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How SGI organizations and affiliated institutions are contributing to society

Strengthening the Web: SGI's Approach to Environmental Engagement

In 1995, the SGI adopted a Charter that serves as a standard for the future development of its member organizations. This places the locus of the SGI's activities firmly in the actual problems of the real world. It opens with a sobering assessment of the impact of human attitudes and actions on our planet:

"Humanity's egoism and intemperance have engendered global problems, including degradation of the natural environment and widening economic chasms between developed and developing nations, with serious repercussions for humankind's collective future."

Sauim-de-coleira monkeys are the focus of preservation efforts at the Amazon Ecological Research Center

It goes on to state that: "We believe that Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism, a humanistic philosophy of infinite respect for the sanctity of life and all-encompassing compassion, enables individuals to cultivate and bring forth their inherent wisdom and, nurturing the creativity of the human spirit, to surmount the difficulties and crises facing humankind and realize a society of peaceful and prosperous co-existence."

One could describe three levels on which SGI members seek to contribute to improving this situation based on their Buddhist practice and involvement in SGI activities: the philosophical, personal and organizational levels.

Interdependence

On the philosophical level, Buddhism echoes and extends the awareness that "All things are connected." A wish to acknowledge and strengthen links and connections--between body and spirit, self and environment, self and others--is central to the Buddhism of Nichiren. Key concepts include esho funi (oneness of self and environment), shikishin funi (oneness of body and mind) and perhaps the foundational principle of Buddhism, engi or dependent origination. Everything exists in relation to everything else. This interdependence is visible in the web of nature, relationships between the individual and society, parents and children and so on.

Schoolchildren enjoying a game about interconnection linked to a showing of the "Seeds of Change" exhibition in Italy

Buddhist or not, when we are conscious of and appreciate our interrelationships, and how our lives are supported by the sun, trees, water, the air and the actions of other people in distant countries and close at home, we develop gratitude, compassion and a sense of our responsibility to lead contributive lives in return.

Consciousness of this interdependence was a key element in the educational philosophy of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the founder of the Soka Gakkai in 1930. He envisaged that pupils should spend half the day outside of the confines of the school engaged in learning or helping with the various activities of the local community. At the Soka schools today, school gardens are an important feature, and activities are undertaken to foster appreciation for the environment and community. At the Kansai Soka high schools in Japan, for example, pupils and teachers have created habitats suitable for fireflies and reintroduced the fragile insects to local ecosystems after many years of work.

Personal Empowerment

A second level on which SGI members strive to improve the state of the world is the personal. Many individual SGI members around the world have developed initiatives related to sustainable living and environmental protection in their community or workplace. The term "human revolution" is used in SGI to describe a positive change in the character of even a single individual, which can have an influence on that person's community and, ultimately, on the whole world. This outlook displays an ultimate optimism in that even one committed and inspired person can spark a global process of change.

Kansai Soka High School students releasing firefly larvae into a stream on the school grounds

This message is expressed in two key resources the SGI has created to raise awareness about sustainable development: the documentary film "A Quiet Revolution," produced by the Earth Council, and the exhibition "Seeds of Change: The Earth Charter and Human Potential" created by the SGI in partnership with the Earth Charter Initiative.

Viewers typically come away feeling empowered and inspired by the possibilities of change, rather than depressed by the scale of the crisis facing the Earth. As Wangari Maathai states in the film, "Sometimes I tell myself, I may only be planting a tree here, but just imagine what's happening if there are billions of people out there doing something . . . just imagine the power of what we can do."

Organizational Initiatives

A third level of activity is joint effort by local- or national-level SGI organizations. With regard to the natural environment, SGI organizations around the world undertake efforts such as "clean-up" activities or regular tree-planting programs that reflect the commitment in the SGI Charter that "SGI shall promote, based on the Buddhist ideal of symbiosis, the protection of nature and the environment."

The Amazon Ecological Research Center

Since 1992, when the Rio Earth Summit was held in Brazil, SGI members there have been particularly active in this regard. The Brazil SGI Amazon Ecological Research Center situated near Manaus, in the middle reaches of the Amazon River, was established following the Summit. Its activities include reforestation, environmental education, contributions to the protection of endangered animal species, and establishing a seed bank to collect and preserve the seeds of Amazonian trees.

Since 1997, SGI organizations in over 20 countries have also been active in promoting the Earth Charter as a set of common values which can help lay the foundations for sustainable living. In Canada, the Vancouver SGI Youth Earth Charter Committee was awarded by the mayor for its contribution to local environment protection, and in Taiwan, SGI groups showed the "Seeds of Change" exhibition in over 100 locations as one of the first community activities following the SARS epidemic. In Italy, innovative "Earth Charter Youth Forums" have encouraged young people to articulate the issues that concern them, from racism to violence in their communities, and to speak out for change.

SGI-Australia members involved in the annual tree-planting event at the Piney Lake Reserve in Perth

Also in preparation for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Soka Gakkai representatives in Japan put forward the proposal for a UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development to an NGO forum gathering ideas for the Summit. The idea was taken up by the Japanese government and proposed at the Summit, before being approved by the UN General Assembly in December of that year, and the decade itself began in 2005. In his proposal for the decade, SGI President Ikeda writes, "Nothing is more crucially important today than the kind of humanistic education that enables people to sense the reality of interconnectedness, to appreciate the infinite potential in each person's life and to cultivate that dormant human potential to the fullest."

On many levels, while working to protect the local environment and build harmonious human relationships, SGI members around the world are striving to live in ways that create the maximum value while consciously treasuring the resources of this planet.

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