Philosophy: Power or humanity?

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You can have both.

The way to do that is to recognize that each of us is both unique, and part of the whole.

Then recognize that causes produce effects.

Then recognize that even though events change, life goes on.

If you just recognize that, it remains a theoretical exercise of little power, the way so many good concepts remain.

You have to own those ideas as a whole.

The way to do that, is to say them out loud. But that's a lot of words to say.

A baseball bat is more powerful than 22 oz. of sawdust.

So you find a highly compact language in which to express those concepts in as few words as possible.

That language is Chinese. Those concepts, and a lot more related ones, can all be expressed in five words. they are miaofa lienhua jing. that's still theoretical, so a man in thirteenth century Japan, said to say those words in Japanese, and add the word for intention, focus, to them.

That became Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

If you repeatedly say those words, by yourself, and with others who know what they mean, you can have both power, and humanity. then you find SGI to help you with it.

What is this SGI about?

Is it a religion?

Is it a philosophy?

Is it a science of life?

The basics of what SGI teaches, and does, was started by a man called the Buddha.

That’s an Indian word that means, a person who is fully awake.

It means that someone cares about, and understands, the true nature of life, and how to live it to eliminate suffering, and create happiness. His teachings were never intended to become a religion. That happened hundreds of years after the Buddha, who is often called Shakyamuni, died. His followers did not follow his teaching exactly, and started to think of him as more than human.

In fact, he was very human. He just cared about people, and wanted to help. Because he was very smart, and very determined, he spent great efforts to find out how to help every human eliminate suffering.

Pain is part of life, but comes, and goes. Suffering is long term because people don’t understand how to stop it. That is what he discovered. He studied, and learned, until he found a way to help people eliminate suffering.

When he started to teach how simple it was, no one understood, because they were so confused by teachings that had only small pieces of the truth mixed with a lot of error.

Shakyamuni made up explanations, examples, parables, and meditation techniques so that people would listen, and learn to understand.

After forty years of teaching, he had enough people trained to start to tell them the whole truth.

That telling became to be known as the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra shows that every human has the ability to eliminate suffering. It also explains how to do it.

The title of the Lotus Sutra is a short description of how life works, in Sanskrit. That was translated to Chinese. We pronounce it in Japanese, because the man who explained how to use this short description of life, was in Japan.

His name was Nichiren. He said, and wrote, that the basic effort to build a great life is to say the title of the Lotus Sutra (Myoho Renge Kyo) and add the word for focus, for serious intention (Nam) to Myoho Renge Kyo. Myoho means that life is physical, and non-physical. (You can touch a body, but not an emotion.) Renge means that causes produce effects. Kyo means that events change, yet life goes on.

When a person says those words, he, or she, is affirming that he, or she, wants to have a great life, and start by training the brain to understand the true nature of life. It is easier to remember this by having a scroll at home that has Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, written in bold Chinese writing in the middle, to say the words in front of. The scroll also has some other side explanations on it, in smaller writing.

A person who bases the mind-heart on this basis will be able to make better decisions, and see all of life clearly.

When such a person has been enjoying the benefit of this practice, it will be natural to want to share the knowledge of how to live better with friends, and family. Do not be surprised if they resist at first, like the Buddha’s friends. They will need to see you getting benefits before they are willing to listen

To help each person enjoy the benefit of this philosophy, and help others, is the purpose of the organization known as SGI. Those letters mean, “International Value Creation Society.”

Depends on how you define power, if it is controlling(destructive) power or inner (constructive)power. If it is the latter then we can have both, but main focus is on humanity. In this point we are moving away from power(us and them) and we are moving towards humanity(we) and as we do this we learn to cooperate better.

No, I don't think they are, for example you can discipline a child and it might be seen as destructive but in the long run and if it is done with compassion then it is actually constructive because it corrects them and prevents them from experiencing suffering later on, so it really depends on the motivation behind it. If the motivation was to harm or control or cheat then it is destructive and if the motivation was of respect and compassion then it will ultimately result in humanity and constructive power.

As in, I could have power but I give up my humanity? Well, what is humanity? On one hand it's pretty ugly: hate, an overabundance of ignorance, etc, etc. However, the desire for power, IMO, comes from those traits. No humble, kind person seeks absolute power. Humanity is the moral choice, so I choose humanity.

A Philosopher can use it for both things,but usually I would say humanity.

Humanity is power ? I dunno. I'd choose humanity because without humanity, what would be the use of having power? So yeah...