Buddhist devotees meditate at Dhammakaya Temple in Bangkok. (Photo: AFP/ Nicolas Asfouri)
In these times, what does it mean to be human? It is the ability to pray that fundamentally distinguishes human beings from animals.
Serious and sincere prayer in the present moment can change the effects of the past and create a new future.
Prayer enables each of us, individually and collectively, to fuse with the energy of compassion that pours forth from the deepest sources of cosmic life.
A Buddha appears in the world to relieve the torment of the inevitable suffering that all human beings on this planet experience. If we are afforded the privilege to live long enough, the sufferings of birth, ageing, sickness and death cannot be avoided.
For some, experiencing these sufferings becomes a gateway to expand their understanding, empathy and compassion for others.
In the school of Buddhism founded by Nichiren Daishonin, now practised by millions in 192 countries, including more than 30 countries on the African continent, enlightenment is not about climbing an unimaginably high mountain to become a resplendent being at the summit.
Rather, it is about achieving a profound transformation in the depths of one’s heart. In Buddhist philosophy, we each have two opposing natures within us — one of good and one of evil.
Which one will grow stronger? The one that we feed most consistently through the choices that we make in our everyday life. Do we choose to enact our ego’s need, our ego’s greed? Or do we choose love?
Buddhist practice is an unceasing effort to bring forth our inherent goodness. It is a constant, moment to moment struggle between the opposing courses of revealing our highest nature — what we call our Buddha nature — or allowing ourselves to instead be ruled by our fundamental negativity and delusion.
Nichiren taught that by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the essence of the Lotus Sutra, we activate our Buddha nature in resonance with the mystic law of life throughout the universe.
As members of Soka Gakkai International, South Africa, the community of Nichiren Buddhist practising in this country, we open our throats in prayer as an expression of our determination to triumph over painful trials and obstacles and to give courage, hope, confidence and joy to those around us. Prayer helps us to choose faith over fear; to choose love over fear.
Prayer empowers us to walk in the world with nobility. Every one of us can be a hero, right here and right now. In these times, every family, every community, needs a hero, a champion of justice and peace.
Heroes who can gratefully say “thank you” with a humble heart. Heroes who admit their mistakes and take bold steps to redress them. Heroes who persevere in achieving their goals despite severe hardship or opposition. Heroes who regard the sufferings of others as their own. Through prayer we can revolutionise our inner life.
As barbarous wars are being fought, as nature and our environment are being rapaciously decimated, this great blue planet Earth is thirsting for each and every one of us humans to arise into our highest nobility — our highest nature.
Let’s not accept an apartheid of the soul — “us” and “them”. We are one and inseparable. Let us pray to elevate the vibration of all humanity with an unshakable conviction that all, without exception, possess the noble Buddha nature.
It is not for me or others to judge but to build a stronghold of peace in our own hearts. To kill the will to kill. To choose in our thoughts, in our words and in our actions to live life as a protagonist not as an antagonist.
To live the values that create good for myself and for humanity. To live as a champion of light.
Soka Gakkai International president Daisaku Ikeda (1928-2023) highly praised Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) as a tireless fighter for human rights whose life was deeply rooted in the African philosophy of ubuntu.
As Ikeda noted, “Buddhism resonates deeply with the African wisdom of ubuntu, a philosophy emphasising compassion, inner goodness and the interconnectedness of all people that says, ‘I am because you are.’”
A great philosophy is unwavering and imperishable. We can live the values of ubuntu every day. Every day, let us pray.
Loren Braithwaite Kabosha is the general director of Soka Gakkai International South Africa.