SEICHO-NO-IE SPECIAL CONFERENCE FOR WORLD PEACE HELD AT THE “OFFICE IN THE FOREST” UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF REV. MASANOBU TANIGUCHI AND MRS. JUNKO TANIGUCHI
STUDY OF “CITIES AND NATURE IN RELIGION”
ATTENDED BY 342 PEOPLE FROM NINE COUNTRIES
The 2013 Special Conference for World Peace at the “Office in the Forest” was held from July 16 to 17 under the guidance of Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, President of Seicho-No-Ie; and Mrs. Junko Taniguchi, President of White Dove Association. This was the first Special Conference for World Peace that had been held in Japan.
The theme of the Conference was “Cities and Nature in Religion.” Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi gave a closing lecture. Mrs. Junko Taniguchi also gave a lecture. In addition, five Ordained/Assistant Ministers made presentations along the Conference theme. The presentations were in Japanese and English. Simultaneous interpretation into English, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese was provided.
The Conference was attended by 342 people, including Ordained/Assistant Ministers from Japan and abroad, and overseas lecturers and officers. The breakdown of attendees by country was: 223 from Japan, 74 from Brazil, 23 from the U.S.A., 11 from the Republic of China, 5 from Canada, 2 from the Republic of Korea, 2 from Germany, 1 from Paraguay, and 1 from Switzerland.
The President of Seicho-No-Ie, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, gave a closing lecture for about an hour from 11:05 a.m. on July 17, the second day of the Conference.
Rev. Taniguchi stated that the objective of the Conference was to learn from the experiences of other world religions in the relationship between cities and nature. He talked about each religion’s history, while referring to the Ordained/Assistant Ministers’ presentations.
First, in Christianity, money and wealth drawn to the city were considered to be an obstacle to becoming “perfect,” and the idea that one should live in nature with God, having as few material things as possible led to monastic life. Rev. Taniguchi then introduced the ascetic “Rule of St. Benedict” of the oldest Catholic monastic society, Benedictine order
Rev. Taniguchi next introduced the fact that Islam’s Sufism (mysticism) adopted the system of monastic order from Christianity. He explained that in the backdrop of it was the sense of crisis that Islam was spreading in the city and was under the influence of materialism and pleasure-seeking culture.
The President emphasized that human beings have a weakness for material prosperity and pleasurable life but religious movements have a history of reflecting on their mental weakness and sticking to the will to restrict and reject those desires. He made a point that such efforts led to the birth of valuable cultures and thoughts. He introduced the economic, cultural and educational contributions which the Benedictine monasteries made.
On the other hand, economic wealth tends to find alliance with authority and the Church’s abuse of economic privilege through the “indulgences” in the Middle Ages led to the religious reformation by Martin Luther. The President noted that when religion becomes entangled with the state and political authority the problem becomes even more serious and in an extreme case, it can become cause for war.
Rev. Taniguchi stated that of all world religions there were almost no cases where Buddhism tied up with the state power and became direct party to war. As reasons for this, he cited Buddhist teachings of the concept of “emptiness” and the concept of “bodhisattva.”
“Emptiness” is the viewpoint that there is no true value in what exists in the phenomenal world, so that even contradictory value systems are not essentially different, thus allowing those of different religions and viewpoints to coexist. Also, “bodhisattva” is the one who puts the salvation of another before that of the self based on the sense of oneness with others. He stressed that Kanzeon Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Who Reflects the Sounds of the World) is the greatest bodhisattva and that the “emptiness” and “bodhisattva” are concepts that can contribute to world peace.
The President next introduced a chart carried in the August issue of Seicho-No-Ie magazine, which compares nature and cities. He stressed that “emptiness” and “bodhisattva” are both related to the right brain or symmetry and that since these characteristics exist in all human beings, anyone can understand “emptiness” and live the way of “bodhisattva.”
Rev. Taniguchi continued on and made clear that Seicho-No-Ie already teaches “emptiness” and “bodhisattva”: “emptiness” in the teaching, “matter is nonexistent” and “bodhisattva” in the teaching of Kanzeon Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Who Reflects the Sounds of the World). He urged the attendees to live by them in their daily lives as the important concepts of the Movement, just as “God of only goodness” and the “True Image” and disseminate them to many people.
The President next stressed that having balance between nature and city is important for humans to live a healthy life. He pointed out that religion, in its essence and also historically, handles the area of nature and made clear that the religious reformation of the 21st Century will begin in the forest.
In concluding his lecture, Rev. Taniguchi asked the attendees to bring back to their areas what they studied at the Special Conference and convey its content to others and work hard to promote the Movement to realize God’s will.
Mrs. Junko Taniguchi lectured for about 30 minutes from 4:00 p.m. on July 16.
She confessed that at first she was opposed to Seicho-No-Ie’s plan to move to the “forest,” believing that in the cities there are many people to whom we can propagate, but in the “forest” the situation is otherwise. She thought that even if we played a large role in protecting the earth’s environment, if the teachings did not spread, it would be mistaking the means for the end,
Mrs. Taniguchi stressed that although there may be people who still have not resolved their question on this matter, religion has a role to play in developing and proposing a new viewpoint and way of life to meet the needs of the time. She then cited five reasons why the Seicho-No-Ie International Headquarters must move from the city into nature.
As the first reason, Mrs. Taniguchi pointed out that in the city we cannot understand nature in its true state. Parks and so forth are built to offer only what is convenient for human beings. She said that we need to understand and share nature in its true state that includes the good and the bad.
As the second reason, Mrs. Taniguchi said that in the city it is difficult to escape anthropocentricism. After the Industrial Revolution humanity built cities by destroying nature with wrong anthropocentricism and half the world’s population has come to live in cities. Because of this, contact with nature has become minimal and we have forgotten nature’s benefits.
The third reason which Mrs. Taniguchi cited was that in the city waste and excessive consumption cannot be avoided. She expressed concern that since the city is filled with advertisements with allure for physical desires, the human society will likely move forward toward satisfying physical desires and the destruction of nature will aggravate.
The fourth reason Mrs. Taniguchi cited was that the city life is contradictory to the aim of religion. So long as we live in the city, it is difficult to practice the way of life that does not take from but give to others and that we cannot but be programmed into the trend that is centered on human beings. She then introduced an actual example of a Buddhist monk in the Edo Period, Ryokan, as a person of faith who did not become influenced by physical desires. Ryokan lived in a hut in the mountain, daily went around asking for alms or playing with children of the village, and lived an austere, modest and spiritually rich faith life.
Mrs. Taniguchi said that the fifth reason is that in the city it is impossible to live a new way of life. The city life is centered on physical desires and priority on efficiency, leading to the belief that material wealth brings human happiness. Mrs. Taniguchi emphasized that by developing a way of life in the “forest” that can replace the city life and disseminating it, we can bring a change to the city life.
In concluding her lecture, Mrs. Taniguchi urged the attendees that they practice the three important religious practices and live the Sundial Way of Life and the teachings in their daily lives with strong will, so that together they become the practitioners in building a new civilization.