Background

Ikeda Sensei met Dr Nur Yalman, a native of Istanbul, for the first time in March 1992 before his second visit to Turkey. In September 1993, Sensei received an invitation from the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, of which Dr Yalman was then the head, to give a lecture – the second such invitation he had received from Harvard. This was the famous lecture entitled "Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-First-Century Civilization”.

 

The present volume is the result of exchanges that took place in the early 2000s with the initial book being compiled and published in 2007.

 

From my reading of this book, I have prepared the following digest that reads like an abridged version of the original work. I have taken utmost care to only quote or paraphrase the authors and not insert any of my own opinions.

 

It may be noted though, that in the overall spirit of the authors’ desire to make Islam more understandable to those who live outside the Islamic world, somewhat greater emphasis has been placed both in the book and in my precis towards unearthing facts and ideas that make Islamic and Turkish culture more readily accessible.

 

Direct quotes are placed within quotation marks and are attributed to the respective writer: DI for Daisaku Ikeda and NY for Nur Yalman. Attributions are also provided wherever possible for when I have paraphrased the original for brevity.

Chapter 1: Cultural Resonances

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• What makes Turkey and Istanbul so fascinating.

• Surprising commonalities binding Turkey and Japan traceable perhaps to a single ethnic ancestry.

• Turkey’s most beloved literature, poetry, flowers, music and more.

• The value of getting to know someone closely.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• Coffee drinking…reached…the rest of the world from Istanbul, where the first coffee shop opened in the sixteenth century. – DI

• Apparently, the tulip was originally a wild flower in the Turkish mountains... When the flowers were introduced into Holland in the sixteenth century…single bulbs sold for as much as a whole house. – NY

• When Yalman lists the works of Rumi and Yunus Emre as standout Turkish classics, Ikeda promptly and graciously adds Koran to the list.

• “The custom of veiling women’s faces probably antedates Islam. Aristocratic women of ancient Persia and Rome covered their heads – they were considered too special for ordinary people to look upon.” – NY

• A very strong, uniquely Turkish tradition: religious rituals must not be mere ostentation.... You do not need to pray five times a day. Even once a year may be sufficient, but it must be completely sincere… Turkish Sufis say it is not necessary to go all the way to Mecca [for Hajj]. It is more important to make a pilgrimage into one’s own heart. – NY

Insightful Observations

• Turkey… has a long tradition of amity and tolerance -DI

• We are in a “critical period… when there is much unwarranted talk of clashes of civilizations” – NY

• Though a Buddhist devotee himself, King Ashoka did not deny other religions. He respected them all. In other words, he clearly endorsed freedom of religion. - DI

Words from the Heart

• Of all the fifty-four different countries I have visited, it is Turkey… that has made an especially great impression on me. – DI

• When buildings like the Suleiman Mosque are illuminated against the calm winter sky, I feel that Istanbul is the most exotic city in the world. Perhaps only Bangkok can compare with it. - NY

Intriguing Perspectives

• The custom of setting no fixed prices in the souks and bazaars of Islamic countries seems odd to people accustomed to fast-food stores selling the same product for the same price everywhere. From the opposite viewpoint, however, setting a standard price in a satellite office in some distant country seems just as odd. – DI

• Universal pricing is one of the negative aspects of globalization. Allowing sellers to adjust prices to the customer is a more pleasant way of doing business. – NY

• In addition to purely economic considerations, a human element comes into play with [variable] pricing – DI

• Yalman: In some Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, people feel that paying too much attention to graves approaches idolatry. Turks feel this way too. Gravestones are erected, but one must be humble and not attempt to create elaborate tombs.

• Ikeda: I see. All gravestones in Soka Gakkai cemeteries throughout Japan are of the same size because we believe that everyone should be equal, both during and after life.

Pearls of Wisdom

• First Soka Gakkai President, “Tsunesaburo Makiguchi…cautioned against judging things we know nothing about.” – DI

• “Friendship helps us appreciate each other’s merits.” – DI

• Great English historian, Arnold J. Toynbee “emphasized the importance of friendship at the individual level because human beings are not inclined to commit atrocities on fellow human beings with whom they are personally acquainted.” - DI

Knotty Issues

• The veiling of women and masculine control. “A society can only truly prosper if it respects women’s opinions, learns from their wisdom and affords them maximum respect.” – DI

• “The question is whether, given the duties of childbirth and upbringing, absolute equality of the sexes is possible. That is not an easy question to answer. The role of the family and the role of women within the family are going to continue to be debated with ever-increasing significance all over the world” – NY

• Fundamentally, the goal of religion is to make human beings happy by freeing them from suffering. False priests use their religious authority in ways that despise and hamper the people. They overemphasize ceremonies and ritual – especially those connected with funerals – as ways to make money. – DI

• When something similar happened in Turkey, attempts were made to break with the formalistic, ritualistic aspects of Islam and to enter the much more sincere interior world of the human being. - NY

Call to Action

• Yalman hopes that their dialog helps “introduce Turkish and Islamic cultures to Japan” for as Ikeda says, “unfortunately, very few people in Japan correctly understand the worlds of Turkey and Islam.”

• “We must create a culture that not only tolerates but also understands diversity and minorities.” - NY

Prose like Poetry

• Looking out over the Bosporus from my hotel in Istanbul, I experienced the city as the boundary between Asia and Europe. – DI

• In Istanbul… traces of diverse cultures overlap like arabesques – DI

Chapter 2: Loyalty to All Humanity

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Achieving amity through frank re-examination of controversial pages in history.

• Instances of Turko-Japanese assistance to the other’s benefit.

• Striking similarities between Japanese and Turkish language, customs, culture and national character.

• Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s prophesy that at some point it would become necessary to afford pre-eminence to humanitarian competition over military or economic.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• Turkish people are still grateful for the noble, courageous Japanese fishermen who saved the lives of Turkish sailors aboard the ship Ertuğrul Firkateyni that sunk off the Japanese coast in a typhoon in Sep 1890.

• At the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq war, in 1980, about 200 Japanese businessmen found themselves stranded in a hotel in Tehran. Turkish President Özal saved them by sending a Turkish plane to Tehran despite Japanese concerns about the dangerous nature of this mission.

• In 1999, Soka Gakkai joined other organizations in aid donations in the aftermath of the horrendous quake in Turkey that took 17,000 lives.

• Turkish and Japanese have similar grammatical structures making reciprocal learning easy.

• Under the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul was a cosmopolitan city where thirty or forty different languages were spoken.

• Japanese fondness for communal bathing is typical of the Turks too.

• In Western Europe, bathing was once considered a dangerous way to spread diseases. Out of fear of getting sick, Queen Elizabeth I of England is said to have taken baths rarely – once a year perhaps. This fear of bathing influenced the development of perfumery, especially in France.

• Japanese tourists sometimes get married according to Turkish custom. They travel to small villages where the villagers are delighted to help them celebrate. Such cordiality and amity express good human relations in ways rarely observed between Turkey and European nations.

 

Insightful Observations

• Turks are good at getting things done fast. The Japanese prepare thoroughly and strive for perfection but are slow to move into action… Speed can be said to determine victory – in this regard, Turks’ powers of speedy action are a great plus. – DI

• The idea of loyalty is very strong in Japan, as it is in Turkey…Popular loyalty enabled Turkey to protect its independence from the imperialist incursions of the great European powers. The same is true of Japan.

Words from the Heart

• A nation that has built a unique, homogeneous, enduring civilization tends to become self-absorbed. Some people hope that Japanese society will become more open to the world... That is why I prize the wonderful faith with which you and Soka Gakkai are trying to open Japan to the world, through vigorous international dialogues and cultural exchanges. – NY

Intriguing Perspectives

• After it’s defeat in the Second World War, Japan quickly became rich, then haughty and arrogant. These three traits – ignorance of internationalism, historical forgetfulness and arrogance – are Japanese failings. Unless they are corrected, no nation will want to have anything to do with us. – DI

• An important country with a complex, diverse population, the United States extends its influence, both for good and ill, to all parts of the world.

Pearls of Wisdom

• In Turkish you say, ‘Gold is tried by fire, people by hardship.’ Buddhism teaches the same kind of wisdom: ‘Put into flames, a rock simply turns to ashes, but gold becomes pure gold.’2 ‘Iron, when heated in the flames and pounded, becomes a fine sword. Worthies and sages are tested by abuse.’ - DI

• Ends do not justify means: the nature of the means employed determines the nature of their end result. – NY

• The source of creativity, action and vision is surely compassion and eager devotion to the common good. - DI

Knotty Issues

• Unless we work for the happiness of peoples everywhere, our prosperity will be meaningless. It is too late to confine loyalty…within national boundaries. Loyalty to all humanity is now absolutely essential. The Soka Gakkai movement aims to cultivate awareness of global citizenship… by working for the advantage not of a single nation, but of all humankind. – DI

Call to Action

• Historically, relations between Turkey and Japan have been limited. Organizations that research and shed light on the exchanges that have taken place will be mutually useful. – NY

• To go beyond past misfortunes, cultural exchanges among ordinary people are essential to mutual understanding, as they transcend national postures and are the best way to build true friendship. – DI

• People in both the East and the West are deeply disappointed in world leaders for having allowed – indeed, encouraged – festering troubles to slide into terror, war and chaos. Very few current politicians have a grand vision. Creative people are in demand, as are people with the universal spirit of brotherly love who understand the desire for peace and can direct people towards its attainment. In addition, surely the high moral qualities espoused by many religions are also indispensable in a leader. – DI

Prose like Poetry

• The vortex of violence and destruction characteristic of our own age has the ironic effect of reinforcing the importance of non-violence and dialogue in the name of the dignity of life. – DI

• ‘A burning candle lives longer than a lie’ – Turkish Proverb

Chapter 3: Peace Within and Without

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s motivation and impact viewed from different perspectives:

  • the end of the caliphate,

  • separation of religion and state,

  • women’s rights,

  • education,

  • literacy, and

  • political, economic, social and cultural reforms such as the adoption of the solar calendar and discontinuance of the use of Arabic script in writing the Turkish language.

• The separation of religion and state from an Islamic viewpoint.

• Why Turkey had an Atatürk instead of a Hitler or a Mussolini after its defeat in World War I!

• Why Turkey escaped being involved in World War II!

• Characteristics of a New Humanism rooted in Global Partnership.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• The roots of the Atatürk revolution can be traced back to the nineteenth century involving Ziya Pasha and Namik Kemal, Ziya Gökalp and Auguste Comte.

• The romanization of the Turkish alphabet had the important cultural effect of making it much easier for Turkish intellectuals to read Western languages, thus directing their attention westward. - NY

• There are more than 2,000 biographies of Atatürk in Indian languages alone. – NY

 

Insightful Observations

• Turkey’s entry into the EU will have great significance for human history because for Christian and Islamic nations to combine on the basis of shared ideals of democracy and market economy sets an example for coexistence and shared prosperity. - DI

• Professor Toynbee evaluated Atatürk’s reforms as a kind of historic miracle: ‘Under the leadership of … Atatürk, the country made incredible strides forward. This was the period of the Turkish Revolution . . . the Renaissance, the Reformation, the secularist, scientific revolution . . . the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution . . . telescoped into a single lifetime. – DI

• Paradoxically Atatürk, who disestablished Islam in Turkey and provided the basis for a free and liberal society, made it possible for an Islamist group to enter the political arena, take power and criticize his legacy. – NY

• For the sake of Turkish modernization and democratization, Atatürk abolished one-party dictatorship and promoted the formation of opposition parties… for an absolute power – as he was – to create an opposition demanded unprecedented courage.

• Turkey escaped the tragic and devastating destruction unleashed by World War II or the likes of the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or the terrible experiences of Cambodia and Vietnam. It has been protected from them by its sense of identity and discipline and by having avoided the great upheavals of twentieth-century Europe and Asia. - NY

 

Words from the Heart

• Others must have their own space in which to exist. Empathy and gentle kindness towards other people must be at the root of the new humanism, which will allow Buddhists to be Buddhists, Hindus to be Hindus, Jews to be Jews, Muslims to be Muslims, Christians to be whatever kind of Christian they want to be, Daoists to be Daoists, and Confucians to be Confucians without getting in each other’s way. - NY

Intriguing Perspectives

• Atatürk stood up alone and unaided against the aggressive imperialism of great powers such as England and France. - NY

• In Islamic terms, a very strong case can be made for allowing people to experience religion without interference from the state. Therefore, separating political authority and Islam is not a very revolutionary act. In my opinion, the Turkish parliamentary system is a much better example of the functioning of a free and modern Islamic state than Iran or other states that claim to operate on Islamic terms – NY

• As a reformer, Atatürk not so much destroyed the Ottoman Empire, as pioneered new strategies for a free and open society, in which all kinds of political ideas, including Islamic ideas, could flourish together happily. – NY

• Turkish is now spoken in more countries stemming from the ease of learning the language brought about by the romanization of the script. Subtly, the use of spoken Turkish is repeating Turkey’s historical role of connecting neighbouring nations. – DI

• All of a sudden – overnight – Turkey abandoned a writing system that had been in use for a thousand years. This dramatic change was facilitated by the existing low literacy rate. It is argued that the change greatly increased literacy. – NY

Pearls of Wisdom

• Atatürk said that in Turkey, there were neither oppressors nor oppressed. Some people submit to oppression; others do not. Turkey, he said, belonged in the latter category. – DI

• Education goes beyond differences of background to reveal the things we all have in common. It guides us out of cliquishness. – NY

Knotty Issues

• Evaluation of Atatürk has swung over time as the attitudes of the Islamic World towards the west have changed as the politics of oil, Israel and other issues have risen to the fore. Newer forces in Turkish politics have sought to undo Atatürk’s legacy. - NY

Call to Action

• The important thing is to go beyond superficial labels such as ‘Buddhist’ or ‘Muslim’ to find an underlying philosophy and humanity. – NY

• Atatürk said that to protect individuals, ethnic groups and nations from selfish exploitation, we must empathize with suffering everywhere as if it were our own. In saying this he was proposing a kind of global partnership that I see as the key to human peace and harmony in the twenty-first century.

Prose like Poetry

• As the Turks say, ‘Speak out, and you are persecuted; hold your tongue, and your guts boil over.’ The passion for justice that informed this saying illustrates the spirit with which Atatürk dragged Turkey towards reform. – DI

Chapter 4: Mutual Understanding for a Better World

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Similarities between traditional Japanese and Classical Turkish music and instruments.

• The role of Cultural Anthropology, in helping resolve the prejudices and misunderstandings that cause antagonism.

• The contributions of noteworthy experts and philosophers.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• The whirling dances of Dervishes, called Sema, seeking elevated spirituality through the dance form, were originated by the great Sufi philosopher and poet Rumi.

• The philosophical thrust of Cultural Anthropology goes back to Ancient Greek thinkers such as Herodotus and Thucydides. – NY

• From the colonial period spanning the eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century, 60,000 books on the Middle East were published in Europe. Most of them, attempted to justify European colonialism by describing the colonized regions as culturally inferior and in need of governance and guidance.

• Instead of studying small cultures as isolated jewels, Anthropologists are now concerning themselves with a much broader investigation of how cultures affect each other.

Insightful Observations

• Turkish folk music like Japanese folk songs have leisurely, conversational, melodic styles.

• “…societies that make elaborate distinctions between different kinds of fish might lack words for similar distinctions regarding horses or cows. Members of a fish-oriented society are not retarded because they cannot tell a Jersey from a Holstein”. - DI

• “Few of us understand the workings of the electrical appliances we use every day. In that respect we are not very different from people who have never used such appliances. A city-dweller set down in a desert knows at once that he lacks the knowledge to survive in such an environment. It is foolish even to ask who is more culturally adept, the dweller of the desert or the inhabitant of a city full of electrical appliances.” – DI

• “Mythology, in the form of media experiences like the Star Wars films, engages us and puts scientific theorizing on a human scale where we can begin to comprehend what scientists are telling us.” - NY

 

Words from the Heart

• A line in one of Rumi’s poems goes: ‘Listen to the Reed, How it tells its tale . . .’ The image of a lone flute player is used as a metaphor for mortal humanity seeking the immortal origins of things. – DI

Intriguing Perspectives

• “Cultural anthropology is the attempt to understand other people.” – NY

• Yalman pursued Anthropology because he wanted to understand the dynamics that induce people to undergo change in the deepest and most profound aspects of their identities as by-products of political movements.

Pearls of Wisdom

• “I believe that our shared humanity enables us to understand each other” – DI

• “…if we want to understand individual people’s significance and the profound dignity of humanity as a whole, we must examine customs, cultural societies and communities within their own frames of reference” - DI

Knotty Issues

• In his book Orientalism, the Palestinian-American literary critic Edward W. Said (1935–2003) made the point Cultural anthropology was essentially a tool of colonial and imperial powers, who attempted to understand other people in order to control them. In his view, Orientalism meant all attempts to describe colonies from the standpoint of colonial bureaucracy. - DI

• While formal colonialism has faded away, the colonial impetus to dominate other peoples is still alive as evident from disastrous policies that have led to atrocious violence, particularly in the Middle East…According to a report in the reliable British medical journal Lancet, the total number of people killed in Iraq between 2003 – 2005 is said to be in the order of 650,000 with a margin of error of 200,000! - NY

Call to Action

• Likelihood of strong historical connections, by way of ancient Central Asia, between the music of Turkey and the Gagaku music of Japan needs to be looked into further.

Prose like Poetry

• Once, when he was in London negotiating for Indian freedom, Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization. He replied, ironically, ‘Western civilization would be a good idea.’

• On another occasion Gandhi told some Europeans, ‘In spite of your belief in the greatness of Western civilization… leave some little room for doubt…’

Experts and their works, contextualized

• Herodotus’ The Histories and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War remain valuable sources of information about ancient cultures in general, especially those of Egypt and the Orient.

• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), who wrote about India in his Kitab al-Hind, provides one of the best accounts we have of what was going on in the minds of Hindus of that time. Though himself a Muslim, he wrote fairly and honestly about Indian society.

• The attitudes of the French Enlightenment – people such as Voltaire (1694–1778), Rousseau (1712–78) and Diderot (1767– 1837) – showed a great deal of interest in other peoples and other ways of thinking.

• Some of the origins of Eastern thought go back to representatives of the great Islamic tradition, such as Avicenna (980–1037), Averroes (1126–98) and many others, whose ideas reached medieval Europe from Andalusian Spain.

• The intellectual traditions of Cultural Anthropology have benefitted immensely from the liberal thinking in Germanic culture upheld by Goethe and Hegel; and from Russian  philosophers – Tolstoy, Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky. In their philosophies, we can perceive the implied criticism of colonial and imperial rule by Western countries.

• Cultural anthropology has had a tremendous influence in breaking down the simplistic conception of Western superiority. Specifically, French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss conducted detailed work on the mentalities of so-called simple peoples, and showed that, in fact, their mental activities are not all that different, thus eliminating the idea of the ‘primitive’. In his book The Savage Mind, Lévi-Strauss shows definitively that cultures once despised as barbarian actually possess concrete sciences mythologically expressed in highly symbolic ways.

Chapter 5: Intercultural Communion

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Cultural anthropology’s role in projecting a fuller image of human history by relating connections among cultures all over the world.

• The interactions between cultures and civilizations is explored through the lens of prevailing opinions that appear to dictate the political and military postures of the Islamic World and the West.

• With globalization making the world shrink and cohabitation between cultures the new norm, stereotypical conceptions of ‘the other’ as enemy can be extremely destructive to both parties.

• Instructive examples from hundreds of years of history of how people who seem most heterogeneous can cohabit and maintain highly amicable relations.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• As of 2005 when this book was being created, Daisaku Ikeda had already engaged in over 1,600 dialogs with people of different backgrounds.

• In his dialog with Daisaku Ikeda, Prof Toynbee discussed civilizations and history without narrowly limiting his interest to heroes and rulers.

• At one time, harmony in Cordoba, Spain was so prevalent that a single mosque accommodated Muslim worship on Fridays and Christian worship on Sundays. After the creation of a centralized Spain as a result of the unification of Castile and Aragon in the fifteenth century, however, Jews and Muslims alike were persecuted and expelled.

• Jews who were driven out of Spain were invited to live in the Ottoman Empire, where cordial relations were maintained among the Christian, Islamic and Jewish elements of the population.

• The Ottoman empire permitted and supported various activities on the part of Christians and Jews, many of who held high official positions, almost to the end of the First World War in 1918.

• In the past, even in the former Yugoslavia, famous for religious antagonism, Muslims and Christians got along well. On one occasion, Muslims presented Catholics with a chapel.

Insightful Observations

• “Stereotypical characterizations of culture – for instance, as somehow behind the times – are easy to understand and popularize but, in their very simplification, they sacrifice richness and diversity. What is more, they may wipe out the possibilities for change in human beings.” – DI

• “Western society now talks in patterns and clichés removed from the actuality of Islam, while the Muslim world speaks of Western culture as materialism devoid of spiritual tradition. In this way, both aggravate misunderstanding and animosity.” – DI

• “There is…a big difference between the way Westerners conceptualize Islam and the way Muslims conceptualize the West. The Muslims’ problem with the West has to do with imperial and colonial policies in Islamic countries. These are matters not of civilization, but of political and military control… Muslims feel challenged by Western power and demonize Westerners for what they did, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries… The Western attitude towards Islam is one of lack of comprehension. In the West, ignorance about the impressive achievements of Islamic civilization results in caricatures used to generate a sense of grievance and crisis against Islamic countries.” – NY

• “The Islamic tradition of social responsibility towards the poor and unfortunate and towards women and children can help correct Western civilization’s excessive concentration on economic interests.” – DI

• One must not be deceived by the fictional standardized images the global media empire tries to present as they can be divorced from reality.

 

Words from the Heart

• “Your method of conducting them [dialogs] is exemplary: first, respect the other party and, second, listen attentively. This is the way to promote understanding among people with different cultural backgrounds.” – NY

Intriguing Perspectives

• “The way Bernard Lewis conceptualizes and essentializes Islam is very dubious. His definition of Islam does not accord with modern Islamic practices – the discrepancy leads him to formulate the idea of high and low Islam.” – NY

• “Professor Majid Tehranian and I agree that failure to recognize the Muslim origins of many of the scientific technologies, which developed rapidly in the West after the Renaissance, results in a most inadequate understanding of Islam.” – DI

• “A language that has been defined in a certain way can be said to have died out when it departs from that definition. On the other hand, the point could be made that, instead of dying, it has merely shifted into a different form.” – NY

• “Questions of civilizational rise and decline are largely influenced by prejudice and depend on the observer’s viewpoint. It is not always easy to indicate moments of high achievement or tragic destruction” – NY

• “Some have claimed that Islam has been declining since the twelfth century, in order to deny the vitality of the Ottoman, Safavid, Mogul and other Muslim societies. Others would say that, on the contrary, Islam is more alive now than ever… I can claim the same for Buddhism…and Hinduism” - NY

Pearls of Wisdom

• Dialogue, between and among civilizations: the best way to resolve the prejudices and misunderstandings that cause antagonism. – DI

• Careful examination of history reveals that the problem is not direct hostility between religions but narrow-minded nationalism and its use of religion and race as tools for inciting conflict.

• “My own mentor, Josei Toda, used to say that the problems confronting humanity would be quickly resolved if Shakyamuni, Nichiren, Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Confucius could get together for an exchange of opinions.” – DI

• “Civilizations that unassumingly incorporate the superior viewpoints of other civilizations as the valuable spiritual heritage of all humanity are the ones that will achieve true prosperity in the future.” - DI

Knotty Issues

• Bernard Lewis opines that to speak of the cohabitation of cultures and civilizations is mistaken because when they cohabit, the worst aspects of both emerge, and this causes collisions. “A few years ago, an important article in the Wall Street Journal claimed that Lewis’ ideas are behind the pugnacious stance of the United States – especially the American military – vis-à-vis the Islamic world. It was also claimed that Lewis’ book was bedside reading for the American president.” - NY

Call to Action

• “The result of the arrogance of military power and the ignorance of local cultures is a much-increased atmosphere of fear, danger, and xenophobia everywhere. It is greatly to be regretted that the conditions that lend themselves to ‘asymmetrical warfare’ are now the order of the day in many places. It is vital for people who value human life and peace to question the policies that have led us to this dangerous brink.” – NY

• “Collisions between and among cultures and civilizations would seem to be our destiny. But they must not be allowed to go on forever.” – DI

• “In 2005, in order to cultivate mutual understanding among different faiths and traditions, the United Nations launched its Alliance of Civilizations initiative. The project was proposed by Turkey and Spain. I expect great things from such international movements aimed at avoiding clashes and bringing different civilizations together through dialogue and understanding.” – DI

Prose like Poetry

• “Actuality does not always conform to established definitions”. - NY

Experts and their works, contextualized

• Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West and Arnold Toynbee’s ideas investigate the rise and fall of civilizations in terms of challenge and response.

• Bernard Lewis, a controversial but gifted observer of the Middle East, has written that, when cultures and civilizations clash, one prevails, and the other is destroyed.

• In his The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel P. Huntington deals in particular with the relationship between the West and Islam, in a way similar to the approach of Bernard Lewis. He argues that, in a sense, the United States needs an enemy to maintain a sense of its own cultural unity. Lamentably, the relationship between Islam and the West revolves around stereotypes on both the Islamic and Western sides. This has led to an exaggerated sense of ‘Islamophobia’, both in Europe and in the USA.

• Ibn Rushd – Averroes as he is known in Europe – who was born in Cordoba, Spain, has gone down in history as a great Aristotelian scholar whose philosophy exerted a great influence on Christian theology in Europe.

• Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir is thought-provoking because of the detailed picture it gives of the author’s childhood and adolescence in Palestine. The image is of a child – neither refugee nor terrorist – living out his life against the background of Palestine’s tragedy.

 

Chapter 6: Empathy and Our Shared Humanity

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• The goals of cultural anthropologists, and the approach to their area of research.

• Nur Yalman’s own experiences living and conducting fieldwork in Sri Lanka and England.

• The role of empathy and the pitfalls of social structures and state policies that cause alienation.

 

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• “At the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951, the Sri Lankan delegate spoke of Japanese bombings and exploitation during the Second World War. Then he renounced claims for reparations from Japan by citing Shakyamuni’s philosophy that hatred cannot be eliminated through hatred.” – DI

• “Buddhism… teaches us the importance of sublimating our purposes to higher ideas instead of merely rejecting and suppressing desires: ‘…they are burning the firewood of earthly desires, summoning up the wisdom fire of bodhi or enlightenment.” – DI

• “In the sutra collection called the Anguttara-nikāya, reflection on the way in which human beings become arrogant about youth, health and vitality is said to have been what prompted Shakyamuni [Buddha] to pursue the path to truth. It was also the origin of his empathy with the sufferings of others.” - DI

Insightful Observations

• “… dialogues are very valuable in establishing serious intellectual communication on the ethical and moral plane between different religious traditions.” – NY

• “In many cases, lone travellers unfamiliar with the local geography are readily accepted and aided, whereas a large group might be considered a threat.” - DI

Words from the Heart

• “Indeed, cultural anthropology has contributed greatly to the breaking down of prejudices about what is advanced or undeveloped, civilized or barbarian. I am deeply impressed by the keen way in which you go directly to the essential characteristics of anthropology and the fundamental problems it faces.” – NY

Intriguing Perspectives

• “…Empathy is the hallmark of true humanity. It must be developed and can only evolve through person-to-person exchanges.” – NY

• In the Mahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka, Shakyamuni [Buddha] instructs his disciples to move with empathy among the people one by one, never in twos, for the sake of their interest and comfort… Fundamental human relationships develop on a person-to-person basis, free of all the structures that breed antagonism – DI

• “Gandhi opposed the notion that violent means must be used to attain righteous ends. Peace can only be achieved through peaceful means.” - DI

Pearls of Wisdom

• “We must avoid religious clashes. But we must not let differences serve as reasons for isolation and segregation, which only create barriers. Because I know that we must create circuits of exchange, for years I have engaged in dialogues with many different people of various religious, cultural and ideological backgrounds.” – DI

• “The more people of your own culture you have around you, the more likely you are to live in a bubble. The more people who speak to you in your own language, the more you are cut off from local people” – NY

• “Conflict often arises when encounters are dominated by racial and religious DIFFERENCES, but dialogue results when people come together on the COMMON GROUND of membership of the human race.” - DI

Knotty Issues

• “Your (Ikeda’s) idea of ‘The Age of Soft Power’ is far-reaching and important… In my opinion, it was a great mistake for the United States to resort to hard power after 9/11… 9/11 should have been treated as a criminal, not a military, act. It was not warfare – it was a crime. Attempts to use hard, military power in Afghanistan and Iraq caused a great many local deaths. Far from stimulating recognition and gratitude, American actions had a very negative effect. Pakistan was destabilized, and Central Asia became much more problematic than before. The Arab world seethed with repressed anger and confusion. Muslims in many parts of the world, who had been relatively open and sympathetic to lofty American promises of equality and liberty, became cynical and alienated. The depressing nightmares of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib will not be easily exorcised. It could all have been avoided. It would have been much more effective to use the immense soft power of the United States to bring to bear on the idea of justice and fairness in these countries. Diplomatic work would have been much more effective. If the United States had used its expertise in the Western countries along with the United Nations, the world would have been a much safer place today.” - NY

Call to Action

• “Leaders today must have the inventiveness to learn lessons from cultural anthropology.” – NY

• “Although it might seem a more roundabout way – and in the face of criticisms of impotence from all quarters – I believe the only path to world security in the twenty-first century is to improve the competence of the United Nations. After all, it came into being as a result of lessons learned from the tragedies of two world conflicts in the twentieth century.” – DI

Prose like Poetry

• “The real value of religion is its ability to flow from root-like foundations through human beings and their society, and to branch out and blossom throughout the cosmos.” – DI

• “The nature of the means employed determines the character of the ends achieved. This is certainly true for the United States’ foreign policy.” - NY

Experts and their works, contextualized

• The research worker Masaaki Noda of Kwansei Gakuin University, is a psychopathologist who researches mental illness in many parts of the world… He says that, whenever possible, he does fieldwork alone – because two Japanese people conducting a survey in a village in (say) New Guinea… would naturally converse in Japanese, with the result that the people they are studying regard them as outsiders. This sets up a kind of ‘us and them’ barrier (thereby distorting the study).

• Norwegian anthropologist, Fredrik Barth (carrying out fieldwork in New Guinea (the Baktaman))… adopted the local habit of always going barefoot. He said that walking gingerly barefoot on a slippery log placed across a rushing stream alone in the jungle helped him empathize with the circumstances in which the locals lived. - NY

Chapter 7: Reviving Asian Humanism

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• The implication of the Hollywood-style youth culture on an incorrect philosophy of life and death.

• The attachment to differences rather than a yearning towards seeking common ground.

• The freedoms afforded to indigenous non Muslims by the [conquering] Ottoman empire.

• Hidden gems from Islam’s philosophy of humanism, application of reason, equality and justice.

• The role of Sufi’ism expressed in adoration for the fellow human being in the context of the underlying desire for peace and acceptance in Islamic countries.

• Rumi’s way of life: going beyond religious and ethnic differences.

• The threat to humanity from short-sighted arrogant policies on the international stage, which unleash immense tensions and lethal passions.

• Dignity of Life and its interpretations from Buddhist and Islamic perspectives.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• “Mahayana Buddhism expounds joy in both life and death.” – DI

• Even at the height of [the Ottoman] imperial power, the population of the city of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) is estimated to have been sixty per cent Muslim and forty per cent non-Muslim. – DI

• “The football-match cheer Olé Olé! is said to derive from an Arabic expression meaning ‘from God’.” – DI

• “While being strict with its own believers, Islam exerts no compulsion on believers of other faiths” – DI

• “One element that can be singled out as the most prominent aspect of Islam… is a sense of respect for the individual spirit and the individual soul… which is basis of the Islamic idea of equality (and democracy)” – NY

• “Islam has religious scholars and leaders (ulema), but no priesthood… Other religions always recognize a priestly or monastic elite. Basically Islam rejects the idea of privileged access to a higher piety.” – NY

• “…alms giving (zakat), one of the pillars of Islam, is a tangible expression of the emphasis on equality. It effects a redistribution of wealth by using contributions to help the poor, the distressed and the indebted, and to free slaves.” – DI

• “Islamic science flourished between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. In later times, the emphasis in Islam shifted towards religious matters, as the West – ironically on the basis of knowledge provided by Islamists – experienced the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and took the lead in further scientific developments. Numerous chemical terms such as alkali and alcohol, both derived from Arabic, bear witness to Islamic influence.” – DI

• Divine Love expressed in centuries of literature in the Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Turkish and Arabic traditions, emphasized the expansion of love from the individual towards the entire community. This important element distinguishes Islam from many of the other major religions. - NY

Insightful Observations

• “In its ceaseless preoccupation with self-improvement and consumerism, modern civilization perpetuates the false view that life will last forever. In the frenetic striving for wealth and acquisitions, people appear to be oblivious to the ancient Muslim saying that ‘shrouds do not have pockets.’ You cannot take it all with you.” – NY

• “Buddhist philosophy concentrates on uncovering the arrogance that generates aversion for others and discovering the ultimate dignity inherent in all forms of life.” – DI

• The Buddhist view of the dignity of life is founded on the doctrine of dependent origination – according to which, all life is interrelated and interdependent. All life forms are eternally connected throughout the entire cosmos – from the infinite past, through the present, to the infinite future. - DI

• “In the Islamic interpretation, life is always celebrated, not only for the individual and their own interests, but also always in the context of society. The community is critical.” - NY

Words from the Heart

• “There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today – more than one-fifth of the global population. Knowledge of Islamic culture is therefore essential to any consideration of world events. Indeed, ignorance of it constitutes a cause for unnecessary antagonism.” – DI

Intriguing Perspectives

• Shakyamuni Buddha severely criticized aversion to old age, sickness and death as arrogance. Such arrogance makes people willing to sacrifice the lives of others so long as they can protect their own.

• “Aversion towards others corresponds to the obsession with differences” – NY

• “It is a matter of great regret that subtle – and not so subtle – racism, which led to the destruction of the Jews and their displacement to Israel, is now practised against Muslim immigrants in a supposedly chastened and enlightened Europe. The European Union, which prides itself on its liberality, has, in fact, much to learn from the open-mindedness of the early Ottomans.” – NY

• “Conflicts arise more from political and economic causes than from religious confrontations. The struggle between Israel and Palestine and the Middle East policies of the United States government make this perfectly apparent.” – DI

• “[In emphasizing the importance of reason (aql) and self-control,] Islam is a very modern religion - quite appropriate to contemporary society.  It calls for equality, social justice, fairness in all dealings and the application and acceptance of reason. In doing this, it calls for the acceptance of science as well.” – NY

• “Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi (1903–79), a radical Islamist thinker from Pakistan, was speaking of equality as a major element when he said that, to understand the nature of Islam, one should visit Mao Zedong’s China.”- NY

Pearls of Wisdom

• “Shakyamuni repeatedly insisted that we stop being obsessed with differences.” – DI

• “Insufficient understanding of their (the religions’) own true natures, however, sometimes leads their followers astray” - NY

Knotty Issues

• “[While I echo your love for American Magnanimity], still, I am uneasy about the rise of Christian fundamentalism and evangelism in America. Europe increasingly demonstrates intense Islamophobia, evident in the reactions to the Muslim outrage at Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet. After 9/11, the mood in the United States also turned extremely suspicious – especially towards persons of Arab descent, and towards other Muslims and Islam in general. It is to be hoped that this witch-hunting climate will be a passing phenomenon, as McCarthyism was.” - NY

• The Buddhist and Islamic views on the sanctity of life are invalidated by elements of American pop culture, “in which egotism – epitomized by the so-called ‘me’ generation – is celebrated, with very negative results from the viewpoint of public life. This kind of egotism supports the culture of violence associated with guns. Congress has already allowed gun manufacturers and dealers too much freedom – as if there were not already enough weapons around! All this relates to a lack of respect for human life – a cheapening of human life, and emphasis on the vigilante mindset.” - NY

Call to Action

• “We must return to the culture of tolerance, acceptance, understanding and empathy and disavow baser passions associated essentially with a sense of self-importance and paranoia; that is, with both individual aggrandizement and fear of what enemies might do. We must not allow xenophobic feelings to get the upper hand. As it sets so important an example for the rest of the world, the United States must demonstrate responsible leadership in this regard.” – NY

• “Rumi’s repeated bowing in response to the greeting he received from the Orthodox monks illustrates the mutual respect we should all have for the life force inherent in each of us.”  – DI

• “The Buddhist and Islamic philosophies of harmonious coexistence and respect for life can lead the whole world towards prosperity. Today distrust of humanity and cheapening of life are becoming increasingly widespread. To halt them we must rebuild and propagate the great Asian philosophy of humanism.” - DI

Prose like Poetry

• “Preoccupation with Hollywood-style youth culture pretends that death does not exist.” – NY

• “Thinking that life, with its repetitive cycles of novelties, information and pleasure, goes on forever is delusional.” – DI

Experts and their works, contextualized

• Linus Pauling, father of modern chemistry and twice Nobel Laureate (for Chemistry and Peace) stated unequivocally that the essential and vital role of religions is to contribute to peace and to save suffering, ordinary people.

• Edward Said pointed out the informational biases about Islam in his book Covering Islam. Nonetheless, Islamic culture influences our daily lives. For instance, many things and words in daily use are Islamic or Arab in origin: pyjamas, cotton, sofa, magazine, lemon, orange, syrup and tulip are but a few examples.

• The great Persian Sufi mystic saint Jalal al-Din Rumi personified the concept of love. Stories about him highlight how the teachings of many generations of Islamic saints stress affection and empathy.

Chapter 8: Global Governance

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Events sponsored by the Toda Peace Institute (Formerly Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research) along with the voices and ideas that stoodout at these events.

• The roots of fear engendered by unbridled individualism and capitalism.

• UN centred mechanisms for achieving legal solutions to conflicts such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of International Terrorism (ICSAIT), UN terrorism-combating bodies, UN Peace-Building Commission, the UN Human Rights Council and, region Human Rights Courts.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• “Iran proposed to the UN General Assembly that 2001 be designated the ‘Year of Dialogue among Civilizations’. Tragically, however, the events of 11 September 2001 involved acts of indiscriminate terrorism that are the diametric opposite of dialogue.” – DI

• “Awareness of the existence of a European Court of Human Rights has already had a very positive effect on the Turkish legal system.” - NY

Insightful Observations

• “In its pursuit of free individualism, modern civilization has weakened or entirely undone the bonds once provided by family, community and religion. This shakes the very foundation on which the individual stands…Unless we address the human crisis…no amount of material prosperity or techno-scientific progress can ensure world peace or true human advancement.” – DI

Words from the Heart:

• “We must be creative in thinking about human experience and make sure it is headed in the right direction – away from fear” – NY

• “Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that human beings do not like to see their own kind suffer.” - NY.

Intriguing Perspectives

• “For Josei Toda, the doctrine of global citizenship for the sake of building a peaceful world, where all races can live in happiness, was a key article of his faith.” – DI

Pearls of Wisdom

• “Dialogues resulting in correct understanding of other races and cultures are essential to severing the roots of such violence [as 9/11]”. – NY

• “In direct opposition to the hatred and destructiveness dividing society, humanity is inherently endowed with living compassion and creativity. These traits produce invisible fundamental connections, on the basis of which we can change the direction of our age from division to connection and from destruction to creativity.” – DI

Knotty Issues

• “Lamentably, in ethnic conflicts, religion is frequently used as a means of provoking antagonism and hatred and severing human connections. Repeated over and over in history, this tragedy is often played out against a background of political and economic clashes. One cause of the trouble is the tendency for self-serving, dogmatic religions to treat human beings as tools and make them serve the interests of that religion. This is, of course, an inversion of the true order of things. In cases of this kind, terrorism becomes the suicide of religion.” – DI

• “The capitalist world is an unsafe and difficult world where people may be left without jobs and lonely old people without anyone to support them.” – NY

Call to Action

• “[The Day after 9/11] Sodovjamtsyn Khurelbaatar, Mongolian ambassador to Japan… said that human beings ought to de-emphasize nationalism and think in terms of our shared nature as Earthlings.” - DI

• We must overcome “the barrier of nationalism that prioritizes national interests” - DI

Prose like Poetry

• “…in direct opposition to the hatred and destructiveness dividing society, humanity is inherently endowed with living compassion and creativity.” – DI

Experts and their works, contextualized

 

Chapter 9: Dialogue: The Magna Carta of Civilization

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• The intercultural and interfaith initiatives of Ikeda founded institutes namely the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, the Ikeda Center (formerly Boston Research Center for the 21st Century), the Toda Peace Institute and Soka Universities.

• Ways that religion can help deal with the problem of fanaticism that defines “the other” as enemies and scapegoats.

• The spiritual vs identity aspects of religion

• The role of imagination in science vs the mythological aspects of religion.

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• Between 1975 and 2005, Soka University established connections with more than twenty Chinese universities and has sent or received more than 500 exchange teachers and students.

• “The mythologies of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, Hinduism, the African religions, Daoism, Sikhism and Judaism are essentially the theoretical creative imagination of people trying to make sense of the world they live in – trying to determine a history and a direction for themselves.” - NY

Insightful Observations

• “The creative process of scientific and religious imagination is not all that different. The difference comes in the ethical dimension. Fascinatingly, [right now]…scientific imagination is much more advanced than religious imagination.” – NY

• Religion has two important aspects. One is the aspect of identity and the other is the spiritual aspect (of morality and ethics). The identity aspect inspires pride, is a kind of tribalism and often causes interfaith conflicts. The spiritual side must have greater focus as it promotes individual self-reform and educates people about building better values for society and future generations. – NY

• Many spiritual values are shared across religions. Giving them prominence in individual religious identities makes interfaith dialogues possible. – NY

• Religiosity and sectarianism must not be confused. – DI

• The identity aspect of religion can lapse into tribalism when it loses sight of human communality. The more tribal we are, the more we are inclined to fight with other tribes. – NY

• “Interfaith dialogues founded on our common humanity open paths to the future of religion itself.” – DI

• In the spirit of the founders, our duty is to bring people together, not divide. For instance the Buddha broke the barriers of entry to the privileged class by saying that deeds not birth make a person a Brahmin. Muhammad meanwhile tried to use the symbolisms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to bring people together in a moral community. – NY

• Barren ideological conflicts and the tendency to attribute absolute values to one’s own group have caused inhuman cruelty such as the Holocaust. – DI

• Dialogue is important in cultivating empathy and understanding because it reveals the universal humanism pulsating deep within different cultures. – NY

Words from the Heart

• It is an easy task to designate other people as enemies and treat them as scapegoats – to create a false sense of separation and a false sense of danger and paranoia. In all ages, unscrupulous religious preachers have [done this]… which, in one instance, led to the great massacres and sufferings of the Crusades. Today the same game is played by politicians who wrap themselves in their national flags and incite the masses to resist perceived enemies. In this process, the media can be turned into a most dangerous instrument of torture and, indeed, war. – NY

• “I have always acted in the belief that enlightening others about humanism is the humane and social mission of the religious. With whatever strength is at my command, I have consistently undertaken the task of illuminating the humanistic philosophy and spirit deep within various cultures.” – DI

Intriguing Perspectives

• The focus on scientific technology and material prosperity has caused a loss of spiritual and ethical bases. To undo this requires the restoration of a cosmology created by means of religious imagination. Of course, cosmologies must not be limited to asserting the superiority of one’s own group, because this introduces social schism. We require a cosmology that is open to all peoples and that provides the source for respect for the dignity of all life. – DI

• “We must reinterpret religions on the criteria of whether they make people stronger or weaker, better or worse, wiser or more foolish.” – DI

• “Whether a religion has a future depends on whether it manifests the power to encourage and boost the vigorous pursuit of the good and the valuable.” - DI

Pearls of Wisdom

• The spirit of empathy can be rekindled if each religion returns to the spirit of its founder and re-examines itself. While each has its own doctrines, the founders of all religions anguished over the sufferings of real society and wanted to make people happy. By returning to their points of origin, religions will be able to empathize with the hardships and sufferings caused by the problems confronting humanity today. - DI

Knotty Issues

• Languages create what Émile Durkheim called a conscience collective. While this may be unavoidable, we must understand the nature of this tribal identity aspect and try to control it. - NY

Call to Action

• “The more we introduce our students to their counterparts in other countries, the better we will serve the purposes of the peaceful, decent world we want for the future.” – NY

• “Religions are urgently required to cultivate an ethos that sends the philosophy of respect for life coursing throughout society.” - DI

Prose like Poetry

• “Without dialogue, human beings are fated to go on travelling in the darkness of self-righteousness.” – DI

• “If, as the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said, violence is the Magna Carta of barbarism, dialogue can be called the Magna Carta of civilization.” – DI

Experts and their works, contextualized

Chapter 10: New Paths for Education

Key topics discussed in this chapter

• Yalman’s journey to becoming a cultural anthropologist with knowledge encompassing all humanity.

• The role of education in dispelling entrenched ignorance about “the other”.

• A re-evaluation of history.

• Shared Truths across religions.

 

Surprising and Interesting Factoids and Comments

• “I feel that I am the product of the intellectual currents coming from all four sources (Gentle Ottoman Humanism, English and American traditions of political liberty, Continental philosophy and, fieldwork in the Indian Subcontinent).” – NY

• “During the Second World War, Soka Gakkai presidents Makiguchi and Toda opposed war-oriented education and struggled to promote humane behaviour. For their efforts, they were sent to prison. Mr Makiguchi died there; Mr Toda was released after years of imprisonment. Their spirit and strength, even in the face of oppression, was the starting point of all Soka Gakkai activities for peace, culture and education.” – DI

• Visva Bharati University founded by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1901 takes as its motto ‘All the world living in a single nest’ because Tagore wanted to create a place where different ethnic groups and cultures could assemble. He invited scholars and intellectuals from all over the world to come to stimulate young minds. – DI

• Instead of existing in isolation from the ceaseless change of society, the bodhisattva plunges directly into society to establish a firm footing for vigorous social activity. This is the way of living Nichiren taught and demonstrated. – DI

 

Insightful Observations

• The intercultural contacts over the silk road - India being connected with Greece and Renaissance Italy through the Arab World;  Istanbul blending east and west; and the modern day melting pot that is the USA – all are examples of how promotion of attitudes of openness to the world is the best way to cultivate world citizens. – DI.

• “Both Mr Makiguchi and Mr Toda believed that religion without educational backing often becomes self-righteous, complacent, self-absorbed and isolated from society.” – DI

• “Religions bound up in their own dogmas close their minds. They are soon overcome by fanatics who reject the others’ worlds. They thus lose contact with the whole of humanity to such an extent that they become incapable of harmonizing, stabilizing, and improving society.” - NY

 

Words from the Heart

• “The first courageous step towards peace is accurate and unflinching verification of the inhuman acts of one’s own nation, be they invasion or war.” – DI

 

Incisive and Intriguing Opinions

• “I believe that, together with dialogue, education is the basis of world peace.” – DI

• “Two of the most unnecessary were the wars in Vietnam and Algeria. Since the arrival in the region of the Western powers, the countries of the Middle East have also had no respite. Many of these conflicts have been initiated in the name of national interests for the narrow personal gains of small coteries in control of state military apparatuses. Even President Eisenhower was aware of their power and cautioned against the dangers of the military-industrial complex.” – NY

 

Pearls of Wisdom

• “Contact with diverse cultural environments engenders great wisdom.” – DI

• “Education brings life to flower and illuminates the soul.” – DI

• “Religion enriches human nature and inspires passion for improvement.” – DI

• “Empathy born of these processes (education and religion) makes it impossible to overlook others’ unhappiness and generates the strength to save others.” – DI

• “When religion and education influence each other in the best sense, they stabilize society and guide it towards peace and happiness.” – DI

• “The best way for religions to make their teachings known, understood and accepted throughout the world is to avoid self-centred, arrogant fanaticism” – NY

• “We must try to evoke common human truths deep within traditional religions so that, in time, we can develop them into universal human wisdom.” – NY

• “The differences of opinion revealed in dialogue make possible new discoveries for both participants.” – DI

 

Knotty Issues

• “In the preparation of historical works, one can demonize enemies. On the other hand, an effective and intelligent handling of history can make past tragedies less negative and may lead to their reconsideration and re-evaluation.” – NY

 

Call to Action

• “Though their traditions differ, instead of dwelling on each other’s failings, religions ought to celebrate each other’s merits.” – NY

• “Your belief that anthropologists must open the minds of humanity to others impresses me deeply. All other fields of learning must adopt the same attitude.” – DI

• “Their (historians’) work must include the great suffering that, during the First World War, befell the Armenian people and the Turkish and Kurdish populations who had previously shared their lives and cultures in a neighbourly, generally affable, way.” – NY

Prose like Poetry

• “Arnold J. Toynbee warned, ‘A human being can be manipulated insofar as he can be dehumanized.’1 Bellicose education, the supreme example of his meaning, causes unhappiness and suffering and throws society into turmoil.” - DI

 

Matters of Perspective

• “Barren ideological conflicts and radical thought brought on many of the tragedies of the twentieth century… Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who helped bring the Cold War to a conclusion, said he wanted a thorough-going inquiry into history to be the core of the dialogue we were initiating at the time (10 years prior). This is why we called the book recording our dialogue Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century.” – DI

Leadership we need

• The Soka Gakkai wants “people to put their shared humanity ahead of religious affiliation – Buddhist, Muslim or Christian. When, as a result of dialogue, friendship emerges from awareness of our shared humanity, we will come to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses clearly and will want to learn from each other.” – DI