From the Symposium Cosponsored withThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
Message

Daisaku IkedaIwish to express my heartiest congratulations on the opening of thissymposium, sponsored jointly by the Research Centre for Chinese
Philosophy and Culture of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, theInstitute of Oriental Philosophy of Tokyo, and the Hong Kong Centre ofthe Institute of Oriental Philosophy, which was founded ten years ago. I
extend my deepest thanks to all the scholars of these various academic
institutions who, despite their busy schedules, have come to participate
in these proceedings.
The title of the symposium is “Eastern Culture and Modern Society:
Philosophical Dialogue among Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism.”
You have come together to meet with scholars who are authorities on
various aspects of Eastern thought to pursue topics of research,approaching them from a variety of viewpoints and seeking to shed thelight of wisdom upon the search for the kind of reliable guidelines
demanded by the twenty-first century. Your efforts, I have no doubt, will
yield results that not only stand the test of time but shine with increasing
brilliance with the passing years.
Looking back, I recall that I first visited Hong Kong some forty-fiveyears ago, in January of 1961. That was just one year after, in accordance with the dying wishes of my mentor, Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, I had succeeded him as third president of thatorganization. At that time, Hong Kong was my first step on a trip thattook me to a total of five countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
It was a journey that brought me into contact with various phases ofEastern culture, and I became aware of the need for an organization
devoted to the study of the multiple aspects of the thought, philosophy,
and culture of Eastern Asia and of the world as a whole. Such an organi175

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MESSAGEzation, it seemed to me, could help to encourage dialogue among various civilizations and religions and further the aims of world peace andthe coexistence of humankind. When I visited Buddha Gaya, the site of
Shakyamuni’s achievement of enlightenment, I made up my mind to set
up the organization that in time became known as the Institute of Oriental Philosophy.
Thirteen years after that first trip to Hong Kong, in January of 1974,
as the founder of Soka University in Japan, I paid my first visit to thisuniversity, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At that time I met
with Dr. Choh-Ming Li, the Founding Vice-Chancellor of the university.
I proposed to him that the faculty and students of our two universities
should engage in a program of mutual exchange. Dr. Li readily agreed toenter into such a program with the newly founded Soka University, andthe following year we drew up a formal agreement for academic
exchanges between the two institutions.
Since then, Soka University has for its part expanded such arrangements to include exchange of faculty and students with a hundred universities in forty-four countries or regions of the world. But I can neverforget that the starting point for such activities of academic exchange
was none other than that first agreement with the Chinese University ofHong Kong.
I myself participated in such activities, in 1992 coming here to delivera lecture under the title “Traditional Chinese Humanism Will Shine in
the New Century.” At that time, your university honored me with thetitle of distinguished visiting professor, and in 2000 it went a step further by awarding me an honorary doctorate of social science. To this day
I remain deeply grateful for these marks of esteem bestowed on me byyour university. I am confident that the present symposium will initiate a
new page in the history of the exchanges taking place between our twouniversities.
Dr. Jao Tsung-I, professor emeritus of the Chinese University ofHong Kong and an outstanding authority on many aspects of Chinese
culture, kindly wrote an introduction for the Chinese translation of mywork entitled Watakushi no Shakuson-kan, or The Living Buddha. In his
introduction, he compared the dominant way of thought of the people ofIndia, who have as their ideal a life of peace and tranquility to be gainedin some future existence, with that of the Chinese, who stress the importance of filial piety and place great emphasis upon our present existence.
And he asserts that it is the Buddhist concept of the Middle Way that has
succeeded in bringing these two views into harmony with one another.
“The respective cultures of China and India,” he writes, “are basicallyMESSAGE177

very disparate in nature, and this has made it difficult for the two to reactwith one another. But the Buddhist concept or ideal of the Middle Way
has, though unintentionally perhaps, made it possible for the two to act
in harmony. The Buddhism transmitted to China from India reached its
flowering in the form of Mahayana thought and practice, and it is nomere accident that this has proved to be a major contribution to Chinese
culture in particular and to other fields in general.”
The Middle Way of Buddhism teaches that one should reject any
attachment to the two extremes of sensual indulgence or severe asceticism, to the absolutes of either existence or nonexistence. It counsels apath that represents a mean between these two extremes of practice orbelief. Shakyamuni Buddha, we are told, rejected both self-indulgenceand self-mortification, and taught a way of life that avoided both ofthese one-sided approaches. He sought instead a middle path, which hebelieved to be the only correct one.
This ideal of the Buddhist Middle Way, once it was introduced toChina, underwent further development there. Jizang, the leading thinkerof the Three Treatise school of Buddhism in China, with regard to theword “Middle,” stated: “Middle means that which is true, Middle meansthat which is correct.”Tiantai, founder of the influential Tiantai school of Buddhism inChina, discussed the concept of the Middle Way in terms of the socalled “three truths.” The first two are the truth of emptiness or non-substantiality, the inner reality of human beings and all other phenomena,and the truth of temporary existence, the aspect of phenomena in theirtemporal or transient manifestations. The third truth, that of the Middle
Way, while embracing both these truths of inner reality and temporal
existence, represents an unchanging principle, a true and correct view
ultimately arrived at through sublation of the two preceding truths andembracing both of them. This is the Middle Way.
I recall in this connection a work of calligraphy that I was given by
Dr. Jao Tsung-I two years ago, which reads Zhongyong Zhi Zhonghe(The Doctrine of the Mean Leads to Equilibrium and Harmony). The
concept of moderation as expressed in the Confucian Doctrine of theMean, which from early times runs throughout Chinese thought, without
a doubt is basically very similar as a way of thinking to the Buddhist
Middle Way. Both refer to the virtue of moderation in human behavior.
Regarding the Zhongyong or “Doctrine of the Mean,” one of the Four
Books of Confucianism, a commentary explains the two Chinese characters of the book title as follows: “Being without inclination to either side
is called zhong; admitting of no change is called yong.” The correct

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MESSAGEcourse to be followed by all under heaven, which deviates neither to oneside or the other, is designated as zhong. And the fixed principle regulating all under heaven, which is unchanging in nature, is designated asyong. You can find this passage in the book itself: “While there are no
stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be in
the state of equilibrium. When those feelings have been stirred, and they
act in their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state of harmony. This equilibrium is the great root from which grow all the humanactings in the world, and this harmony is the universal path which they
all should pursue.”That is, the state of equilibrium, the Mean or Middle Way, is thesource or “great root” of the inner world that exists before the emotionsof pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy come forth, one that inclines neither to
one side or the other. The state of equilibrium becomes manifest as a“universal path” that acts upon and regulates human activities, resulting
in a state of harmony.
Comparing this with Tiantai’s doctrine of the three truths, we see thatthe concept of equilibrium or the mean represents a fundamental andeternal principle governing all the myriad phenomena of the universe. In
the “Doctrine of the Mean,” this principle of the inner world becomesmanifest and finds its expression in the regulation and harmonizing of
human activities.
In Tiantai’s teaching, which is based on Buddhist philosophy, theeternal principle of the Middle Way emerges from the state of emptinessor non-substantiality and becomes manifest in the phenomenal world oftemporary existence. Maintaining a state of balance or equilibrium that
does not go to one extreme or another, it then acts to guide all beingsand phenomena into the true and correct path, which is the Middle Way.
This concept of the virtue of moderation, the Middle Way, the Doctrine of the Mean, unites both the inner world of truth and the outerworld of manifest existence of human beings and all other phenomena,and through a process of sublation, makes it possible for people to live
in a state of balance or regulation, the true way of life for human beings.
In our present age, this concept of the Middle Way or the Doctrine of
the Mean can be used to correct the overemphasis placed upon the material culture of the West and bring it into harmony or equilibrium with thespiritual culture of the Eastern world, thus achieving a correct and truly
Middle Way. Through a process of sublation, the two, East and West,can be fused to produce a new culture of humanity as a whole, one that,based upon a sense of balance or moderation, represents a fusion of thewisdom of both.

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In the concluding sessions of my dialogue with Dr. Arnold Toynbee,
the British historian, I asked him if he had any advice for human beingsof the twenty-first century. He replied in the following fashion. In thetwentieth century, he believed, human beings had become unduly infatuated with the power of technology. But technological advancement canlead to pollution of the environment and even bring about the selfdestruction of the human race. People must look within themselves andacquire the wisdom needed to control their desires. To do that, they must
guard against both extreme self-indulgence and extreme asceticism andlearn to walk a middle path. He said he believed that that was the direction to be taken by human beings of the twenty-first century.
It is my sincere hope that this symposium, through its philosophicaldialogues among Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, will, by bringing into sharper focus the wisdom of Eastern culture, help to make clear
the initial steps in the proper path that human beings should follow. I
would like to conclude my message by expressing my sincere and heartfelt prayers for the health and well being of the scholars from many different institutions who have come together for this occasion.