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Introduction: Research Question, Literature Review and Methodology Daisaku Ikeda's philosophy of peace: Human revolution, dialogue and global civilization. Item Type Thesis Authors Urbain, Olivier Rights <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by- nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. Download date 28/09/2021 12:02:44 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10454/3354 1 Introduction: Research Question, Literature Review and Methodology Point of Departure and Overview of the Research This work can be placed in the general context of a study of the contributions of religions, in particular Buddhism, to peace theory, with a focus on the writings of Daisaku Ikeda, the leader of the Japanese Buddhist movement Soka Gakkai (SG) and its worldwide extension, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). “Soka” in Japanese means “Value Creation,” the capacity of human beings to create something positive out of any circumstance, and this research seeks to clarify the underlying theoretical principles and values at the basis of the SGI movement and the activities of its leader, through a textual analysis of his writings. Coming from a different tradition, and apparently without awareness of Ikeda’s Buddhist concepts, the Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl expressed the essence of his own philosophy in a 1984 postscript to his work Man’s Search for Meaning. The following passage provides an excellent formulation of the essence of Soka, or Value Creation, in secular terms: (...) “Saying yes to life in spite of everything,” (...) presupposes that life is potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those which are most miserable. And this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other words, 2 what matters is to make the best of any given situation (Frankl [1959] 2006: 137). These words can serve as the point of departure for an exploration of Ikeda’s philosophy of peace in which the concepts of Human Revolution, Dialogue and Global Civilization play a central role. Indeed, Ikeda’s definition of peace emphasizes the importance of each person’s mind as the starting point: Peace is not the absence of war. The surest way to peace is by fostering people of character. It lies in sowing and nurturing the seed of peace—the desire within each individual to respect and embrace other human beings. It’s about fostering self-motivated, empowered individuals who will confront the forces that lead nations to war (Soka Gakkai 2002: 19) A description of the twofold context of the case study, namely the religious and peace scenes in Japan, will be presented, followed by a review of the literature concerning the SG and SGI. The choice of the methodology (coding/clustering and Bakhtinian discourse analysis) and material (a selected amount of written output in English) will be justified, and a summary of each chapter provided. 3 0.1. The Links between Buddhism and Peace: Case Study and Research Question Can a religious movement contribute to peace? Human history is filled with wars, massacres, political oppression and other bloodbaths showing that religion does not necessarily lead to peace. Today’s worldwide chaos, where opposing groups often use religion as an excuse for extreme violence, is one more proof of the complexity of the links between religion and peace. Little and Appleby paint a dark picture of the role of religion in the last decades of the 20th century: The Indian subcontinent during these decades saw the rise of Sikh extremism, Hindu nationalism, and Muslim communalism. Sinhala Buddhists fought Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka, Israeli Jews squared off against Palestinian Muslims in the Holy Land, Catholic nationalists attacked and were attacked by Protestant unionists in Belfast (Little and Appelby 2004). However, the original purpose of religion was to uplift people spiritually, enabling them to deal with life with increased compassion and wisdom, human qualities that are conducive to peace (Young-Eisendrath and Miller 2000). Like music and any other tool, spirituality can be used for good or evil purposes, as argued in John Ferguson’s War and Peace in the World’s Religions (1977), and more recently in The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Appleby 2000). The literature on the power of religion for peace has been flourishing recently, concerning specific aspects such as peacebuilding (Coward and Smith 2004, Gopin 2005, Sampson 2000), justice 4 (McFaul 2006, Smith and Burr 2007), peace cultures (Chappell 2000) or conflict resolution (Said 2001). This thesis offers an examination of the contributions to peace theory of Daisaku Ikeda, the Buddhist leader of one of the most visible religious movements today, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). The SGI is a Buddhist lay organization comprising a membership of more than 10 million households1 in Japan and two million members outside Japan. The worldwide SGI movement is defined by Ikeda as contributing to “peace, culture and education” (SGI 2008) and the main research question of this work concerns the actual peace theory behind Ikeda’s accomplishments as the SGI’s leader: “What are the contributions of a Japanese Buddhist leader, Daisaku Ikeda, to peace theory?” Is Ikeda following some established trends or is he contributing an original set of principles and skills to the field of peace studies? Daisaku Ikeda and the SGI are well-known in the field of religious history and sociology, but practically unknown in the field of peace studies. Indeed, even though there are several scholarly monographs focusing on Ikeda’s religious work and on the SGI (Wilson and Dobbelaere 1994, Metraux 1994, Hammond and Machacek 1996, Seager 2006), there is no literature about him in peace studies (as of November 2008). This is surprising considering his many contributions to peace through his prolific writings, his numerous dialogues and worldwide activities. The focus of this research is on the significance of Ikeda’s work in the field of peace studies, considering its religious elements as a set of ideas and values at the core of his 5 philosophy of peace. Despite its absence from the academic peace literature as a research topic, Ikeda and the SGI have a quiet presence in the field, through the work of such affiliate organizations as the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and its yearly journal Peace & Policy, the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, through the sponsorship of the journal Security Dialogue (formerly Bulletin of Peace Proposals), and through the dialogues, published in book form in several languages, between Ikeda and prominent peace figures, academics, Nobel Laureates and politicians such as Elise Boulding, Johan Galtung, Michael Gorbachev, Hazel Henderson, David Krieger, Linus Pauling, Aurelio Peccei and Josef Rotblat among many others. As this work will demonstrate, the originality of Ikeda’s philosophy of peace resides in two main elements. First, the starting point is consistently human life and its potential for peace and happiness, not the omnipresence of conflict. Second, he offers a coherent system linking the individual, dialogical and global levels, which can be represented as a triangle made of three conceptual frameworks, that of Humanistic Psychology (Human Revolution), Communicative Rationality (Dialogue) and Cosmopolitan Democracy (Global Civilization). 6 0.2. Mapping the Context To place the case study in its context, it is helpful to introduce both the religious situation, and the map of the peace scene in Japan to show the position of the Soka Gakkai (SG) and of Ikeda’s work. Concerning the religious map of Japan, it is rather blurred and unclear, because since the end of the Second World War, Japanese people prefer not to mention or discuss their religious affiliation. Most Japanese, in a single lifetime, go to a Shinto shrine to celebrate the New Year, hold their marriage in a recently built Christian church, and let Zen priests conduct their funeral. The Soka Gakkai in Japan stands out in this respect, with its members affirming their single religious affiliation, and all religious rites conducted within the Soka Gakkai itself. Members are often criticized by their compatriots for this loyalty to their faith, because what seems like coherence and clarity from a Western viewpoint sounds like fanaticism in Japan where religion has become a taboo topic since the end of WWII. The Peace Scene in Japan is mostly made up of Christians, left-leaning movements, civil society movements such as “Mayors for Peace,” and an emerging feminist movement. The focus in this section is on civil society peace actors, leaving political parties outside the scope of this research. The Communist and Socialist political parties in Japan (the Japanese Communist Party, JCP and the Social Democratic Party, SDP) are a driving force for such peace actors. By the same token, the Komeito party established by Daisaku Ikeda, which is today one of the major political parties in Japan, 7 falls outside the scope of this study, with only the civil society peace actors, namely the Soka Gakkai itself, taken into account, and a focus on the writings of Ikeda as the subject of analysis. A more detailed description of post-war peace movements in Japan is provided at the end of Chapter 3, in appendix 3.2 below. The Communist and Socialist activists in Japan are trying to offer an alternative to the effective military and political control of the United States, and are generally against capitalism and big business. The SG again distinguishes itself as a movement that is not on the left, nor on the right, based on a commitment to “save all living beings,” since each human life is considered as ultimately precious in the Lotus Sutra, in Nichiren Buddhism and in Ikeda’s philosophy of peace.
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