Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel. And yet, the war dragged on. Nothing is more pitiful than a nation being swept along by fools.
-Daisaku Ikeda, The Human Revolution

Wars are usually waged in the name of peace, for the sake of a nation. Our faith in force as an ultimate guarantor of peace has been robust since the ancient past, and in this cult of force, we keep going back to the fabled grandeur of Rome as a model of peaceful society achieved through the absolute superiority of military power. This vision of peace by force is called pax Romana, or Roman peace. The material foundation of pax Romana was a formidable institution of armed forces, and its spiritual mainstay the Roman virtue of pietas, that is, the citizens' selfless dedication to gods and the state. In the recent history of our nation, this vision of peace is also known as pax Americana.

The first Roman emperor Augustus brought peace and prosperity chiefly through the overwhelming strength of his army against "barbarians" such as the Celtic and Germanic peoples, whom the Romans thought of as moral and cultural inferiors, living both within and outside Rome's conquered territories. The popularity of Augustus's newly established imperial government was strong, as one historian wrote that he "conciliated... the world by the amenities of peace" (Tacitus: The Histories and the Annals, vol. 3, John Jackson, trans., p. 245). Virgil sang of Rome's divine mission to rule the world: "Roman, remember by your strength to rule / Earth's peoples-for your arts are to be these: / To pacify, to impose the rule of law, / To spare the conquered, battle down the proud" (The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans., p. 190). Pax Romana, however, did not last long, nor were Rome's boundaries forever expansive. The empire gradually experienced more revolts in its provinces and invasions on its frontiers.

As deeply as faith in force has been rooted in our minds, force has consistently betrayed our expectation to create substantial peace. Although many emperors and kings, presidents and premiers, promised the sweetness of peace through the bitterness of war, they have not yet succeeded in the alchemy of transmuting fire and sword into the dove with an olive branch. This failure may be seen most recently in the rapid transitions from World War II into the Cold War, and from the Cold War into the global war on terrorism. While the technology of destruction has improved from rocks to rockets, from manpower to nuclear, the prospect of peace remains obscure, and the dividend of peace, however illusive and short-lived, has never been shared beyond the privileged citizens of powerful nations. History only makes us wonder what new war will follow the end of the never-ending war on terrorism. After the long failure of force in achieving peace, it may be about time to question our faith in force and think about an alternative vision of peace.

"Reform the Tenets That You Hold in Your Heart"

Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.
-Daisaku Ikeda, The New Human Revolution

In his treatise "On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land," Nichiren Daishonin offers a "Plan B" for peace worth our serious consideration. Toward the end of this treatise, which takes the form of a dialogue between the host and his guest about how to create peace in a violent society, Nichiren writes in the voice of the host addressing his guest: "Therefore, you must quickly reform the tenets that you hold in your heart and embrace the one true vehicle, the single good doctrine [of the Lotus Sutra]. If you do so, then the threefold world will become the Buddha land, and how could a Buddha land ever decline?" (WND, 25).

Here "the single good doctrine of the Lotus Sutra" refers to the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which is the universality of Buddhahood. This is the idea that all people - regardless of whatever differences they may have - share the supreme potential of Buddhahood, which is the source of universal virtues such as compassion and wisdom, hope and courage. In the treatise, Nichiren suggests that global peace comes about only when people awaken to their shared goodness.

Put simply, genuine peace is achieved essentially through individual inner transformation, not through change in government. This is a vision of peace radically different from our accustomed thinking. It is peace forged by faith in humanity, not faith in force; it is peace created by the awakened power of the powerless, not by the sanction and authority of government. This alternative for peace may well be called pax humana, or human peace.

In this regard, it is important to note that Nichiren's blueprint for peace is not based on religious sectarianism. As he later wrote, "I, Nichiren, am not the founder of any school, nor am I a latter-day follower of any older school" (WND, 669). For Nichiren, the universality of Buddhahood taught in the Lotus Sutra was the essential truth of life; it is the foundation upon which to build a global ethics that embraces the diversity of religion and race.

Also important to note is that Nichiren saw people at the center of nation-state, as indicated in his treatise, in which he often used the unusual Chinese character for nation by substituting one component signifying "king" with another signifying "people." Nichiren also addressed Hei no Saemon, one of the most powerful government officials in his day, as "the arms and legs of all people" (GZ, 171). Central to Nichiren's vision of peace are individuals awakening to their shared goodness beyond the boundaries of religion and nation.

The Mind Without Borders

On February 17, 1952, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda addressed the youth after hearing their study presentations on Buddhism: "If I may express my own philosophy, mine is absolutely neither Communism nor Americanism; it is of the oriental race, and ultimately of the global race" (Toda Josei Zenshu [Collected Works of Josei Toda], vol. 3, p. 460). Amid the escalation of the Cold War and the deepening divisiveness in Asia, Toda reminded youth of the importance of transcending national boundaries first in their own hearts. Toda's idea of "the global race" points to the individual awakening of a shared humanity beyond race or nation, as envisioned by Nichiren.

Spreading its network of destruction from an Afghan cave to an Indonesian nightclub, terrorism is one of the global problems without borders, and as such it requires a mindset unrestricted by national boundaries. To transform our self-awareness into that of one global race, therefore, is crucial for the creation of international peace. Two obstacles stand in the way of creating a global race: nationalism and fundamentalism. They are the malignant outgrowths of what are ordinary human experiences: patriotism and faith. Patriotism turns into nationalism when it asserts cohesiveness through hatred of other peoples and draws fuel from a false sense of superiority. Faith turns into fundamentalism when dogmas take precedence over human happiness and the authority of priesthood mocks the prayer of the desperate. When nationalism and fundamentalism merge, the Orwellian nightmare becomes our daily reality: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength" (George Orwell, 1984, p. 3).

	How can we utilize the practice of Nichiren Buddhism and SGI activities to achieve President Toda's vision for the "global race" in our daily lives, which often seem so removed from the rest of the world?
	Faith in force is based on fear, and fear stems from a sense of powerlessness. What can we, as practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism, do to overcome irrational faith in force as an ultimate guarantor of peace?
	No religion is immune to fundamentalism. From your own experiences, which humanistic aspect of Nichiren Buddhism is most effective to prevent a fundamentalist distortion of Buddhism?

The spirit of Nichiren Buddhism, in one sense, is to struggle against those two roadblocks to peace through the power of prayer and dialogue. In his treatise on peace, Nichiren writes, "If you care anything about your personal security, you should first of all pray for order and tranquility throughout the four quarters of the land, should you not?" (WND, 24). And he concludes the treatise with the voice of the guest awakened to a new vision of peace, "We must see to it that others as well are warned of their errors" (WND, 26).

It may seem that peace through individual change is too indirect and time-consuming to be effective in reality. But once we as ordinary human beings renounce our faith in force and start acting on this alternative vision of peace through prayer and dialogue, we may be surprised by the power of exponential expansion-as Nichiren wrote that "two, three" awakened individuals are thereupon to be followed by "a hundred" (WND, 385). As long as we continue to pray for and talk about the new vision of peace, the time will come sooner than we think when the heads of state must decide whether they listen to the voices of the new global race or become irrelevant to the course of human history.