Excerpt from...
Let’s Strive Together for a Year of Victory!
February 20, 2009 WT – Seize the Day p. E
We are in the midst of what is being called a “once-in-a-century” financial crisis. What is most important at this troubled time? Of course, wise and decisive measures need to be taken in the political, economic and international arenas. But there is something else that we must not forget.
On New Year’s Day 1946, as Japan was still suffering from the aftermath of its defeat in World War II, Shigeru Nambara, president of Tokyo University (present-day University of Tokyo), gave a radio address in which he said, “An even more urgent priority than institutional and structural reform is an inner revolution, a revolution in people’s hearts and minds.” Nambara saw this as “human revolution.”
At that time, Mr. Toda had already embarked on his struggle for kosen-rufu, based on his conviction that awakening people to the Buddhahood inherent in their lives was key to freeing them from suffering and helping them on a fundamental level. People are the focus and heart of everything. Unless people themselves change at the innermost level, any reform or improvement will be lacking a vital element.
Nambara concluded his radio address as follows: “Sacred Mount Fuji illuminated by the morning sunlight of New Year’s Day seems to me a symbol of a new future. With fresh hope and courage, let us press straight ahead on the road that lies before us, no matter how filled with adversity and difficulty it may be.”
The idea of human revolution was also emphasized by (French author Andre’) Maurois: “The most profound revolutions are spiritual. They transform people who, in turn, transform the world.” He discerned the fact that the human revolution of a single individual is the true starting point of all change, writing, “A single individual, whether hero or saint, can set an example for the multitudes, the emulation of which can dramatically transform the world.”
February 20, 2009 WT – Seize the Day p. E
We are in the midst of what is being called a “once-in-a-century” financial crisis. What is most important at this troubled time? Of course, wise and decisive measures need to be taken in the political, economic and international arenas. But there is something else that we must not forget.
On New Year’s Day 1946, as Japan was still suffering from the aftermath of its defeat in World War II, Shigeru Nambara, president of Tokyo University (present-day University of Tokyo), gave a radio address in which he said, “An even more urgent priority than institutional and structural reform is an inner revolution, a revolution in people’s hearts and minds.” Nambara saw this as “human revolution.”
At that time, Mr. Toda had already embarked on his struggle for kosen-rufu, based on his conviction that awakening people to the Buddhahood inherent in their lives was key to freeing them from suffering and helping them on a fundamental level. People are the focus and heart of everything. Unless people themselves change at the innermost level, any reform or improvement will be lacking a vital element.
Nambara concluded his radio address as follows: “Sacred Mount Fuji illuminated by the morning sunlight of New Year’s Day seems to me a symbol of a new future. With fresh hope and courage, let us press straight ahead on the road that lies before us, no matter how filled with adversity and difficulty it may be.”
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The idea of human revolution was also emphasized by (French author Andre’) Maurois: “The most profound revolutions are spiritual. They transform people who, in turn, transform the world.” He discerned the fact that the human revolution of a single individual is the true starting point of all change, writing, “A single individual, whether hero or saint, can set an example for the multitudes, the emulation of which can dramatically transform the world.”
We must see to it that the 21st century is a century of human revolution. Humanity as a whole must now turn its focus to this fundamental path.
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