This section features Ikeda Sensei’s seminal guidance to the members of the United States. The following is an excerpt of his speech given at the SGI-USA Culture and Science Executive Conference, Los Angeles, California, January 28, 1993. The full speech can be found in My Dear Friends in America, fourth edition, pp. 223–28.
Today’s conference is a gathering of individuals of intellect and character. To commemorate this significant meeting, and for the sake of posterity, I would like to share one perspective on the American spirit.
If I were to make an analogy, thought and philosophy would be like the heart or respiratory system of the human body. When the heart is sound, the whole body can maintain healthy activity. This same principle applies to both the individual and society.
The SGI has a mission to serve as the heart that ensures the healthy functioning of society. Consequently, taking good care of the SGI allows the fresh, life-giving blood of humanism to flow to and nourish all areas of society, including culture, politics and the economy, to name but a few.
Nourishment, both mental and spiritual, is also vital to the individual. This is why I take every possible opportunity to speak about matters of faith from different perspectives.
When America made its departure as a new nation, the world wanted to know, “What kind of country is it?” Benjamin Franklin provided this answer: “People [in America] do not enquire concerning a Stranger, What is he? but What can he do? If he has any useful Art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it & behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him” (from Information to Those Who Would Remove to America).
Actions are far more important than status or social standing. Ranks or titles or distinctions in position, such as those between priesthood and laity, are of little importance. What truly matters is: What have you actually done, what can you actually do, and what are you actually trying to accomplish? Our value as human beings is determined by our actions.
Do Not Become a Parasite
Franklin continued, “But a mere Man of Quality, who on that Account [his birth or social position] wants to live upon the Public, by some Office or Salary, will be despis’d and disregarded.” People who hold high status or live lives of luxury solely by virtue of their birth or position are “living off” society. This was the prevailing sentiment in America, the republic of the people.
In Buddhism, those who have in actuality advanced kosen-rufu are worthy of greatest respect. In contrast, those who crave personal fame and profit, while not making the slightest exertion themselves [for the sake of the Law or the believers], are parasites who live off Buddhism. The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood is the most pernicious example of this.
Franklin also said with a touch of humor, “In Europe it [birth] has indeed its Value, but it is a Commodity that cannot be carried to a worse Market than to that of America.”
Yours is a country that questions not a person’s status or birth but their actions. The United States should indeed become a model for the Soka Renaissance—a reformation based on the ideals of humanism.
Revitalization Through Human Revolution
The famous French aristocrat, the Marquis de Lafayette, sympathizing with the ideals of the American Revolution, traveled across the Atlantic to fight alongside the American colonists. In a letter addressed to his wife back in France, he wrote: “The happiness of America is linked to the happiness of all humankind. America will become a haven of virtue, integrity, generosity, equality and peaceful liberty.” He is saying that when these values are imperiled elsewhere, the United States will be a sanctuary where they will continue to thrive.
Today, too, the renewal of the United States is linked to the renewal of the world, and the revitalization of the American people, awakened to a new humanism, must become the basis for the revitalization of the country. The SGI’s movement of human revolution is the most fundamental contribution we can make to the renewal of the United States and the world.
In terms of kosen-rufu, the new departure of the United States is directly linked to a fresh departure for the worldwide kosen-rufu movement. The magnificent future of global kosen-rufu rests on the shoulders of all of you SGI-USA members.
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‘To Open’ Is Another Name for Faith
In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, Nichiren Daishonin says, in reference to attaining Buddhahood, “‘Attain’ means to open or reveal” (OTT, 126). Attaining Buddhahood means opening our lives to their fullest potential and revealing our innate Buddhahood. This is the purpose of Buddhism.
Nichiren Daishonin says of the phrase opening the door of Buddha wisdom, which appears in the Lotus Sutra: “‘Opening’ here is another name for the mind of faith” (OTT, 28).
Faith is the sole means by which to open our lives and our inner state of Buddhahood. Faith is the most open state of mind of all. Infinite clusters of good fortune spill forth from this unbarred treasure house of life.
Intellect and Faith Line the Royal Road of Humanity
Faith is the ultimate essence of intellect. Through the practice of correct faith, the intellect comes to shine. Intellect without correct faith lacks a firm anchor in the soil of life and eventually becomes disordered. This prompted [the first Soka Gakkai president] Tsunesaburo Makiguchi to remark that many modern thinkers were suffering from what he termed higher psychosis.
Faith without intellect, meanwhile, leads to blind faith and fanaticism. Faith or intellect alone—one without the other—is unhealthy.
All of you here at this conference possess both faith and intellect, and you are applying them in your activities to promote peace, culture and education based on Buddhism. This way of life accords with the Middle Way, the loftiest path that human beings can follow; it is the noble path of humanity.
I close today’s speech with my prayers that your lives will shine with ever-greater splendor with each passing year.
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