Personal safety cannot be built through isolation. In order for each of us to live a safe life, the natural environment and society we inhabit have to be in peace and stability. According to Buddhist teachings, we should overcome our selfishness and stop building our happiness on the unhappiness of others or on our indifference towards the surrounding environment. Buddhism promotes an approach whereby we strive for both our own well-being and that of others in the same way. In short, the social reform must be supported and promoted by the individual self-reformation which Buddhism calls human revolution.
“Life is the most precious of all treasures. Even one extra day of life is worth more than ten million ryō of gold.”
(WND, 1, 955)
The universal principle of respect for the dignity of life — the cornerstone of the human rights and safety ideals — can become a significant and strong basis to build a global society of peace and harmonious coexistence only if individuals all over the world experience it clearly and concretely as their life style. Based on this, the Soka Gakkai promotes a global movement contributing to building world peace, supporting its development and protecting humanity from hunger, poverty and illness. This also entails embracing the goals and founding principles of the United Nations as the organization that that encourages a dialogue on equal terms among the nations.
The word soka (“value creation”) is in itself a statement of the mission embraced by the Soka Gakkai to contribute to society. Every year since 1983, Soka Gakkai International president Daisaku Ikeda presents a Peace proposal to the UN exploring the interrelation between Buddhist principles and the various challenges that the global society has to tackle in order to achieve peace and safety.
In our constant effort to build peace, we particularly focus our attention on culture and education as concrete and fundamental tools to achieve it.
