With war looming in Iraq, the possibility of a nuclear confrontation with North Korea later this year, and the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks, it would seem that the world is in grave danger from escalating fear and violence. It makes you wonder what kind of thought processes are going on in the halls of power in Pyongyang, Baghdad, and Washington. From an historical perspective, however, our present times are just another era of conflict on Planet Earth.
Some argue that the current problem is imperialism, or despotism, or greed for oil or power. Others believe that crackpot leaders or terrorists or religious fundamentalists are to blame. Pick your enemy: Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, Kim Jong Il, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, the current Grand Ayatollah of Iran.
My most important adversary is the one I see each day in the mirror. He’s a stubborn s.o.b. My other antagonists tend to come and go in rapid succession – rude drivers, a supervisor at work, the person ahead of me in the checkout line, a neighbor with a noisy motorbike, and yes, various political and religious personalities.
I’m both disappointed with and amused by my tendency to get riled so quickly. My ego and its shadow are alive and well, and resist all efforts to be subdued. I try to reason with them, and pray for their enlightenment, and just when I think I’ve made some real progress, my impatience and irritability show up with a vengeance, and I’m humbled once more. But at least I’ve learned that the source of my problems and fears is within me. That lesson did not come easily.
In 1972 I was a senior leader in the NSA (Nichiren Shoshu of America) Young Men’s Division, and as a passionate 20 year old, I was a rising star in “America’s Proud Gakkai” (the title of a song we sang at the time). I was selected to be part of an elite group of San Francisco YMD leaders who traveled down to Los Angeles as an advance group to prepare for the NSA convention in that city.
Our group of 15 was known as the Red Jackets, because our red nylon windbreakers distinguished us from the regular Blue Coats, who, like us, wore white pants and white shirts, but who wore blue windbreakers, instead of red. We were all known as TCD (Traffic Control Division, a branch of the YMD), but in addition to our crowd control and traffic control and regular security duties, the Red Jackets had a special mission: to be alert for potential assassins of the Soka Gakkai President, and to be wary of Japanese or American “emperors” (arrogant leaders) who might act in ways contrary to the wishes of the NSA General Director. There were unnamed enemies of the General Director, and we Red Jackets were to follow orders only from two leaders known to be loyal to him.
While the Red Jackets outranked the Blue Coats and the Yellow Bands (Blue Coats from San Francisco with yellow cloth bands around their arms, to show they outranked regular Blue Coats), we were outranked by the TK (Tokubetsu Keibi, or Special Guards) and the STK (Special TK, or Special Special Guards), who, it was said, carried guns for the protection of the Soka Gakkai President. I didn’t see any guns at the Los Angeles Convention, but I saw them at later events. The Japanese and American TK and STK wore business suits or convention uniforms, and they were the Buddhist equivalent of the U.S. Secret Service. I later became one of them, though I never carried a gun.
There were circles and circles of protection around our great leaders. Rank determined access to the inner circle of the President and the General Director, and rank determined social status in America’s proud Gakkai. We all thought our little faction or group was right, and that our rivals were obstacles to our leaders’ vision of world peace.
At the Los Angeles Convention, our Red Jacket instructions were vague, the tension was great, and there were ugly confrontations. Paranoia and conflict have long been hallmarks of the Soka Gakkai. I learned something in those days about the current bunker mentality in the halls of power in Washington, Baghdad, and Pyongyang. Guns equal security and peace. Our peace is better than your peace.
In 1973, as a veteran of that and other bitter Gakkai political battles, I attended the Sho Hondo Convention at Taisekeji temple in Japan, where once again I was chosen to be one of 15 YMD (from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington) to have dinner with the Soka Gakkai President and the NSA General Director. After dinner and gongyo, we eagerly awaited the President’s guidance. Would he talk about his vision for world peace? Perhaps he would give us special instructions about how to attain enlightenment. I was excited to sit at the feet of the master of my daily life and hear his words of wisdom.
He explained to our little gathering of disciples, which he named the Aoki Group, that Nichiren Shoshu priests are cowards and good for nothing except performing useless rituals, and that we should never follow them. He informed us that the only good High Priests were the first three (Nichiren, Nikko, Nichimoku), and that the rest were no good because they would run away if the Head Temple were persecuted. Only the Soka Gakkai would protect the Head Temple. And so on.
For several years more, I was caught up in the good guys vs. bad guys feuds within the Soka Gakkai, until I gradually realized that such hateful rhetoric and behavior did not make me feel good, let alone lead to enlightenment and joy.
The Lotus Sutra, from which we pray each day, contains a chapter which speaks to the issue of evildoers, from a perspective quite different from that of Soka Gakkai leaders. Chapter 12 is devoted primarily to Devadatta, a cousin of Sakyamuni who was jealous of the Buddha and tried to kill him. One of the messages of this chapter is that all things and all beings are means to enlightenment, so rather than hating our enemies, we should feel grateful to them, because they serve as catalysts for our awakening. Our enemies are our friends.
Easier said than done, but still, a beautiful message. And a message evidently lost on Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu leaders, not to mention, at times, yours truly.
What I try to do (with mixed results) in my prayers and as I go about my day is to send loving thoughts to those whose behavior frightens or angers me. World leaders or terrorists usually top the list, but other drivers are a close second. I remind myself that each person is a friend and a buddha, even if they are playing the role of adversary, and that in the end, when our lives are over, we will return to the Oneness which is our Source, where we will laugh together at the striving and posturing of our physical incarnations.
There is a wonderful series of books called Conversations With God, by Neale Donald Walsch, in which the author has dialogues with God. (My guess is that the author is speaking with a level of God within himself, sometimes known as the oversoul or entity). God tells him that “Hitler went to heaven. When you understand this, you will understand God.” In other words, the universe is not vengeful, and people are not punished for their mistakes. “Evil” people, whether Hitler, Devadatta, Osama Bin Laden, you, or me, are buddhas, and even if we incur karma as a result of our actions, ultimately we all will return to the Source of our original enlightenment – our Oneness with each other and with All That Is. “They” are We, and We are the One Buddha Consciousness, and in the grand scheme of things, all is well.
In the meantime, how do we deal with tyrants and terrorists? Do we ignore them, contain them, overthrow them? Is being anti-war the same as peace, or is it a war against war, or a form of appeasement and a denial of real threats? Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Britain and France allowed Germany to violate its previous agreements on arms limitations, and Britain and France were so eager to avoid war that they allowed Germany to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia. But Hitler interpreted their desire for peace as weakness, and it encouraged him to grab for more. Which strategy is most likely to avoid war – appeasement? Preemptive attacks? Ongoing inspections? Peace marches?
Each one of us must go within to find the inner wisdom for our appropriate response to these dangers. We all want peace, but the question is, what is the best course of action, or of being, to achieve that goal?
Our deluded personalities cling to our illusion of separateness and to our need for tribal affiliation. We may call ourselves Buddhists, or Americans, or women, or some other transient label, and we may see others as our implacable foes. And maybe for the time being they are our implacable foes. But I gave away my red jacket to the Goodwill store a long time ago. My dharma combat days are over. The terrorists, the leaders of Iraq, North Korea, the United States, the Soka Gakkai, and Nichiren Shoshu, are all my friends. I pray for their awakening and for mine, and whatever may happen in the coming months and years, I rejoice in the words of a gospel song: “Just as long as I live in this world, I am the light of this world.”
© 2003
David Wigginton 