This series highlights how Buddhism can enhance daily living. As Nichiren Daishonin says: “When the skies are clear, the ground is illuminated. Similarly, when one knows the Lotus Sutra, one understands the meaning of all worldly affairs.”[1]
In a 1999 experiment, participants viewed a video where two small teams, one dressed in white and the other in black, passed basketballs back and forth. Viewers counted how many times the players in white passed the ball. Most viewers got it right. However, only about half accurately reported seeing a figure in a gorilla suit enter the scene, stop, face the camera, pound its chest and move on.
This was one of several experiments intended to demonstrate that people can easily ignore or miss things when focused on a particular point. This tendency, called “selective attention” or “attention bias,” occurs when we focus on the attributes of others that are different from ourselves, ignoring things we have in common.
People tend initially to see differences as unfavorable, which can create a cycle of “confirmation bias.” That is, once we form an impression or opinion, we tend to accept information that seems to confirm that view and ignore or dismiss information that challenges it.
Such biases stoke ongoing prejudice, limiting the information people are willing to consider to engage constructively with others. It also invites judgments against oneself, creating an escalating cycle of confirming mutual suspicions that can culminate in violence or war.
Steps Toward Reducing Prejudice
In an article introducing strategies for reducing prejudice, psychologist Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton suggests traveling abroad and learning about unfamiliar cultures where you are the one who is “different.”
And among the many practical solutions to prejudice introduced in books and studies, one stands out as universal. Gordon W. Allport is a renowned psychologist whose 1954 book The Nature of Prejudice is a basis for research on the topic even today. He suggests that open dialogue and empathy can effectively address prejudice often rooted in fear and misunderstanding, and that positive interactions between diverse groups can reduce hostility.
Mendoza-Denton supports this point, writing: “If you looked and looked at all of the solutions proposed by scientists over the years to combat prejudice and racism, you’d be hard pressed to find a more effective antidote than intergroup friendship.”[2]
In his lectures on Nichiren Daishonin’s “The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life,” Ikeda Sensei addresses Nichiren’s passage about “transcending all differences among themselves to become as inseparable as fish and the water in which they swim” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 217).
“Transcending all differences,” Sensei says, means overcoming “feelings of antagonism, discrimination and selfishness that arise from the tendency to see self and others, or diverse phenomena or events, as separate and disconnected—a tendency that obstructs empathy and understanding.”
The phrase “inseparable as fish and the water in which they swim,” he says, “implies a spirit of mutual respect, understanding, support and caring regardless of superficial differences in circumstances or position.”[3]
Sometimes, avoiding direct interaction may seem easier than trying to work with those we find challenging. But Sensei warns:
That trend deprives us of the opportunity to make the most of our differing personalities, to praise and support one another and to cultivate our tolerance and understanding. As a result, we may end up being unable to appreciate the pain and suffering of others, control our own anger or patch up even small differences and misunderstandings. …
The important thing, when all is said and done, is to apply ourselves to our human revolution and continue practicing with steady faith that is like flowing water. The Soka Gakkai is our training ground in this effort.[4]
Sensei dedicated himself to gaining trust and building friendships through tenacious and respectful dialogue. By praying and learning deeply about his dialogue partners’ great qualities, background and culture, he created a worldwide network of trust.
From the Buddhist perspective, prejudice fundamentally arises from “illusions of thought and desire,” one of the three illusions.[5] While “illusion” usually means seeing something that’s not there, it can also mean failing to see something that is, like a gorilla on a basketball court or, more importantly, the Buddha nature in those around us.
By focusing not on our differences but on what we all have in common at the deepest level—our genuine humanity, our Buddhahood—we offer models of respect and harmony for our world.
—Prepared by the SGI-USA Study Department
October 18, 2024, World Tribune, p. 10
References
- “The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 376. ↩︎
- https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/top_10_strategies_for_reducing_prejudice <accessed Oct. 10, 2024>. ↩︎
- See November 2024 Living Buddhism, pp. 46–47. ↩︎
- The Teachings for Victory, vol. 5, pp. 61–62. ↩︎
- Three illusions, or three categories of illusions: A classification of illusions, established by T’ien-t’ai: 1) illusions of thought and desire (namely, deluded thoughts and beliefs, and distorted perceptions and emotions); 2) illusions innumerable as particles of dust and sand (namely, myriad kinds of delusions that hinder bodhisattvas from teaching and guiding people); and 3) illusions about the true nature of existence (namely, fundamental ignorance that is unaware of the ultimate truth of Buddhism). ↩︎
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