Author: Timothy Harada Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 0615186858 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 134
Book Description
A semi-autobiographical novel about a punk rock teenager in Wutherington Beach, Southern California. With his punk rock friends, he steals marijuana plants from his neighbor's backyards, smokes them in the group's underground club house, and shop lifts for munchies on a daily basis. However, on one summer afternoon, while trying to hide a large bag of marijuana in his family's apartment's garage, he discovers his dead father's revolutionary book collection. The things he reads in these books open his eyes wide to the nefarious history of the US government and the nefarious nature of their foreign and domestic policy. This awakening causes him to search for other like books, which further awaken him to the need for revolutionary change in his county. However, the more he learns, the more bewildered he becomes, and the more withdrawn he becomes from school and social life, until he is on the brink of total despair. What finally saves him are the books in his father's collection about Buddhism.
Author: Daniel Alfred Metraux Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
The Soka Gakkai Revolution has revived Buddhism in the lives of millions of Japanese, changed the course of Japanese government, brought creative new ideas to the field of education, and impacted the worlds of culture and art. Metraux has written a comprehensive work on this integral actor in Japanese society and politics that analyzes the Soka Gakkai's rise to political power, its participation in the Hosokawa coalition cabinet, its highly publicized split from Nichiren Shoshu, and its plans to transform Japanese society. Also included is a secondary study of the Soka Gakkai movement in the United States. Contents: The Soka Gakkai Revolution: Blueprint for a New Society; The Soka Gakkai: History and Doctrines; The Soka Gakkai and Politics; The Dispute between the Soka Gakkai and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood; The Soka Gakkai's Revolutionary Approach to Education; The Soka Gakkai Abroad; Ikeda Daisaku: Religious Savior or Diabolical Dictator? The Significance of the Soka Gakkai.
Author: Richard Hughes Seager Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 9780520939042 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 278
Book Description
This engaging, deeply personal book, illuminating the search for meaning in today’s world, offers a rare insider’s look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan’s most influential and controversial religious movements, and one that is experiencing explosive growth around the world. Unique for its multiethnic make-up, Gakkai Buddhists can be found in more than 100 countries from Japan to Brazil to the United States and Germany. In Encountering the Dharma, Richard Seager, an American professor of religion trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, travels to Japan in search of the spirit of the Soka Gakkai. This book tells of his journey toward understanding in a compelling narrative woven out of his observations, reflections, and interviews, including several rare one-on-one meetings with Soka Gakkai president Daisaku Ikeda. Along the way, Seager also explores broad-ranging controversies arising from the Soka Gakkai’s efforts to rebuild post-war Japan, its struggles with an ancient priesthood, and its motives for propagating Buddhism around the world. One turning point in his understanding comes as Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai strike an authentically Buddhist response to the events of September 11, 2001.
Author: Isabel Nuñez Publisher: Teachers College Press ISBN: 0807765104 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 273
Book Description
"Introduces educators and scholars to the legacy and import of Daisaku Ikeda as a singular philosopher, educator, and institution-builder, thus enriching current education discourse. In the process, the book illuminates the benefits of cross-cultural research and learning by considering the relevance of Ikeda's thought not only to established streams of pedagogy and practice in the Deweyan tradition but also to emerging trends in education research such as ecocritical education and critical race feminism"--
Author: Daisaku Ikeda Publisher: Middleway Press ISBN: 0977924556 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
From the Japanese word meaning "to create value," this book presents a fresh perspective on the question of the ultimate purpose of education. Mixing American pragmatism and the Buddhist philosophy of respect for all life, the goal of Soka education is the lifelong happiness of the learner. Rather than offering practical classroom techniques, this book speaks to the emotional heart of both the teacher and the student. With input from philosophers and activists from several cultures, it advances the conviction that the true purpose of education is to create a peaceful world and to develop the individual character of each student in order to achieve that goal. This revised edition contains four new chapters that further elaborate on how to unlock self-motivated learning and how to empower the learner to make a difference in their communities and the world.
Author: Levi McLaughlin Publisher: University of Hawaii Press ISBN: 0824877896 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
Soka Gakkai is Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. The religion is best known for its affiliated political party, Komeito (the Clean Government Party), which comprises part of the ruling coalition in Japan’s National Diet, and it exerts considerable influence in education, media, finance, and other key areas. Levi McLaughlin’s comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its institutional development beyond Buddhism and suggest how we should understand the activities and dispositions of its adherents. McLaughlin explores the group’s Nichiren Buddhist origins and turns to insights from religion, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies to characterize Soka Gakkai as mimetic of the nation-state. Ethnographic vignettes combine with historical evidence to demonstrate ways Soka Gakkai’s twin Buddhist and modern humanist legacies inform the organization’s mimesis of the modern Japan in which the group took shape. To make this argument, McLaughlin analyzes Gakkai sources heretofore untreated in English-language scholarship; provides a close reading of the serial novel The Human Revolution, which serves the Gakkai as both history and de facto scripture; identifies ways episodes from members’ lives form new chapters in its growing canon; and contributes to discussions of religion and gender as he chronicles the lives of members who simultaneously reaffirm generational transmission of Gakkai devotion as they pose challenges for the organization’s future. Readers looking for analyses of the nation-state and strategies for understanding New Religions and modern Buddhism will find Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution to be an especially thought-provoking study that offers widely applicable theoretical models.
Author: Daisaku Ikeda Publisher: Middleway Press ISBN: 1946635502 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 96
Book Description
“Wisdom and compassion are intimately linked and mutually reinforcing.Compassion in Buddhism does not involve the forcible suppression ofour natural emotions, our likes and dislikes. Rather, it is the realization thateven those whom we dislike have qualities that can contribute to our livesand can afford us opportunities to grow in our own humanity.”—Daisaku IkedaPeace lies along the path of humanity's growth and inner transformation. With this as a major theme, Daisaku Ikeda offers fresh insights and new ways of thinking in each of his seven US university lectures collected in A New Way Forward.These explorations on the power of dialogue, the interdependence of all life, the importance of developing in one's character the attributes of wisdom, courage, and compassion, and other topics, stir the heart and mind and lead to the inevitable conclusion that each individual holds the key to a lasting peace.
Author: Anwarul K. Chowdhury Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1786735709 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
The culture of peace and non-violence is essential to human existence, development and progress. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the norm-setting, forward-looking “Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace”. Governments, institutions, NGOs, other civil society entities and, in particular, individuals – all are encouraged therein to contribute to the global movement for the culture of peace. Related to this vision, this rich and varied dialogue discusses how the culture of peace can be achieved in the world. Based on the extensive personal and professional experiences of two high-profile thinkers and activists, they analyse the challenges unfolding at local, national and global levels and how these relate to humanity's quest for peace, human security and happiness. Although coming from very different positions – one a Buddhist philosopher, educator and leader; the other a UN diplomat renowned for his international work in peace, development and human rights – these interlocutors are united in their search for justice and better quality of life for all and their conviction that women and young people are the most effective means to achieving positive change in the world. The dialogue provides ideas on the key challenges that face our planet: poverty and deprivation, war and violence, nuclear weapons and small arms, climate change and environmental degradation, weak governance and financial crises, marginalization of women and alienation of youth and the relentless drive for materialism. They also invite us to consider how the culture of peace can be practically achieved through an individual, collective and institutional transformation. Recognizing that global citizenship, multilateralism, women's equality and value-creating education are central and inter-linked themes, this dialogue also underscores the inherent strength of spirituality, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, respect for diversity and empowerment that comes from the trials and tribulations of life.