Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy and Soka Gakkai’s Actions Against Nuclear Weapons: Reviving Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism
For over a half century, Soka Gakkai has been modernizing Buddhism as a religion relevant for contemporary human societies through a worldwide action promoting peace, culture, and education. This paper offers a tentative answer to the questions, “Can religions actually mobilize for nuclear disarmame...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
The journal of CESNUR
Year: 2022, Volume: 6, Issue: 5, Pages: 39-49 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | For over a half century, Soka Gakkai has been modernizing Buddhism as a religion relevant for contemporary human societies through a worldwide action promoting peace, culture, and education. This paper offers a tentative answer to the questions, “Can religions actually mobilize for nuclear disarmament?” and “How does religious activism actually influence nuclear weapon issues?” In political realism, nuclear weapon policies are national governments’ sole or exclusive prerogative. Non state actors do not have any power or decision-making authority. However, bilateral or multilateral political negotiations on nuclear weapon issues between governments have been historically deadlocked. As an actual example of a non-state actor playing a relevant role, this paper will introduce Daisaku Ikeda (President of Soka Gakkai International)’s private diplomacy with the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and Japan during the Cold War, based on the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism founded in the 13th-century Japan, and Soka Gakkai’s peace activities against nuclear weapons today, which continue Ikeda’s campaigns and refer to the same roots. |
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| ISSN: | 2532-2990 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of CESNUR
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.26338/tjoc.2022.6.5.3 |
