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Daisaku Ikeda

MY heartiest congratulations on the international symposium atPeking University in China, hosted jointly by the Daisaku Ikeda
Research Society of the Center of Japanese Studies of Peking University
and the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP) located in Hachioji,Tokyo, Japan. I wish in particular to thank all the scholars from various
educational institutions who, despite their busy schedules, took time toattend the symposium, among them representatives from Soka University in Tokyo, of which I am the founder.
The participants, representing specialists in various fields related toOriental thought, in conjunction with the delegates from Japan, came
together to examine the theme “Perspectives of Oriental Philosophy inthe 21st Century.” Approaching it from many different angles, their discussions will be, I am sure, of far-reaching significance.
Propelled largely by technological advances developed in modern
Western society, our present-day civilization has been able to provide
human beings with countless conveniences and much material wealth.
Striking progress in the areas of transportation, communication, and theexchange of information has led to a process of increasing globalization.
At the same time, however, globalization has brought with it culturalconflicts, deeply troubling problems related to the natural environment,nuclear proliferation, the widening of the gap between rich and poor,
marked increases in the refugee population, and other questions tied toethnic and religious differences, dark clouds that profoundly shadow thehorizon. The 9/11 terrorist attacks of three years ago are symbolic ofthese problems.
As a result of such friction, many innocent citizens in various parts of
the world have found themselves caught up in acts of indiscriminate terrorism, and the situation shows signs of continued worsening. Hatredand distrust grow ever deeper, and the forces of division appear to betearing humanity apart.
But human life is richly endowed with good impulses as well, withemotions of compassion and mutual trust. These impulses toward good43

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provide a source of energy that can bind humanity together. By drawing
upon these good impulses inherent in human life, we can control theforces of evil and provide the key to cultural transformation. Oriental
thought shines with the light of humanistic wisdom, a diamond-like beacon that can change hatred and retaliation into compassion and deeds ofgratitude.
Some thirty years ago, when I engaged in dialogues with the historian
Dr. Arnold Toynbee, he pointed out that the striking advances in scienceand technology of modern times have been accompanied by moral, ethical, and spiritual stagnation. This has brought about an atmosphere ofdivisiveness that sunders the ties among human beings, a “morality gap”
that lies at the heart of the crises facing our modern materialistic culture.
In short, it is a decline in the moral and ethical standards of humanity
caused by the decrease of the impulse toward good. To remedy this situation, Dr. Toynbee believed that a force was needed to uplift the ethicalstandards of humanity, and that hope for such a force was to be found inwhat he termed “the ecumenical spirit”1 with which the Chinese people
have traditionally been imbued. He saw China as the country embodying
the greatest hope for providing political unity and peace to the world atlarge.
In May 1974, the year after I held my talks with Dr. Toynbee, I wasable to fulfill a long-held wish by paying my first visit to China. Since
then, I have in all made ten visits to that country, seven of them toPeking University, which is one of my favorite spots. I have employedwhatever influence I have, limited though it may be, to open the way forcultural and educational exchange on the popular level and to deepen theties of friendship between China and Japan.
In my dealings with the people of China, I have been strongly
impressed by the enduring virtues characteristic of the Chinese, the factors underlying what Dr. Toynbee has called their “ecumenical spirit.”
These virtues, it seems to me, are of ever-increasing importance to thehuman population of the 21st century.
First among these is the concept of symbiosis that has long been an
outstanding quality of Chinese cultural history. This is a spirit thatencourages harmonious coexistence between human beings and natureand between one group of human beings and another, a spirit that strives
for mutual support and the search for mutual well-being.
The classic embodiment of this spirit of symbiosis is found in theconcept of the unity of Heaven and humanity that is at the heart of traditional Chinese thought, and in the ideal of datong or “great harmony”
that is such a vital part of the Confucian doctrine of more recent cen-J ̲Orient̲05 06.2.1 4:54 PM

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45turies.
The concept of the unity of Heaven and humanity holds that thespheres of the heavenly or divine and of human beings are essentiallyone, that the human mind or nature contains a heavenly element and isnaturally endowed with moral virtues. Professor Ji Xianlin of PekingUniversity, who has made an exhaustive study of this concept of theunity of Heaven and humanity that runs throughout the history of Chinese thought, asserts that the word “Heaven” here denotes the universe
as a whole or the world of nature, and that “humanity” refers of course
to human beings. I believe that this ideal of the symbiosis or mutual
coexistence of nature and human beings has a most important contribution to make to humanity in the 21st century.
The datong or great harmony concept is likewise interpreted as a spirit of coexistence that embraces all human beings living in sympathy
with one another and sharing one another’s joys and sorrows, one
informed by the traditional Confucian virtues of humaneness and rightness. Thus the thinker and political reformer Kang Youwei (1858–1927)
states in his Book of the Great Unity, “Since I was born on this greatearth, all persons living on it are my siblings, and when I come to know
them, I will feel love and kinship for them.”
This concept of symbiosis or coexistence underlies what in Buddhism
is known as the Law or doctrine of dependent origination. Buddhism
teaches that all forms of existence in both the natural and human realms
are connected with one another through an interrelatedness of mutual
dependence and assistance. The resulting condition, in which all thephenomena of existence join one another in a state of symbiosis, concords with the underlying rhythm of the universe.
I am convinced that this concept of symbiosis that is characteristic oftraditional Chinese thought, if it is shared by all the peoples over theworld as the spirit of our present age, is capable of opening the way toharmony and prosperity for all humankind.
The second virtue of the Chinese people that I wish to stress here is
the humanism based on the concept of symbiosis just discussed. Chinese
thought directs all its attention to questions pertaining to the object ofhuman endeavor and never departs from the human being as the standard for all measures. The focus upon the study of humankind that
underlies Chinese historical writing is marked by a strong ethical tone.
For example, Confucian thought holds up the concept of ren, benevolence or humaneness, as the highest expression of Chinese humanism.
The character for ren, 仁, is made up of two elements, 人 or “person”
and 二 or “two,” and expresses the idea of two people aiding and loving

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one another. In modern times it has come to designate the ideal ofhumanism, the awakening to the proper path for the human being, or, in
broader terms, to the love for all humanity.
The 6th century Buddhist scholar T’ien-t’ai (Tiantai), one of the mostoutstanding figures in the history of Chinese Buddhism, stated in hiswork Great Concentration and Insight, “To nourish feelings of pity andhumaneness and refrain from harming others is none other than the precept against the taking of life.”2 Thus he equates humaneness with pityor compassion. The “precept against the taking of life” represents theideal of compassion, the highest expression of the Buddhist view of thedignity of life. He is thus pointing out that compassion and the Confucian virtue of humaneness are one in their underlying spiritual and ethical nature.
The tradition of Chinese humanism, exemplified in the Confucianconcept of humaneness and the compassion of Chinese Buddhism, represent, I believe, the pivot that can lead to the transcending of the“morality gap” that Dr. Toynbee has referred to, and can change a century of war and violence into one of peace and nonviolence.
When I try to imagine what person most naturally personifies this traditional Chinese spirit of humanism amid the struggles of the presentage, the figure that comes immediately to mind is that of the late Premier Zhou Enlai.
I met Premier Zhou just thirty years ago, in December of 1974, a year
before his death. A man whose powers of memory encompassed not
only the affairs of China but those of the entire world, frugal in his personal expenditures, scrupulously upright in never allowing his relatives
or associates to use his name for personal profit, one whose behavior
was marked by complete sincerity and steadfast devotion to the serviceof the people. And in the welcome he extended to foreigners he displayed the utmost thoughtfulness.
When I met Premier Zhou, he was already seriously ill and in a hospital in Peking. And yet, in spite of his critical condition, he took the trouble to go to the entrance of the hospital to greet me when I arrived, andto accompany me to the entrance when I took my leave. The image ofhim, the epitome of courtesy and decorum, remains even now etched inmy mind.
The profound words and sayings left behind by Premier Zhou as helooked forward to the coming of the 21st century overflow with a longing for the spirit of “great harmony” not only between China and Japanbut among all the nations of the world.
In autumn of the year before last, to mark the 30th anniversary of theJ ̲Orient̲05 06.2.1 4:54 PM

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normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, I
arranged for the publication of a work entitled Dialogues on Eastern
Wisdom, which represented discussions held among Professor Ji Xianlinof Peking University, the late Professor Jiang Zhongxin of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, and myself. In the course of these discussions, we examined the concepts of commonality and diversity in thesystems of Eastern and Western thought.
In our conclusions, Professor Ji, discussing the shape that human culture should take in the 21st century, had this to say: “The correct procedure is to carry on all the splendid achievements realized by Westernculture over the past several hundred years, and at the same time employ
the synthesis typical of thought processes in Easter culture to rescue us
from the predicament brought about by the analytic thinking of Westernculture, and in this way advance human culture as a whole to newer andhigher levels of development.”
What is required now of Eastern thought, I believe, is that it transcend
the confrontational dualism of East and West and apply the “ecumenicalspirit” noted by Dr. Toynbee, a spirit that has grown up in Easternthought over the past several thousand years, to the service ofhumankind as a whole. Then it may serve as a source of spiritual lightushering in the creation of a truly glorious human culture.
My hope is that the historical symposium that is the occasion for thismessage will help to shed the light of wisdom represented by Oriental
philosophy over the years of the 21st century.
Note
1
2

Choose Life, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 249.
Great Concentration and Insight, T46. 77b.