The following is a summary of Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada’s speech at the Third Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting Toward Our Centennial, held at the Tokyo Toda Memorial Auditorium in Sugamo, Tokyo, June 29, 2024. It was translated from the July 6, 2024, issue of the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper, Seikyo Shimbun.
Many congratulations on this Third Headquarters Leaders Meeting, Nationwide Youth Division Leaders Meeting, Ikeda Kayo-kai General Meeting and Student Division General Meeting, brimming with fresh energy for the construction of our youthful Soka Gakkai worldwide. In addition, 260 leaders of the new era from 60 countries and territories are here in Japan to participate in the SGI Youth Training Course. I would like to warmly welcome you all and express my appreciation to you for traveling such long distances to be here.
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In May, I had a private meeting with Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church. We spoke for about 30 minutes, during which I outlined to him the Soka Gakkai’s initiatives over the last half-century to eliminate nuclear weapons. In response, the pontiff voiced his strong opposition to nuclear weapons and commended the Soka Gakkai’s efforts.
When I told him about our peace movement based on the spirit embodied in the opening words of The Human Revolution, “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel,” the pope affirmed the importance of that message and expressed his strong assent. I believe our firm agreement when it came to our commitment to peace is of great historic significance.
Ikeda Sensei was in fact scheduled to visit the Vatican and meet with Pope Paul VI in 1975. From eight years prior to the planned meeting, Sensei, who had long believed in interfaith dialogue for world peace, had been in ongoing discussions with the Vatican Ambassador to Japan and papal representatives. They suggested a meeting with the pope, and eventually a formal invitation was extended to Sensei.
Just before his departure for that meeting, however, he was forced to cancel due to interference from the narrowminded and dogmatic Nichiren Shoshu priesthood.
Reflecting on the situation in The New Human Revolution, Sensei deeply regretted having to cancel the meeting in spite of its potential significance for world peace.
As one of the staff who had been involved in preparations for the meeting and as the person who was sent to explain the reason for the sudden cancellation to the Cardinalate, I can’t help but feel deep emotion at finally, some 50 years later, realizing Sensei’s desire to take this step for peace.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude for the efforts of our members who made this meeting possible—in Italy, in the pope’s homeland of Argentina and in every country and society around the world where they have earned the trust of others as good citizens.
We are proudly ringing the second series of Seven Bells,[1] in which Sensei envisaged we would establish the foundation for world peace, and we are determined to make his vision a reality without fail.
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In an essay [in 2001], Sensei wrote: “Human revolution is meeting with people. Kosen-rufu is talking with people.”
It is true indeed that “the seeds of Buddhahood sprout through causation” (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, p. 75). Exerting ourselves joyously throughout our respective nations, let’s meet with and speak to even one more person and make this a summer where each of us advances in our efforts toward our own human revolution and kosen-rufu.
In the days of his youth, Sensei dedicated himself to meeting, encouraging and training as many members as he could in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward. He once said to the members there: “There are those who have never spoken with me or met me who are wholeheartedly supporting the Soka Gakkai and striving their hardest. As far as I’m concerned, they have genuine faith.”
This is the essence of the mentor-and-disciple relationship and the key to building a youthful Soka Gakkai worldwide. It is also in tune with Sensei’s message at the third entrance ceremony at Soka University [in 1973], where he declared: “From here on, education will be my central work and preoccupation. I am determined to build the foundation for 30 years after my death.”
By the time the second series of Seven Bells reaches completion in 2050 and the third series of Seven Bells begins—with the aim of establishing the philosophy of respect for the dignity of life as the spirit of the age and the world—some 30 years will have elapsed since Sensei’s death.
Our ability to nurture individuals with genuine faith today, even though they never met with Sensei personally, will determine whether great numbers of capable people will emerge at that time, dancing joyfully on the true stage of worldwide kosen-rufu.
Genuine faith can be polished only by genuine faith. Taking Sensei’s determination as our vow, let us raise our precious future division and youth members into champions of kosen-rufu directly linked to Sensei, as we resolutely open the way to a century of peace.
August 2, 2024, World Tribune, p. 10
References
- Seven Bells: The first series of Seven Bells are seven consecutive seven-year periods in the Soka Gakkai’s development from its founding in 1930 through 1979. On May 3, 1966, Ikeda Sensei spoke of a new series of Seven Bells that he envisaged unfolding in the 21st century. He later extended this to comprise a total of seven series of Seven Bells to the middle of the 23rd century. ↩︎
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