The Human Revolution

At the start of the year I set a lot of ambitious goals for myself. Some of them got invalidated by the pregnancy, but mostly I'm very happy with how my year has progressed. I used to pooh-pooh setting annual goals like this, but I've accomplished a lot of big things in my life by seeing them through. A lot of times with the bigger goals, you can get halfway through something and forget why you wanted to do it, or it will seem impossible. You sort of lose yourself in the middle.

As part of my responsibilities as Region Gajokai Chief, I made it my goal this year to read The Human Revolution. At 2000 pages of historical novelization, sometimes heavy with explanations of logistics and Japanese history, it was difficult. It was also one of the most rewarding reads I've ever had.

It's rare to read something that I can say really changes my life and outlook. I've read a lot of classics of literature that I can say have enriched me and left me feeling great, but even those books virtually never changed me on a fundamental level. They didn't inspire me to want to go out and change the world for a better place. This book did that.

Very briefly, it's the story of the origin and growth of the Soka Gakkai, from 1944 to 1960. Josei Toda, a teacher, publisher, and Buddhist, was jailed during the war for refusing to follow state Shinto. Instead, he opted to be jailed and tortured to keep alive the flame of a sect of Buddhism which virtually no one still cared about. After the war, despite fundamental sickness and poverty, he created and grew an organization 750,000 strong of believers. His chief student (and the serial's author), Daisaku Ikeda, then took the reins and grew the organization to the international religious movement it is today, 13 million strong.

I think it's a rare and wonderful thing to have such a candid and complete history of a religion and its key figures. It candidly describes not just their challenges and successes, but stumblings, doubts, and failures as well. It contains central messages that peace is possible, that every person can grow and change no matter what their past or origin, and that it is all up to us.

I have always been proud to be part of a group that's so empowering and offers its members so much power and opportunity to practice their own Revolution. Having this complete view of its history has strengthened this view. I wish everyone could read this. Particularly, every idealistic youth who is looking to save people from sorrow and yearning to find the best way forward.