On various lists people have posted links to articles about the
Rissho Ankoku Ron (Treatise on Spreading Peace Throughout the Country
bey Establishing the True Dharma) by Nichiren in reference to the
Katrina disaster in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast. The idea being
that in 13th century Japan, Nichiren submitted this treatise to the
government insisting that various natural and man-made disasters would
continue to befall Japan unless the Japanese people stopped slandering
and neglecting the True Dharma.
Nichiren, however, conversant with weather patterns, plate tectonics,
and other scientific means of understanding the causes and conditions
that bring about natural disasters. Like the Hebrew prophets he
believed that divine powers directly brought about such disasters to
punish people for their sins. Though in the case of monotheists, it is
God who does this Himself (sic) by directing human politics or natural
events - thus the "Act of God." Nichiren, however, believed that it
was a matter of cause and effect, though set into motion by good
deities and bodhisattvas abandoning the country that neglects the
truth and allowing evil demons to come in and take advantage.
Obviously we are not pre-scientific people, nor is our society
Buddhists. I personally do not believe there are literal thunder gods
or demons who create storms because not enough people are chanting
Odaimoku. Anyone who would say such a thing should be put in a
straight jacket and locked into a rubber room with other
fudnamentalists. However, I do believe that behind the pre-scientific
rhetoric of Rissho Ankoku Ron is a valid point - that the values our
society holds and acts upon collectively will contribute to the causes
and conditions that we as a people face for our good or ill. My Rissho
Ankoku Ron commentary investigates this point in depth and may be
found here:
http://nichirenscoffeehouse.net/Ryuei/RAR.html
But now that Katrina has devesated our Gulf Coast and the city of New
Orleans has been inundated and looting and social unrest have broken
out and the economy of that region and are country as a whole stands
to have been equally devestated (which will have long term tragic
effects) I can't help but wonder what are the causes and condtions
behind this? Buddhism does NOT teach that human beings are not
accountable for their actions. Buddhist DOES teach that we must
recognize our role in creating the causes and conditions that
determine not only the nature of our lives, but our society, and the
environment in which we live. This is the basic premis of the teaching
of ichinen sanzen (the three thousand realms in a single moment) that
we as Nichiren Buddhists supposedly put so much stock in. To say that
human values and decisions have no impact, that we are totally
powerless to avert or ameliorate disasters, or that we are not linked
in to our environment is non-Buddhist thinking in my view.
We discussed these things at length last night at the Mt. Source
Sangha's Wednesday night gathering. Led by Taigen Roshi we discussed
the causes and conditions of global warming, the diversion of federal
funds from hurricane protection and construction work on the levees in
New Orleans so that we could fight an unjust war abroad, the fact that
there are not enough National Guards onhand in those states because
they are busy occupying Iraq, and the fact that public transportation
or even school buses were not arranged to get the poor out of New
Orleans - they were just left behind (and not by a rapture).
To be clear - I do not think that global warming as a cause of
Katrina's ferocity has been proven, nor do I think it has been
conclusively disproven. For some different views on this here are two
links to some news articles (one from Time one from the Independent in
the UK - tiny URLS follow the original link):
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1099102,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article309214.ece
As far as the war goes - I insisted before it began, when it was
underway, and to this day that the invastion of Iraq did not meet the
criteria of a "just war" as upheld today by the Catholic Church among
others (see their Catechism for a modern expression of
this "doctrine"). The Nichiren Shu uphelds an even stricter standard
against war than the Catholic Church though it does not have a clearly
articuted doctrine but rather a stand against all war on principle
that can be found expressed in the English language book Awakening to
the Lotus. I am, however, glad that Saddam Hussein is in jail where he
belongs, that the Baathist party is out of power (though the total and
sudden dismantling of the Iraqi government and infrastructure was
perhaps not the brightest move), and that the oppression of the
Shiites and Kurds is at an end. I am, however, apprehensive that as
soon as our troops are pulled out the country will degenerate into a
merciless and civil war of many factions. We have a responsibility to
the people of Iraq now, but I am not sure if it is to "stay the
course" (whatever that means - and I hope it is more than just pursit
of our own or rather of corporate self-interest) or to abandon them to
their fate. In any case, billions, I guess trillions of dollars have
been poured into our efforts in Iraq, our National Guards are there
instead of here, and two or three or more of our troops die everyday
as though in a grim lottery. And the effect of diverting all these
resources to Iraq (and I should mention Afghanistan too which we have
yet to stabilize) can be found to be directly felt in the lack of
funds for hurricane protection and levee construction and lack of
manpower to restore order now that a disaster has struck. One can read
about this and follow up on some thought-provoking links here (again
followed by a tiny URL in case the main link gets broken when I post
this):
http://corrente.blogspot.com/2005/09/death-president.html
As a Nichiren Buddhist I hold the conviction that neglecting our
responsibility for the environment and invading a sovereign nation are
bad causes and in accordence with the principle of ichinen sanzen our
society (including hundreds, thousands, even millions of personally
innocent people) is suffering because of it. I am convinced that if
Nichiren were alive today, the Rissho Ankoku Ron he would write would
include this disaster and instead of attacking the exclusive and
reductionist Pure Land piety of Honen, he would attack the arrogance
and militarism of our business and political leaders - and perhaps he
might add in something about Christian religious leaders who believe
that assassination is a legitimate way of doing things and isn't
afraid to say so publicly.
Here is a link (which was actually within one of the other articles I
linked to earlier) which really lays out all the facts:
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002331.html
Now for a bit of ugly honesty from me: There is a part of me (the
fighting demon political partisan part of the ten worlds within me)
that is glad to have a scapegoat that I can self-righteously rail
about, that feels that my views in the Rissho Ankoku Ron have been
proven by actual events. But the bodhisattva world within me is close
to tears thinking about the man whose wife was swept from his grip, or
the kids crying for their father after he went back to look for their
cat and did not return, or the stories of apartment building swept
away with people in them and bodies floating through the streets, or
the story I heard on CNN about dogs (and if it happened to them than
maybe it has happened to people) getting caught in downed electrical
wires and slowly electrocuted. How horrible when prophecies come to
pass. Just a few months ago I was reading the Hebrew prophets and
their predictions of what would happen to the people of Jerusalem if
the Babylonians beseiged it. These devout men who loved their country
more than their own lives predicted disasters with images gruesome
enough to induce nightmares in even the modern reader - and they came
to pass! How horrible for the prophets to have seen their worst fears
come to life. Nichiren was fortunate that he did not get to personally
see the devestation of the Mongol invasions, but he still lamented and
grived in his letters that his predictions had come true, even as he
admitted to feeling vindicated. But now we have CNN, and internet
access to everything that is happening - including eye-witness
accounts, blogs, photos, and even streamed video.
The bodhisattva acknowledges the outrage of the fighting demon, the
bodhisattva even acknowledges when the fighting demon is correct. But
the bodhisattva then ask, "O.k, what do we do know? How do we turn
from assigning blame to taking responsibility for how each of us is a
contributor and a benefactor to the system which has brought this
about? How do we find ways, no matter how small, to make better
causes, to relieve the suffering present now, and work to avert it in
the future?" This is something we also taked about last night.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
As I read accounts in the British and Australian press about what was going on in the Superdome, the horrific rape-murders of a little girl of 7, a boy of 8, the wholesale rape, the racism directed towards English and Australians of a European heritage, I thought if this was to occur in Japan that we would not be seeing the same types of malevlolence, that the Japanese people,under similar cirucmstances, would not be raping and murdering children, under the nose of their equivalent of the National Guard.
Maybe other nations would engage in such foul behavior but I have to think there is some great and serious sickness in that part of the United States, true not all engaged in this behavior but as I said I cannot imagine this happening in Japan.
Hi Peace,
America has for a very long time had a race and class war that is usually on simmer, but occasionally boils over - like the LA riots that occured about a decade ago when I was in LA.
I am going to get in trouble for this probably but I will be honest and tell you what I observe:
In an urban multicultural city like San Francisco, middle class people of various ethnicities are able to work together in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance for differences. But the poor are more often than not ghettoized and the different races/ethnicities keep to themselves and form gangs. The poor see other poor groups as their rivals and feel resentment and hatred towards middle-class people, esp. of those ethnicities who they feel have a better deal. In turn the middle class fear these lower classes and know to stay out of their neighborhoods, esp. at night or when their is a lot of gang activity.
I have never felt in danger in Japan, not in any neighborhood, not at any time of day or night. But in America, I have had to drive around race riots (LA), I have been stabbed by an African-American youth on my way home from work (this was years ago in Philadelphia), I have had African-Americans pretend to have guns in their jackets and try to rob me (again this was in Philadelphia), and I was once chased by a gang of young African-Americans on the way to visit a friend when I crossed into the wrong neighborhood. Once, a young Latino came after me with a baseball bat (again this was in Philadelphia) when I was on the way to a play rehearsal - I stood my ground and stared him down and he stopped figuring that I had a gun. In LA, it was an unspken Apartheid in progress - you knew not to go into non-white neighborhoods and non-whites knew they would be stopped and questioned by police (if not worse) if they went into white neighborhoods. After a few years of living in an almost completely racially stratified Los Angeles it was a shock to me when I attended a wedding in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and saw African and European-Americans all hanging out together at the night spots. I don't think anyone outside this country has any idea how much racial hatred is boiling just beneath the surface here on both sides. I think it is profoundly sad, and as we can see the consequences are tragic. And also don't ever forget, this is not just a matter of race, it is a matter of class warfare where race has become an integral element.
I do want to assure people that there are pockets of civilization within the cities where people of different ethnicities do work together, live together, sometimes party together. There are even churches and temples that are multi-ethnic. But again, these are the better educated middle-class minority. Outside of these bubbles of sanity (think the bridge of the Starship Enterprise) are huge mobs of angry poor with heavily armed gangs, and out in the countryside are heavily armed white militias who are scared to death that the inner city gangs are going to somehow break out of the police and army cordons that form whenever their is a major riot and somehow attack the suburbs or the rural areas. And the rich like it this way, because then the resentment, hatred and fear is always kept directed away from them and always back towards other poor groups or between the poor and working class and even those middle-class who are staring to fall back into the lower echelons.
I really do want to see a situation of real racial equality in this country, but until that happens and until each ethnic group takes responsibility for itself and stops trying to put down or get revenge on the other groups, I know better than to step foot in areas where I am not wanted and where I am seen as the representative of the WASP oppressor who should just be robbed, beaten, or killed with impunity as soon as the police or army isn't looking. Like Bodhisattva Never Despise, I will have to pay my respects to the Buddha-nature of the desperate urban poor from a safe distance (say, out of knife, pistol, and submachine gun range).
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
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Posted by: Ryuei at September 5, 2005 07:18 PMPeace
I would have to agree that if this was to occur in Japan we would not be seeing the same types of malevolence, and that the Japanese people, under similar circumstances, would not be raping and murdering children, under the nose of their equivalent of the National Guard. This is the real reason I have lived in Japan for 20 years now and raised a family, and I have no intention of moving from here. I would not limit this deplorable action to just the US though, I would in fact say this of just about any culture that does not have a clearly defined spiritual aspect to their belief system. By this I mean a spiritual side that one actively/regularly interacts with as we do in Buddhism, and just as the indigenous Indians in the US also have. There are many other examples of this. I do not feel that the world, or civilization, has actually progressed all that much. Sure we have made medical and technological gains that were unimaginable two or three hundred years ago, but I do not for one moment feel that we have progressed as a life form.
Peter Kearney (Tokyo)
Hi Peter,
I don't think it is religion myself. While Japan has a lot of temples and shrines, most Japanese I meet seem very irreligious (though this is sometimes combined with a belief in the supernatural that I find quite odd). Those really committed to Buddhism really seem to be a minority. In the USA, however, there are lots and lots of churchgoers, and televangelist watchers and supporters, and megachurches, and polls indicate that the USA is one of the most religious nations on earth aside from the Islamic countries. I think the real culprit is not that there aren't enough Buddhists or even Christians here (though with Christians like Pat Robertson even a nation of Satanists might have a more peaceful and compassionate value system). No, I think the real culprit is that in the USA, unlike Japan or Scandinavian countries, you have a large section of the population that lives in almost third world conditions (or at least third wold compared to the tiny percentage of superrich and the middle class that hasn't yet been squeezed out in our country). It is this seething caldron of resentment and self-destructive rage (justified or not) that results in things like this. It is the same resentment and self-destructive rage that manifested itself in the LA riots more than a decade ago. The deep causes of those riots are nationwide and they never went away, in fact they most likely have just increased over time. Unless the urban poor suddenly undergo a mass converstion experience and all become pacifist Quakers or Buddhists, I don't see any of that rage going away. Of course, as a society we could work to create conditions where it would be easier to escape the cycle of poverty, but that's been tried before and it just created a welfare state - so I suppose the status quo will just have to be maintained, make sure there are suffient numbers of heavily armed police and soldiers to make sure they only really lash out within their own neighborhoods against each other - barring natural catastrophes and occasional breakdowns of public order. Afterall - its' worked so far right? (Yes, I am being sarcastic and bitter).
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi Ryuei.
Thans for the comments, very interesting and certanly bags of room for thought. I think the point I was refereing to is the very thing you quoted "Japanese I meet seem very irreligious (though this is sometimes combined with a belief in the supernatural that I find quite odd)." This is probably the thing that I am also refereing to. I did not mean to imply that they are so spiritual that this type of thing could never happen here. We onl.y have to look at the Aum sects subway gassing to see how crazy they really can get. What I am refereing to is that the Japanese on the whole, despite the two-facedness of their religeous beliefs, deep down inside have a very strong inherited spirituality and are much more inclined/wired to band together for the common good, rather than rampage as a mob.
Peter Kearney (Tokyo)
I want to thank both Rev. Ryuei and Peter for giving such helpful insights.
I have read and read and read trying to make some sense of this and it is here on fraughtwithperil's Rev Ryei blog that I find genuinely valuable considerations.
While not directly related to the current tragedy is it me or does it not seem to others that society, in most of the world at least, is losing all manner of decorum, of civility and we are faced with an increasingly rude, insensitive, and uncaring mindset?
Whether in London or New York City it doesn't really matter it is as if there is a pandemic of amorality.
As Nichiren Buddhists we do believe in cause and effect and what shall be the effect of all this?
thank you both again.
Posted by: peace at September 6, 2005 06:45 PMI just want to point out that Japan was in a similar situation about 10 years ago. There was a huge earthquake in Kobe, and the Japanese government was slow to do anything and initially even refused outside help. As a result, many people died who probably could have been saved. The survivors, however did not loot, rape, or murder even though they were understandably angry.
Posted by: Pam at September 6, 2005 08:52 PM