Editing SG34BHU-T (section)

== II ==

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There is, broadly speaking, no religion that does not exalt peace. Among them, however, it would seem that Buddhism carries the religion of peace to its highest point. “When you see the community falling into discord, bring it skillfully back into harmony.” The Buddha’s spirit of peace expressed in this injunction flows throughout the seven thousand fascicles of the Buddhist canon and across the entire Buddhist tradition.<ref>“Seven thousand fascicles” (七千巻) is a conventional designation for the enormous extent of the Buddhist canon, deriving from catalogues such as the Tang-dynasty ''Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu'' (貞元新定釈教目録), which enumerated more than seven thousand fascicles of Buddhist scriptures.</ref> Although Buddhism today is divided into thirteen schools and fifty-six sects, whose banners bear different designs, all are ultimately grounded in the same fundamental principle of exalting peace.<ref>“Thirteen schools and fifty-six sects” (十三宗五十六派) was the conventional administrative classification of Japanese Buddhism before the wartime reorganization of Buddhist denominations under the Religious Organizations Law. The classification remained current when Seno’o wrote in 1934; in 1939–40 the fifty-six sects were consolidated into twenty-eight denominations.</ref>

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The establishment of the “Perfect and Sudden Precept Platform” by Dengyō on Mount Hiei; the Diamond and Womb Realm Maṇḍalas depicted by Kōbō on Mount Kōya; Hōnen and Shinran’s ideal that “all shall meet together in one place”; Dōgen’s “the mind itself is Buddha”; and Nichiren’s “all return to the Wonderful Dharma”—although these doctrines have, through speculative reasoning, been turned into weapons in the sectarian struggles of the present day, the founding spirit behind them was clearly, in every case, a historical elevation of Buddhism’s ideal of “harmony” (''wa'').<ref>Seno’o compresses the major traditions of Japanese Buddhism into a genealogy of “harmony”: Saichō (Dengyō Daishi, 767–822), founder of Japanese Tendai; Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi, 774–835), founder of Japanese Shingon; the Pure Land teachers Hōnen (1133–1212) and Shinran (1173–1263); Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Japanese Sōtō Zen tradition; and Nichiren (1222–1282). Seno’o's point is polemical: doctrines subsequently used to differentiate and divide Buddhist sects originally expressed, in his reading, a common Buddhist aspiration toward harmony.</ref>

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This Buddhist ideal of peace found vivid expression at an early date in the opening provisions of the famous Seventeen-Article Constitution of Prince Shōtoku, the progenitor of Japanese Buddhism:

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“Harmony is to be valued.”<br />
“Revere the Three Treasures deeply—for if one does not take refuge in the Three Treasures, by what means can that which is crooked be made straight?”<ref>The Seventeen-Article Constitution (''Jūshichijō kenpō'' 十七条憲法), traditionally attributed to Prince Shōtoku (574–622) and dated to 604, opens with the injunction “Harmony is to be valued” (和を以て貴しとなす); its second article commands reverence for the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Shōtoku's historical role in composing the document is disputed, but he became a foundational figure in Japanese Buddhist historical memory.</ref></blockquote>

Passages such as these are imperishable words of gold that testify to Buddhism’s ideal of peace. But what, then, is the foundation of Buddhism’s ideal of peace?

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