Part 3: Kosen-rufu and World Peace
Chapter 25: The Unity of “Many in Body, One in Mind” [25.5]

A wonderful quality of the Soka Gakkai, President Ikeda notes, is that its members work together in beautiful harmony.

It is beautiful when people can get along and work well together. Buddhism is a teaching of cooperation and harmony. This spirit is articulated as “many in body, one in mind,” and is the Soka Gakkai’s foremost treasure.

To talk behind others’ backs, to gripe and complain, and to plot and scheme—such behavior points to selfishness and ego. It points to prejudice and narrow-mindedness, and it leads to the gravest of offenses in Buddhism—that of disrupting the harmonious community of practitioners.

I hope that, should a problem or disagreement arise, the parties involved will talk about it directly until they resolve it to everyone’s satisfaction. The ideal path of a harmonious Buddhist organization is to advance together, always wisely and always based on faith.

I would ask our men’s and young men’s division members to be courteous and polite when talking to our women’s and young women’s division members. Please never raise your voice or speak in a haughty, condescending, or arrogant manner. You have no right to do so. Men and women are equal. The Daishonin states: “There should be no discrimination between men and women” (cf. WND-1, 385). I hope that you will always be gentlemen who respect and value women. That is a tradition of the Soka Gakkai.

Similarly, it is important for all leaders to warmly thank members for their efforts and hard work. Simple expressions of thoughtfulness and concern—“Thank you,” “Please take care,” “Don’t catch cold”—warm people’s hearts and spread a lovely, refreshing spirit of humanity throughout our organization. The Soka Gakkai is a realm of beautiful human ties.

An organization pervaded by a spirit of warmth, of sincere faith, of concern for fellow members, of unity, and of devotion to kosen-rufu, an organization whose members’ hearts are united in faith—this is the Soka Gakkai. Let us always maintain this tradition.

From a speech at a Soka Gakkai Headquarters leaders meeting, Tokyo, July 18, 2000.