Pearl's Widow's Courageous and Inspiring Life Derived from her Embodiment of Buddhist Philosophy and Practice
(1) Pearl's widow champions Buddhist beliefs, inspires the faithful.
Mariane Pearl has been a model of fortitude and determination in numerous interviews since the Jan. 23 abduction of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Even after Pakistani investigators told her of the gruesome videotape confirming his death, she barely faltered.
''From this act of barbarism, terrorists expect all of us to bow our heads and retreat as victims forever by their ruthlessness,'' she said on CNN. ``What terrorists forget is that they may seize the life of an innocent man or the lives of many innocent people, as they did on Sept. 11, but they cannot claim the spirit of faith of individual human beings.''
Mariane Pearl, who is pregnant with her and Daniel's first child, has impressed millions of people around the world with her words and demeanor, none perhaps more so than her fellow Buddhists.
For the 12 million members of her sect, Soka Gakkai International, she has become a champion of Buddhist practices and beliefs, a quiet spokeswoman whose words of courage come directly from Buddhist philosophy.
''When I saw her on CNN [last month], I was stunned by her composure,'' said Nicoletta Nencoli, 40, Washington correspondent for Il Gazzettino, an Italian newspaper.
''She has been a great example of the religion and the practice of it,'' said Nencoli, who joined Soka Gakkai five years ago. ``She found a way to turn poison around us into medicine.''
''I'm incredibly proud of Mariane because of the inner strength she is developing, the character she shows,'' said Michael Aiken, 50, a member from Bowie, Md. Despite her painful loss, he said, Pearl embodies the Buddhist belief that whatever challenges and disappointments life brings, a person needs to transcend urges for retribution and focus on ``developing a culture of peace.''
Practitioners of Soka Gakkai, who call themselves ''socially engaged Buddhists,'' say their movement's philosophy has been evident in a half-dozen television interviews and other public statements Mariane Pearl has given.
''Overcoming negative forms of attachment to difference -- discrimination -- and bringing about a true flowering of human diversity is the key to generating a lasting culture of peace,'' Ikeda wrote two years ago in Peace Through Dialogue: A Time to Talk. ``Dialogue must be pivotal in our endeavors, reaching out to all people everywhere as we seek to forge a new global civilization.''
She said recently that her husband, 38, ''trusted individuals, not groups'' and had no interest in joining Soka Gakkai or any other religious organization.
If he needed spiritual input, he would look first to his background, Judaism, he once told her. But she said it made him happy that she found fulfillment in Buddhism, and he encouraged her chanting as a means of solving problems.
Chanting is one of the features that distinguishes Soka Gakkai from better-known traditions that emphasize meditation, such as Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. The repetitive chant is often directed toward victims of catastrophic events, such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In speaking about her ordeal, Pearl also has expressed the Buddhist philosophy that all life and all people are interrelated and that each person has responsibility for his or her actions, said Bill Aiken, national spokesman for Soka Gakkai, which has about 100,000 practitioners in the United States.
Of the effort to stamp out terrorism and evil, Pearl said this after learning of her husband's death: ``this responsibility rests with each one of us no matter our age, our gender, our nationality, our religion. No individual alone will be able to wage this battle.''
About 450 people attended a more publicized service at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Pearl began with assurance that her husband never gave in to the terrorists.
''From certain positioning of his hands from the photos sent to us . . . he tried to communicate as much as he could,'' she said. ``From these clues, he was communicating to us that he was not defeated. More than that, the profound feeling I got despite the anger and the pain was that Danny did not lose. . .
``I am convinced he did not submit to fear, and the best proof of that is that I am talking to you now. If that had not been the case, I would not have been able to survive that. So if he did not give up, I can't give up myself -- it would be betraying his courage.
``That's his own spirit, that's my spirit, and that's the support we got from all of you. I am absolutely convinced that even though he lost his life, he received each and every prayer that you sent him, and I did, too.''
This is from the Buddhist Fellowship website.
It is written by Bill Broadway, Washington Post Service, April 6, 2002.