SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK Volume VI, Issue 3 Seeking to Build a Community of Life through Humanistic Education

Experience by Margit Urbassek, Vienna, Austria

My name is Margit and I have been chanting for 20 years in Vienna, Austria. I want to share my experience about how I changed my whole working situation as well as my teaching through chanting and through being an active member in SGI Austria.

In the beginning of my chanting I was working in an Austrian primary school as a teacher. I suffered a lot. This was just after I had come back from Great Britain where I had spent a year attending the international New Age community called Findhorn. I found the school system in Vienna to be very rigid.

In England I got in touch with alternative teaching forms. I love children very much and what I saw in the school system conflicted with what I had learned. I had very bad experiences with teacher colleagues in Austria who from my perspective treated the children terribly. So my lifestate got rather low. I felt that I wanted to support the children, but as long as I felt stuck in this school system which suppressed teachers and children, I didn´t know how to help really them.

When I started chanting I felt the pressure inside myself get bigger and I felt even more terrible. I talked often with my seniors in faith and I heard that this is all my karma. That I can change this. I wanted to leave the school system and felt that I could not be an adequate teacher there. Also I discovered by regularly dancing in studios, that I started to love dance and that I should teach in this direction. Plus I am certified in classical and shiatsu massage and I was very good at this as well.

The senior leaders told me: "NO, don't leave school, that's the place where your karma is, and I would take it with me if I left the school. I rather should chant to change something in the school and to change my situation." This was very hard for me, but I trusted the senior leaders 100 percent. I chanted sometimes inside the whole morning, to endure the situations with bad collegues and the terrible atmosphere in school.

I felt inside three abilities : I loved supporting the children, I loved dancing and I loved doing massage and bodywork for people. I realized I didn't want to teach children writing and reading. I felt that I wanted to support their artistic abilities and creativity.

I was also the only SGI primary school teacher in Austria at the time. I saw that I had to change a lot of karma.

I chanted to go to a different school and through chanting I said to myself, I will only take a teaching position in a new school where I feel free in my teaching and feel good about the working situation. In Austria at that time you had to take what you could get in the school system but I said to myself after many daimoku: I am the one who is choosing to make this change happen. I chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and was convinced in the meantime I am in the perfect place for kosen rufu.

I came upon a different school where my colleagues were much more open and where the headmaster there, a very nice woman, understood me and really supported me as a young teacher.

The first time I felt good going to my work as a teacher. Through chanting and through a colleague there, I found a contact to a new Montessori education course and I immediately took part on this course. In the Montessori education I could change my whole attitude towards teaching in primary school and I felt for the first time that my inside task is very much to teach children of this age, and I felt free and not unencumbered by the Austrian school system. I felt myself as a human and as a teacher who really loves teaching and the children. I felt I had the freedom to teach really what I want.

Chanting supported me during my education very much. Mr. Claus Kaul, my Montessori teacher, who is now a friend for life, supported me to stand up for my special teaching abilities which seemed to be really in artistic expression and dance. He supported me to have the courage to change the school system from inside . So I started in my school several dance classes with daimoku as the base and also with Montessori knowledge.

The dance classes increased and I had sometimes 50 children coming on their own accord in the afternoons. The classes were a real success and I definitely demonstrated that I have the ability to teach creative dance to children. Sometimes I came with an African drummer to school or with other artists I knew, to show students examples of creative dance and different styles. Obviously such a thing was something totally new in the primary school. I got then four schools to do the same program and the children began to give little performances on a stage in the city. They were all very successful and I was very grateful.

I kept on for seven years to assist in Montessori education to keep in touch with this educational system and to keep on learning. There were many things I found that were very similar to Makiguchi's educational philosophy. I started to discuss Buddhism with our well known Montessori and reform educator Claus Kaul and gave him books and told him from Soka education. In November 1997 I succeeded to make contact between Claus Kaul, and our Austrian Culture Centre, and our general director Joshio Nakamura.

At this same time Mr. Kaul happened to be looking for a new room for his workshops. And so for four years he taught official Montessori education at our Culture Center. 45 teachers would participate at each one-year course. In this way people came in touch with Sensei's house. I was also able to offer a dance program for each course that to support it. In this way I often came to talk about our Buddhism and what we members are doing in our Culture Centre.

In my own work, more and more children came into my dance classes. My program was already in four schools yet I still had to teach twelve hours in a "normal" classroom. I felt I only lived to work for the school and had no free time.

I realized I either had to reduce all teaching classes or change all teaching hours into dance classes. But to teach "only "dance in a primary school was forbidden from the school law. I chanted again to make the impossible possible. Again my Montessori educator Mr. Claus Kaul helped me out. He said that he knew a headmaster in Vienna who wanted to start a total new reform pedagogical school where he wanted to have dance as it is good for learning. Since then I really have been a dance teacher for creative educational dance and contemporary dance full time for the past ten years.

In short, I have spent the last ten years to building up this school as well as my dance classes which are officially a fixed part of the school schedule. The children learn about dance and learn to create their own dances as well as perform with me. The school and dance classes are my mission for kosenrufu. The children love to have real dance in their program. We are the only school in Austria having a set up like this. The dance classes do also integrate our twenty-five "handicapped people" who live together with all the other children .

The school is a model school now since several years in Austria. Many students from the different pedagogical academies come to us to learn and watch our teaching.

I also presented the Earth Charter exhibition "Seeds of Change" and President Ikeda through this medium in the school. It was a big project and all of the teachers worked with their children on the different themes of the exhibition. A neighbor school took the exhibition next and I helped initiate the teachers there to create a school project from it. Many interesting things came from the work of the children. I also helped to bring the exhibition to the school where my sister works and my sister brought the exhibition to the University Klagenfurt which is south of Vienna and is a student exchange university of the Soka University in Japan.

I have to say that through my Buddhist practice and trying to go with Sensei I found the necessary free space for my pedagogical work with creative children-dance using the principals of Sensei in education which are Wholeness-Creativity and Internationality in our school and make an official contribution to his work as an educator.

I myself feel very happy there as teacher in our school. We colleagues are a very complex working team who always talk honestly with each other and try to respect each other and the children. Daisaku Ikeda said in his essay "Personality and Education," that for him the highest principle in education is the respect of the human being. I have the feeling that this means to do our best for the creativity of our children.

Now after all the activities and ten years building up the school and changing the Austrian school system through daimoku, another deep deep wish is becoming true this year, because I am expecting now my own baby together with my Nigerian boyfriend although my age is 46. Now I start to create my own family with daimoku plus I found a bigger flat 3 minutes from our SGI Culture Centre! I have a pause now in teaching and will think about dance-pedagogic(which means the way how to teach dance) from a different perspective again. I am very grateful that this still could happen and I just can tell that when the time is right the impossible is possible and everybody can become happy in all areas of life with our Buddhist practice and our relationship to Sensei Ikeda.

Vienna, 24. August Margit Urbassek
email - margit.urbassek@aon.at
http://www.lernwerkstatt.or.at/



Photos of Margit's students:














The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.

SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK Volume VI, Issue 2, Seeking to Build a Community of Life through Humanistic Education

Soka Educators International Network, Online Forum VI;
Education the Fourth Power and Kumarajiva; How we create the United Nations of Education

We started off with a wonderful blossoming of ideas. It became very clear that we are all budding Kumarajivas because the translation of ideas back and forth from English to Portuguese and back never became a problem – even when the instant translation was odd! We all deeply focused on the content of the ideas being expressed and this carried through the entire month. I can see now, Kumarajiva sitting around with fellow Buddhists in deep discussion – even though in this case we are sitting down all over the planet! What a wonderful experience this was! This newsletter is a synopsis of our discussion.

We learned about the very successful Makiguchi Garden Project in Brazil and about the state of education in different countries. We were able to establish that the whole world needs us to become great Kumarajivas of Soka Education. "It is wonderful to see that in Brazil volunteer educators have been able to bring the care and "itai doshin" we work to cultivate within the SGI, out into society through the school system. What a wonderful accomplishment!"

We said the needs of the state have been taken as paramount in education in the UK. While the authorities agree with these failings within the system, changes are continually piled upon changes but these serve only to reinforce the system. It is indeed a total systemic revamp which is required. This is why making education INTERNATIONAL is the right way to go. The reasoning behind the abusive system we currently subject our children to (and many teachers say they feel they are 'abusing' the children), is destroyed when we think internationally. In Brazil in general the four evil states of life is what drives Brazilian public schools. Our experience shows us that the emotions that come from these paths have systemic effects. We have managed to create a break but as we know in Buddhism, the difficulty is not to accept the teaching, but to maintain it. In the US we also have a youth culture oriented towards impermanence, families move a lot and so the skills of building community are not well grounded in our culture. This lack of community also breeds a great distance between teacher and student.

One is sharing and documenting our successes and beginning to build a "science" of what is Soka education. Confidence in value creating education is what we need. Confidence is the key to the work we do but so is the trust we build over time in our relationships with people. (To begin is easy, to continue, difficult.)

Toward a United Nations of Education (UN/Ed)
Sensei suggests the formation of a United Nations of Education that contributes to a true world-wide peace and harmonious cooperation among the peoples of the planet. We are still feeling the effects of a violent 20th century in which ideologies and economics created interpretations of humanity. These incomplete ideologies has resulted in the dehumanization and continuing destruction of our civilization. Now humankind needs spiritual support that is deeper, and is on a higher level than communism and capitalism.

Instead of education as organized by governments, in ministries or departments of education, we need to change the principles of education from "for the country" to "for the happiness of the individual that is, to live a contributive life." We understand that every individual reconstructs the world consistent with his/her culture. To change and perceive that an individual should make choices and also feel responsible for the worldwide consequences of those choices is the teaching we must now develop with respect, attention and love. We need to establish an independent institution that is not answerable to any government, which is directed toward peace and that it will be a force will be to create and generate a fortress of spirituality and peace in the hearts of the men. Building the UN/Ed will need the participation of everyone involved in the education process -- the professors and educators, parents and relatives who are teach in the home, pupils of all the levels and this will serve to bring into reality the respect for humanity in all fields of endeavor. Finally that there are three independent parts of government today: the legislative one, the executive and the judiciary one. Sensei feels we should create a fourth on – educational. Education plays the vital function of cultivating the individual human being. Moreover, it must assume the responsibility to teach each individual the absolute respect for the life. Even though UNESCO exists to encourage international cooperation in education, science and culture, because of the current structure of the UN, it is subject to the considerable influence of politics.

Why build a United Nations Education? The state of the child is lamentable. Education and life are devoted to economic growth. The consequence of this is Fake Prosperity, creating adults who are materialistic and corrupt, and since children are mirrors of society, the decline of discipline in schools and the destructive behaviour we see. Teachers, frustrated, are thinking about leaving. If nothing is done, we are looking at the fall of the whole school system. Ikeda Sensei says we should redirect for Human Growth. Instead of an explosion of knowledge we need to have an explosion of wisdom to use this knowledge for Human Growth.

What should the UN/Ed include?
Since Sensei says that a UN/Ed is our last and best asset we need to think about how to build this reality. He proposes an International Conference of Rectors of Universities, an International Teachers Association and a World Federation of Student Associations. We can start this by taking an interest in teachers and student associations around us. We can invite them to important or international conferences in our area that we attend. This is a very Makiguchi idea of course. Education should be of practical use to students. We can seek to unite the world's young people.

• To create a great alliance of lions such as the UN/Ed is the wish of Ikeda Sensei. We can start this new fourth power locally and nationally by encouraging the use of the Earth Charter and Universal Declaration of the Human Rights in school boards and schools. We could create our own local committees that rethink the education system in this same way as well and then go forward together. SEIN could help network this.
  
• A curriculum about human rights education, including the rights of the child. UNESCO points out that human rights must not only be boxed in curricula, but also experienced. We need to find a way to discuss world history that sheds light on the strengths, weaknesses and interdependence of human experience. This curriculum should be designed in a systemic or organic way for the whole child and the whole community in mind.
  
• Teaching human rights education needs value creating education to be effective.
  
• Finally, we should include proposals from the Columbia University speech by Ikeda Sensei namely: 1) Education for the Peace, in which the young people learn about the war cruelty and foolishness, to root the practice of the non-violence in the human society. 2) Environmental Education, 3) Education about development, focusing the attention in poverty matters and social justice. 4) Education on the Human Rights, to awake a conscience of human equality and dignity.
  
• Kumarajiva and his collaborative teaching/learning community be a great model for the UN/Ed. Global citizenship through dialogue skills, ecological integrity and community-building.

Soka Education Methodology
The Expedient Means chapter is the spine of the whole of humanist education, and the origin of the educational theory of the presidents: Makiguchi, Toda and Daisaku Ikeda. The Buddha emphasizes the replacement of three vehicles with the one vehicle. Learning, absorption and Bodhisattva (which we practice every day when we teach mathematics, language, science -- socialization, integration, and the desire to assimilate, live in mutual aid -- these ways of thinking and acting) are the three vehicles. We need to change this to the "desire help others become Buddhas with the aim of Happiness for all." Within this context of teaching-learning, there is the important transfer from educator/student to the educating process of unity of mentor and disciple. Our actual proof is the so united Department of Research and Development of Sciences of Education-DEPEDUC which is reshaping a new history of education in Brazil.

Depending on the age of the student, we believe the key to human rights education is allowing students to work, govern and make decisions within their classroom. The focus is always to refer each student back to his or her own development, rather than comparing with others. Also, we should use various personality inventories informally so students can perceive better their similarities and differences and make our classrooms interesting, creative and places of discernment.

Deep dialogue and Kumarajiva is what made Kumarajiva special and unique as a translator and teacher of the Lotus Sutra. This will be a critical component of SOKA Education and the UN/Ed.

Kumarajiva
Kumarajiva broke the barriers of language, culture and brought out a very important contribution to the world, the Lotus Sutra, in Chinese. "Although we make all preparations for the international exchange at university level, if we do not remove the barriers of language, nor expand exchanges, then these plans will remain as a utopia" Daisaku Ikeda – Education Proposal, pp 43 SEIN is proving to be a means of helping to remove these barriers of language and bringing different cultures closer. Listen to the heart of another, feel the heart of another. We are moving in the right direction. We are all about to become Kumarajivas who will be influencing our particular culture towards this UN of ED. What can we learn from Kumarajiva that will help make our influence (our employment of expedient means) most effective?

It starts with our own self-development. The concepts of respect, interrelatedness and repaying debts of gratitude that underly the cultures of Asia can enrich our students. Self-control and dignity are elements that our students desperately need.

Like him, we also have the opportunity to create a learning environment where everyone contributes. We must see things from eyes from within, from the inside/out instead of outside/in. We must use our Buddhist practice to be able see our culture from three very culturally based elements: "the universe/heavens, ""the land and its features" and "'embryo"...meaning everything that comes from a source, born of a birth cycle." Whichever land we are from, born of, teach in, these are underlying principles that WE, as educators must understand fully from the inside/out! From that place, when we come from such depths, we make the difference! Then can help teach our students to be the "footsteps" of change, for themselves, others and their countries and the world. The bonds of trust between teacher and student can then deepen and transform into a single master and disciple. Buddha to Buddha, I think it is this point that differentiates the Soka Educators.

Kumarajiva was like a Lotus Flower in the muddy swamp and for this reason he turned every situation around to the positive and had victory in his life. He then paid his debt of gratitude by translating the Lotus Sutra for the World. It is what Nichiren did as well. Kumarajiva, like Nichiren, contributed deeply to the development of the UN/Ed and human rights education. It was the dialogue/interaction between Kumarijiva and those who gathered around him that made his translation so valuable and rich. We need to transform our classrooms into those type of environments, where the knowledge, talents and personality of each student is respected, and genuinely engaged to create great results.

Professional Applications
What can we do locally and how can we connect to the global movement towards the dialogic civilization we are creating? We can emphasize in our own classrooms and school curricula the value and the need to move towards a global approach to education. And encourage students going into education to think and study about how to collaborate with others in the reformation of education. That society should support education for the development of human beings.

We need to continue to develop our ideas on these forums. "Our sharing of experiences and ideas that we have in SEIN, is what I often refer to when I am doubtful about expressing myself. I think 'Deep down this person (me) probably has great thoughts and knows how to create the future, just as my SEIN colleagues do.' The SEIN community we are developing enables me to confidently fulfill my role as an educator and a citizen, in my own way."

We will need to form an international and secular community within SEIN so all educators can feel the support of a community which understands the essence of education and why we are teachers. This will encourage people to struggle to interact humanistically with their schools, governments, children, parents, education authorities and natural daily challenges, and to live according to their own true selves. We need a training 'arm' of SEIN so that teachers, educators, school leaders; academics and so on can make pragmatic changes. We will also join hands and learn from others who share our goal around the world. It means having the confidence and sense of commitment to take the next step. We can learn from both the successes and failures. Some fear or are against global education. Sensei said that research shows that people exerted 100 percent effort in a one-on-one battle, and that as the number of people on a team increased, the individual effort of each participant decreased. Sensei said one-on-one effort/dialogue was his key to his historic victory in Kamata Chapter. Dialogue and unity of purpose.

On our website we should have a teachers exchange section and a chat room for teachers who want to discuss something on our website. Two people offered to help translate Japanese Soka Researchers/Educators articles into English and Portuguese. Student's global perspectives projects results can be included in a database under "Towards the UN of Education."

We need to intensify Makiguchi's "humanitarian competition," - the endeavor to achieve individual and social goals through invisible moral influence, rather than military force or naked economic power. To raise youthful global leaders who understand the value of "humanitarian competition" in many fields of society. We can discuss this new idea of competition with our students and bring our conclusions to our forums and then compile them on our website. We 'old ones' don't actually know what the children need to learn or how to teach it, so we have to teach them to find things out for themselves and to work together.

Use the SGI discussion meeting format in school and the community. We can encourage dialogue and intercultural dialogue in the classroom and in our SGI and neighborhoods. Many students are not used to working in groups and are very competitive in the wrong way. We can change this through the discussion meeting format.

How do WE become the change you want to see --- and create a better relationship with your "enemy." Not your problem student or your problem colleague – but the people who YOU have animosity towards, even if unconsciously. Here our SGI activities become the place to create this change and polish our lives. We can introduce more global perspectives in our own SGI discussion meetings. We can polish our ability to employ the right expedient mean at our discussion meetings.

We need to begin to change the fundamental structure in our method of teaching so that our methods enable sustainable learning. To establish some subjects for the future global citizen along with teacher training in sustainable education methods. Development is not just about having more but also about being more, our spiritual growth as individuals and as a community with shared values. Makiguchi pioneered the approach of teaching children by providing them with keys so they could unlock the treasure chest of knowledge by themselves. He wanted teachers to use the school environment to develop the social awareness of the pupils and create a micro-community to simulate the global society of humanitarian competition, which was his ultimate aim. This is Sensei's "wisdom to perceive the interconnectedness of all life and living". Such children are like an additional piece of wholeness completing the world jigsaw puzzle. This is guiding of the process of enabling "Hosshaku Kempon" in each student.

Keeping up with Sensei's Proposals
Sensei is local, national AND global. We need to be this as well if we seriously want to build this UN of Ed. Not just in our classrooms but in our own national education issues but also we need to become familiar with the international community. We need to be good teachers, good citizens and then also good global citizens. We have to think like Sensei, like Kumarajiva, like Nichiren, to have the same effect as they have. How can we gather our ideas for the United Nations of Education around Sensei's ever persistent call to action? The best way is through forums like this and immediate actions in our own communities. When a teacher makes a difference for the students, people will be interested in that teacher strategy and this is how Projeto Makiguchi grew in Brazil and is still making a difference in the society. We have to put together the experiences we are having around the world and make them part of a big proposal to United Nations volunteering ourselves to keep working on the successful projects. I think that is what Sensei expects from us. Let's move on and make this a great step to a peaceful and really humanistic world.

In the 2008 Peace Proposal, Sensei says - an international conference--organized by civil society and specifically dedicated to the theme of human rights education should be held. We could connect or stay abreast of this development.

Global Education Ideas In The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, Vol. 3, page 26-27 are passages in the discussion about the seven treasures and the treasure tower. "Ikeda: Practicing faith means to lead the most correct life. Acquiring wisdom means attaining the most profound understanding of human nature. The treasure tower exists in human life. To understand it in these terms is to see beyond our apparent differences and perceive the sanctity of life itself. The reason for this is that on the most essential level of life, there is not such thing as superior or inferior. Respect for the individual is the very soul of democracy. Democracy's success hinges on whether people can recognize the lives of all as equally sacred. Everything depends on this.

"Indifference in the face of the threat of nuclear weapons is the greatest enemy to peace..." The first step that all of us should take is the one to move the world towards the abolishment of nuclear weapon. We should work to put this in the constitution of each country. Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, said that what each of us can do, is to prevent brutality against children. This will effect and prevent the development and spread of these devastating weapons. If there was a UN of Education, we could share a collective knowledge and nurture generations of students at every level to become contributive global citizens. Although it takes time, young people raised with the understanding of the dignity of each life will naturally be able to develop programs that replenish the planet and abolish nuclear weapons. The story of Sadako and the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb and making Crane Origami for Hiroshima could be a simple way to begin.

http://www.sadako.org/

Sustainable Education Solutions

Seeking To Build A Community of Life Through Humanistic Education - SEIN Newsletter

Volume VI, Issue 1

Sustainable Education Solutions

by Jill Rees

In 2003, I was working as Head of Department at a school, in a depressing run-down town in the UK, which had just failed its inspection and was now in special measures. This was great for me, as it meant I could set up the department as I saw fit. The teachers were all new, and it was my responsibility to train them. Also, the government had just brought in two new initiatives which were fantastic, the National Framework and the Key Stage 3 Strategy. I had been teaching for 3 years, and was beginning to feel I knew what I was doing. I had been to six-monthly sessions with the UK Soka Education Division at our national centre, Taplow Court, and had read the online Soka Education Newsletter.

As I understood it, Soka education meant respecting each individual and adopting as the primary aim of education the happiness of each child. Of course, happiness is a difficult thing to define, and is different for each person, but it certainly involves following Sensei's guidance about doing your best and determining to have victory in everything you set out to achieve. To transmit this attitude to the children in this under-performing school, most of whom were without ambition and often with little self-esteem, seemed difficult. Some of the children came from very poor and sometimes violent and abusive backgrounds. Their academic ambitions were slight, and their belief that they could make a happy and successful life for themselves non-existent. Unemployment in the area meant that opportunities for them were slim.

My department became the key to the whole school. I encouraged my teachers to work as a team by explaining about itai doshin and chanting for 2 hours each morning before work. Among other community based activities, I established an annual trip to France, to which over 80% of the year sevens subscribed, and a French exchange in liaison with the local partner school. My department led the next Government Inspection, in which the teachers were judged 'excellent', which is quite rare. The students showed great enthusiasm for learning languages, which is almost unheard of in British schools.

Late in 2003, I was offered the opportunity to take a Master’s degree as part of my school professional development, which would mean I didn't have to pay! For the second part of this degree, I studied the systemic theory of education, which struck me as being essentially Buddhist. The principle of the systemic theory is that everything is interconnected, so if you change one part the whole changes, like a fisherman's net. I felt I could attempt to establish Soka Education in my department by using some of the systemic ideas. I started using the systemic method with my classes, with good results.

When you teach systemically, your actions as a teacher are based on the idea that the class is a system, and other often unknown areas of the students' lives are also affecting them; for example their home life, their other lessons, the ethos of the school, and their social experiences. If a child is under-performing, is demotivated, is misbehaving or is unhappy in the lesson, it is not seen as a fault in the child. Instead, a change within the holistic system is required. The child continues to be completely respected for themselves as they are, and the cause of problems seen as being systemic rather than the fault of the student.

The teacher is always able to change, however, as is their own behaviour, and this will affect the whole class and each individual child. The teacher needs to work out the cause of the problem, and find a suitable solution. This isn't always possible, as the teacher is lacking information, or hasn't been able to perceive the true nature of the problem. However, any change in the teacher's behaviour will then change the student's behaviour. Either the problem will be solved, or it will change so that the teacher can get a better idea of what is going on. The teacher takes full responsibility for the problem and sets about changing the situation using the principles of Buddhist practice. By increasing one's life-state, understanding and robustness to deal with the difficulties we face in teaching, the teacher can affect humanistic solutions. I realized that these are Buddhist ideas, of cause and effect, of ichinen sanzen, and the interconnectivity of all phenomena.

So, by creating systemic changes in the classroom, I was able to engage everyone and felt that each student was acting how they wanted to and taking control of their own way of learning. At first, however, I didn't understand how this really worked. What was happening that enabled children with quite serious problems to become happy and to find confidence in their ability such that their assessment results improved so much? I felt this was beyond the scope of the systemic method I was using, that they had missed something.

The Soka Educators International Network (SEIN) forum is about humanistic and caring education. As I participated in such discussions with educators throughout the world, and chanted to find the deeper causes in what I was doing, I began to realize that something else was going on. By accepting each child as an essential part of the 'system' – the class, as they are, and changing myself or the circumstances they were in rather than trying to change the child, I was actually deeply respecting and caring for each child's life. I took full responsibility for their happiness and their learning in my class, and was willing immediately to do whatever I could to enable them to be more themselves. I had been able to discover in myself my fundamental respect for my students.

In trials in other schools, which I was studying as part of my degree, teachers and school managers had begun to apply systems theory, but had usually given up at a certain point. The view of the academics was that they hadn't been able to take on board the philosophy behind systems theory, which is very profound and all-encompassing. However, I felt that it went further. The underlying principle of systems theory is Buddhism. The developers of systems theory had found truths which they were unable to access more profoundly because the Buddhist principles which understood the importance of enabling each individual to live an amazing life and develop his or her full potential were misunderstood. Before I went to work, I would chant to enable each child to be happy as if they were members of my district.

The students were encouraged to think of themselves as the foundation of the society of the future. I would take time to explain that they would be the people who decide what the world will be like. They came to think of themselves as more connected to life outside school, and to think more positively about what they will do in the future. If they had difficult circumstances at home, I would encourage them to realize that they will one day be able to set up their own home, which could be a good one full of love. I began to introduce some of Sensei's guidance for young people into my assemblies, and was amazed at how the naughtiest boys listened so carefully to guidance to work hard, do their homework and change society for the better. (They didn't actually do their homework, thank goodness, or I might have died of shock!)

Many of the students changed their attitudes in other classes too, and teachers reported to me that such-and-such a child had stopped messing about and started working. The results were really miraculous. However there were other consequences. The children became used to speaking out, to being listened to, and to their questions being answered. Some teachers found this very challenging.

At this point, the Soka teacher may face obstacles. These obstacles are proof that we are humanizing our part of education. They are the ‘persecutions of the votary' which try to prevent humanism and enlightenment from spreading and which therefore impede Kosen Rufu.

As Nichiren wrote in The Opening of the Eyes:

"But if I utter so much as a word concerning it, then parents, brothers, and teachers will surely censure me, and the ruler of the nation will take steps against me. On the other hand, I am fully aware that but if I do not speak out, I will be lacking in compassion, p.64…. I have considered which course to take in the light of the teachings of the Lotus and Nirvana sutras. If I remain silent, I may escape persecutions in this lifetime, but in my next life I will most certainly fall into the hell of incessant suffering. If I speak out, I am fully aware that I will have to contend with the three obstacles and four devils. But of these two courses, surely the latter is the one to choose." Page 239 The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin.

The stark choice facing Soka educators today is whether to continue resolutely with faith, until the victory of humanistic schools is achieved, or to give up on Sensei's vision in the educational aspect of Kosen Rufu. Time and time again I have heard Soka educators tell me how they found obstructions in their attempts to introduce humanism in their school, and how they fought to overcome them. Victory is our continued struggle – the actualization of Kosen Rufu in education may lie in the eventual actions of our students in the future, but for them, we must carry on. Every time we deal in a humanistic way with a child is a victory for kosen rufu and a cause for a more humanistic education in the future.

Before I left my last school, the children in my class decided that when they were adults, they would work in their children's schools to recreate what they had experienced with me. Some of these will be leaders of education, and it is certain that schools will change when our students in turn make this sort of vow. In systemic theory, it is advised that the whole school adopt the method. Authority over a class is based on soft power and may be mistaken for loss of control by traditional teachers. The child too may take time to change. Sometimes, children have lost confidence in teachers' desire to genuinely have their interests to heart. It may be that a child doesn't change in the way you hope, but you have to accept the decision the child makes as he or she becomes more self-aware. The children are beginning to create value, and where value is not the school's aim, the value created may be to change certain aspects of the school. If the whole school was systemic, these ideas would be listened to, and a co-operative environment established.

Because the class and the school is part of the wider community, I began to understand that a truly systemic education would involve more than just the school itself. Systemic education is often called sustainable education, and can be an essential part of our attempt to make life on earth more sustainable. As I was beginning to have these thoughts, the SEIN Forum returned, this time discussing the Earth Charter. At the same time, my Head Quarters put on the Earth Charter Exhibition and I took an active part in this. This enlarging of my understanding of the role I might play in the world led me to feel I had a global mission, just as Sensei says! I am in the process of designing a programme for teacher training which I hope will be used throughout both the developing world, where the method can help set up in new schools, and in the first world where changes are also needed for the new world of the future.

Systemic, or sustainable education, is a way to implement Soka education principles and methods within current educational institutions. It can be an instruction manual for how to actualize the happiness of each child.

Buddhism in society through the medium of education, which is the one of the key remits of SGI. Sustainable education will be used as a humanistic method of education which creates collaborative learning for the modern world, and just as soft power has taken over from hard power practices, systems theory will become increasingly accepted in the mainstream. This type of method also can serve well in places where Soka schools are not yet an option, and can be introduced immediately by Buddhist educators wherever they may work. It has academic credence and is secular, although based on Buddhist principles. For the individual teacher, using the systemic method in the classroom transforms the attitude of the students and makes teaching a joy once more.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.

Restoring the Human Connection in Education Synopsis

Volume V, Issue 4

Seeking to Build A Community of Life Through Humanistic Education

Fall Online Forum V: Restoring the Human Connection in Education Synopsis

Forum V was the best forum we have ever had. A discussion burst into the many facets of dialogue -- what is it, methods, Eastern and Western, Buddhist concepts. There were subsequent wonderful transformations of understanding both mutual and individual and a collaboration of what we need to do on the task of helping Sensei develop Buddhist humanism. Essentially, we can use the same principle of polishing ourselves and helping others in value-creating education while at the same time helping to create the dialogical civilization Sensei envisions.

Perhaps stimulated by understanding this vision of a 'dialogical civilization' --fostering mutual understanding through dialogue and enabling the human dignity of all to shine, we asked ourselves a lot of questions, recognizing that teaching dialogue in such a world as ours is not easy. We looked at debate vs dialogue, the art of dialogue and recognized how hard it is for us to shed bad habits, let alone our students! We discussed what is dialogue and looked at our own quality of dialogue, how others perceive dialogue, methods of dialogue/dialogue skill development, Buddhism and dialogue skills, different concepts of dialogue in the West and the East, and we coined a new phrase: “value-creating dialogue,”

We shared from our personal experiences ways we have restored the human connection in ourselves. One teacher, reported her experience at a unique college community that teaches holistic science and deep ecology where she learned to listen to trees. “We, a group of educators from around the world, walked for hours through a wild forest and were encouraged to let the trees, moss and rocks touch us (yes, they touched us). We came out weeping, because we had experienced a profound dialogue with the forest and sadness about the troubling state our Planet is in at the moment (the most knowledgeable scientists are now saying climate change is irreversible). “This reconnect to the world certainly is an example of a connection being restored. She continued, “Because of this recent experience I have realized that the most important thing to teach young people is how to reconnect with nature and how to develop gratefulness and to be happy. Becoming a responsible citizen will follow automatically.”

Another, in Israel, finds ideas on mutual interdependence, and teaching people to develop solidarity with the human race, a very helpful starting point in his Earth Charter meetings. Since there is no SGI organization in Israel, they find these activities a way to reach people's hearts. In the last few months, he has been privileged to learn a little about the traditions of dialogue in both the Jewish and Muslim faiths.

Sometimes dialogue is not the answer in such matters as nuclear disarmament. We should follow Sensei's guidance and use the analysis by the philosopher French André Comte-Spomville about the four domains, and focus our attention on the second domain, legal-political. Awareness campaigns are very important, but not enough. We need to raise human beings who will create good laws and protect these laws. This we must do to eliminate nuclear weapons. So we need to help improve the quality of the people quality in these professions. Personal human revolution (which includes, today, the ability to have deep dialogue) is required to have the caliber of people who can write the correct laws. “Without the qualitative elevation of individual human beings, neither social transformation nor the creation of a more positive society is possible. While this may seem obvious, reliance on organizations and the submersion of the individual into the group is a failing all too common in human history.”

To do this we discussed raising capable people. The SGI can certainly make a contribution as an NGO through lobbying and we as members can support that. However as educators we need to support children in discovering the sanctity of life and to develop an awe and appreciation for life as well. Through Soka Education we can achieve the 'qualitative elevation of individual human beings' that Sensei is talking about. Rousseau was a big proponent of this kind of teaching as Sensei has mentioned so often.

Our teacher's intent matters. This intent to awaken the full potential of the human beings under your care is a matter which has tremendous power. You don't have to teach disarmament or awareness of nature (your passion is your passion after all) to be effective in helping the world become a safer and more interconnected place. We need to increase the power of that intent -- both in terms of life condition and in terms of faith - that our intent matters. One educator from Nigeria reminded us that the effects of being sincere are wonderful. To be well connected to others is to sincerely care for them from the depths of our lives.

We had a third week where we broke out into academic, teaching and community education sections and the dialogue continued. Again it was a milestone on how great dialogue can be. We started off asking this point from the Peace Proposal: "We need a fundamental reconfiguration of our world view if we are to move away from nuclear proliferation and toward disarmament. The crucial element is to ensure that we are rooted firmly in a consciousness of the unity of the human family. When our thinking is reconfigured around a sense of human solidarity, even the most implacable difficulties will not cause us to condone the use of force. Without this kind of shift, it will be difficult to extract ourselves from the quagmire logic of deterrence, which is rooted in mistrust, suspicion and fear."

In the academic section we talked about interconnectedness especially between teacher and student and that education today forbids this very thing. Compassion is vital to overcome this atmosphere and compassionate intent is the way we can influence our environment. Implementing the principle of the oneness of life and its environment, we can, like Nichiren in “On Establishing the Correct Teaching,” influence this toxic environment in education and restore our connection with life in our community.

We understood the power of stories that connect with the local culture and native soil; of the link between “restore” and “myo.” We discussed what we meant by “mind.” What is it? As we teach how do we reach it? What is the link between mind and nature, do we define mind as psyche or spirit. We discussed mind meaning life, mind meaning “kanjin” (observing one's mind), and the definition of ichinen sanzen as life force. We also discussed the relationship between the three realms and the ten worlds, ten factors – self, society, environment and the Greek ideas of Mind being holistic.

We looked at the Western idea of analysis as a path to understanding and discovery but which can blind a person to the three realms and the true reality of life. We also looked at how that happened – the double bind between the Western fear of the East yet parts of the West were actually created by many of the ideas of the East. Finally "Since human life encompasses biological, cognitive and social dimensions, human rights should be respected in all three of these dimensions," was a way to grasp the value of the Three Realms of ichinen sanzen and the role it can play in education.

We learned deeply about the importance of stories, learning from a Hawaiian participant about the way she uses stories to reconnect her people back to their culture. We could create stories to connect people to the global community. The Human Revolution and New Human Revolution are great eternal stories. We could broaden creating stories within the framework of this Buddhist humanism movement.

Teachers expressed the urgency of introducing teaching methods based on dialogue and interconnectedness which was made apparent by disasters such as 9/11 and the subsequent wars. The teaching of the future needs to be international and global in outlook, respecting each community as it is, and using dialogue skills to form relevant education programs for different areas and cultures. Teachers can be an important refuge from violence in the lives of young people and can show real care for young people and model compassion for other human beings in acts such as providing food for poorer children. Programs such as the SGI-USA Victory over Violence (VOV) initiative can help young people develop self awareness. Earth Charter and UNESCO, University of the United Nations were also places to go for learning about sustainability education. SEIN can provide a site with materials for global education for teachers in the future.

We spoke about the importance of the impact of Soka Education entering communities as is happening in Brazil and Hawaii; about VOV exercises where students become more aware of passive violence, how it fuels physical violence and ways they can take action to change this. The Mottos of VOV: value own life, respect all life, inspire hope and courage in others can be important part of value creating education.

We described the shock of violence of 9/11 from both sides – effect on U.S. and realization by others that Americans did not realize what everyone else knew – that people did not like the U.S. government and its policies. That the U.S. has shifted the world back to "hard power." Education is going in the wrong direction as Norman Cousins said: "The great failure of education. ….is that it has made people tribe-conscious rather than species-conscious." This life state is without control "World of Anger, self-perception of people in this life state of anger expands and swells until the ocean deeps would only lap their knees....It becomes a matter of no concern to harm or even kill others trivialized in this way." That is the internal result and the external result is: “It is this state of mind that would countenance the use of nuclear weapons; it can equally be seen in the psychology of those who would advocate the use of such hideously cruel weapons . . .People in such a state of life are blinded, not only to the horrific suffering their actions wreak but also to the value of human life."

These are all ways to reconfigure thinking toward a consciousness of the unity of the human family. Sensei says, "Dialogue is both an end and a means to human understanding. In dialogical communication we engage others as different but equal. We try to enter their world of meaning through an open-ended process of communication and exploration. In dialogue, we change through mutual appreciation, sympathy, and empathy. This is not the easiest method of human communication, but it is the most fruitful. That is why dialogue is the most meaningful path to negotiating a new global civilization based on the contributions of all past human civilizations."

We ended the forum on a deep discussion about our relationship to fundamental darkness, probably the crux of everything we had already discussed. One way fundamental darkness was defined was as being so close to us and such a part of us that we can not see it. We asked the reason why it is so difficult to have an open dialog sometimes, not just because we can't connect with the person but because we can't see that nature in ourselves. So we need others to recognize our own fundamental darkness. Sensei asks us to join together through dialogue, eliminate needless suffering, and create peace. In this way, he has challenged us to broaden and deepen our state of life. Perhaps part of the function of fundamental darkness is that winning over it makes us stronger and more understanding of what people suffer. Enlightenment means the power to see past present and future, of expedient means, of infinite wisdom, and to bring all humankind to enlightenment. We possess this inside our life but have not yet manifested it all. There are stages and gateways to this state of life that we don't understand but that a deep seeking spirit helps to discover them, and a deepening connection to the heart of Nichiren and Sensei, will get us there. Not all fundamental darknesses are the same because we come from different cultures. So we can aspire to the deep compassion of Nichiren and the three Soka Gakkai presidents who are able to reach so many people from so many cultures and eternally. The critical point is the depth of our faith.

Do we ever permanently overcome fundamental darkness? Fundamental darkness - greed, anger, and foolishness/stupidity are causes which are at the crux of nuclear weapons. We went back and forth on this using gosho quotes and guidance from Sensei and ultimately agreed that fundamental darkness remains latent but still there when we are fully awakened and enlightened.

Let's polish our lives and help others both within the SGI and in our professions. And when we meet again in the spring, let's have another wonderful discussion and report our findings of putting this into practice in daily life. Polishing ourselves and helping others – this paradigm – a Buddhist humanistic value creating paradigm. Teaching this paradigm is what will restore the human connection so desperately needed. Deepening our own seeking spirit and awakening a fresh determination to help others to do the same -- is the way to help create the dialogical civilization with Sensei.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka Educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.

Seeking to Build a Community of Life through Humanistic Education

Volume V, Issue 3

SGI-USA 2007 Culture Department Conference:

Together with our Mentor – Launching a New Era of Humanism and Victory

Reflections by Stephanie Tansey

The members of the SGI-USA Culture Department gathered together with other members of the Culture Department July 20-23, 2007 to renew our pledge to fulfill our mission to “jump in with the people, protect and fight for them.” The SGI-USA Culture Department consists of Academic, Education, Legal and Medical Arts. There is now a separate Arts Division.

We understood again how vital it is to produce and become promising, capable and compassionate people equipped with faith and intellect for the development of our country, and towards the development of Buddhist humanism. The Culture Department can help us to help one another become courageous and wise people brimming with hope based on Nichiren Buddhism.

We also recognized that we all need to study Buddhism more deeply and seriously than ever before and to become profoundly capable in our respective professions, so that we can become leaders in our fields. Masao Yokota, former director of the Culture Department and now president of the Boston Research Center, gave the keynote study lecture on how we as individuals can nurture a culture of Buddhist humanism around us. The development of Buddhist humanism will take courage, wisdom and patience he said. The meaning of culture is to cultivate a way of life without greed, anger or ignorance. So to create the culture of humanism based on Buddhism we have to develop our own capacity. How can we uncover our own capacity? By developing our compassion for others. This is the basis of Buddhist practice and so it is the basis of the Buddhist humanism we are developing.

We have to become self-reliant and independent but at the same time connected in the depths of our lives. Mr. Yokota gave an example in biomimicry and showed how we can learn from nature. Scientists poured nutrient rich water on the bark of a tree that was robust and they discovered the water many trees away in a tree that needed it. In this way we can see the lifestate of bodhisattva that all life possesses he said. Humans are a very young and aggressive species but we will learn to be like this. We have many ethnic groups, cultures, ideas, but we are all common mortals and possess the lifestate of bodhisattva and so can develop a harmony among all the different groups. This harmony is the foundation of the just, sustainable and peaceful global civilization we are creating.

We do not have to travel to be a great global citizen. We can have the same influence if we develop awareness in our local community that such a future is possible in this deep and anxious time. It is essential to have the courage to appreciate our differences and engage in open dialogue with an open mind.

There is no need to manipulate dialogue, because then it is not dialogue. Creating the relationship that enables the other person to want to practice by his/her own initiative is real shakubuku and real dialogue. With you as the good friend, this person will learn to practice and study independently, discover his/her mission through the development of faith, and support and benefit from the spread of Buddhist humanism. In this way shakubuku can continue to be a joyful activity and deeply rewarding for everyone. It becomes as natural as waves in the ocean and you will naturally create the meaningful and right words to share with others.

Mr.Yokota went on to explain that Shakyamuni never gave monthly lectures or sermons. No one sent out calendars about lecture dates! People were attracted to him because of the power of his enlightened compassion. He taught one to one and life-to-life. Let’s go back to the life of a Buddha. People are attracted to those who really practice.

A healthy mentor disciple connection is only possible if the disciple is inspired to choose the mentor Mr. Yokota stressed. Nikko Shonin chose the Daishonin. Josei Toda chose Mr. Makiguchi. Daisaku Ikeda chose Mr. Toda. This is a deeply motivated and inspired act of choosing. All of us can develop this deep motivation and inspiration through a natural and correct practice. Then we can be the example for others as well.

Mr. Yokota especially admires President Ikeda’s “go for broke” spirit – the spirit that “I am 32 years old” spirit. Never giving up. Never staying back. After one success he start the plans for the next. The foundation of faith lies in seeing the cause and effect in our lives. The cause comes from your voice, from your encouraging voice. From the deeper awareness of the value of cause in your intent. It is important that you create depth-of-life causes so you enjoy the right and powerful effects. This is how to become capable and a leader in your field.

In this way Buddhist humanism will gradually develop, through our own skill at dialogue and the development of our personal integrity as a human being.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.

How Do We Create Value As Soka Educators

SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
Volume V, Issue 2
Seeking to Build a Community of Life through Humanistic Education

SEIN Online Forum IV:
May 28-June 25, 2007.

In Forum IV we centered on the perspective of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging and Soka education. The practice of deeply respecting others is at the heart of Buddhist practice but we don’t always know how to create value with it as educators. Our discussion certainly helped us deepen our practice as well as see how to deepen relationships with students, the educational community and the world around us. What began as a forum became a reconnection to the BNP in each of us, to Sensei, and a deep respect for one another and for our network of educators.

President Ikeda writes, "Nichiren Daishonin indicates that respecting others, as exemplified by the actions of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging (BND) constitutes the foundation of the practice of the Lotus Sutra and that to conduct shakubuku is to carry on the practice of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. Hence the fundamental significance of shakubuku naturally lies in respecting others. On that premise, the Daishonin teaches us that treating others with respect in everything we do, not just while practicing shakubuku is the correct way for human beings to behave." (WofNDW, 149)

The Practice of Respecting Others and Applications in Daily Life
We discussed the cold reality of the school environment where we act as humanely as we can, knowing we are affecting society in the long term. One participant, to respect fully each student and other people she meets at the school, is her primary focus. The effect is her students develop greater self-esteem, self-confidence, and a sense of having a role to play, a mission.

Another said her constant efforts to be Bodhisattva Never Disparaging in her job every day enables her to survive. She finds the young people lack social skills and interpersonal skills needed to work and live happily and harmoniously together. She now demonstrates how to apologize. Another noticed students respond to his sincere respect of the dignity of each student.

We began to see that there might be different effects from deeper levels of respect for the other. Buddhist respect is perhaps really believing that the life of that mixed up nasty bully kid is itself part of kosen rufu. Respect for yourself also seems to lie in this trust.

Being the master of your mind and not letting your mind master you is really important. Recognize what and whom you disparage. One participant realized that she disparages whole institutions! Once she began to correct herself, her life got incredibly fortunate.
Another participant cleaned out her disparagement and this resulted in her husband being able to recognize disparagement and realize the importance of Buddhist practice.

This personal sharing led to a focus on Gandhi’s power of truth and humanity as the prevailing force in people’s hearts. Tower of the authorities is based on hate and violence and could only remain animalistic power. To fight against this problem by simply succumbing to one's animalistic urge to use violence would provide no fundamental solution. Instead, he taught people to arm themselves with the lofty power of truth and humanity, telling them that, ultimately, there is no stronger weapon."

Sensei writes that Gandhi said if he was to be reborn, he hoped it would be as an untouchable, so that he might understand and share their sadness and suffering, and the insult and scorn they must bear, and then save them. Nichiren himself was born into such a low class family and we must fuse with his conduct and behavior, and his struggle for human rights. Let us consider how we even more strongly stand up in a way that empowers our students.

Gandhi or Makiguchi did not look at their time in prison as sacrifice. Gandhi, Makiguchi, and Toda turned prison into a place where they deepened their conviction and life condition. There have been times when we feel in prison in a classroom. We can be like them.
One participant sees herself bowing to others as BND as they enter and now sees that the life changes begin immediately! Everyone is looking for happiness and joy in their lives.

The world is full of people who consciously or unconsciously like being in power and people who feel superior and people who feel inferior. We need to become independent, to hold our life in our own hands, and help others to do the same, as quickly as possible. This is "real respect." Mr. Saito has said that our practice in the 21st century should be that of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. Also that BNP was not only respectful but was also full of common sense! He didn't just stand around while people threw stones at him but made sure he was at a safe distance while showing his respect for his detractors. So this does not mean blind respect. It means perceiving the person’s fundamental darkness as well as their Buddha nature.

Applications in the profession of education; in helping students use respect as a value in an Information Age faced with a violent world where people fight over scarce resources, the environment desperately needs people to take responsibility, and where hypocritical and cynical values pervade public policy.

The key skills in education must include learning to live with uncertainty, instability and insecurity. Because we live in a time of transition, there must be courageous people who are willing to take the first step and live with uncertainty. This is definitely true in the realm of nuclear disarmament. Students need to have the basics of personal integrity to survive.

How do we help students use respect as a value?

Buddhism says that we have three inherent potentials of the Buddha nature -the innate Buddha nature, the wisdom to perceive it, and the good deeds, or Buddhist practice, to develop this wisdom and cause the Buddha nature to emerge. Good deeds aid the development of wisdom, and the developed wisdom realizes the innate Buddha nature. These three causes interact to enable one to attain Buddhahood. Helping students perceive their great potential, see how creating value leads to greater wisdom and fortune, and to develop a seeking mind, this is the polishing of the self.

This new Self can challenge authoritarian, animalistic power by a deep belief in the power of truth and humanity. This new Self will fight for human rights and against fundamental darkness for oneself and for humanity. We cannot really fight injustice in conference rooms, in the courts, or in the classroom. We need this stronger Self that can emerge in our students if we teach in a way that empowers.

This will take developing deeper levels of respect for others, our selves. Emulating BNP better and better, like the principle of the Body and Shadow, students will also make such changes in their lives. Schools of course reflect our society, so what we do in school will affect society in return!

How do we help students gain this courage? Sensei says we must give serious consideration to the Daishonin’s conduct and behavior and to his struggle for human rights. It is the teachers who need to have courage in order to transmit it to the students. Every student, Buddhist or not, has a mission - they are the lock and we are the key. We can help students by relating our own personal experiences.

The Courage of Self Respect
One participant struggled with this in the spring term, trying to pull that self respect out of some students who were trying to coast to the finish line/graduation day. He said this forum and BNP was a big help in reminding me about the attitude. He was very pleasantly surprised at how well and how proudly they finished the term.

People didn't respect BND but that wasn't because he didn't respect himself. He was telling them that all people are Buddhas, and they couldn't believe it or were afraid. We have had similar experience with students, who are cynical because they associate/confuse self-respect with power. Even those students who come from educated, professional and sometimes very well-off parents.

Many adult students when they have to deal with their teacher show two possible opposite behaviors: either challenging or submissive. When they challenge our knowledge in order to satisfy their curiosity or even better their desire to learn more, this can be a wonderful opportunity. The difficult situation comes up when, at their age, they search only for teacher's confirmation, without any interest in learning. Then we must divert from the lesson to help the individual student gain confidence and independence. It is amazing how even a course on the Italian language can become a tool to help any human being to create value in their lives.

The Courage to Develop Non-Violent Power
We can begin with students’ own relationships in the classroom, the discriminations, the putdowns, the power struggles. We can show them that these are the real issues that adults face, as well. You can discuss how to perceive in yourself when you use authoritarian power and when you use the power of dialogue.

Montessori talks about all the ways in which "educators" by their reward and punishment systems, and domination of classrooms, have alternately created docile students and competitive ones, who will go to war as adults simply because they have been told to do so and have no true sense of their own identity or justice. So teachers need to be aware of that the environment in schools is not conducive to creating this change, so we must do it ourselves, in our own classrooms.

Montessori had such great breakthroughs with young children learning by being able to touch objects and learn via feel and do (take Action.) We have since discovered that movement when very young relates directly to brain development. Perhaps we can couple Montessori methods with the tools for developing respect and courage.

Certainly there are many reasons to be pessimistic. These reasons must not be rejected or overlooked and cannot be wished away. They must, however, be dealt with. The challenge must be accepted.

How to Teach Respect as an Important Value?
A common problem among students is their inability to trust and respect their fellow students. Part of this problem lies on the academic curriculum worldwide that does not provide enough opportunities to students to socialize well. So we must fill this gap.

Get to know the individual student you are teaching. That way you know what is in it for him or her. How might their lives be helped by learning to respect themselves, to respect others. How might they be changed? What are their personal dreams? One educator asked one student what his goal was in the history course? He said to get an "F". And he was not being facetious. That was the only possibility he could see. She suggested they set the goal of "D" which is one step higher. He ended up getting a "C" which delighted him.

Encourage classroom atmospheres where students understand that it takes many different abilities to get a job done! Encourage students to reply to others ideas with “yes ands” instead of “no.” Speak to students about ways in which they enslave each other and also about actions/words with friends where at some point you've stepped over a line to destroy a friendship. Ask people to open their minds in this way.

We need tools to be able to confront power with dignity. Self-mastery is such a tool. President Ikeda says that when we are young we should construct our Self. One participant founded a school in China, and had a policy of never saying to a student, "What you did was wrong," but instead asked, "Was this the right thing to do?" because they wanted him/her to think about it and to build their own instinct for rightness and wrongness. In this way they could develop a strong sense of personal integrity.

Makiguchi said that when students finish high school we should examine and think about their strengths and weaknesses, including character. Encourage them to choose projects to fix weaknesses. If they discover they never consider others, for example, they can decided to do activities that enable them to deepen their compassion -- church charities; youth support programs, literature, arts, etc.

We should show them the power of respect – by telling the stories of great people who used dialogue and deep respect to change the world, from the stories of Nichiren, Ikeda, Gandhi, Jesus, Mohammed, Eleanor Roosevelt, Wangari Mattai, we have many to choose from. These stories can imbed valuable life lessons. If we really want to build this capability – educators need to look at the power of respect in the same way we teach math, English, science in students for their lives.

As SGI Buddhists we need to remember that the value of relationship is the most important thing. The poison drum effect refers to the connection a person develops with Buddhism even when strongly opposed to it. This connection enables people to eventually become enlightened. However, this is not the same thing as antagonizing people we are trying to help by ourselves being dogmatic ourselves. When we stop listening to other people and stop respecting them, we are no longer in the state of bodhisattva. Such disparagement creates no value of course. One participant has learned that disagreements do not have to come between relationships with others.

Arum Gandhi, the grandson of Gandhi said sometimes you have to realize and emphasize that your love for each other, or your relationship, is more important than your disagreement and simply agree to respect that you each have very different views. This helped me learn to embrace others without feeling like I have to challenge their opinion or change their mind.

Collaborative Projects
Another educator gave an example. She taught a required course in modern drama to second-year students in the Department of English at the University of Cyprus, in Nicosia. Requirements for this course include a group presentation and she suggested organizing a performance in lieu of group presentations. The first reaction was negative because students were afraid that they would not be able to meet the performance demands nor to collaborate with others. The performance consisted of videos, music, a scene from Brecht's Mother Courage, poetry reading and live music performed by Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot students. The performance title was "Why we imagine." The theme of the performance was "war and peace" and it began with John Lennon's "Imagine." One student said, “We learned that when people are devoted to contributing to the world, then all the obstacles, barriers, problems and difficulties disappear. Through our group work, we learned that between people there must be no space for negative feelings like anger or bitterness. We now see the obstacles and problems that we face in everyday life as challenges that make our life more exciting and interesting. We are ready now to face any obstacle because we now know that impossible is nothing. Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small people that fear to face the obstacles and challenges of life." Another: “We cooperated; we learned things about one another, things and abilities which were hidden inside each one of us during those two years. I managed to see clearly that some of my fellow students are actually worth knowing people and I can now trust them more easily."

Teaching students to trust each other through collaborative projects is creating a model for a just and sustainable global community. The Bodhisattva does not act as a catalyst on people's individuality but addresses their Buddha nature; thus he is not superior to them but believes in their capacity to bring forth, from within themselves, the power of Buddhahood. This power is a larger awareness of themselves within their own environment. This is also the awareness of the great multitude of bodhisattvas who "limitlessly draw forth fundamental life force and wisdom from the world of the Mystic Law."

The method of teacher-mentor in SGI Buddhism is that of one-on-one dialogue yet the ultimate direction of this dialogue is to produce a "chain reaction of joy" and "transmitting to others." [1] The parable of the Eagle Peak offers an example of how to produce a "chain reaction of joy" by finding creative ways to engage students in collaborative projects that place them simultaneously in the position of teacher and student within their environment. Performance projects and cultural events involving active student participation offer a training of expedient means and develop the students' creative and dialogue skills through problem solving. When these activities are linked with a larger vision, such as peace, the value of the project has regional, as well as international impact in that it enhances the students' respect for their environment regionally and internationally, forging a strong sense of respect for themselves and for others.

Disarmament, Dialogue and UN Reform and Youth Reorienting Education Towards Education for Sustainable Development
One participant wrote that it is an enormous step from the individual's personal sphere of influence to the bureaucratic organization of the UN. Inspired by the Seeds of Change Exhibition, she promotes the Earth Charter at all levels, in teaching art and design, helping colleagues to find ways to integrate it into their subject areas (from health and social studies to computing), inspiring the senior management to use it in their vision to become a sustainable college and encouraged the wider University to endorse it which they eventually did. She feels the Earth Charter will give young people a positive vision of how humanity can work together to ensure a sustainable future and that it is a first step in engaging young people with the values that underpin the UN. She feels her success, because she is a part-time lecturer without real status or influence, is because she chanted to get out of her comfort zone and to start to make friends with everyone around me without having any prejudice and in the spirit of BND. She made amazing friends. It is all about getting past your comfort zone -- bowing and connecting to the life of the other person.

The reorientation of education as a whole towards sustainability involves all levels of formal, non-formal, and informal education in all countries. The concept of sustainability encompasses the environment but also poverty, health, food security, democracy, human rights and peace. Sustainability is, in the final analysis, a moral and ethical imperative in which cultural diversity and traditional knowledge need to be respected.

We said that this type of education, to be most effective, should start with young children. They can begin to experience and live it in the classroom, so by the time they reach universities, they will be accustomed to thinking in terms of sustainability.

Framework for BNP Teaching Principles
Education for Sustainable Development is a great way to get at the values of a just and sustainable global community, which is the goal of the Earth Charter. President Ikeda has said that the Earth Charter is the Rissho Ankoku Ron of the present. You can really see the quality of facing power with dignity within the Earth Charter and, I can see that we could locate the methodology of how could help students master the ability to face power with dignity in the context of education for sustainable development.

Coupled with the need to help the individual student to gain confidence and independence, the need for respect to be passed around, our certainty that students will make a contribution to society, the principle of body and shadow, developing our self respect, believing in the poison drum principle - that everyone is moving towards the light, working on collaboration in the classroom, and encouraging self mastery --we have some very important teachable principles.

Polishing the self. Helping students develop a seeking mind, to perceive their great potential, of seeing how to create value for themselves and the worlds, that this leads to wisdom, and good fortune. We now can help them, through this self mastery, face power with dignity and start to change authoritarian, animalistic power and move them to develop a deeper belief in the power of truth and humanity. Students can fight for human rights and against fundamental darkness, using the power of dialogue, based on an inherent power of respect and courage.

On educator, who is designing a major conference said that its mission reflects the questions we are raising at the forum:
“The key skills for students in the twenty-first century will be the ability to deal with complexity, uncertainty, and insecurity. Education for Sustainable Development includes peace education, citizenship and global awareness, environmental integrity and human rights. This ability must draw upon the whole spectrum of issues pertaining to sustainability, emphasizing especially issues such as personal attitudes, empathy, respect for difference, support for the civil society and its institutions, and the promotion of civil awareness and social justice.”

Many educators from various backgrounds are finding ways to teach sustainable thinking. Now if we network with these educators, and work out our own best practices, we can begin to create change.

At some point this intricate web of complexity that is holding us hostage has to give way, so that we can move to a whole new way of living. It's as if we are gathering the key strands that are holding up the web, and when we detach them, the web will come down. And we can't be afraid.

So the world, and the nations on it, is already changing towards a global, collaborative perspective and this new educational philosophy will change the character of education. From a competition to humanitarian competition – just as Makiguchi predicted.

Education, the Fourth Power
What is wonderful about this forum is that we see how the right people can make the Internet and technology work for them instead of the other way around, as Ikeda said, Internet with a human face.

As Soka Educators International Network we are using our own life-sized paradigms to forge bows of commitment, using this online technology. President Ikeda writes that the effort to overcome the coldness and indifference in our own lives and attain the same state of compassion as the Buddha is the essence of human revolution. Dig beneath your feet and you will find a spring there. Thus it is doubt that stops a child or an adult from becoming truly strong and wise. We are fortunate to have Ikeda Sensei as a mentor and he really counts on us to make our contribution in the place where we are.

Ikeda Sensei spoke about Education, the Fourth Power in 1969. Perhaps we can take this up in a future forum. It would certainly help us understand more completely the vision of Daisaku Ikeda and help us help students get there. We could develop our practical BNP principles and applications into something that would help establish that power.

Self and Other, Body and Shadow
Sensei speaks about "Freedom and Discipline" and recounts the story of a trainer and his dogs and how if he was angry about something in his life, he could cancel the day’s training because if he really got angry and scolded a dog, the dog he knew would just have contempt for him and this would end any hope of training that dog. The one being trained is in a sense a mirror in which the one doing the training is reflected, an indispensable partner. Ikeda compared this to the forging and fostering of character through education. This self and other relationship is deeply related to related to Soka education.

Self requires the existence of other. We cannot engage with others in an effective and productive manner if we lack the inner tension, the will and spiritual energy to guide and control our emotions. It is by recognizing that which is different from and external to ourselves, sensing the resistance it offers, that we are inspired to exercise the self-mastery
that brings our humanity to fruition. To lose sight of the other is thus to undermine our full experience of self."

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi did his Value Theory based on Sakyamuni’s Hoben chapter teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha is one who opens, shows, awakens and helps another enter. After the teacher bodhisattva gives the student the confidence and respect, the student can then find the way to open their gateway to Buddha hood.

Sensei believes that “there is a kind of progressive "root-rot" eating away at the depths of people's understanding of what it means to be human--how we define ourselves and how we relate to those different from us. In a world trapped in cycles of terrorism and military reprisal, I feel it is vital to put the scalpel to the corrupt roots from which the spiritual malaise of our era stems. Only by mustering the courage to do this will we be able to breathe again the liberating winds of hope." Peace Proposal 2004

“I believe we need to talk with students about what it means to be human. In recent years, the behavior of some young people has seemed completely out of sync with conventional understandings of "common sense." This acting out of these young people should be seen as symptomatic of the erosion of the educative function of society as a whole, and of a pervasive loss of the spiritual tautness that is born from the distinct encounter of self and other. I think the self-destructive behavior of young people can best be understood as a dire warning about the general health of society. Their greater sensitivity renders them more vulnerable to the toxins of modern life, similar to the canaries traditionally placed in coal mines whose distress would indicate the presence of poisonous gases.” Peace Proposal 2004

"From the start of the industrial revolution, modern civilization has been on a trajectory of fevered advance, served by the tools of scientific rationalism. The driving force has been the untrammeled pursuit of desire, the limitless inflation of the superficial self. Nothing manifests this more fiercely than nuclear weapons, which embody the willingness to hold the right to live of all people on Earth hostage to the predominance and security concerns of certain countries. They epitomize a civilization dedicated to the service of desire, born of the fusion of technological development and military objectives." Peace Proposal 2004

Children are like adults. Adults build arms, nuclear weapons so we Teachers, Parents, Educators, and Students need to unite and dialogue until we really to change the reality. We need to start with a focus in Nuclear Weapons together Ikeda Sensei did since 8:15 morning of the August 6, 1945. If all Soka Educators focus on this, like an Alliance, this will help UN and support Sensei’s Education 4th Power. We need to do our homework and dialogue with students about nuclear weapons and the power of dialogue.

Getting to the root causes and "declawing" of the evil that lies at the heart of nuclear weapons which the society of adults has cast so dark a future for young people. Toda's intent in regard to disarmament was to extract the root evil: the reasoning behind nuclear deterrence, whereby people's fear is aroused, which leads to mistrust and then justification for people arming themselves for their own survival or security. So nuclear disarmament education must be also a key principle to teach students.

We believe our faith in people, the faith that BND held in his respect for people, is something we have to communicate against all odds. Learning to be optimistic is important. We have to move out among people who disagree on this and dialogue.
The time is on our side - or more correctly -- that we are creating the time for humanistic change.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.