Gosho: Rissho Ankoku Ron Workshop

PRESIDENT IKEDA ON THE RISSHO ANKOKU RON

 Rissho means “to establish the true,” in other words, the propagation of the True Law.  It means to ingrain such tenets as the sanctity of life and respect for human dignity in people’s lives and establish them as guiding principles in society.  The purpose of this is “to bring peace to the land” (ankoku), to bring about the security and prosperity of society.

 The Soka Gakkai’s mission is to achieve this goal of the Daishonin.  When religion averts its gaze from its mission of relieving suffering in the real world, it dies. (NHR, Vol. 4, p. 224)

“Nichiren Daishonin’s purpose in writing this treatise was the salvation of the people, who were suffering pitifully under the onslaught of earthquakes and floods, famine and disease.  The way to accomplish this, he decided, was to propagate the philosophy of life of Buddhism, a teaching of how to be truly human and achieve human revolution, the transformation in the very depths of people’s lives.  He was calling for a struggle to rid people’s hearts and minds of evil and replace it with goodness; to open the eye of wisdom in their lives and transform their inner focus from self-centeredness to altruism, from destructiveness to creativity.

 “Why did he choose this approach?  Because people are the basis of everything.  Plants flourish in fertile soil; if we cultivate the soil of human life, peace and culture will flourish magnificently there.”  (NHR, Vol. 4, p. 242)

 ... The word land in the principle “securing peace in the land through the propagation of the True Law” (rissho ankoku) is not limited to a single land or nation; it refers to the land of Jambudvipa that appears in the Buddhist scriptures. In today’s term’s Jambudvipa means the entire world.  To nurture and cultivate people’s lives with a philosophy of humanism, in the pursuit of lasting peace and happiness, is what it means to implement the Daishonin’s teaching of creating a peaceful society based on the tenets of his Buddhism. Herein lies the mission of the Soka Gakkai.  (NHR, Vol. 4, p. 241)