Acknowledgements
This book, published by the Soka Gakkai, is number 8 in its Lotus Sutra Manuscript
Series. The first phase of this publication project, from 1997 to 2005, saw thepublication of numbers 1 to 6 of the series in a total of eight volumes (as number 2
consists of a set of three volumes). This book is the second of the second phase ofpublications, which began at the beginning of the fiscal year 2006 (April) and runs
through March 2011. The volume presents a romanized text of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra
manuscript from the Société Asiatique (No. 2), Paris. In the Introduction, I haveattempted to present a research report on the text. It would be best if the reader
examines this and the text in conjunction.
The publication of this volume owes much to the warm understanding and supportof Mr. Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) lay Buddhist
organization, and the organization’s members in 190 countries and regions around theworld. Mr. Ikeda pursues an active and impressive dedication to global peace building.
He and the members of the Soka Gakkai (in Japan) and the SGI are engaged in wide
ranging efforts for the peace and well-being of humankind, developing a global,
grassroots network for peace and humanism. I would like to express here my sincere
gratitude to them all.
SGI President Ikeda began engaging dialogues with leading intellectuals fromaround the world in the 1970s. Many of these dialogues have been published. Mr.
Ikeda’s dialogue partners during the 1970s include:
Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (Civilization, East and West [Japanese], 1972),
Arnold J. Toynbee (Choose Life: A Dialogue, 1975 [Japanese], 1976 [English]),Konosuke Matsushita (On Living [Japanese], 1975), André Malraux (Changes Within:
Human Revolution and the Human Condition [Japanese], 1976), and René Huyghe (LaNuit appelle l’aurore [Dawn after Dark], 1980 [French]).
To date, the number of persons with whom he has engaged in dialogue amounts tosome 7,000.
I have greatly benefited from and enjoyed reading these discussions between Mr.
Ikeda and these first-rate intellectuals and experts in various fields. The extensive rangeof subjects and issues considered, and the plain language and clarity with which they aretreated, imbues the reader with a broad knowledge and a natural ability to see an issue
from multiple perspectives. One has the sense of listening to a stimulating conversationthat imparts wisdom, hope, and courage. I am reminded of the way in which great
figures like Shakyamuni Buddha, Socrates, and Jesus Christ employed the power ofdialogue to such effective ends.
The topics covered in these discussions, as mentioned, are extensive. In thedialogue between Mr. Ikeda and René Huyghe, the latter remarks, concerning France’scontributions in pioneering Buddhist studies: “A real awareness of distant Eastern lands
was wanting. And it was begun by the study of Indian philosophy, and in particular byinvestigations into Buddhism. In the nineteenth century, the Collège de France, to which
I belong, played a pioneer role in these undertakings. True to its policy of establishingpositions for research and instruction in new cultural fields, as of 1832, it devoted achair to the study of Buddhism and awarded it to the famous scholar M.E. Burnouf.”1As I have described in the Introduction, Eugène Burnouf rendered the French
version of the Lotus Sutra from a Sanskrit manuscript. Along with my thanks to SGI
President Ikeda, I thus wish to express my appreciation for the Collège de France andBurnouf.
I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Minoru Harada,president of the Soka Gakkai, Mr. Einosuke Akiya, former president of the Soka Gakkai,
and the organization’s staff. I extend my gratitude also to the staff of the Institute ofOriental Philosophy (IOP), in particular, Mr. Yasuo Morita, former chairman of the IOP
Board of Trustees, Dr. Yoichi Kawada, IOP director and incumbent chairman, and Mr.
Yukito Idogawa, IOP secretary-general.
Furthermore, I am deeply indebted to Mr. Noriyoshi Mizufune of the Soka
Gakkai’s Office of International Affairs, concurrently an IOP researcher, who kindly
undertook numerous tasks including editing, translation, and public relations. I am also
grateful to Mr. Anthony George, who kindly edited English portions of this volume, andMs. Micheline Pessin and Ms. Graziella Robino, who kindly translated French portions.
Finally, I wish to deeply thank Professor Seishi Karashima and Associate ProfessorNoriyuki Kudo at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka
University, who kindly provided me with a clear copy of the manuscript.
Haruaki Kotsuki
Researcher in charge of manuscript studies
Institute of Oriental Philosophy
Kyoto, 22 December 2007
Note
1. Dawn after Dark [English edition], Weatherhill, Inc., New York and Tokyo, 1991, p. 303.