President Ikeda writes the following poem --excerpted from World Tribune express for July 20:
I'm really fine with this entire poem until he starts talking about vengeance. There is something barbaric about the seeking of revenge. It resonates with the worst in my Gaellic and Northmen ancestry. But of course I don't think that President Ikeda was talking about going out and cutting any evil Daimyo's throat. Revenge may be a meal best served cold, but it is also a destructive and negative thing unless one understands three things:
- In a new poem for youth titled
"O the Joyous Dance of Youth,"
SGI President Ikeda writes:
My young friends, You possess The sword known as conviction, The sword known as truth, The sword known as faith!
Those who seek To sunder your unity Will suffer the accursed fate Of ultimate and inevitable ruin, Targets of the anger Of Buddhas and heavenly deities Throughout the universe.
Have firm conviction! Fight with confident voice! The profound law governing our lives Is always overflowing with energy, Like pure spring water Bubbling forth unceasingly. At all times, With an unflagging life-force Like the immortal phoenix, You are fully prepared To take on any battle On behalf of good-hearted, honest people. Do not forget to avenge The insults of those past persecutions! Strive fearlessly Until you have dispersed Those antagonistic forces, Those insane slanderers, Who in those bitter days Besieged A champion of truth and justice! For through that struggle, Your lives will be adorned With a brilliant crown That will sparkle and shine In both life and death Throughout the three existences.
This poem upset some of my friends, because it pushes buttons. It worries me because I know that some Japanese take these things way too literally. When the "Ogasawara affair" occured. It is told that Toda sent 47 youth division (modeled after the 47 ronin) to exact "revenge" on the late Reverend Ogasawara for his nationalistic and selfish activities prior to and during World War II. Some believe that the split with NST was an act of revenge for the public humiliation inflicted on President Ikeda in 1979. Revenge is a poor motive for a doctrinal dispute or for people to leave an organization. To seek revenge (or have the kind of grievience required to want to do so) on people who are chanting the Daimoku and embracing the Lotus Sutra is really to commit the 14 slanders. I hope that people will think about President Ikeda's poem and not misunderstand this passage. It is not a broadminded one. I'm afraid that this call for vengeance may be taken literally by some people. That would be very bad for the cause of True Buddhism. I wish he would stop telling youth to avenge misdeeds, that can be misinterpreted by someone unstable.