This study series covers Soka Spirit topics to be presented by a youth or student division member at Soka 2030 meetings on the last Sunday of each month.
Recent news has shown young people are protesting in France, Italy, Argentina, Albania, Serbia and other parts of the world.
Educational inequality, discrimination, rising costs and lack of future prospects are among the serious concerns fueling people’s mounting frustrations worldwide.
Though we’d do well to try to understand their concerns, we can’t condone violence in any form. It most often sparks a cycle of growing disrespect and abuse, increasing the misery of those who choose it as a path toward needed change.
Our global Buddhist movement for peace aims to end such cycles of violence and suffering, and open the way to humane, fundamental and lasting solutions.
These recent events give us a chance to reflect more deeply on how to bring about genuine, lasting change.
Learning From The New Human Revolution
In The New Human Revolution, Shin’ichi Yamamoto—the novel’s character representing Ikeda Sensei—speaks with students during a period of intense unrest at universities across Japan. He takes their concerns about injustice seriously. But he rejects both student violence and the authorities’ use of force. Rather than telling students to give up, he urges them to challenge a deeper problem: the tendency to fixate on protecting our own interests while ignoring those of others.
Shin’ichi declares: “Only Buddhism can defeat human egoism and its devilish nature and create an age in which true humanity prevails.”[1]
Here, “egoism” means putting ourselves first at others’ expense. This struggle begins with recognizing that tendency in our own lives. Practicing Nichiren Buddhism helps us identify and challenge our arrogance, indifference and hostility rather than let these things shape our relationships. Part of our inner transformation entails learning to value every person—even when we struggle to interact with them.
As Nichiren Daishonin writes, “The sharp sword that severs the fundamental darkness inherent in life is none other than the Lotus Sutra.”[2] The image of a “sharp sword” points to the power of Buddhist wisdom to cut through the cause of suffering and ignorance that keeps us from recognizing the dignity of our lives and that of others.
Respecting others isn’t just a nice ideal. In our families, it can mean listening instead of always needing to be right; at work, valuing people beyond what they can do for us; in our communities, getting to know people whose experiences differ from our own and offering support when someone is struggling.
These choices may seem small compared with massive demonstrations. But they build the trust and care that foster genuine peace.
Shin’ichi also emphasizes in the novel the impact of sharing Buddhism with others:
In short, the effort to introduce Buddhism to a single individual and thereby transform his or her life is the most gradual and certain path of nonviolent revolution. Furthermore, to live dedicated to kosen-rufu is the best way of life for a genuine reformer.[3]
Talking about Buddhism with another person naturally engenders honest, heartfelt conversations that earn trust and can help them see their own ability to make a difference. Nurturing such one-to-one connections spreads the Buddhist ideal of respect for all life, powering the most essential kind of revolution—human revolution.
A Change in One Person Leads to a Change in Society
How we pursue change matters as much as what we hope to achieve. If our goal is a society that respects everyone, our actions must reflect that respect. Even a worthy cause can be undermined by violence.
Shin’ichi asks: “How can a movement that cannot even convince and transform a single individual transform society as a whole?”[4]
Changing ourselves doesn’t mean ignoring unfair systems. Buddhism calls on us to face and challenge society’s problems while bringing compassion and respect into our work and communities. Respect for each person’s life is the starting point as well as the essence of creating lasting change.
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