Paul Monaco .com

On September 8th, 1957 the second president of the Soka Gakkai Josei Toda made a declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons (Full Text).

As this month marks the 50th anniversary since it’s writing, it has been the focus of many SGI discussion meetings and individual study.

On the surface, this proposal to me seems very feel-good and benign. But the more I read it, the less inclined I am to be a supporter of this document as written.

Josei Toda writes, “I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.”

To me, death without exception goes against one of the basic precepts of all schools of Buddhism, to not kill. It has always been my understanding that fundamentally Buddhist practitioners were against all forms of capital punishment and that ALL LIFE was precious.

Further more, this was written by a man who has in recent history, seen his country devastated by a nuclear attack, and there seems to be a degree of anger in his verbiage. Anger is one of the three poisons so often discussed in this practice and to me further distracts me from the celebration and support of this document as written.

In the spirit of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, I most likely will not bring up these key points in my local discussion meetings, but would love to hear any comments here in this venue.