"We can create value at each moment through our responses to our
environment. Depending on our determination and direction, the value
created from any given situation can be positive or negative, minimal or
infinitely great."
The idea of value creation was central to the philosophy of
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944), the founding president of the Soka
Gakkai; the name of the organization in fact means "society for the
creation of value." Makiguchi's profoundly humanist outlook--focused on
human happiness, responsibility and empowerment--lives on in the global
Buddhist humanism of the SGI today.
The terms value and value creation may invite confusion, especially
with the idea of "values" in the sense of a moral standard. Value
indicates that which is important to people, those things and conditions
that enhance the experience of living. As the term is used in the SGI,
value points to the positive aspects of reality that are brought forth
or generated when we creatively engage with the challenges of daily
life.
Value is not something that exists outside us, as something to be
discovered; nor is it a preexisting set of criteria against which
behavior is judged. We can create value at each moment through our
responses to our environment. Depending on our determination and
direction, the value created from any given situation can be positive or
negative, minimal or infinitely great.
Even what may seem at first sight to be an intensely negative
situation--a difficult relationship, financial woes or poor health--can
serve as an opportunity for the creation of positive value. A lifelong
commitment to justice, for example, may arise from an early experience
of having been wronged.
Buddhist practice enhances our ability to see those possibilities, as
well as the vitality, wisdom and persistence to realize them. Because
we live our lives within networks of interrelatedness and
interdependence, the positive value we create for ourselves is
communicated and shared with others. Thus, what started out as the inner
determination of one individual to transform their circumstances can
encourage, inspire and create lasting value within society.
This same progression--from the inner life of the individual to the
larger human community--is seen in Makiguchi's ordering of what he saw
as the essential categories of value: beauty, gain and good. Beauty
indicates esthetic value, the positive sensory response evoked by that
which we recognize as "beautiful." Gain is what we find rewarding, in
the broadest, most holistic sense; it includes but is not limited to the
material conditions that make life more convenient and comfortable.
Good is that which enhances and extends the well-being of an entire
human community, making it a better and more just place for people to
live.
Even prior to his conversion to Nichiren Buddhism in 1928, Makiguchi
believed that the authentic purpose of life was happiness. As his
practice and study of Buddhism deepened, Makiguchi began using the
expression "the life of Great Good" to indicate a way of life dedicated
to the highest value: the well-being of all humankind. This may be
understood as a 20th-century reformulation of the age-old Buddhist ideal
of the compassionate way of the bodhisattva.
It is also important to note that, unlike some of his contemporaries,
Makiguchi rejected the idea that "the sacred" could be a form of value
unto itself, and he asserted that human happiness was the authentic
measure of religion. As he wrote: "Other than freeing people and the
world from suffering, what meaning could there be for the existence of
religion in society? Isn't freeing people from suffering the value of
gain? Isn't freeing the world from suffering the moral value of good?"
The philosophy of value creation is thus a call to action--as we are,
where we are--in the cause of human happiness. It is from the effort to
orient our hearts toward a sublime objective that we gain the wisdom
and energy to shape reality, at each moment, in the most value-creating
ways. As SGI President Ikeda states: "The key to leading a fulfilled
life, free of regrets, is to dedicate ourselves to a cause, a goal that
is larger than us."
Source: http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/creating-value.html
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