by Gene Reeves

A longtime American religious educator--and a lifelong student of the world's religions--describes the profound changes that occurred in his life following his first meeting with Founder Nikkyo Niwano, and how subsequent events led to his lasting deep interest in and knowledge of the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of Rissho Kosei-kai.

On June 8, 1983, Rev. Nikkyo Niwano (left), showing an example of his calligraphy, described the Buddhist teachings to Dr. Gene Reeves at the Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago.

I first met Nikkyo Niwano, the founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, in 1983 in Chicago, at the Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Both Rissho Kosei-kai and Meadville/Lombard had been active members in the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF ), and several Rissho Kosei-kai ministers had studied at Meadville/Lombard over the years. I had recently become the head of the school and Founder Niwano was making his first visit there, to meet me and to become more familiar with the school.

Though I did not know it at the time, this meeting with Founder Niwano was the beginning of a series of events over the next few years which would change my life dramatically.

Twenty years later it is not easy for me to remember details of that meeting with accuracy. But I do remember that Founder Niwano and I had a long conversation in the Curtis Room of the school, a conversation which continued as we toured the Meadville/Lombard library and the campus of the University of Chicago, where the school is located, and I know there were at least four dimensions of that conversation which had a big impact on me, and on my life.

First, I was very much attracted to Niwano personally. He had a very outgoing, friendly, and warm personality. Since he was nearly always smiling, meeting him was a very pleasant experience, and one not easily forgotten. Though he was the head of a very large organization and I was the head of a very small one, he seemed very relaxed and comfortable in that university environment in a foreign country where he did not know the language. It was very easy to like and trust him.

I was also very strongly impressed by Founder Niwano's knowledge of Buddhism. I had studied Buddhism as a college student and taught it as a part of Asian religions classes for many years. Here I am speaking of classical Buddhist teachings, such as the four truths and the eightfold path. What especially impressed me somehow was his very profound understanding of pratitya-samutpada, which I translate into English as "interdependence" or "interdependent becoming." It is not possible to say that there is one central teaching of Buddhism, but this teaching comes close to being that. Founder Niwano's profound understanding of this teaching indicated to me that his teachings, and Rissho Kosei-kai, were deeply rooted in Buddhist traditions going back to ancient India.

The third thing I remember being very powerfully moved by was Founder Niwano's concern about what he called "world peace," but which could readily be seen to have a very broad meaning. The Buddhism I was most familiar with had seemed to me to be lacking in a social dimension. That is, though I had always found Buddhist ideas to be philosophically interesting, it seemed to me that with such a powerful focus on the workings of the mind and the practice of meditation, there was almost no recognition of the fact that the lives of each of us are profoundly affected by the social, economic, and political dimensions of our world. I believed then, as I do now, that the world was in serious trouble--faced not only with the threat of nuclear war, but also with dramatic population growth, poverty, and a growing gap between the rich and the poor, and an increasingly depleted and polluted environment. A religion which had nothing to say about these issues might be helpful to some, I felt, but would never be adequate to the task with which we are faced. Nikkyo Niwano, in our first meeting and through my subsequent reading of several of his writings, showed me a socially relevant Buddhism, what we would later come to call "socially engaged Buddhism." For the first time, I began to see that such a Buddhism might become a much more significant part of my own life.

Finally, I was deeply impressed by Niwano's generous attitude toward other religions. It was not common, especially in those days, to find religious leaders who actually respected the faiths of others. Rather than insisting that Buddhist or Rissho Kosei-kai teachings have all the truth that is needed, he insisted on the necessity of interfaith cooperation for the sake of world peace. Because he was aware of the problems of the world and profoundly concerned about human well-being, he was not merely tolerant toward other religious traditions, he adopted a very positive attitude of learning from them, of interacting with them in dialogue, and of cooperating with them so that the whole world might be healed.

The next summer, in 1984, the Congress of the International Association for Religious Freedom was held at the headquarters of Rissho Kosei-kai in Tokyo. On that occasion I had an opportunity to meet and work with a number of Japanese religious leaders, including, briefly, Founder Niwano. Naturally, we talked about the Congress, about the IARF, and about the importance of religions cooperating to work for world peace. We also talked about projects which Meadville/Lombard and Rissho Kosei-kai might undertake together.

About a year later, I received a phone call inviting me to come to Tokyo to give an address at the Great Sacred Hall. It was a kind of appeal for going beyond tolerance to welcome interreligious cooperation. Waiting for my turn to speak, I sat in an anteroom behind the stage with Founder Niwano. While I was intimidated by the size of the audience and the new setting, he remained very calm and friendly.