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Shuten Kato
Soto Zen Buddhism, Japan
Good afternoon to everybody. First of all, I would thank the Community of Sant� Egidio for inviting us here. My name is Shuten Kato. I�m a secretary of Soto Zen Buddhism European Office. On behalf of our General Director, Reverend Sekkei Harada, I would like to express myself about a theme of this meeting. Our Sotoshu already has made a resolution to make our constant effort for realization of true Peace. The most precious significance as human beings is �To live with Buddha�s heart (To live in the world separated from relative recognition)� and to conduct yourself in accordance with the faith. To say in few words what it does mean, Buddha�s heart is to see things as they are, not from a comparative standpoint. Usually we think at peace as the contrary of war, and we consider war the opposite of peace. That is to say we evaluate peace from the standpoint of war and war from the standpoint of peace. Following this way of thinking we are always in a war feeling, because we make war to protect peace or at least we are always prepared for war to maintain peace. There is an ancient saying that say �If we want peace we must prepare war� which seems very reasonable even today. But the point is that if we prepare war we are already in war at least in the attitude of our heart and soon or later we will make war. If we want peace we must prepare peace that means to live in peace and to utilize only peaceful means. To have faith means to believe in peace even if we can not see how it works. When we look back at the 20th century, it marked an enormous advance of the modern civilization. First thing, they arrived to the universe space. The landmark growth of Science and Technology makes the dream of human beings come true one after another, and it brought so many benefits and created plenty of new culture to us on the earth. On the other hand, our human beings also experienced many ravages of war in the 20th century. Both world wars and many crashes of military power were tormenting every nation. Moreover, the growth of Science and Technology developed the nuclear weapons and can take human life in an instant. The environmental pollution and the unbridled development seem to bring the risk of destruction on the earth. Although we say that �The human life is weaker than a dewdrop�, man�s ability to think leads to surprising results of Science Technology. But now, we are tied down to the results achieved by human beings and we fear them ourselves. We wish to welcome the 21st century for the peace of the world and the human beings. But still now, human beings go in the opposite direction starting conflicts against of each nation. And presently, so many peoples are taking fright at the disturbance of the power of military and the oppression of human rights, starvation and poverty. The high economic growth in Japan received rough seas of the depression of the world. As the result of it, the economy hover around the bottom and the bankruptcy of many enterprises follow in rapid succession and bring an uneasiness and unrest to national life. On the other hand, the younger generation asserts only the freedom and the right from the egoistic character. And they slight to discharge their duty and their responsibility. Due to their conditions, some terrible phenomena of the delinquency of the younger generation by their �Snap mind� and the atrocious crime happened in succession are revealing now. As one of the origin, although we are in the material civilization, I think that we ignore the most necessary thing that is the mind problem. Now, we realize fully that the society is watching closely, strictly against the Buddhism. A lot of people criticize Buddhist monks because they seem not to be concerned with social problems but only with ceremonies and religious practice. We have to consider very carefully this kind of criticism and to show everyone that our practice is putting in practice in peace. For religious peoples of today it is impossible to ignore the social conditions and leaving out problems of today�s people. Of course the goal of religious teachings and practice is not to solve all the social problems. But in connection with the problem of peace and war, we must show everyone a concrete path, an effective way to live in peace in our own heart and in our everyday behavior. Sotoshu thinks that the point is not to be pacifist but to be pacific. Someone says that there are wrong wars and right wars, but this is not the point. The point is that war is always a war, and it is not a mean to have peace. If we really are in peace with ourselves and with others, peace will not become war. This is what we must believe and actually carry out first of all in our everyday lifestyle. What is extremely important and serious is that our duty and responsibility should achieve the society. To all the people who hold the suffering and live in the society, we have to open the way to spiritual peace. And we have to lead all the people to realize the real well-ground. We consider that we accomplish our mission as one of the great religious work. Shakyamuni Buddha admonishes to us strictly �Everybody is afraid of violence and everybody is afraid of the death. As we are in line with it, we must not kill and we must not urge somebody to kill�. This is the most observant rule as a Buddhist. Now, we know that many people are suffering from some war and some racial trouble. And many men�s lives have lost and victims are more and more numerous now. We pray for all the people who are killed in the war and wish for all the people recover from suffering as soon as possible. We own jointly the mental pain with their family and the persons concerned. And we express our sympathy for all of them. And we swear sincerely that we never repeat the same fault again. We believe firmly to achieve the peace of the world is to accept each other, to believe each other, to respect each other, to eliminate the oppression and the discrimination under the freedom and the equality, to receive the guidance from the Buddha�s wisdom and the Buddha�s benevolence, to practice the action as a disciple of Buddha who deepens our faith. Inside and outside of Japan, there are some serious situations. The long economic depression days and some wars, some racial troubles, things are by no means reassuring. But, indeed like this time, we learn and act the teaching of Buddha Syakamuni, Zen master Dogen and Keizan through Zazen, to press our hands together in prayer and worship, to listen to Buddha Dharma. We make our thought stronger that we want to carve out a career for the lightened future where we live with Buddha�s heart. We hope to lead a right religious life based on the teaching of Buddha Syakyamuni, Zen master Dogen and Keizan. We aim at the peaceful world where to live together with our consciousness of honorable life, to respect the human rights and the consideration of the environment. We hope to go forward with united efforts. Today, we make a vow here. We pray for the true peace of the world with all of the people.
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