation an exhibition titled “Building a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World.” In addition to the exhibit, which runs through Feb. 27, there were important surrounding events in which we joined with top-level U.N. officials, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, leading figures from academia and from the realm of music and culture to present a unified message of peace and the potential for global human harmony.

A week later, at the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium in Santa Monica, Calif., a peace forum and panel discussion titled “Building A Culture of Peace: From Our Hearts, To Our Homes, To Our Neighbors” brought some of the same dignitaries from the U.N. activities together with SGI-USA members and guests from the community who share a deep interest in finding solutions to the crises of our violent world.

Once a month in the Santa Monica area, SGI-USA members gather with the community at large for lectures and discussions on relating the principles of Nichiren Buddhism and essential health concerns. This is but one example of a local area bringing the Daishonin’s teachings to a broader audience beyond the SGI-USA membership.

In so many other ways, throughout our nation and on a regular basis, the SGI-USA is a vital participant in our world. This is not to mention the countless ways in which the umbrella SGI organization is connected to global events, continually working as a U.N. nongovernmental organization and frequently providing aid, supplies and educational materials to areas of the world where it is most needed -- often nations in the throes of humanitarian crisis.

To me, all of these activities represent the wave of Soka Spirit, surging from today into the vast future. Rather than being caught up in the feudalistic hierarchy of the Nichiren Shoshsu priesthood devoted merely to its own sustainable future, SGI members, long-liberated from religious tyranny, are making vast inroads into the real world. They are succeeding in the fields of science, medicine, education and the fine and popular arts. And they are making their impact felt by bringing the humanistic and humane principles of Nichiren Buddhism to all of society, an ongoing current of dialogue that spans our nation and the globe, exactly as taught by our founding presidents and demonstrated unceasingly by SGI President Ikeda.

(Originally published in the World Tribune, Feb. 27, 2004.)