[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Profound Map Version 1

“What I learned doing this assignment is…how everything finally comes together to form a profound map that is full of profound moments with gradients of change and transformational journey to reveal the profound truth.”

SHINICHI – THE DISCIPLE: PROFOUND MAP VERSION 1

TITLE: SHINICHI – THE DISCIPLE

WRITTEN BY: SUNIL R PAPPU

1. What is Your Profound Truth?

A change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world.

AUDIENCE CHANGE: Inspired to become the one in their own lives.

2. What is the Transformational Journey?

Old Ways: Innocent & gullible. Glamorizes war. Lost. Poor. Weakened by illness. Constrained by societal norms. Distrustful.

Journey: Meets his lifelong and eternal mentor Toda (change agent) whom he can trust. Toda teaches him the correct philosophy to live by. He vows to fulfil his mentor’s vision for world peace and becomes a change agent himself. He conducts dialogues for peace, culture and education and creates global solidarity.

New Ways: Wise. Determined. Hates war and conflict. Rich in heart. Fights through his illness. Encourages one-on-one to change tenets of a person’s heart right in front of him. Fights betrayal and corruption. Builds trust and empowers people. Creates a global movement spearheaded by ordinary people with stand-alone spirit.

Transformational Logline: A disillusioned Japanese nation and Soka Gakkai members in particular reeling from the devastating war seek world peace and annihilation of nuclear weapons and awaken to the profound truth that a change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world to join their mentor Daisaku to spearhead a movement for global peace.

3. Who are Your Lead Characters?

Change Agent (the one causing the change): Josei Toda, Daisaku Ikeda

Transformable Character(s) (the one who makes the change): Young Daisaku, Soka Gakkai members, Japanese nation & SGI members worldwide

Betraying Character (if you have one): Soka Gakkai Attorney Masatomo Yamazaki; In collusion with: Soka Gakkai Vice President Genjiro Fukushima and Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader Takashi Harashima

Oppression: Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood, Warmongers, Geopolitical forces that threaten nuclear war & the Cold War.

4. How Do You Connect With Your Audience in the Beginning of the Movie?

Character: Young Daisaku (TC)

A. Relatability:

Young Daisaku and his brother play hide and seek with broken mirror shards.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Children often find discarded things fun to play with.

B. Intrigue:

Young Daisaku wants to join the Army and secretly tries to enlist without his parents’ approval.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Teens often want to be like their peers and would often hide things from their parents fearing their disapproval.

C. Empathy:

Young Daisaku is diagnosed with Tuberculosis and the doctors predict he may not live to the age of 30.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Illness that robs loved ones, especially at a young age is something we can all empathise with. We want to root for him to beat his odds.

Young Daisaku’s home is bombed twice leaving nothing more than a suitcase of dolls and a pink umbrella in their possession, but his mother cheerfully remarks “We will be able to display the dolls once we rebuild our home again.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Anyone who has been evicted from their home, lost all their possessions or, lived in a war-torn country.

Young Daisaku witnesses a US pilot parachute off his plane that’s caught fire being beaten up by people on the streets when he lands and gets taken away in a military van. The pilot is a young boy of not more than seventeen who looks scared and helpless and nothing like the enemy he’s imagined. He shares this incident with his mother who says: “Oh dear, the boy’s mother must be so worried for him.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We often see the world as US vs THEM while we forget the humanity of the other. Mothers on the other hand have an innate instinct to protect life and are not coloured by Jingoism and are often peacemakers.

D. Likability:

Young Daisaku, is a caring son who helps his mother in the family business of collecting seaweed by waking up at 3 am and diving into the cold seawater. He loves his grieving mother and feels helpless to ease her pain when his elder brother is killed in Burma. He dutifully serves his ailing bedridden father and takes care of his younger sibling while trying to be the man of the house and joins a munitions factory to eke out a living once his father’s thriving seaweed business collapses. Daisaku write a poem on the Morigasaki beach for his friend who feels lost and rudderless in life.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: A caring loving son, brother and a sincere friend.

Character: Soka Gakkai members (TC)

A. Relatability:

Ordinary hardworking people are affected by the war and the facing daily challenges of jobs, finances, relationships, and sickness while being misled by corrupt leaders and greedy politicians.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: They are one of us. We can relate to their daily struggles.

B. Intrigue:

Soka Gakkai members remain undefeated in the face of extreme challenges including being ridiculed by corrupt priests and ostracized by Unions and boycotted by their neighbours and co-workers. They still continue to fight and win their respect and become community leaders.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We are intrigued by the machinations of the Unions and priests to destroy the lives of sincere ordinary people and root for them to win.

C. Empathy:

The extreme injustices faced by the Soka Gakkai members for not toeing the line at their places of work, from their neighbours and in their communities is heart-breaking to see.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We can relate to these injustices in our own lives.

D. Likability:

Soka Gakkai members are optimistic and cheerful. They respect everyone and treat them as unique and irreplaceable comrades. They act as a “good friend” to even those who have been marginalized and ostracized and forgotten by society.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all like having genuine sincere and cheerful friends who can always give us hope and be there in our times of need.

Character: Josei Toda (The Mentor – CA)

A. Relatability:

Young Daisaku meets Josei Toda for the first time, and he sees that he can trust this man who went to prison to uphold his principles and not succumb to the militarist government. He doesn’t try to sidestep his questions on “the meaning of life?” and “How to live the best life?” using intellectual babble like many leaders in society often do and comes across as sincere and honest and respectful. Daisaku relaxes in his first meeting and soon they converse like old lost friends.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all feel nervous and out of place the first time we are in a large gathering and when we have to introduce ourselves. Most of us can sense the sincerity and genuineness of people in our first interactions with them. Many leaders in society rarely practice what they preach.

B. Intrigue:

Josei Toda is an educator with more than 40 businesses which all go bankrupt after the war but he is focused on rebuilding Soka Gakkai, an organization made up of volunteer ordinary people with the vision of wiping out the misery from their lives and making them happy. He has strong convictions in his vision and mission, but we are left to wonder how he will be able to do this when there is a clampdown by the government on all businesses and people are barely able to make ends meet with even government ration in short supply. He restarts his business waiting for the right time and creates a correspondence course for the youth who are out of school. He partners with his friends who betrayed him before the war, knowing that they are only interested in profits and do not really care for the cause. Will this be enough to change the tragic destiny of the nation? How can he turn this situation around? Will he be betrayed again?

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We want Toda to succeed but we are intrigued by his methods.

C. Empathy:

Toda decides that on principle he wants to pay back his investors even though the government doesn’t honour even the fire insurance on his old office building that has been razed to the ground by the bombings. Even his business friends think he’s being too idealistic, no one expects to recoup their investments before the war, but Toda is adamant. The investors, however, hound him and abuse and embarrass him for being late on his payments. Young Daisaku faces their wrath silently while seething with anger on the inside.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We can empathise with injustice and greed when someone is trying to do the honourable thing.

D. Likability:

Josei Toda has a great sense of humour and in an early morning lecture trying to illustrate how important thoughts and words are asks someone in his class “Do you want a dog?” When the man nods. Toda draws the image of a dog on the blackboard and asks him “What is this?” The man replies: “It’s a dog.” Toda says: “Okay then, take it!” He once tells Young Daisaku while taking a stroll at the university campus “One day we will build our own University that will have students from all over the world but for now, all I can treat you to is a subsidized cup of coffee at the student cafeteria!”

He calls Daisaku to his home on Sundays to teach him every subject he can think of and tells him he will be the foremost scholar in the world and able to hold a conversation with the world’s leading thinkers and leaders one day.

When Daisaku is arrested on false charges, Toda in his frail health rushes to the airport before his interrogation and pleads with him “Daisaku please don’t die. You have to live for me.”

Before his death, he tells Daisaku “I had a dream that I went in Mexico. Daisaku, I want you to travel the world on my behalf. There are people waiting everywhere for you.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: To have a mentor who really cares for you and sets impossible dreams in life that allow us to surpass them is a rare and unique thing.

Character: Daisaku Ikeda (CA)

A. Relatability:

Daisaku joins the Boys Magazine, and he knows nothing about the publishing world and feels like he doesn’t belong. He struggles to learn on the job and has to quit night school in order to help his mentor rebuild his businesses when he steps down as Soka Gakkai president to protect the organization from any bad press associated with his business failings.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all had the fish-out-water experience in our first jobs where you need to learn things on the job that you were not aware of.

B. Intrigue:

Daisaku is arrested on false charges and is forced to confess to the charges to save his mentor – The Osaka Trial. He reluctantly assumes the presidency of Soka Gakkai after Toda’s death when the media predicts a collapse of the organization even with the Osaka trial still hanging over his head. He meets with scheming Nichiren Shoshu priests to have a dialogue and protect the members. He is betrayed by his own attorney. He steps down from the presidency to alleviate the situation, but it only gets worse. He journeys to China and Russia even as the Japanese politicians view this with deep scepticism. He meets with US and Russian counterparts during the Cuban Missile Crisis and is warned by an influencing politician to call off his meeting with President Kennedy. He stands outside the Berlin Wall and vows to bring it down. He meets the world’s leading philosophers and leaders as an ordinary citizen. How will he transform the deeply divided nations and bring them together? How does he do it just as an ordinary citizen?

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We want Daisaku to succeed and live to change the world. We are intrigued by how he plans to accomplish such an impossible goal of a world free from hatred, violence, and nuclear weapons.

C. Empathy:

Daisaku pushes himself beyond his physical limits despite severe tuberculosis and runs a high fever on most days but never allows his frail health to stop him from meeting people and encouraging them. He uses his time even while travelling and resting to dictate notes for his articles and books, constantly thinking about the future.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We have all pushed ourselves physically but to do it on a sustained level for decades is not easy but relatable especially those sleepless nights trying to finish an important project or meet a deadline at work.

D. Likability:

Daisaku Ikeda is charming and treats even the people behind the scenes with immense respect. He always goes to meet them first before entering any event or building. He thanks everyone he meets. He loves children and plays with them with zeal. He is a photographer who captures nature in all its stunning natural beauty, he plays the piano to warm the hearts of members who are not allowed to meet him, and he sends thoughtful poems and messages to people he meets hoping to spark a fresh start in their lives.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: He values people and listens to them. He seeks out those not just in the limelight but the ones toiling away behind the scenes unnoticed by everyone. He genuinely cares for everyone.

5. What is the Gradient of the Change?

The 3 Gradients: Desired Change (for Young Daisaku)

Emotional Gradient: Excitement

Action Gradient: Daisaku wants to enlist like his brothers in the war. He believes the military propaganda.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: He doesn’t get his parent’s permission.

W: He has tuberculosis

Emotional Gradient: Doubt

Action Gradient: Japan loses the war. Daisaku’s home is bombed twice. The warmongers turn pacifists to save themselves. Brother dies in Burma.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Doesn’t know who to trust anymore?

W: Doctors say he won’t live to 30. Doesn’t know how to help his mother grieve her sons.

Emotional Gradient: Hope

Action Gradient: Daisaku meets his mentor Toda. Decides he can trust him and joins Soka Gakkai. Drops out of school to support Toda’s business and gets private lessons from him.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: What is the meaning of life?

W: Ignorance

Emotional Gradient: Discouragement

Action Gradient: Toda steps down from presidency as his businesses go bankrupt… Daisaku imprisoned on false charges… Toda dies… Media predicts the collapse of the organization.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: How to reinstate Toda as president? How to protect Toda and members? Who will succeed?

W: Self-doubt

Emotional Gradient: Courage

Action Gradient: Daisaku assumes the presidency. Begins his worldwide journey for peace.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: First Priesthood issue. Asked to step down.

W: Gives in to the demands if it will quell the injustices to members but they only intensify

Emotional Gradient: Triumph

Action Gradient: Dialogues with world leaders. Establishes SGI and becomes the president. UN peace proposals. UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu

W: Running out of time. Turns 96

3 Gradients: Forced change (For Soka Gakkai members, Japanese nation, SGI and the world)

Emotional Gradient: Denial

Action Gradient 1: Soka Gakkai members who betrayed Toda’s mentor Makiguchi to save their families and businesses are unapologetic.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Soka Gakkai members seek Toda’s help

W: Betrayal

Action Gradient 2: Media predicts a collapse of the organization after Toda’s death

C: Soka Gakkai members seek a mentor

W: Lost

Action Gradient 3: The nuclear explosion on Hiroshima ends the war

C: Nuclear nations deem it a necessary evil

W: Fear of the other

Emotional Gradient: Anger

Action Gradient 1: Senior leaders protest when Toda restarts the Organization and doesn’t consult them.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Toda doesn’t trust his business partners, but they are all he has

W: Mistrust

Action Gradient 2: Soka Gakkai members harassed by Nichiren Shoshu; Daisaku is arrested on false charges

C: Maintain Unity of Laity and Priesthood; To protect his mentor Toda and prove his innocence at trial

W: Priesthood jealous of Soka Gakkai; Confesses to false charges to protect Toda

Action Gradient 3: Japanese nation is devastated, and people are angry with food shortage and inflation

C: United Nations formed

W: Cold War begins

Emotional Gradient: Bargaining

Action Gradient 1: The members are only looking for their selfish motives.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Toda uses the excuse of drinks and dinner to reeducate them on the philosophy

W: Self-serving

Action Gradient 2: Nichiren Shoshu makes unreasonable demands; Yubai Coal Miners Union harasses workers who are Soka Gakkai members; Osaka members rally against the corrupt police

C: Maintain Unity of Laity and Priesthood; Innocent are persecuted

W: Priesthood jealous of Soka Gakkai; Righteousness

Action Gradient 3: Cold war and nuclear arms race begins

C: Nuclear nations amass weapons

W: Deterrence

Emotional Gradient: Depression

Action Gradient 1: Toda’s businesses fail and all his employees bad mouth him and desert him

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Toda is all alone and decides to step down from his post to save the organization

W: Lonely

Action Gradient 2: Daisaku steps down as president of Soka Gakkai

C: To protect Soka Gakkai members from harassment by Priesthood

W: Priesthood tries to create a wedge between Daisaku and Soka Gakkai members

Action Gradient 3: Berlin War erected and Cuban Missile Crisis

C: De-escalation to prevent a third world war

W: Mistrust and lack of communication

Emotional Gradient: Acceptance

Action Gradient 1: Toda takes up presidency again and vows to increase membership to 750000 Households in his lifetime and asks members to join him; Daisaku is the only one who makes his mentor’s vow his own and fights alongside.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: He makes a powerful vow that he alone will accomplish; Who will succeed him?

W: Frail health and dead; Successors to fulfil his vision

Action Gradient 2: Daisaku assumes the presidency of the worldwide organization SGI

C: Priesthood excommunicates the Soka Gakkai organization

W: Soka Gakkai members celebrate their spiritual freedom and trust their mentor Daisaku

Action Gradient 3: Daisaku initiates dialogues with world leaders on either side, writes peace proposals every year to the UN and Soka Gakkai with the help of Hibakusha launches a campaign for the elimination of Nuclear weapons

C: Nuclear weapons annihilation petition signatories

W: Security Council states remain non-committal

6. What is the Transformational Structure of Your Story?

MINI-MOVIE STRUCTURE:

MM1: (Status Quo)

1941, Tokyo – Two boys, Daisaku and his elder brother Kiichi play with broken mirror shards from their mother’s dressing table.

War breaks out. Military propaganda in schools. Elder brother is enlisted in the Japanese Army. Educators Toda and Makiguchi are arrested.

Daisaku tries to enlist without telling his parents.

Air raids in Japan destroy Ikeda’s home twice. Daisaku and his younger brother salvage a doll house and a pink umbrella. His mother still remains cheerful. Daisaku’s bedridden father finds out and fights to keep Daisaku at home.

Daisaku joins the munitions factory.

Daisaku is diagnosed with tuberculosis doctors say he won’t live until 30. Daisaku is lost and defeated. Meets his friend on Morigasaki beach to discuss their path in life and feels helpless to guide his friend correctly.

Meanwhile, Educator and founder of Soka Gakkai, Makiguchi dies in prison, Josei Toda vows revenge by rebuilding Soka Gakkai.

US Pilot, a young boy of 17, parachutes onto the streets and gets beaten up – Daisaku shares the incident with his mother. Her immediate reaction and worry for the boy despite him being an enemy opens his eyes to the magnanimous heart of a mother and her immense compassion.

World Events: World War 2 breaks out. Japan faces devastation and suffering. Yalta conference. Japanese Occupation.

Turning Point (Call to Adventure): Daisaku encounters his mentor, Josei Toda, who awakens him to the mission for world peace.

World Event: Indian Independence.

Change Agent: Josei Toda (The Mentor)

Transformational Characters: Young Daisaku, Japanese nation, Soka Gakkai members.

Old Ways: Buys into the war propaganda of the state; youth are enlisted; schools are converted to munitions factories; Loss of young people and family members in war; Air raids and bombings that destroy homes and devastating atomic bombings; Angered by the spiritual void and betrayal of warmongers turned pacifists overnight; Nation faces food shortage and high inflation and occupation forces; Youth question the meaning and purpose of life while school are closed; Mistrust fraudulent intellectuals and politicians who sang praises of war and drove large numbers of youth to their deaths

The Vision: Toda vows to rebuild Soka Gakkai and says “I will eradicate misery from the face of this earth”

Challenges: Daisaku doesn’t get his parents’ permission to enlist. A nation whose youth have lost purpose and meaning in life

Weaknesses: Daisaku has tuberculosis; Ignorance and suffering

MM2: (Denial of Call)

Daisaku Ikeda, struggling with his illness and feeling betrayed by the nation’s leaders, initially doubts his ability to bring about change in a world devastated by war.

He loses his elder brother to war and seeing his mother’s pain and grief shows him the futility of war and he avows to stop the next war at all costs.

He recalls his brother’s words on the barbaric nature of war on the frontlines.

World Event: Daisaku’s brother dies in Burma, highlighting the personal impact of the war.

Turning Point (Locked into Conflict): Daisaku witnesses the suffering of his nation while grieving the loss of his brother, decides to join Toda to create a world free from misery and war.

Challenges: Doesn’t know who to trust anymore?

Weaknesses: Doctors say he won’t live to 30. Doesn’t know how to help his mother grieve the loss of her son.

MM3: (Hero tries to solve problem)

Daisaku and Toda work together to rebuild the organization Soka Gakkai to empower ordinary people for a peaceful world.

Daisaku drops out of school to support Toda’s business. Joins Boys magazine.

World Events: Cold War and Space race begins.

Turning Point (Standard Ways Fail): Daisaku’s efforts face opposition from arrogant priests and calculating warmongers. Toda goes bankrupt and steps down as president of Soka Gakkai.

Change Agent: Daisaku – drops out of school to stick with his mentor Toda while everyone else quickly forget their promises and leave their mentor.

Toda’s Vision: “Ordinary people are great. Those who have suffered the most have the greatest right to happiness.”

Daisaku’s Vow: Tells Toda: “I have chosen to follow you till my last breath of life.” Asks Toda: “Will you still be my mentor?”

Old Ways: Members mistrust warmongers turn pacifists to save their hide from the occupation forces.

New Ways: Finding a mentor whom one can trust

MM4: (Hero Forms New Plan)

Daisaku realizes that he needs a larger, better plan to counter the oppression and betrayal. Daisaku stays with Toda and gets him back on his feet while facing the wrath of the investors. He takes private tuitions from his mentor and calls it Toda University.

He gets Toda reinstated as president of Soka Gakkai. Toda vows to introduce 750000 households in his lifetime and establish correct teachings in Japanese society.

Kasahara incident – Priesthood reprimands Toda and asks him to resign from his post as head of the lay believers of Nichiren Shoshu.

Toda’s declaration against nuclear weapons resonates globally as the world faces the potential of nuclear conflict. He hands over the baton to his youthful successors, especially Daisaku.

World Event: Cold War tensions escalate, and the nuclear arms race intensifies.

Turning Point or Mid-point (Plan Backfires): Daisaku is arrested on false election violation charges. Daisaku confesses to save his mentor who is frail from illness. Toda dies fulfilling his mission as Soka Gakkai membership reaches 750,000 households.

New Ways: Fights in local elections to root out corruption; Daisaku schooled at “Toda University” – private tuitions by his mentor Toda; Takes the baton of world peace from Toda

Challenges: How to reinstate Toda as president? How to protect Toda and Soka Gakkai members?

Weaknesses: Self-doubt; Daisaku gets arrested

MM5: (Hero Retreats & Antagonist prevails)

Daisaku assumes the presidency of Soka Gakkai as the media speculates a collapse of the organization after Toda’s death.

Arrogant priests impose restrictions on Soka Gakkai, causing internal conflict and setbacks.

Yubari Coal Miners and sincere Soka Gakkai members face a boycott from their communities while Ikeda rushes to support them fight for their rights.

World Event: Berlin Wall is erected, symbolizing the divisions in the world.

Turning Point (The Decision to Change): Geopolitical forces continue to justify the existence of nuclear weapons despite the declaration. Daisaku vows at the Berlin wall to bring it down.

New Ways: peace, culture and education as tools to express mentor’s vision; Fighting back the priesthood and Yubai Coal Miners’ union

MM6: (Hero’s Bigger, Better Plan)

Daisaku and Soka Gakkai members unite to challenge the oppression and betrayal by the trio led by Soka Gakkai’s attorney Yamazaki.

Soka Gakkai and SGI led by Daisaku undergo a period of rapid global expansion from 1980-2000.

World Events: Daisaku’s global dialogues with China and Russia coincide with significant events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK Assassination. He regrets not meeting President Kennedy after cancelling his trip to placate a prominent Japanese Politician.

Turning Point (The Ultimate Failure): Daisaku steps down as president of Soka Gakkai while he continues his dialogues with world leaders. SGI members from 55 countries meet and establish Soka Gakkai International in Guam and appoint Daisaku as their President.

Betraying Characters: Soka Gakkai Attorney Masatomo Yamazaki; In collusion with: Soka Gakkai Vice President Genjiro Fukushima and Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader Takashi Harashima

New Ways: Dialogues for peace with neighbours and community

Challenges: First Priesthood issue. Daisaku asked to step down; Daisaku is barred from attending meetings and encouraging members of Soka Gakkai.

Weaknesses: Daisaku gives in to the demands if it will quell the injustices to members, but they only intensify; Soka Gakkai members who rely on their mentor feel lost; Soka Gakkai leaders remain silent as Daisaku is silenced.

MM7: (Crisis & Climax)

Daisaku starts writing UN peace proposals in 1983 and building institutions to promote peace, culture and education which win international recognition.

SGI members unite with their mentor Daisaku despite severe attempts to create a schism between them by the Nichiren Shoshu priests.

Soka Gakkai is excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu but the members are unperturbed as they celebrate it as the day of Spiritual Independence.

World Events: Cold War ends, and Berlin Wall comes down, marking a shift in global dynamics.

Turning Point (Apparent Victory): Daisaku’s resilience and support from Soka Gakkai members lead to a surge in global membership.

New Ways: Dialogues with world leaders and thinkers; Exhibitions for peace, culture and education; Soka schools to foster the next generations of global citizens.

Vision: Daisaku tells Soka Gakkai members to celebrate their ex-communication from Nichiren Shoshu as the day of Spiritual independence.

Challenges: Soka Gakkai is ex-communicated by Nichiren Shoshu.

Weaknesses: Soka Gakkai refused a chance to have any dialogue with the Nichiren Shoshu priests. Daisaku Ikeda running out of time due to old age turning 96.

MM8: (New Better World)

Daisaku conducts over 8000 dialogues for peace and completes writing 30 volumes of his novel series The New Human Revolution.

SGI has 12 million members in 192 countries and territories. Youth vow to carry on his legacy of peace with the spirit “I am Shinichi.”

Ikeda receives receiving 390 honorary doctorates and over 800 honorary citizenships. He establishes world-renowned Soka Schools, Soka University, Min-On Concert and Fuji Art Museum, and many other institutions. Ikeda is awarded as World Poet Laureate.

Daisaku makes every dream of his mentor Toda a reality even the ones he said to him half-jokingly.

Daisaku’s relentless efforts culminate in Soka Gakkai’s support for the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

World Event: SGI supports ICAN on the UN treaty, reflecting a global push for nuclear disarmament.

Epilogue: (New Status Quo)

Daisaku Ikeda is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, cementing his legacy as a change agent for a better world.

The world acknowledges the profound truth that a single individual’s transformation can shape the destiny of a nation and the whole of mankind.

World Event: Daisaku’s global impact and peace efforts continue as the world faces ongoing challenges.

Final Turning Point: Daisaku Ikeda’s journey for peace continues through his writings and the global impact of his dialogues, leaving a lasting legacy. Soka Gakkai members work together for a more peaceful, sustainable future.

New Ways: Building a global solidarity of more than 12 million worldwide; SGI partners ICAN to petition nations to sign the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons

Profound Truth: A change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world.

7. How are the “Old Ways” Challenged?

A. Challenge through Questioning

Old Way: Buying into the war propaganda of the state

Question Challenges: Elder brother questions the war. There is nothing just about the war. It’s not honourable.

Question Challenges: Air raids destroy the homes and raze the school buildings.

Question Challenges: Atomic bombs destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Question Challenges: Occupation forces take over the country.

Question Challenges: People face food shortages and high inflation.

Old Way: State Shinto religion will protect our soldiers and win us the war.

Question Challenges: Toda and his mentor refuse the Shinto talisman and get locked up in jail as thought criminals.

Old Way: We need priests to conduct religious rituals.

Question Challenges: Soka Gakkai members question: Why do we need to respect priests and listen to them when they are going against their own teacher and teachings of respect for all life?

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members wait for their mentor’s instructions.

Question Challenges: When Daisaku is banned from meeting members he writes poems, songs, and plays piano to encourage them

Old Way: nuclear weapons are necessary as a deterrent.

Question Challenges: Cuban missile crisis brings the world to the brink due to a misunderstanding and scepticism and mistrust between the cold war nations.

Question Challenges: Ikeda sends concrete peace proposals to the UN since 1983 every year reiterating his mentor’s stance on nuclear weapons.

Old Way: Daisaku tries to pacify the Priesthood by giving in to their demands

Question Challenges: Priesthood continues to mistreat members and places even more restrictions on the members and leaders of Soka Gakkai

B. Challenge by Counterexample

Old Way: Youth enlist for the ‘just war.’ Others join munition factories.

Counterexamples: US pilot parachuting down from his burning plane is beaten in the streets as the enemy – is a mere 17-year-old helpless youth who is taken by the military police as a war criminal. Daisaku feels sorry for the boy and tells his mother about it. She worries for the mother of the boy instead.

Counterexamples: Warmongers turn pacifists overnight to save their skin and avoid persecution by the occupation forces.

Counterexamples: With schools’ shutdown, youth seek correspondence courses even as they fight to stay alive

Old Way: Daisaku has Tuberculosis and the doctor predict he won’t live to see 30.

Counterexamples: Daisaku seeks a mentor he can trust as he searches for the best way to live life.

Counterexamples: Daisaku drops school to join Toda University and support his mentor’s businesses.

Counterexamples: Daisaku meets the world’s leading philosophers, leaders and thinkers conducting over 8000 dialogues for peace and winning over 200 honorary doctorates and 390 honorary citizenships around the world. He is alive at 96.

Old Way: State Shinto religion will protect our soldiers and win us the war.

Counterexamples: The Emperor steps down to let the Occupation forces take over their country

Counterexamples: Occupation forces pass laws that allow people freedom of religion

Old Way: People of the nation mistrust the politicians and intellectuals.

Counterexamples: Toda rebuilds the organization Soka Gakkai to empower people and eradicate misery from their lives.

Old Way: We need priests to conduct religious rituals.

Counterexamples: Priesthood turns corrupt and refuses to bury a Soka Gakkai member’s relative in a family-owned plot on the temple premises unless they denounce their faith in Soka Gakkai.

Counterexamples: Soka Gakkai builds a memorial ground for Soka Gakkai members to use freely. They conduct the funeral rituals with sanctity and respect.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members wait for their mentor’s instructions.

Counterexamples: Osaka members stage a protest outside the detention centre demanding the release of Daisaku by the police who harshly interrogate him for three days.

Counterexamples: Yubari coal miners refuse to vote for the union candidate in the elections even at the cost of losing their jobs and being ostracized from their communities.

Old Way: nuclear weapons are necessary as a deterrent.

Counterexamples: Toda’s nuclear declaration states that anyone who supports the nuclear weapons is “a fiend and a monster”

Old Way: Daisaku tries to pacify the Priesthood by giving in to their demands

Counterexamples: The Corrupt Soka Gakkai Attorney plays both sides to make money and stokes the fires between Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu priesthood

Counterexamples: Daisaku steps down as Soka Gakkai president but is made the honorary president of Soka Gakkai International and he continues to travel the world conducting dialogues for peace

Counterexamples: Daisaku declares the day of their ex-communication as one of Spiritual independence and celebrates their freedom from the narrow-minded corrupt priesthood.

C. Challenge by “Should Work, But Doesn’t”

Old Way: Daisaku’s friend comes to him desperate to find answers.

SWBD Challenge: He trusts Daisaku but what he’s seeking is a new way of life. Daisaku tries to convince him, but he has no real solution. He fails his friend who decides to join one of the spurious religions that crop up right after the war ends in Japan that misleads young people.

Old Way: Toda wants to restart his businesses after the war and takes advice from his politician friend to time the launch of his new venture.

SWBD Challenge: Toda’s business ventures fail despite getting the timing right. He realizes that he needs to first rebuild the Soka Gakkai organization and then focus on his businesses. Toda regularly holds evening guidance sessions after his office hours and even takes study lectures in the morning for his staff before they begin their work. They hit their first subscription milestone in record time.

Old Way: Toda steps down as President of the Soka Gakkai to protect the organization from his business failures.

SWBD Challenge: Daisaku worries that he no longer has a mentor but Toda tells him he will always be his mentor even if he is no longer the President. Daisaku vows to reinstate him and rebuilds his businesses after dropping out of night school. Toda repays his business debts and is reinstated as Soka Gakkai president.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members rally outside the Osaka detention centre while the police harshly interrogate Daisaku on false election charges.

SWBD Challenge: Daisaku is released after he makes a false confession to protect his mentor Toda. The lawyers see his case as hopeless. Daisaku continues to fight the case in court for over four years and finally proves his innocence and gets acquitted of all charges two years after his mentor has passed away. Daisaku vows to always carry his mentor in his heart and fight against injustice.

Old Way: Mistrust between US and Russia during the cold war as they begin the arms race and the space race.

SWBD Challenge: The regular channels of communication increase their misunderstanding and mistrust and the rhetoric becomes increasingly hostile on both ends during the cold war and leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Old Way: Daisaku steps down as President of Soka Gakkai to appease the Soka Gakkai leadership and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood

SWBD Challenge: Nichiren Shoshu priests impose more restrictions on the members and ban Daisaku from public appearances trying to create a rift between him and the Soka Gakkai members. Daisaku feels helpless as he can’t see the members’ pain and suffering and writes songs, and poems and even plays the piano to members who wait outside the building trying to catch a glimpse of him at the window. He finally launches a counterattack and meets pioneering members all over Japan and creates a new groundswell of resistance as members fight back the priesthood in their local communities.

D. Challenge through Living Metaphor

Old Way: Daisaku’s friend seeks answers that Daisaku cannot provide and both feel lost and helpless.

LM Challenge: Daisaku writes a song about his friend titled “Morigasaki beach,” reminiscing their time together. The beach represents their youth and hope while beyond the sea lies a vast world, they must journey each in their separate ways. He wishes he had the answer he has now to give his friend and tell him about the path he took. It is the right path and wishes he knew about it then. He searches for his friend after many years and reunites with him.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members in Yubari are intimidated by the Coal Miners Union to vote for the union candidate in the local elections.

LM Challenge: The Soka Gakkai members and their families are ostracized and ridiculed by their community. Daisaku rushes to support them and reminds them about Daishonin’s exile on Sado Island. Yubari is their Sado Island and they stand strong and remain undefeated. In the end, the Union apologizes, and they get their jobs back and win the trust of their community.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members save up to sincerely contribute to the building of the Grand Reception Hall at the head temple.

LM Challenge: The High priest destroy the buildings constructed from sincere members’ contribution on flimsy pretexts. The Members continue to support the temples despite harsh treatment for being Soka Gakkai members. The Grand Reception Hall represents their sincerity and commitment to the harmonious unity of the priesthood and laity.

Old Way: Berlin Wall is erected dividing the world into two.

LM Challenge: The hostility on both sides leads to the separation of many families who are trapped on opposite sides of the wall. The world because increasingly divided as nations take sides to create a new geopolitical landscape. Daisaku vows to bring the Berlin Wall down and conducts dialogues with world leaders on both sides and brings them closer eventually bringing down the Berlin wall after 28 years.

Old Way: nuclear weapons are necessary as a deterrent.

LM Challenge: Nuclear states oppose the treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Numerous summits and proposals are signed but the nations are entrenched in their positions. Soka Gakkai partners with the NGO, ICAN and uses powerful personal stories of the Hibakusha who have experienced the tragedy of nuclear weapons first-hand. The nuclear weapons ban treaty is supported by more than 150 countries and requires the nuclear states to join for it to be passed into law.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members wait for their mentor’s instructions

LM Challenge: Daisaku asks youth to lead a song “Song of Comrades” for their mentor but they are scolded. Daisaku makes them practice the song again and again and sing aloud so their voices reach their mentor. The song is a metaphor for their determination to win for the sake of their mentor. Another time they make a little to carry their mentor and get scolded that they would lose in battle if they were to carry such a large litter. Toda confides in Daisaku later that he is moved by their sincerity but it’s still too big to be of practical use.

Old way: Daisaku drops out of night school to support his mentor’s business

LM Challenge: Daisaku is constantly humiliated by creditors and he feels lonely and defeated. Toda starts taking private tuitions for Daisaku and quizzes him about the books he is reading. Daisaku proudly calls it “Toda University.” He goes on to hold dialogues with thinkers and philosophers in various fields and at a lecture in Harvard declares that 99% of everything he is today is because of his mentor. He receives more than 200 honorary degrees from the world’s renowned universities and institutions.

8. How are You Presenting Insights through Profound Moments?

A. Action delivers insight

New Ways and Insights:

War always hits mothers the hardest.

Mothers are resilient even in the face of war.

There is no enemy or ‘US Vs Them’ – in a war, everyone is a victim.

There are no victors in a war.

War is a tragedy that should be avoided at all costs.

Destruction takes no time while reconstruction takes a lifetime or more.

There are no good and bad people only good and bad deeds.

It’s better to stick with a known devil at least you know what you’re dealing with.

spirit of not compromising one’s beliefs – Although I might obey in body, in my heart I could never comply.

Having a good mentor in life is the greatest good fortune.

There is no greater joy to awaken to one’s mission in life.

Anyone who justifies using nuclear weapons is a fiend and a monster.

Think global, act local.

Frank and sincere dialogue opens hearts that are closed and lead the way to trust.

People who have suffered the most deserve the greatest happiness.

A real mentor is someone who wants his disciples to surpass him.

A single individual can change the course of history a nation and all mankind.

Action #1:

Daisaku’s home is destroyed in the air raids. From the rubble of their home, they salvage a suitcase. Daisaku quickly pries it open to discover a set of pink dolls. Her mother smiles with glee and cuddles them. Daisaku kicks the suitcase in frustration. His mother dusts the dolls and gently places them back in the suitcase. She hands the suitcase over to Daisaku. Daisaku drags the suitcase along amongst the destruction all around. His mother remarks “The dolls will make a fine display for their new home.”

Action # 2:

Daisaku watches a US pilot parachute down from his burning plane and land on the streets in front of him. The pilot is a young boy of barely 17 who looks scared. The crowd on the streets rushes to capture and beat up the boy while Daisaku stands by helpless. The military police van comes around to arrest the pilot as a prisoner of war. The crowd chants for the enemy to be executed. Daisaku relays the story to his mother when he gets home. His mother responds: “Poor mother, she must be worried for her son.”

Action # 3:

Toda entices his colleagues who betrayed their mentor before the war to join him in rebuilding the organization and saving the people suffering from the aftermath of the war. But his businessmen friends are interested in is to find a way to quickly make money and get rich. They agree to meet him for drinks, but Toda lays a condition that they will discuss the reconstruction first and then open the bottle after dinner. He meets them repeatedly until they can see his seriousness about carrying on their mentor’s legacy and genuinely feel remorse for abandoning their mentor. They seek Toda’s forgiveness and join him in helping rebuild the Soka Gakkai.

Action # 4:

Daisaku reluctantly agreed to accompany his friends to a Soka Gakkai meeting after months of excuses to get out of it. He ambles into the home where the meeting is already underway and hears genuine laughter coming from the dimly lit room. He cautiously enters it and sits in the back so he can easily slip away if needed. He locks eyes with the man who is leading the meeting Mr. Toda. Toda puffing away at his rolled cigarette sits on the edge of the table ready to take any questions. He seems jovial and genuine. After a few raised hands and humorous exchanges Daisaku raises his hand to ask a question. Toda nods. Daisaku asks: “What is the genuine path one should take to lead a good life?” Toda smiles but responds sternly “Rather than deciding intellectually what the true meaning of life is. Why don’t you try to live your life in the best way possible? Would you like to try doing that? I can teach you how?” Daisaku is struck by his frankness and feels he can trust this man. He returns ten days later to join Soka Gakkai and takes Toda as his lifelong mentor.

Action # 5:

Daisaku is abused and spat on by a credit and the doors are banged shut on his face. He returns to the office dejected. He sees Soka Gakkai members waiting outside to meet Toda and they all look lost and defeated. A member emerges from Toda’s office feeling refreshed and ready to fight. Toda notices Daisaku and lets him in. He goes over the books and sees everything in red. He tries to cheer Daisaku up. Toda tells him: “I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did I ever run forty businesses? How can you be so honest and still do business? Why should we pay the creditors when the losses can be written off as forces of god, like every other businessman? I will tell you why? Because this is my destiny – my karmic reward if you will. So, it’s a debt I would rather pay. Do you understand? I know it is frustrating when the creditors abuse you and spit on your face acting all high and mighty like they deserve it. We must look at this with a smile and rejoice because we are receiving our retribution in a lighter form. So let’s go back to them again and again and cheerfully take on their abuses with a smile. Daisaku goes back and continues to apologize to the creditors for only making part payments to their debt and promises to return again with more. Over a period of time, they are no longer in the red and while Toda continues to hold guidance sessions, more and more Soka Gakkai members feel empowered after being rekindled by Toda’s guidance and awaken to their mission to work for the happiness of others. Daisaku reinstates Toda as the Second President of Soka Gakkai.

Action # 6:

Daisaku stops over at the Haneda airport on his way to Osaka to get arrested on false charges of election violations by the police. Toda frail from illness rushes to meet Daisaku and tells him “You must live. For my sake.” Daisaku is paraded in handcuffs in front of the local Osaka members as he’s taken for interrogation. Daisaku is harshly interrogated without food and sleep to admit to the false charges or they will put Toda in jail. He spends three sleepless nights and decides to confess to the crimes to protect his mentor. Osaka members rally outside, and Toda joins them in protests to get Daisaku released. Daisaku emerges in the evening of the fourth day walking out in the pouring rain and stands with Soka Gakkai members drenched in the rain to give them hope and encouragement. He later fights the charges in court over four long years and proves his innocence. He reports his win in front of his mentor’s grave as it pours down heavily.

Action # 7:

Toda is interrupted to say there is a phone call from the Japanese Prime Minister Mine. The prime Minister having been warned by his own cabinet members decides to cave into their demand and declines the invitation to attend the Soka Gakkai youth gathering that Daisaku and 6000 youth have spent months making painstaking preparations for on the day of the March 16 event. Toda slams the phone on the prime minister even as he apologizes making excuses and agreeing to send his wife and son in his stead. Toda goes ahead with the event as planned and makes a powerful declaration for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Daisaku standing in the audience resolves to carry on his mentor’s legacy. Decades later he starts writing peace proposals to the UN every year including the path to elimination of nuclear weapons. Many of his proposals are put into action by the United Nations and he is a recipient of numerous international honors including the United Nations Peace Medal (1983), the International Tolerance Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (1993), the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award (2008), and the Gandhi International Peace Prize for Social Responsibility (2014). The lay organization Soka Gakkai International is also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Action # 8:

Daisaku faces the media as he embarks on his trip to Russia at the height of the cold war. Top Japanese politicians condemn this trip and ask why does a Buddhist leader want to visit a country that doesn’t believe in religion? Daisaku answers a reporter at the airport: “I’m going there to meet people. … I’m making this trip to build bridges of friendship linking people’s hearts.” He meets Aleksey N. Kosygin and asks him frankly if Russia plans to attack China. Kosygin assures him “The Soviet Union has no intention of either attacking or isolating China.” He asks if he can share this with Chinese diplomats on his next visit. Kosygin tells him he’s counting on him to do so. Daisaku shares this with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping on his next visit. This eased the ideological differences between Russia and China and led to the normalization of bilateral relations between China and the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev met Deng Xiaoping.

Action # 9:

1962 was a time of intensifying conflict between East and West. The previous year, the Berlin Wall had been built, dividing Germany’s capital city, and in October, the Cuban Missile Crisis, a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, took place. The threat of nuclear weapons being fired struck fear in the hearts of people around the world. In this state of anxious uncertainty, many Japanese media outlets issued predictions and commentaries on the likelihood of a nuclear war or a third world war.

Daiasaku was not interested in such speculations. His determination as a disciple of Toda, who had denounced nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, remained unshaken: “We must never allow a third world war to break out!” Chanting fiercely with that resolve in those tense times, the Soka Gakkai members vowed to one another to open the way to world peace.

Daisaku began the year 1962 by visiting Hokkaido still in the depths of winter. Then, following a trip to the Middle East, he traveled extensively throughout Japan—to Chugoku, Shikoku, Tohoku, Kanto, Kyushu, Tokaido, Chubu, Kansai, Shin’etsu and Okinawa.

In Kanagawa, he said, “Let’s become the pillars of Japan and make Japan a truly wonderful, happy place to live!”

In Aichi, he said, “Whatever others might say, let’s win without fail and keep working for peace and security!”

In Kansai, he said, “Let’s fight to create a society where everyone can live with a sense of security and peace of mind!”

Action # 10:

On his first European trip in 1961, Daisaku visits the newly erected Berlin Wall a symbol of the cold war. At the wall, he silently prays and said to one of his translators who asked him what he wished for. He told him it wasn’t a wish but his conviction, “I am sure that in thirty years this Berlin Wall will no longer stand.” The berlin wall came down 28 years later.

B. Conflict delivers insight

A. An argument provokes the person, to tell the truth.

President Toda gets off the phone with Prime Minister Mine who apologizes for not being able to attend the event due to a sudden change in his travel plans but he assures him that his wife and son will join on his behalf. Toda controls his temper and tells him it’s not me you have to apologize to the youth and slams the phone down. The youth representatives in the room look at him and ask if they should cancel the event. Toda fires back at them that we don’t need these fickle politicians – we will go as planned. “No matter who attends or doesn’t attend, we’re going to hold this ceremony for our young people!” 6000 youth assembled, unaware they were to make history. hungry and cold, they enjoyed the hot pork soup Mr Toda had prepared for them out of his great love and concern. To support their ailing mentor, who was too weak to stand, the young Daisaku Ikeda had a litter built to carry President Toda through the crowd. He then delivers a scathing speech in which he tells them he can only count on the youth present here. One of them will be the next Soka Gakkai president who will change the world and when that happens, they should all support him. All these arrogant leaders will come crawling then, to watch them on their grand stage of mission as champions of the people. He entrusts world peace to the youth of Soka. “Today, I want to bequeath this mission to you young people. I entrust the future to all of you. I’m counting on you.” As the event drew to a close, President Toda gazed intently at Daisaku, calling out to him, “Let’s fight!” On April 2, 1958, 17 days later, Mr. Toda’s noble life came to an end.

Daisaku starts his meeting with Soviet Presient Gorbachev saying “I have come to have an argument with you.” Mr. Gorbachev’s interpreter Victor Kim, seemed somewhat puzzled by Daisaku’s remark. The interpreter accompanying Daisaku, a graduate of Soka University, jumps in and skillfully conveyed his words with the intended nuance. Soon there were smiles all around. Daisaku continues: “Let’s make sparks fly, and talk about everything honestly and openly, for the sake of humanity and for the sake of Japan–Soviet relations!” Mr. Gorbachev, his face flushed with color, replies without missing a beat: “I am well acquainted with your extensive activities, but I didn’t realize you were a man of such passion. I, too, am fond of straightforward dialogue.” He then lets out a hearty laugh. The Soviet president continues: “I feel as though you and I are longtime friends. It is as if we are old and dear friends rejoicing in their first face-to-face encounter.” Daisaku says: “I am a supporter of perestroika and the ‘new thinking’ you seek to foster. Our ideas have much in common. In fact, this is only natural, as we both focus on the human being. Our humanity is the great common denominator.” “New ideas tend to be looked upon at first as absurd,” Mr. Gorbachev states emphatically. “Reformers are always in the minority in the beginning. Therefore, it is a mistake to immediately dismiss budding plans or fresh ideas as outrageous.” Sitting upright, Mr. Gorbachev vigorously continues: “When I proposed constructing a world free of nuclear weapons and resolving conflict through dialogue rather than violence, many people laughed this off as utopianism. But look at what is happening; these ideals are now being actualized.” The president then says: “The first step in perestroika was to give everyone freedom. However, the question now is how to put that freedom to use: . . . Perestroika has reached a decisive stage. This is a time of change not only for the Soviet Union, but for the entire world.” Their discussion turns to relations between the two countries, and Daisaku changed its direction by commenting that Gorby’s courtship with his wife Raisa was well known. He humorously retorts that that was something he had started to forget, adding: “Since Moscow State University Rector Logunov is present, and it was when my wife and I were both students at that school that our romance began, I think it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter now.” Amid everyone’s laughter, Mr. Logunov gives a friendly shrug. On November 20, 1997, a day of brilliant autumn colors, Daisaku welcomes the Gorbachevs to Kansai Soka Junior and Senior High School in Katano, Osaka. On that occasion, Raisa Gorbachev, herself an educator, makes an impassioned appeal to the students: “You will experience all kinds of hurts in life. Not all of them will heal. Nor can you always realize all of your dreams. But there is something that you can achieve. There is a dream that you can make a reality. Therefore, the person who triumphs, in the end, is the person who gets up after each fall and pushes onward. The ability to keep on fighting is a matter of the spirit.”

B. Conflict uncovers a secret.

Nichiren Shoshu priests attend the Soka Gakkai general meeting in which they hear the youth chorus sing “Ode to Joy.” It is a wonderful rendition, and everyone has worked tirelessly to prepare for the performance. After the meeting, one of the Nichiren priests comments while Daisaku is seeing them off even as the youth holler to catch a glimpse of their mentor. Daisaku asks if he enjoyed the performances and the priest comments: “How could you allow Christian songs to be sung at a Buddhist gathering? This is outrageous and insulting to the high priest.” He walks away without waiting for a response A week later the lawyer Yamazaki is furious in Daisaku’s office. They receive a letter from the priesthood asking for an explanation for the disgraced behaviour at the Soka Gakkai meeting and personally hold Daisaku responsible for trying to insult the high priest by inviting him to the event. Vice President Fukushima agrees with Yamazaki who are both colluding in secret with the priesthood to create a rift within Soka Gakkai. Later their plot is revealed when the Study department chief drafts doctrines for a new religious body for disgruntled leaders of another religious organization where Yamazaki sees a schism, he can profit from by helping legally establish this new religious body.

Yamazaki makes a strong case for why Daisaku should step down as President and some of the top leaders join him as a way to quell the harassment towards members by the Nichiren Shoshu Priests. Daisaku announces to Members at a meeting that the rumours are true and that he is stepping down. The true colours of Yamazaki come through when he plays both sides against each other and the priesthood imposes more restrictions on Daisaku and try to create a schism between him and the Soka Gakkai members. Daisaku undeterred writes poems and plays piano for members waiting to see his outside the Kansai headquarters. He decides to fight and meets pioneer members at their homes one on one and travels across Japan. The priesthood intensifies its ill-treatment of members, but they are strong and undefeated.

C. Conflict brings out the true nature.

Toda just seven months before his death issues his historic declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons on Sep 8 1957 at a meeting in Mitsuzawa stadium in Yokahama where 50,000 Soka Gakkai youth gather. Toda issues this declaration at the height of the Cold War between East and West. Both Eastern and Western blocs were frantically engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting test blasts. Just one month before, the U.S.S.R. had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the United States had developed what it claimed were “clean” hydrogen bombs which maximized destructive capacity with less radioactive fallout. Nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all human life, cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the destiny of all humankind. The myth of nuclear deterrence was based on the view that since mutual destruction would be assured in the event of an attack, nuclear weapons could be seen as a deterrent to war. Toda saw such thinking as a product of the darkest aspects of human nature. Nuclear deterrence was founded on an equilibrium of terror and created a vicious cycle which fuelled the endless escalation of the arms race. He felt that people who placed their hopes on the idea of nuclear deterrence were entering a devilish labyrinth. Toda’s declaration, however, was a radical departure from this way of thinking. His stance was that nuclear weapons and their use must be absolutely condemned, not from the standpoint of ideology, nationality or ethnic identity but from the universal dimension of humanity. In condemning nuclear weapons as an “absolute evil,” Toda was seeking to stress that behind the existence of nuclear weapons lurks the devilish aspect of human life that seeks to subjugate, control and ultimately destroy others. As a Buddhist, Toda was a staunch opponent of the death penalty but his call for the death penalty to be applied for those using nuclear bombs was calculated to shock and awaken his audience to the utterly unequivocal nature of his opposition to nuclear weapons. His proposal of the death penalty was thus not a simple or literal proposition. Todaʼs striking call for the death penalty was aimed at countering the tendency within peopleʼs minds to find justifications for the use of nuclear bombs. He wished to pass a sentence of death on the destructive tendencies within human life. He hoped that by allowing this idea to penetrate deeply into the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, it might serve as an internal restraint against the use of nuclear weapons and for the abolition of war.

Osaka police interrogate Daisaku on false charges of election interference for three days and even parade him in front of Soka Gakkai members in handcuffs like a common criminal. They deprive him of food and sleep. Finally one of the interrogators tells him to confess or they will arrest Toda as the President of Soka Gakkai who is frail from his illness. Would he be able to endure prison a second time around? Daisaku is in a dilemma as to what he must do: confess to protect his mentor or refute the false charges that are brought only to bring down the organization. He decides to confess for now and fight it in court.

D. Conflict uncovers an emotional issue.

Young Daisaku and his elder brother Kichii are playing on the beach, Kichii hides among the bamboo racks (hibi) used to dry the seaweed. Kichii sees the sun reflected off a shiny object and picks it up. It’s an old mirror glass. He uses it to spot Daisaku and wins the game of hide and seek once again. Daisaku discovers the mirror glass in his brother’s back pocket. They fight for it rolling on the beach until Daisaku falls on the glass and breaks it into two pieces. His brother looks upset but before he can scold his Daisaku their mother calls them inside for early dinner. His brother stays in his room packing to leave for his posting while Daisaku asks her mother why he can’t go and fight in the war too. She tells him because he’s the only early riser in their family. Besides who will carry on the family legacy of his father and tells him to go to bed as they have an early day? She rises at 2 am and packs food for her son and wakes him up. As Daisaku reluctantly gets ready and peeps into his brother’s room to see his bags packed. His brother is awake and calls him in. Kichii flourishes one of the mirror glass pieces and tells him it’s for him. He shows his own piece. Now they both have a piece each and every time he wants to see him, he can just look into the mirror and see him at the other end of the world. His mother is waiting for him by the boat. Daisaku rushes out into the freezing cold to join her. They row into the cold water and Daisaku dives into the freezing water to retrieve seaweed. Two weeks later, Kichii is on the frontlines in Burma taking fire, finally, there is a lull and he pulls out his portion of the mirror and sees in it: Daisaku running around the bamboo racks on the beach playfully and he smiles… the shelling begins again and he puts away the mirror to get back to his post.

Daisaku returns home after he has been inaugurated as the third President of Soka Gakkai to a home that seems to be in mourning. Kaneko, his wife, showed no sign of being in a celebratory mood. When he asked her why, she replied that there would be no celebration since the day marked the funeral of the Ikeda family. This sobering remark was at one level a tacit declaration of her resolve to completely support her husband on the new path that their lives had taken.

C. Irony delivers insight

IRONY: Japanese occupation forces take over the country as the emperor steps down from power and pass a law that guarantees freedom of religion

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: It takes a terrible defeat to win one’s rights and freedom!

IRONY: Schools are shut as Japan reels from the aftermath of war Toda thinks it is the perfect time to launch a correspondence course for the students

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Learning never ends!

IRONY: Doctors predict Daisaku will not live to age 30 but he goes on to live to 96 in high spirits still writing and publishing at a feverish pace.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: You can even prolong your life if you can give it a purpose.

IRONY: Yubari coal miners’ Union which should stand to protect the rights of all workers threatens the jobs of workers who are Soka Gakkai members because they don’t support their endorsed candidate in elections violating their basic rights and freedoms.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Soka Gakkai members are harassed for being good workers and upright members of the community.

IRONY: Daisaku a religious leader is criticized by the media and political leaders for wanting to visit a communist country that is atheist ahead of his trip to Russia during the cold war.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Daisaku believes that it’s his duty to go because there are people there.

IRONY: Daisaku meets Gorbachev who envisioned Perestroika, which ultimately ended the cold war era of the Soviet Union. He says to the young Daisaku, I want to be your student and learn from you today.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Great leaders and thinkers are always thirsting to seek and learn from everyone.

IRONY: Daisaku visits Okinawa a place of a bloody land battle during WWII in which countless lives were lost and decides to start his novel The Human Revolution which begins with the lines: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.” Then in 1977, Soka Gakkai opens its Okinawa Training Centre on the former US missile launch site.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: We can use symbols of the foolishness of war to transmit the message of peace to the world

9. What are the Most Profound Lines of the Movie?

Pattern A: Height of the Emotion

Emotional Moment # 1: Daisaku’s elder brother Kiichi is drafted in the war. He doesn’t want to leave, and his younger brother knows something is not right

Essence: We will always remain connected in our hearts.

Profound Line: Kiichi gives one-half of the broken mirror to Daisaku and tells him leaning over to look into it: “This is no ordinary mirror Dai, see… when you feel lonely… use it… you will always find me… and I have the other half so I can always be with you.”

Emotional Moment # 2: Daisaku’s home has been destroyed in an air raid once again. Daisaku rummages through the rubble and manages to pull out a suitcase that survives. He opens it only to find that it’s stuffed with pink dress dolls and nothing of any practical value. Daisaku cries holding the dolls, but his mother picks up the dolls and smiles nostalgically.

Essence: Everything has meaning for someone. There is always hope.

Profound Line: Daisaku’s mother looks at the dolls and carefully rearranges them back into the suitcase and says: “Huh! I almost forgot we still had these… Did I tell you I came with only one suitcase when I came to live with your father after marriage? This was my mother’s gift. Thanks for saving it Dai. They will look wonderful on display at our new home.”

Emotional Moment # 3: A US pilot parachutes off his plane when it catches fire and lands on the streets. Passerby crowd around and Daisaku pushes through them to get a closer look. It’s a frightened American boy barely 17 who asks for help. The crowd becomes an angry mob and starts beating him up – the enemy. The Military police pull up in their van and take the boy away in handcuffs. Daisaku shares this incident with his mother when he reaches home.

Essence: War divides people. Mothers have a vast heart.

Profound Line: Daisaku’s mother hears the story and shakes her head to say: “Poor boy, I’m sure his mother must be so worried…”

Emotional Moment # 4: Daisaku rushes out of the munitions factory to join his friend on the Morgasaki beach. His friend tells Daisaku that he wants to join a religion and asks Daisaku for his advice.

Essence: A good friend and a good philosophy is essential to living a full life

Profound Line: Daisaku feels helpless as he has no answers for his friend and expresses his pain in a poem with the lines: “My friend in lonely sorrow / I too /but with one boundless aspiration:/ Make a promise with me / we’ll face life / whatever pain it brings! / My friend smiles / “I’ll go along with that!…”

Emotional Moment # 5: Young Daisaku is earnestly searching for a sound life philosophy and a mentor to guide him, yet, like others his age, he had lost all trust in authority. Daisaku meets his mentor Josei Toda and asks him several questions including “What is a true patriot?” and “What is the correct way of life.” Instinctively he feels he can trust Mr Toda and recites an impromptu poem.

Essence: Sincerity builds trust and inspires others

Profound Line: Toda replies to Daisaku: “When I think of our family, our country and our turbulent world,” Mr Toda continues, “I want to eliminate all misery and suffering from the face of the earth. This is what the movement for kosen-rufu is all about. Will you join me?”

Emotional Moment # 6: Toda in his frail condition rushes to meet Daisaku at the Haneda airport before Daisaku presents himself voluntarily for questioning by Osaka police and is interrogated for false charges of election interference.

Essence: A true mentor is willing to give his own life to protect his disciple

Profound Line: Toda said to him: “Shin’ichi, should death overtake you, I will rush to your side and throw myself upon you and accompany you in death.”

Emotional Moment # 7: January 8, 1945—Mr. Toda is summoned to an officer’s room and is urged once again to discard his faith. He refuses. The officer tells him that there is not a single Soka Kyoiku Gakkai member other than him. “No,” Mr. Toda responds. “It’s me and Mr Makiguchi!” The officer coldly shoots back, “Makiguchi is dead!” Listless, Mr Toda returns to his cell and weeps all night.

Essence: Toda vows to avenge the death of his mentor

Profound Line: Toda makes the following determination: “I will be like the Count of Monte Cristo! Should I ever leave this prison, I will avenge the death of Mr Makiguchi. Striking a blow for justice against those who persecuted him, I will prove to all the world his greatness!”

Emotional Moment # 8: Toda at the memorial of his mentor Makiguchi

Essence: Toda is grateful to his mentor

Profound Line: Toda says: “In you vast and boundless compassion, you let me accompany you even to prison.”

Emotional Moment # 9: Toda on his deathbed recalls his dream to Daisaku

Essence: Daisaku must fulfil his mentors’ dreams

Profound Line: Toda says: “They were all waiting. Everyone was waiting. They were all seeking Nichiren Buddhism. I want to go—to travel the world on a journey for kosen-rufu” urged his young disciple to carry on in his stead. “[Daisaku], the world is your challenge; it is your true stage. It is a vast world”

Emotional Moment # 10: Daisaku Ikeda is appointed as the third president of Soka Gakkai

Essence: Daisaku Vows to fulfil his mentor’s vision

Profound Line: Daisaku in his inaugural speech begins with: “Though I am young, from this day I will take leadership as representative of President Toda’s disciples and advance with you another step towards the substantive realization of kosen-rufu.” He then reiterates Toda’s vow: “This I will state. Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still, I will give my life for the sake of the Law.”

Pattern B: Build Meaning Over Multiple Scenes

Line # 1: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Lamenting

Scene Essence: Daisaku is eager to speak to his elder brother whose been on the frontlines of the war. Kiichi outwardly portrays a heroic front but when Daisaku keeps pestering him to share details says: “Dai. There is no glory in war. Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Middle: Justification

Scene Essence: Daisaku with his friend gets into an argument about the occupation by US forces when Daisaku repeats his brother’s words in the end: “It is what it is. We lost they won. Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel. There is no glory in war, is there?”

End: Determination to stop it all costs

Scene Essence: Daisaku visits the US missile base on Okinawa and sits at his desk in the Okinawa Culture Centre to write his novel The Human Revolution. He begins the first chapter with: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Line # 2: “Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still, I will give my life for the sake of the Law.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Skeptical

Scene Essence: Daisaku walks into the tiny living room where Mr Toda is giving a lecture on Buddhism and hears these words for the first time. He seems cynical and doesn’t understand the profound vow that the Buddha is making with these words.

Middle: Inspired by his mentor

Scene Essence: When he hears Mr Toda repeat these words when he is reinstated as the second president of Soka Gakkai while Daisaku looks on from the floor of the auditorium that is overflowing beyond capacity and feels inspired by his mentor’s call.

End: Makes it his own vow with conviction

Scene Essence: At the inauguration of as the third president of Soka Gakkai Daisaku recalls his mentor’s vow and makes it his own with a powerful conviction.

Line # 3: “Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Despair

Scene Essence: Dialogues with world leaders during the Cold War. In search of a way to unite humanity, Shin’ichi engaged in dialogues with many leading world thinkers, not least the historian Arnold J. Toynbee. At a moment of heightened tensions between the Soviet Union and China, he made repeated visits to both countries, meeting with Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. He traveled to the United States, where he met and spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Later, he also met and spoke frequently with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he developed a warm friendship.

Turning point: Resonance & Hope

Scene Essence: Daisaku visits the UN headquarters in New York on 14 Oct 1960, where he recalls the lines on the UNESCO charter “Since wars begin in the minds of women and men, it is in the minds of women and men that defences of peace must be constructed.” These lines resonate with his conviction that “Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.”

Middle: Remonstration

Scene Essence: When the Nichiren Shoshu tries to subjugate the lay organisation of Soka Gakkai and issues a call to disband after a notice of excommunication.

Turning Point: Self-doubt

Scene Essence: Daisaku struggles to chronicle his journey, each day was a battle into which he poured his heart and soul. Calling to mind precious fellow members in Japan and around the world striving so earnestly in faith, he tapped the deepest recesses of his being to write my tale, as if he were sending a letter of encouragement to each one of them. At the same time, he was also engaging in an inner dialogue with his mentor as he wrote. His voice would echo in Daisaku’s mind, urging him to transmit the Soka Gakkai spirit for posterity and fulfill his mission in this life. That would sweep away all weariness and fill him with courage.

End: Determination and Legacy

Scene Essence: Daisaku completes documenting his journey for peace for posterity in 30 volumes of The New Human Revolution beginning with the words “Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.” He starts writing the novel on 6th Aug 1993 48 years to the day the world and Japan witnessed the devastating nuclear weapons and brings it to completion exactly on Sep 8, 2018, the anniversary of the day his mentor Toda made his declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in 1957 – marking the starting point of Soka Gakkai’s peace activities.

10. How Do You Leave Us With A Profound Ending?

A. DELIVER THE PROFOUND TRUTH PROFOUNDLY

SGI and ICAN work together to rally all member states. The UN treaty on the elimination of nuclear weapons is brought to the floor at the UN general meeting and must have a unanimous vote to pass into law.

It’s a tense scene when all nations must ratify the bill including the security council and all eyes are on Russia, China, India and the US.

After a tense pause before the final nation votes – the bill is passed unanimously.

The Indian Ambassador credits his dialogue with Dr Daisaku Ikeda a few months ago who reminded him about his grandchildren and the world they will inherit. His decision was the right one for not only his country but the future of all humanity. He is proud that as a nation that coined the phrase “Vasudevakutumbhakam” – The world is one family, India is also home to the Buddhist philosophy of respect and dignity of all life.

B. LEAD CHARACTER’S ENDING REPRESENTS THE CHANGE

Daisaku Ikeda, the SGI president receives the Nobel Peace Prize for working over six decades tirelessly for peace to bring about a world free from nuclear weapons.

SGI members chant “I am Shinichi” as they go out into society to take the baton from their mentor Daisaku Ikeda.

C. PAYOFF KEY SETUPS

SGI members who are poor and downtrodden with no voice become leaders in their communities and workplaces.

SGI members who are constantly waiting for direction from their mentor and feel stuck when he is not allowed to speak to them are the ones that reach out to others in their communities on their own volution without waiting to be told what to do. In India they launch BSG for SDG, in the US Soka University students become pioneers in their field, in South America they receive the Red Cross Award, in Africa the women, carry on the work of Wangari Mathai to create a tree plantation movement, etc.

Soka Gakkai members in Japan, start a petition drive on eliminating nuclear abolition, they bring stories of the Hibakusha – people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – in the form of short films and exhibitions that tour the world.

One of the hibakushas makes a rousing speech before the UN general council before the bill is brought to the floor.

D. SURPRISING, BUT INEVITABLE

Soka Gakkai members save up to make meagre contributions to the building of Nichiren Shoshu temples and the Grand Lecture Hall at Taiseki-ji Temple.

Soka Gakkai members face harassment and humiliation at the hands of the local priests at their local temples – they are denied funeral rituals for the deceased and burial in the family plots.

The Grand Lecture Hall is demolished by the High Priest Nikken.

Soka Gakkai builds a cemetery for members to bury their deceased.

Nichiren Shoshu refuses to hold dialogues with Soka Gakkai leaders and sends a letter of ex-communication.

Daisaku attends a large gathering and declared their day of Spiritual Independence.

Daisedo is built for SGI members to visit and renew their vow to work for peace.

Soka Gakkai members are scorned when trying to collect names for petitioning the UN to ban nuclear weapons.

They tie up with an NGO and create awareness through films on the Hibakusha and the exhibition makes a world tour.

ICAN brings the bill to the UN general meeting floor.

Hibakusha shares her moving story at the UN.

The bill is put to vote and there is tense anticipation that member states – Russia, China, India and the US won’t ratify the bill and kill it.

The bill passes unanimously.

Daisaku Ikeda is awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to ride the world of nuclear weapons.

E. LEAVE US WITH A PROFOUND PARTING IMAGE/LINE

On August 6, 1993, the 48th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Ikeda decided to write The New Human Revolution, the sequel to The Human Revolution, in the belief that nuclear weapons “threaten the most basic of human rights, the right to life,” and in the hope that the voice of his mentor would resonate deeply within the hearts of future generations. He wanted to record the extent to which kosen-rufu had progressed since Toda’s death in 1958 as a true tribute and testament to his mentor’s spirit. To do so, he describes his own struggles and those of pioneering Soka Gakkai members to carry out their mentor’s mandate to better their own lives and to strive in the service of humankind as Nichiren Buddhists.

Parting Image/Line: Daisaku Ikeda using a calligraphy pen in broad strokes writes the theme of the New Human Revolution on a large blank canvas, dates and signs it with his pen name:

“A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.” – 6 Aug 1993, Shinichi Yamamoto

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Height of the Emotion (15A)

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify the height of the emotion to deliver lines that have a deeper meaning.”

Pattern # 1 – Height of Emotion:

Emotional Moment # 1: Daisaku’s elder brother Kiichi is drafted into the war. He doesn’t want to leave, and his younger brother knows something is not right

Essence: We will always remain connected in our hearts.

Profound Line: Kiichi gives one-half of the broken mirror to Daisaku and tells him leaning over to look into it: “This is no ordinary mirror Dai, see… when you feel lonely… use it… you will always find me… and I have the other half so I can always be with you.”

Emotional Moment # 2: Daisaku’s home has been destroyed in an air raid once again. Daisaku rummages through the rubble and manages to pull out a suitcase that survives. He opens it only to find that it’s stuffed with pink dress dolls and nothing of any practical value. Daisaku cries holding the dolls, but his mother picks up the dolls and smiles nostalgically.

Essence: Everything has meaning for someone. There is always hope.

Profound Line: Daisaku’s mother looks at the dolls and carefully rearranges them back into the suitcase and says: “Huh! I almost forgot we still had these… Did I tell you I came with only one suitcase when I came to live with your father after marriage? This was my mother’s gift. Thanks for saving it Dai. They will look wonderful on display at our new home.”

Emotional Moment # 3: A US pilot parachutes off his plane when it catches fire and lands on the streets. Passerby crowd around and Daisaku pushes through them to get a closer look. It’s a frightened American boy barely 17 who asks for help. The crowd becomes an angry mob and starts beating him up – the enemy. The Military police pull up in their van and take the boy away in handcuffs. Daisaku shares this incident with his mother when he reaches home.

Essence: War divides people. Mothers have a vast heart.

Profound Line: Daisaku’s mother hears the story and shakes her head to say: “Poor boy, I’m sure his mother must be so worried…”

Emotional Moment # 4: Daisaku rushes out of the munitions factory to join his friend on the Morgasaki beach. His friend tells Daisaku that he wants to join a religion and asks Daisaku for his advice.

Essence: A good friend and a good philosophy is essential to living a full life

Profound Line: Daisaku feels helpless as he has no answers for his friend and expresses his pain in a poem with the lines: “My friend in lonely sorrow / I too /but with one boundless aspiration:/ Make a promise with me / we’ll face life / whatever pain it brings! / My friend smiles / “I’ll go along with that!…”

Emotional Moment # 5: Young Daisaku is earnestly searching for a sound life philosophy and a mentor to guide him, yet, like others his age, he had lost all trust in authority. Daisaku meets his mentor Josei Toda and asks him several questions including “What is a true patriot?” and “What is the correct way of life.” Instinctively he feels he can trust Mr Toda and recites an impromptu poem.

Essence: Sincerity builds trust and inspires others

Profound Line: Toda replies to Daisaku: “When I think of our family, our country and our turbulent world,” Mr Toda continues, “I want to eliminate all misery and suffering from the face of the earth. This is what the movement for kosen-rufu is all about. Will you join me?”

Emotional Moment # 6: Toda in his frail condition rushes to meet Daisaku at the Haneda airport before Daisaku presents himself voluntarily for questioning by Osaka police and is interrogated for false charges of election interference.

Essence: A true mentor is willing to give his own life to protect his disciple

Profound Line: Toda said to him: “Shin’ichi, should death overtake you, I will rush to your side and throw myself upon you and accompany you in death.”

Emotional Moment # 7: January 8, 1945—Mr. Toda is summoned to an officer’s room and is urged once again to discard his faith. He refuses. The officer tells him that there is not a single Soka Kyoiku Gakkai member other than him. “No,” Mr. Toda responds. “It’s me and Mr Makiguchi!” The officer coldly shoots back, “Makiguchi is dead!” Listless, Mr Toda returns to his cell and weeps all night.

Essence: Toda vows to avenge the death of his mentor

Profound Line: Toda makes the following determination: “I will be like the Count of Monte Cristo! Should I ever leave this prison, I will avenge the death of Mr Makiguchi. Striking a blow for justice against those who persecuted him, I will prove to all the world his greatness!”

Emotional Moment # 8: Toda at the memorial of his mentor Makiguchi

Essence: Toda is grateful to his mentor

Profound Line: Toda says: “In you vast and boundless compassion, you let me accompany you even to prison.”

Emotional Moment # 9: Toda on his deathbed recalls his dream to Daisaku

Essence: Daisaku must fulfil his mentors’ dreams

Profound Line: Toda says: “They were all waiting. Everyone was waiting. They were all seeking Nichiren Buddhism. I want to go—to travel the world on a journey for kosen-rufu” urged his young disciple to carry on in his stead. “[Daisaku], the world is your challenge; it is your true stage. It is a vast world”

Emotional Moment # 10: Daisaku Ikeda is appointed as the third president of Soka Gakkai

Essence: Daisaku Vows to fulfil his mentor’s vision

Profound Line: Daisaku in his inaugural speech begins with: “Though I am young, from this day I will take leadership as representative of President Toda’s disciples and advance with you another step towards the substantive realization of kosen-rufu.” He then reiterates Toda’s vow: “This I will state. Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still, I will give my life for the sake of the Law.”

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu Builds Meaning with Dialogue (15B)

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify and build meaning over multiple experiences with a profound line of dialogue.”

Pattern # 2 – Build meaning over multiple experiences.

Line # 1: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Lamenting

Scene Essence: Daisaku is eager to speak to his elder brother whose been on the frontlines of the war. Kiichi outwardly portrays a heroic front but when Daisaku keeps pestering him to share details says: “Dai. There is no glory in war. Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Middle: Justification

Scene Essence: Daisaku with his friend gets into an argument about the occupation by US forces when Daisaku repeats his brother’s words in the end: “It is what it is. We lost they won. Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel. There is no glory in war, is there?”

End: Determination to stop it all costs

Scene Essence: Daisaku visits the US missile base on Okinawa and sits at his desk in the Okinawa Culture Centre to write his novel The Human Revolution. He begins the first chapter with: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”

Line # 2: “Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still, I will give my life for the sake of the Law.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Skeptical

Scene Essence: Daisaku walks into the tiny living room where Mr Toda is giving a lecture on Buddhism and hears these words for the first time. He seems cynical and doesn’t understand the profound vow that the Buddha is making with these words.

Middle: Inspired by his mentor

Scene Essence: When he hears Mr Toda repeat these words when he is reinstated as the second president of Soka Gakkai while Daisaku looks on from the floor of the auditorium that is overflowing beyond capacity and feels inspired by his mentor’s call.

End: Makes it his own vow with conviction

Scene Essence: At the inauguration of as the third president of Soka Gakkai Daisaku recalls his mentor’s vow and makes it his own with a powerful conviction.

Line # 3: “Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness.”

Arc & Essence for the Line:

Beginning: Despair

Scene Essence: Dialogues with world leaders during the Cold War. In search of a way to unite humanity, Shin’ichi engaged in dialogues with many leading world thinkers, not least the historian Arnold J. Toynbee. At a moment of heightened tensions between the Soviet Union and China, he made repeated visits to both countries, meeting with Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. He traveled to the United States, where he met and spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Later, he also met and spoke frequently with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he developed a warm friendship.

Turning point: Resonance & Hope

Scene Essence: Daisaku visits the UN headquarters in New York on 14 Oct 1960, where he recalls the lines on the UNESCO charter “Since wars begin in the minds of women and men, it is in the minds of women and men that defences of peace must be constructed.” These lines resonate with his conviction that “Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.”

Middle: Remonstration

Scene Essence: When the Nichiren Shoshu tries to subjugate the lay organisation of Soka Gakkai and issues a call to disband after a notice of excommunication.

Turning Point: Self-doubt

Scene Essence: Daisaku struggles to chronicle his journey, each day was a battle into which he poured his heart and soul. Calling to mind precious fellow members in Japan and around the world striving so earnestly in faith, he tapped the deepest recesses of his being to write my tale, as if he were sending a letter of encouragement to each one of them. At the same time, he was also engaging in an inner dialogue with his mentor as he wrote. His voice would echo in Daisaku’s mind, urging him to transmit the Soka Gakkai spirit for posterity and fulfill his mission in this life. That would sweep away all weariness and fill him with courage.

End: Determination and Legacy

Scene Essence: Daisaku completes documenting his journey for peace for posterity in 30 volumes of The New Human Revolution beginning with the words “Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.” He starts writing the novel on 6th Aug 1993 48 years to the day the world and Japan witnessed the devastating nuclear weapons and brings it to completion exactly on Sep 8, 2018, the anniversary of the day his mentor Toda made his declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in 1957 – marking the starting point of Soka Gakkai’s peace activities.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu Delivers Irony!

“What I learned doing this assignment is…how easy it is to find irony to deliver insights if you just put two opposites together”

IRONY DELIVERS INSIGHT:

IRONY: Japanese occupation forces take over the country as the emperor steps down from power and pass a law that guarantees freedom of religion

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: It takes a terrible defeat to win one’s rights and freedom!

IRONY: Schools are shut as Japan reels from the aftermath of war Toda thinks it is the perfect time to launch a correspondence course for the students

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Learning never ends!

IRONY: Doctors predict Daisaku will not live to age 30 but he goes on to live to 96 in high spirits still writing and publishing at a feverish pace.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: You can even prolong your life if you can give it a purpose.

IRONY: Yubari coal miners’ Union which should stand to protect the rights of all workers threatens the jobs of workers who are Soka Gakkai members because they don’t support their endorsed candidate in elections violating their basic rights and freedoms.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Soka Gakkai members are harassed for being good workers and upright members of the community.

IRONY: Daisaku a religious leader is criticized by the media and political leaders for wanting to visit a communist country that is atheist ahead of his trip to Russia during the cold war.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Daisaku believes that it’s his duty to go because there are people there.

IRONY: Daisaku meets Gorbachev who envisioned Perestroika, which ultimately ended the cold war era of the Soviet Union. He says to the young Daisaku, I want to be your student and learn from you today.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: Great leaders and thinkers are always thirsting to seek and learn from everyone.

IRONY: Daisaku visits Okinawa a place of a bloody land battle during WWII in which countless lives were lost and decides to start his novel The Human Revolution which begins with the lines: “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.” Then in 1977, Soka Gakkai opens its Okinawa Training Centre on the former US missile launch site.

NEW WAYS / INSIGHT: We can use symbols of the foolishness of war to transmit the message of peace to the world

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu Delivers Insights Through Conflict

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify the insight I want to deliver and find the conflict pattern to deliver it through. This was quite interesting to do and definitely a breakthrough moment for me.”

Conflict delivers Insights:

A. An argument provokes the person, to tell the truth.

President Toda gets off the phone with Prime Minister Mine who apologizes for not being able to attend the event due to a sudden change in his travel plans but he assures him that his wife and son will join on his behalf. Toda controls his temper and tells him it’s not me you have to apologize to the youth and slams the phone down. The youth representatives in the room look at him and ask if they should cancel the event. Toda fires back at them that we don’t need these fickle politicians – we will go as planned. “No matter who attends or doesn’t attend, we’re going to hold this ceremony for our young people!” 6000 youth assembled, unaware they were to make history. hungry and cold, they enjoyed the hot pork soup Mr Toda had prepared for them out of his great love and concern. To support their ailing mentor, who was too weak to stand, the young Daisaku Ikeda had a litter built to carry President Toda through the crowd. He then delivers a scathing speech in which he tells them he can only count on the youth present here. One of them will be the next Soka Gakkai president who will change the world and when that happens, they should all support him. All these arrogant leaders will come crawling then, to watch them on their grand stage of mission as champions of the people. He entrusts world peace to the youth of Soka. “Today, I want to bequeath this mission to you young people. I entrust the future to all of you. I’m counting on you.” As the event drew to a close, President Toda gazed intently at Daisaku, calling out to him, “Let’s fight!” On April 2, 1958, 17 days later, Mr. Toda’s noble life came to an end.

Daisaku starts his meeting with Soviet Presient Gorbachev saying “I have come to have an argument with you.” Mr. Gorbachev’s interpreter Victor Kim, seemed somewhat puzzled by Daisaku’s remark. The interpreter accompanying Daisaku, a graduate of Soka University, jumps in and skillfully conveyed his words with the intended nuance. Soon there were smiles all around. Daisaku continues: “Let’s make sparks fly, and talk about everything honestly and openly, for the sake of humanity and for the sake of Japan–Soviet relations!” Mr. Gorbachev, his face flushed with color, replies without missing a beat: “I am well acquainted with your extensive activities, but I didn’t realize you were a man of such passion. I, too, am fond of straightforward dialogue.” He then lets out a hearty laugh. The Soviet president continues: “I feel as though you and I are longtime friends. It is as if we are old and dear friends rejoicing in their first face-to-face encounter.” Daisaku says: “I am a supporter of perestroika and the ‘new thinking’ you seek to foster. Our ideas have much in common. In fact, this is only natural, as we both focus on the human being. Our humanity is the great common denominator.” “New ideas tend to be looked upon at first as absurd,” Mr. Gorbachev states emphatically. “Reformers are always in the minority in the beginning. Therefore, it is a mistake to immediately dismiss budding plans or fresh ideas as outrageous.” Sitting upright, Mr. Gorbachev vigorously continues: “When I proposed constructing a world free of nuclear weapons and resolving conflict through dialogue rather than violence, many people laughed this off as utopianism. But look at what is happening; these ideals are now being actualized.” The president then says: “The first step in perestroika was to give everyone freedom. However, the question now is how to put that freedom to use: . . . Perestroika has reached a decisive stage. This is a time of change not only for the Soviet Union, but for the entire world.” Their discussion turns to relations between the two countries, and Daisaku changed its direction by commenting that Gorby’s courtship with his wife Raisa was well known. He humorously retorts that that was something he had started to forget, adding: “Since Moscow State University Rector Logunov is present, and it was when my wife and I were both students at that school that our romance began, I think it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter now.” Amid everyone’s laughter, Mr. Logunov gives a friendly shrug. On November 20, 1997, a day of brilliant autumn colors, Daisaku welcomes the Gorbachevs to Kansai Soka Junior and Senior High School in Katano, Osaka. On that occasion, Raisa Gorbachev, herself an educator, makes an impassioned appeal to the students: “You will experience all kinds of hurts in life. Not all of them will heal. Nor can you always realize all of your dreams. But there is something that you can achieve. There is a dream that you can make a reality. Therefore, the person who triumphs, in the end, is the person who gets up after each fall and pushes onward. The ability to keep on fighting is a matter of the spirit.”

B. Conflict uncovers a secret.

Nichiren Shoshu priests attend the Soka Gakkai general meeting in which they hear the youth chorus sing “Ode to Joy.” It is a wonderful rendition, and everyone has worked tirelessly to prepare for the performance. After the meeting, one of the Nichiren priests comments while Daisaku is seeing them off even as the youth holler to catch a glimpse of their mentor. Daisaku asks if he enjoyed the performances and the priest comments: “How could you allow Christian songs to be sung at a Buddhist gathering? This is outrageous and insulting to the high priest.” He walks away without waiting for a response A week later the lawyer Yamazaki is furious in Daisaku’s office. They receive a letter from the priesthood asking for an explanation for the disgraced behaviour at the Soka Gakkai meeting and personally hold Daisaku responsible for trying to insult the high priest by inviting him to the event. Vice President Fukushima agrees with Yamazaki who are both colluding in secret with the priesthood to create a rift within Soka Gakkai. Later their plot is revealed when the Study department chief drafts doctrines for a new religious body for disgruntled leaders of another religious organization where Yamazaki sees a schism, he can profit from by helping legally establish this new religious body.

Yamazaki makes a strong case for why Daisaku should step down as President and some of the top leaders join him as a way to quell the harassment towards members by the Nichiren Shoshu Priests. Daisaku announces to Members at a meeting that the rumours are true and that he is stepping down. The true colours of Yamazaki come through when he plays both sides against each other and the priesthood imposes more restrictions on Daisaku and try to create a schism between him and the Soka Gakkai members. Daisaku undeterred writes poems and plays piano for members waiting to see his outside the Kansai headquarters. He decides to fight and meets pioneer members at their homes one on one and travels across Japan. The priesthood intensifies its ill-treatment of members, but they are strong and undefeated.

C. Conflict brings out the true nature.

Toda just seven months before his death issues his historic declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons on Sep 8 1957 at a meeting in Mitsuzawa stadium in Yokahama where 50,000 Soka Gakkai youth gather. Toda issues this declaration at the height of the Cold War between East and West. Both Eastern and Western blocs were frantically engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting test blasts. Just one month before, the U.S.S.R. had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the United States had developed what it claimed were “clean” hydrogen bombs which maximized destructive capacity with less radioactive fallout. Nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all human life, cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the destiny of all humankind. The myth of nuclear deterrence was based on the view that since mutual destruction would be assured in the event of an attack, nuclear weapons could be seen as a deterrent to war. Toda saw such thinking as a product of the darkest aspects of human nature. Nuclear deterrence was founded on an equilibrium of terror and created a vicious cycle which fuelled the endless escalation of the arms race. He felt that people who placed their hopes on the idea of nuclear deterrence were entering a devilish labyrinth. Toda’s declaration, however, was a radical departure from this way of thinking. His stance was that nuclear weapons and their use must be absolutely condemned, not from the standpoint of ideology, nationality or ethnic identity but from the universal dimension of humanity. In condemning nuclear weapons as an “absolute evil,” Toda was seeking to stress that behind the existence of nuclear weapons lurks the devilish aspect of human life that seeks to subjugate, control and ultimately destroy others. As a Buddhist, Toda was a staunch opponent of the death penalty but his call for the death penalty to be applied for those using nuclear bombs was calculated to shock and awaken his audience to the utterly unequivocal nature of his opposition to nuclear weapons. His proposal of the death penalty was thus not a simple or literal proposition. Todaʼs striking call for the death penalty was aimed at countering the tendency within peopleʼs minds to find justifications for the use of nuclear bombs. He wished to pass a sentence of death on the destructive tendencies within human life. He hoped that by allowing this idea to penetrate deeply into the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, it might serve as an internal restraint against the use of nuclear weapons and for the abolition of war.

Osaka police interrogate Daisaku on false charges of election interference for three days and even prade him in front of Soka Gakkai members in handcuffs like a common criminal. They deprive him of food and sleep. Finally one of the interrogators tells him to confess or they will arrest Toda as the President of Soka Gakkai who is frail from his illness. Would he be able to endure prison a second time around? Daisaku is in a dilemma as to what he must do: confess to protect his mentor or refute the false charges that are brought only to bring down the organization. He decides to confess for now and fight it in court.

D. Conflict uncovers an emotional issue.

Young Daisaku and his elder brother Kichii are playing on the beach, Kichii hides among the bamboo racks (hibi) used to dry the seaweed. Kichii sees the sun reflected off a shiny object and picks it up. It’s an old mirror glass. He uses it to spot Daisaku and wins the game of hide and seek once again. Daisaku discovers the mirror glass in his brother’s back pocket. They fight for it rolling on the beach until Daisaku falls on the glass and breaks it into two pieces. His brother looks upset but before he can scold his Daisaku their mother calls them inside for early dinner. His brother stays in his room packing to leave for his posting while Daisaku asks her mother why he can’t go and fight in the war too. She tells him because he’s the only early riser in their family. Besides who will carry on the family legacy of his father and tells him to go to bed as they have an early day? She rises at 2 am and packs food for her son and wakes him up. As Daisaku reluctantly gets ready and peeps into his brother’s room to see his bags packed. His brother is awake and calls him in. Kichii flourishes one of the mirror glass pieces and tells him it’s for him. He shows his own piece. Now they both have a piece each and every time he wants to see him, he can just look into the mirror and see him at the other end of the world. His mother is waiting for him by the boat. Daisaku rushes out into the freezing cold to join her. They row into the cold water and Daisaku dives into the freezing water to retrieve seaweed. Two weeks later, Kichii is on the frontlines in Burma taking fire, finally, there is a lull and he pulls out his portion of the mirror and sees in it: Daisaku running around the bamboo racks on the beach playfully and he smiles… the shelling begins again and he puts away the mirror to get back to his post.

Daisaku returns home after he has been inaugurated as the third President of Soka Gakkai to a home that seems to be in mourning. Kaneko, his wife, showed no sign of being in a celebratory mood. When he asked her why, she replied that there would be no celebration since the day marked the funeral of the Ikeda family. This sobering remark was at one level a tacit declaration of her resolve to completely support her husband on the new path that their lives had taken.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Turns Insights Into Action (12B)

I was unable to do the analysis of Seabiscuit as the movie is no longer available in my region.

“What I learned doing this assignment is…turning insights into action. I still have a few that are mostly dialogue but I want to find ways to show rather than tell.”

New Ways and Insights:

War always hits mothers the hardest.

Mothers are resilient even in the face of war.

There is no enemy or ‘US Vs Them’ – in a war, everyone is a victim.

There are no victors in a war.

War is a tragedy that should be avoided at all costs.

Destruction takes no time while reconstruction takes a lifetime or more.

There are no good and bad people only good and bad deeds.

It’s better to stick with a known devil at least you know what you’re dealing with.

spirit of not compromising one’s beliefs – Although I might obey in body, in my heart I could never comply.

Having a good mentor in life is the greatest good fortune.

There is no greater joy to awaken to one’s mission in life.

Anyone who justifies using nuclear weapons is a fiend and a monster.

Think global, act local.

Frank and sincere dialogue opens hearts that are closed and lead the way to trust.

People who have suffered the most deserve the greatest happiness.

A real mentor is someone who wants his disciples to surpass him.

A single individual can change the course of history a nation and all mankind.

Action #1:

Daisaku’s home is destroyed in the air raids. From the rubble of their home, they salvage a suitcase. Daisaku quickly pries it open to discover a set of pink dolls. Her mother smiles with glee and cuddles them. Daisaku kicks the suitcase in frustration. His mother dusts the dolls and gently places them back in the suitcase. She hands the suitcase over to Daisaku. Daisaku drags the suitcase along amongst the destruction all around. His mother remarks “The dolls will make a fine display for their new home.”

Action # 2:

Daisaku watches a US pilot parachute down from his burning plane and land on the streets in front of him. The pilot is a young boy of barely 17 who looks scared. The crowd on the streets rushes to capture and beat up the boy while Daisaku stands by helpless. The military police van comes around to arrest the pilot as a prisoner of war. The crowd chants for the enemy to be executed. Daisaku relays the story to his mother when he gets home. His mother responds: “Poor mother, she must be worried for her son.”

Action # 3:

Toda entices his colleagues who betrayed their mentor before the war to join him in rebuilding the organization and saving the people suffering from the aftermath of the war. But his businessmen friends are interested in is to find a way to quickly make money and get rich. They agree to meet him for drinks, but Toda lays a condition that they will discuss the reconstruction first and then open the bottle after dinner. He meets them repeatedly until they can see his seriousness about carrying on their mentor’s legacy and genuinely feel remorse for abandoning their mentor. They seek Toda’s forgiveness and join him in helping rebuild the Soka Gakkai.

Action # 4:

Daisaku reluctantly agreed to accompany his friends to a Soka Gakkai meeting after months of excuses to get out of it. He ambles into the home where the meeting is already underway and hears genuine laughter coming from the dimly lit room. He cautiously enters it and sits in the back so he can easily slip away if needed. He locks eyes with the man who is leading the meeting Mr. Toda. Toda puffing away at his rolled cigarette sits on the edge of the table ready to take any questions. He seems jovial and genuine. After a few raised hands and humorous exchanges Daisaku raises his hand to ask a question. Toda nods. Daisaku asks: “What is the genuine path one should take to lead a good life?” Toda smiles but responds sternly “Rather than deciding intellectually what the true meaning of life is. Why don’t you try to live your life in the best way possible? Would you like to try doing that? I can teach you how?” Daisaku is struck by his frankness and feels he can trust this man. He returns ten days later to join Soka Gakkai and takes Toda as his lifelong mentor.

Action # 5:

Daisaku is abused and spat on by a credit and the doors are banged shut on his face. He returns to the office dejected. He sees Soka Gakkai members waiting outside to meet Toda and they all look lost and defeated. A member emerges from Toda’s office feeling refreshed and ready to fight. Toda notices Daisaku and lets him in. He goes over the books and sees everything in red. He tries to cheer Daisaku up. Toda tells him: “I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did I ever run forty businesses? How can you be so honest and still do business? Why should we pay the creditors when the losses can be written off as forces of god, like every other businessman? I will tell you why? Because this is my destiny – my karmic reward if you will. So, it’s a debt I would rather pay. Do you understand? I know it is frustrating when the creditors abuse you and spit on your face acting all high and mighty like they deserve it. We must look at this with a smile and rejoice because we are receiving our retribution in a lighter form. So let’s go back to them again and again and cheerfully take on their abuses with a smile. Daisaku goes back and continues to apologize to the creditors for only making part payments to their debt and promises to return again with more. Over a period of time, they are no longer in the red and while Toda continues to hold guidance sessions, more and more Soka Gakkai members feel empowered after being rekindled by Toda’s guidance and awaken to their mission to work for the happiness of others. Daisaku reinstates Toda as the Second President of Soka Gakkai.

Action # 6:

Daisaku stops over at the Haneda airport on his way to Osaka to get arrested on false charges of election violations by the police. Toda frail from illness rushes to meet Daisaku and tells him “You must live. For my sake.” Daisaku is paraded in handcuffs in front of the local Osaka members as he’s taken for interrogation. Daisaku is harshly interrogated without food and sleep to admit to the false charges or they will put Toda in jail. He spends three sleepless nights and decides to confess to the crimes to protect his mentor. Osaka members rally outside, and Toda joins them in protests to get Daisaku released. Daisaku emerges in the evening of the fourth day walking out in the pouring rain and stands with Soka Gakkai members drenched in the rain to give them hope and encouragement. He later fights the charges in court over four long years and proves his innocence. He reports his win in front of his mentor’s grave as it pours down heavily.

Action # 7:

Toda is interrupted to say there is a phone call from the Japanese Prime Minister Mine. The prime Minister having been warned by his own cabinet members decides to cave into their demand and declines the invitation to attend the Soka Gakkai youth gathering that Daisaku and 6000 youth have spent months making painstaking preparations for on the day of the March 16 event. Toda slams the phone on the prime minister even as he apologizes making excuses and agreeing to send his wife and son in his stead. Toda goes ahead with the event as planned and makes a powerful declaration for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Daisaku standing in the audience resolves to carry on his mentor’s legacy. Decades later he starts writing peace proposals to the UN every year including the path to elimination of nuclear weapons. Many of his proposals are put into action by the United Nations and he is a recipient of numerous international honors including the United Nations Peace Medal (1983), the International Tolerance Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (1993), the Rosa Parks Humanitarian Award (2008), and the Gandhi International Peace Prize for Social Responsibility (2014). The lay organization Soka Gakkai International is also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

Action # 8:

Daisaku faces the media as he embarks on his trip to Russia at the height of the cold war. Top Japanese politicians condemn this trip and ask why does a Buddhist leader want to visit a country that doesn’t believe in religion? Daisaku answers a reporter at the airport: “I’m going there to meet people. … I’m making this trip to build bridges of friendship linking people’s hearts.”He meets Aleksey N. Kosygin and asks him frankly if Russia plans to attack China. Kosygin assures him “The Soviet Union has no intention of either attacking or isolating China.” He asks if he can share this with Chinese diplomats on his next visit. Kosygin tells him he’s counting on him to do so. Daisaku shares this with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping on his next visit. This eased the ideological differences between Russia and China and led to the normalization of bilateral relations between China and the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev met Deng Xiaoping.

Action # 9:

1962 was a time of intensifying conflict between East and West. The previous year, the Berlin Wall had been built, dividing Germany’s capital city, and in October, the Cuban Missile Crisis, a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, took place. The threat of nuclear weapons being fired struck fear in the hearts of people around the world. In this state of anxious uncertainty, many Japanese media outlets issued predictions and commentaries on the likelihood of a nuclear war or a third world war.

Daiasaku was not interested in such speculations. His determination as a disciple of Toda, who had denounced nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, remained unshaken: “We must never allow a third world war to break out!” Chanting fiercely with that resolve in those tense times, the Soka Gakkai members vowed to one another to open the way to world peace.

Daisaku began the year 1962 by visiting Hokkaido still in the depths of winter. Then, following a trip to the Middle East, he traveled extensively throughout Japan—to Chugoku, Shikoku, Tohoku, Kanto, Kyushu, Tokaido, Chubu, Kansai, Shin’etsu and Okinawa.

In Kanagawa, he said, “Let’s become the pillars of Japan and make Japan a truly wonderful, happy place to live!”

In Aichi, he said, “Whatever others might say, let’s win without fail and keep working for peace and security!”

In Kansai, he said, “Let’s fight to create a society where everyone can live with a sense of security and peace of mind!”

Action # 10:

On his first European trip in 1961, Daisaku visits the newly erected Berlin Wall a symbol of the cold war. At the wall, he silently prays and said to one of his translators who asked him what he wished for. He told him it wasn’t a wish but his conviction, “I am sure that in thirty years this Berlin Wall will no longer stand.” The berlin wall came down 28 years later.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Living Metaphors

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to use living metaphors as a transition to the new ways from the old ways.”

A. SHOULD WORK, BUT DOESN’T

Old Way: Daisaku’s friend comes to him desperate to find answers.

SWBD Challenge: He trusts Daisaku but what he’s seeking is a new way of life. Daisaku tries to convince him, but he has no real solution. He fails his friend who decides to join one of the spurious religions that crop up right after the war ends in Japan that misleads young people.

Old Way: Toda wants to restart his businesses after the war and takes advice from his politician friend to time the launch of his new venture.

SWBD Challenge: Toda’s business ventures fail despite getting the timing right. He realizes that he needs to first rebuild the Soka Gakkai organization and then focus on his businesses. Toda regularly holds evening guidance sessions after his office hours and even takes study lectures in the morning for his staff before they begin their work. They hit their first subscription milestone in record time.

Old Way: Toda steps down as President of the Soka Gakkai to protect the organization from his business failures.

SWBD Challenge: Daisaku worries that he no longer has a mentor but Toda tells him he will always be his mentor even if he is no longer the President. Daisaku vows to reinstate him and rebuilds his businesses after dropping out of night school. Toda repays his business debts and is reinstated as Soka Gakkai president.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members rally outside the Osaka detention centre while the police harshly interrogate Daisaku on false election charges.

SWBD Challenge: Daisaku is released after he makes a false confession to protect his mentor Toda. The lawyers see his case as hopeless. Daisaku continues to fight the case in court for over four years and finally proves his innocence and gets acquitted of all charges two years after his mentor has passed away. Daisaku vows to always carry his mentor in his heart and fight against injustice.

Old Way: Mistrust between US and Russia during the cold war as they begin the arms race and the space race.

SWBD Challenge: The regular channels of communication increase their misunderstanding and mistrust and the rhetoric becomes increasingly hostile on both ends during the cold war and leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Old Way: Daisaku steps down as President of Soka Gakkai to appease the Soka Gakkai leadership and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood

SWBD Challenge: Nichiren Shoshu priests impose more restrictions on the members and ban Daisaku from public appearances trying to create a rift between him and the Soka Gakkai members. Daisaku feels helpless as he can’t see the members’ pain and suffering and writes songs, and poems and even plays the piano to members who wait outside the building trying to catch a glimpse of him at the window. He finally launches a counterattack and meets pioneering members all over Japan and creates a new groundswell of resistance as members fight back the priesthood in their local communities.

B. LIVING METAPHORS

Old Way: Daisaku’s friend seeks answers that Daisaku cannot provide and both feel lost and helpless.

LM Challenge: Daisaku writes a song about his friend titled “Morigasaki beach,” reminiscing their time together. The beach represents their youth and hope while beyond the sea lies a vast world, they must journey each in their separate ways. He wishes he had the answer he has now to give his friend and tell him about the path he took. It is the right path and wishes he knew about it then. He searches for his friend after many years and reunites with him.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members in Yubari are intimidated by the Coal Miners Union to vote for the union candidate in the local elections.

LM Challenge: The Soka Gakkai members and their families are ostracized and ridiculed by their community. Daisaku rushes to support them and reminds them about Daishonin’s exile on Sado Island. Yubari is their Sado Island and they stand strong and remain undefeated. In the end, the Union apologizes, and they get their jobs back and win the trust of their community.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members save up to sincerely contribute to the building of the Grand Reception Hall at the head temple.

LM Challenge: The High priest destroy the buildings constructed from sincere members’ contribution on flimsy pretexts. The Members continue to support the temples despite harsh treatment for being Soka Gakkai members. The Grand Reception Hall represents their sincerity and commitment to the harmonious unity of the priesthood and laity.

Old Way: Berlin Wall is erected diving the world into two.

LM Challenge: The hostility on both sides leads to the separation of many families who are trapped on opposite sides of the wall. The world because increasingly divided as nations take sides to create a new geopolitical landscape. Daisaku vows to bring the Berlin Wall down and conducts dialogues with world leaders on both sides and brings them closer eventually bringing down the Berlin wall after 28 years.

Old Way: nuclear weapons are necessary as a deterrent.

LM Challenge: Nuclear states oppose the treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Numerous summits and proposals are signed but the nations are entrenched in their positions. Soka Gakkai partners with the NGO, ICAN and uses powerful personal stories of the Hibakusha who have experienced the tragedy of nuclear weapons first-hand. The nuclear weapons ban treaty is supported by more than 150 countries and requires the nuclear states to join for it to be passed into law.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members wait for their mentor’s instructions

LM Challenge: Daisaku asks youth to lead a song “Song of Comrades” for their mentor but they are scolded. Daisaku makes them practice the song again and again and sing aloud so their voices reach their mentor. The song is a metaphor for their determination to win for the sake of their mentor. Another time they make a little to carry their mentor and get scolded that they would lose in battle if they were to carry such a large litter. Toda confides in Daisaku later that he is moved by their sincerity but it’s still too big to be of practical use.

Old way: Daisaku drops out of night school to support his mentor’s business

LM Challenge: Daisaku is constantly humiliated by creditors and he feels lonely and defeated. Toda starts taking private tuitions for Daisaku and quizzes him about the books he is reading. Daisaku proudly calls it “Toda University.” He goes on to hold dialogues with thinkers and philosophers in various fields and at a lecture in Harvard declares that 99% of everything he is today is because of his mentor. He receives more than 200 honorary degrees from the world’s renowned universities and institutions.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Counterexamples

“What I learned doing this assignment is…how to challenge the old ways using challenging questions and counterexamples.”

Old Way: Buying into the war propaganda of the state; Youth enlist for the ‘just war.’ Others join munition factories.

Question Challenges: Elder brother questions the war. There is nothing just about the war. It’s not honourable.

Question Challenges: Air raids destroy the homes and raze the school buildings.

Question Challenges: Atomic bombs destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Question Challenges: Occupation forces take over the country.

Question Challenges: People face food shortages and high inflation.

Counterexamples: US pilot parachuting down from his burning plane is beaten in the streets as the enemy – is a mere 17-year-old helpless youth who is taken by the military police as a war criminal. Daisaku feels sorry for the boy and tells his mother about it. She worries for the mother of the boy instead.

Counterexamples: Warmongers turn pacifists overnight to save their skin and avoid persecution by the occupation forces.

Counterexamples: With schools’ shutdown, youth seek correspondence courses even as they fight to stay alive

Old Way: Daisaku has Tuberculosis and the doctor predict he won’t live to see 30.

Counterexamples: Daisaku seeks a mentor he can trust as he searches for the best way to live life.

Counterexamples: Daisaku drops school to join Toda University and support his mentor’s businesses.

Counterexamples: Daisaku meets the world’s leading philosophers, leaders and thinkers conducting over 8000 dialogues for peace and winning over 200 honorary doctorates and 390 honorary citizenships around the world. He is alive at 96.

Old Way: People of the nation mistrust the politicians and intellectuals.

Counterexamples: Toda rebuilds the organization Soka Gakkai to empower people and eradicate misery from their lives.

Old Way: State Shinto religion will protect our soldiers and win us the war.

Question Challenges: Toda and his mentor refuse the Shinto talisman and get locked up in jail as thought criminals.

Counterexamples: The Emperor steps down to let the Occupation forces take over their country

Question Challenges: Toda and his mentor refuse the Shinto talisman and get locked up in jail as thought criminals.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Counterexamples: Occupation forces pass laws that allow people freedom of religion

Old Way: We need priests to conduct religious rituals.

Counterexamples: Priesthood turns corrupt and refuses to bury a Soka Gakkai member’s relative in a family-owned plot on the temple premises unless they denounce their faith in Soka Gakkai.

Question Challenges: Soka Gakkai members question: Why do we need to respect priests and listen to them when they are going against their own teacher and teachings of respect for all life?

Counterexamples: Soka Gakkai builds a memorial ground for Soka Gakkai members to use freely. They conduct the funeral rituals with sanctity and respect.

Old Way: Soka Gakkai members wait for their mentor’s instructions.

Question Challenges: When Daisaku is banned from meeting members he writes poems, songs, and plays piano to encourage them

Counterexamples: Osaka members stage a protest outside the detention centre demanding the release of Daisaku by the police who harshly interrogate him for three days.

Counterexamples: Yubari coal miners refuse to vote for the union candidate in the elections even at the cost of losing their jobs and being ostracized from their communities.

Old Way: nuclear weapons are necessary as a deterrent.

Question Challenges: Cuban missile crisis brings the world to the brink due to a misunderstanding and scepticism and mistrust between the cold war nations.

Counterexamples: Toda’s nuclear declaration states that anyone who supports the nuclear weapons is “a fiend and a monster”

Question Challenges: Ikeda sends concrete peace proposals to the UN since 1983 every year reiterating his mentor’s stance on nuclear weapons.

Old Way: Daisaku tries to pacify the Priesthood by giving in to their demands

Question Challenges: Priesthood continues to mistreat members and places even more restrictions on the members and leaders of Soka Gakkai

Counterexamples: The Corrupt Soka Gakkai Attorney plays both sides to make money and stokes the fires between Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu priesthood

Counterexamples: Daisaku steps down as Soka Gakkai president but is made the honorary president of Soka Gakkai International and he continues to travel the world conducting dialogues for peace

Counterexamples: Daisaku declares the day of their ex-communication as one of Spiritual independence and celebrates their freedom from the narrow-minded corrupt priesthood.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s 12 Angry Men Analysis (9A)

“What I learned doing this assignment is… the old ways are carefully assigned to each of the twelve jurors and then each of them is challenged to shift their assumptions, belief, values etc.”

Juror 1: Foreman

Old Ways

The assistant baseball coach, who thinks the foreman’s duties are a thankless job and it’s frustrating to organize everyone.

Challenge

The loud yelling juror tells him to stop trying to make up rules and shut up. He is ready to give up his responsibility and asks other jurors to assume the role of the foreman. Some of them calm him down and tell him he’s doing a good job. He feels valued and conducts the arguments in an organized fashion taking consent from everyone as he goes along

Juror 2: New kid

Old Ways

He is quiet and underconfident. This is his first jury duty and he’s excited to be there.

Challenge

He makes notes and on the surface, the boy looks guilty. The Loud Juror picks on him and tells him to shut it.

He speaks up eventually about the knife wound’s angle, which leads to a few changes in votes. He feels vindicated when in the end the Juror next to him is the only one left to change his vote and says there is other evidence to consider, he reminds him that he said: “you can throw out all the other stuff”

Juror 3: The loudmouth

Old Ways:

He assumes the boy is guilty because he wants to take out his anger on his estranged son this boy and punish him instead. He makes it a contest.

Challenge:

He keeps yelling at everyone and even threatens to kill Juror 8 and calls him a sadist and a self-appointed avenger.

He is the only one left standing while everyone asks him to state his arguments and he breaks down and changes his vote to not guilty.

Juror 4: Slum boy

Old Ways:

He grew up in the slums and worked hard but feels out of place in the room

Challenge:

He is insulted by the racist and he defends his working class background. He shares his knowledge of using a switchblade and proves that the boy couldn’t have made the wounds on the victim.

Juror 5: The Stockbroker

Old Ways:

He is certain that the witness testimonials were accurate

Challenge:

He is put on the spot when he cannot recall the lead actors in the movie he watched three days ago when he was relaxed and not under duress.

Juror 6: The Worker

Old Ways:

He’s happy to miss his shift. Doesn’t care about the case. Would rather be here than at work

Challenge:

He is asked if this was him in the chair would he dismiss it?

Juror 7: The ballgame fan

Old Ways:

He just wants it over with so he can get to the ballgame that he has two tickets to.

Challenge:

He is challenged by the watchmaker who tells him to be a man and give his verdict as not guilty only if he’s convinced, he’s not guilty and not because you don’t care.

Juror 8: The Architect

Old Ways:

He votes not guilty while everyone else finds the boy guilty.

He wants to talk it out

He asks for exhibits – the knife and apartment plan

Challenge:

He is threatened and insulted for wasting everyone’s time.

Everyone tries to convince him to change his vote.

He produces a replica and raises suspicions of everyone; he recreates the walk and times it

Juror 9: The Old Man

Old Ways:

He assumes the witnesses were accurate but feels no one wants to hear from an old unimportant man.

Challenge:

He asks the broker about the lines by his nose and recalls the witness who had the same marks and how she was dressed to look younger in court.

He also points out that the old man probably wanted attention.

Juror 10: The racist

Old Ways:

He thinks the boy got a fair trial and now he is guilty.

He goes on a rant about how all of them are violent and should be locked up

Challenge:

He is confronted by the facts which he dismisses saying for that kind of boy the facts don’t matter in this case.

Everyone stands up one by one and turn their backs to him while he speaks in protest. The stockbroker calmly tells him: I have listened and now you sit down and don’t open your mouth again.

Juror 11: The watchmaker

Old Ways:

He wants to be agreeable. He assumes the evidence is unquestionable.

Ballgame fan mocks him saying what are you so polite about?

Challenge:

He changes his vote when the recreation of the walk is timed more than 40 seconds.

He says the same reason you’re not. It’s the way I was brought up. He tells the ballgame fan what kind of a man are you? He challenges him to stand by his vote with conviction not to get out of it.

Juror 12: Ad Man

Old Ways:

He is obsessed with himself and he just doesn’t care about the case.

Changes his vote easily when confronted.

Challenge:

He is asked what if this was you would you care? He changes his vote and decides he wants to talk some more.

The loudmouth rattles him asking why he’s going along, and he fumbles to answer and changes his vote to guilty when he cannot fathom an argument.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Old Ways Challenge Chart (9B)

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify the old ways and find a way to challenge them to shift them to the new ways”

SHINICHI – THE DISCIPLE: OLD WAYS CHALLENGE CHART

Old Ways:

Shinichi buys into the war propaganda of the state and tries to enlist.

Challenges:

His parents refuse to allow it, and he’s detected with tuberculosis.

Old Ways:

Schools are converted to munitions factories. Shinichi joins a factory.

Challenges:

Schools are bombed and they lose the war.

Old Ways:

Youth are enlisted including Shinichi’s elder brother.

Challenges:

Watches a helpless US pilot beaten to death on the streets. Mother’s reaction to the incident. Loses his brother to the war. The grief of his mother.

Old Ways:

Warmongers proclaim it is a “just war”

Challenges:

Air raids and bombings that destroy homes and devastating atomic bombings.

Old Ways:

warmongers turned pacifists overnight.

Challenges:

Angered by the spiritual void and betrayal, people take to the streets.

Old Ways:

Nation faces food shortage and high inflation and occupation forces.

Challenges:

People starve with insufficient rations and occupation forces on the streets trying to keep order face the wrath.

Old Ways:

Youth question the meaning and purpose of life while schools are closed.

Challenges:

They enroll in a correspondence course by Toda.

Old Ways:

Mistrust fraudulent intellectuals and politicians who sang praises of war and drove large numbers of youth to their deaths.

Challenges:

Politicians turn pacifists to escape the punishment from the occupation forces.

Old Ways:

Shinichi feels helpless and lost.

Challenges:

Encounters Toda whom he can trust but he still has self-doubt.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Profound Ending

“What I learned doing this assignment is…that I need to create setups throughout the story to lead up to a powerful payoff in the ending”

A. DELIVER THE PROFOUND TRUTH PROFOUNDLY

SGI and ICAN work together to rally all member states. The UN treaty on the elimination of nuclear weapons is brought to the floor at the UN general meeting and must have a unanimous vote to pass into law.

It’s a tense scene when all nations must ratify the bill including the security council and all eyes are on Russia, China, India and the US.

After a tense pause before the final nation votes – the bill is passed unanimously.

The Indian Ambassador credits his dialogue with Dr Daisaku Ikeda a few months ago who reminded him about his grandchildren and the world they will inherit. His decision was the right one for not only his country but the future of all humanity. He is proud that as a nation that coined the phrase “Vasudevakutumbhakam” – The world is one family, India is also home to the Buddhist philosophy of respect and dignity of all life.

B. LEAD CHARACTER’S ENDING REPRESENTS THE CHANGE

Daisaku Ikeda, the SGI president receives the Nobel Peace Prize for working over six decades tirelessly for peace to bring about a world free from nuclear weapons.

SGI members chant “I am Shinichi” as they go out into society to take the baton from their mentor Daisaku Ikeda.

C. PAYOFF KEY SETUPS

SGI members who are poor and downtrodden with no voice become leaders in their communities and workplaces.

SGI members who are constantly waiting for direction from their mentor and feel stuck when he is not allowed to speak to them are the ones that reach out to others in their communities on their own volution without waiting to be told what to do. In India they launch BSG for SDG, in the US Soka University students become pioneers in their field, in South America they receive the Red Cross Award, in Africa the women, carry on the work of Wangari Mathai to create a tree plantation movement, etc.

Soka Gakkai members in Japan, start a petition drive on eliminating nuclear abolition, they bring stories of the Hibakusha – people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – in the form of short films and exhibitions that tour the world.

One of the hibakushas makes a rousing speech before the UN general council before the bill is brought to the floor.

D. SURPRISING, BUT INEVITABLE

Soka Gakkai members save up to make meagre contributions to the building of Nichiren Shoshu temples and the Grand Lecture Hall at Taiseki-ji Temple.

Soka Gakkai members face harassment and humiliation at the hands of the local priests at their local temples – they are denied funeral rituals for the deceased and burial in the family plots.

The Grand Lecture Hall is demolished by the High Priest Nikken.

Soka Gakkai builds a cemetery for members to bury their deceased.

Nichiren Shoshu refuses to hold dialogues with Soka Gakkai leaders and sends a letter of ex-communication.

Daisaku attends a large gathering and declared their day of Spiritual Independence.

Daisedo is built for SGI members to visit and renew their vow to work for peace.

Soka Gakkai members are scorned when trying to collect names for petitioning the UN to ban nuclear weapons.

They tie up with an NGO and create awareness through films on the Hibakusha and the exhibition makes a world tour.

ICAN brings the bill to the UN general meeting floor.

Hibakusha shares her moving story at the UN.

The bill is put to vote and there is tense anticipation that member states – Russia, China, India and the US won’t ratify the bill and kill it.

The bill passes unanimously.

Daisaku Ikeda is awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to ride the world of nuclear weapons.

E. LEAVE US WITH A PROFOUND PARTING IMAGE/LINE

On August 6, 1993, the 48th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Ikeda decided to write The New Human Revolution, the sequel to The Human Revolution, in the belief that nuclear weapons “threaten the most basic of human rights, the right to life,” and in the hope that the voice of his mentor would resonate deeply within the hearts of future generations. He wanted to record the extent to which kosen-rufu had progressed since Toda’s death in 1958 as a true tribute and testament to his mentor’s spirit. To do so, he describes his own struggles and those of pioneering Soka Gakkai members to carry out their mentor’s mandate to better their own lives and to strive in the service of humankind as Nichiren Buddhists.

Parting Image/Line: Daisaku Ikeda using a calligraphy pen in broad strokes writes the theme of the New Human Revolution on a large blank canvas, dates and signs it with his pen name:

“A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.” – 6 Aug 1993, Shinichi Yamamoto

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Connection with Audience

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify the core traits that will help connect with the audience intentionally built into the main characters of my story”

Characters that INTENTIONALLY create a connection with Audience are:

Change Agent (s): Daisaku Ikeda; Josei Toda (The Mentor)

Transformable Characters: Young Daisaku, Soka Gakkai members

Character: Young Daisaku (TC)

A. Relatability:

Young Daisaku and his brother play hide and seek with broken mirror shards.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Children often find discarded things fun to play with.

B. Intrigue:

Young Daisaku wants to join the Army and secretly tries to enlist without his parents’ approval.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Teens often want to be like their peers and would often hide things from their parents fearing their disapproval.

C. Empathy:

Young Daisaku is diagnosed with Tuberculosis and the doctors predict he may not live to the age of 30.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Illness that rods loved ones, especially at a young age is something we can all empathise with. We want to root for him to beat his odds.

Young Daisaku’s home is bombed twice leaving nothing more than a suitcase of dolls and a pink umbrella in their possession, but his mother cheerfully remarks “We will be able to display the dolls once we rebuild our home again.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: Anyone who has been evicted from their home, lost all their possessions or, lived in a war-torn country.

Young Daisaku witnesses a US pilot parachute off his plane that’s caught fire being beaten up by people on the streets when he lands and gets taken away in a military van. The pilot is a young boy of not more than seventeen who looks scared and helpless and nothing like the enemy he’s imagined. He shares this incident with his mother who says: “Oh dear, the boy’s mother must be so worried for him.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We often see the world as US vs THEM while we forget the humanity of the other. Mothers on the other hand have an innate instinct to protect life and are not coloured by Jingoism and are often peacemakers.

D. Likability:

Young Daisaku, is a caring son who helps his mother in the family business of collecting seaweed by waking up at 3 am and diving into the cold seawater. He loves his grieving mother and feels helpless to ease her pain when his elder brother is killed in Burma. He dutifully serves his ailing bedridden father and takes care of his younger sibling while trying to be the man of the house and joins a munitions factory to eke out a living once his father’s thriving seaweed business collapses. Daisaku write a poem on the Morigasaki beach for his friend who feels lost and rudderless in life.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: A caring loving son, brother and a sincere friend.

Character: Josei Toda (The Mentor – CA)

A. Relatability:

Young Daisaku meets Josei Toda for the first time, and he sees that he can trust this man who went to prison to uphold his principles and not succumb to the militarist government. He doesn’t try to sidestep his questions on “the meaning of life?” and “How to live the best life?” using intellectual babble like many leaders in society often do and comes across as sincere and honest and respectful. Daisaku relaxes in his first meeting and soon they converse like old lost friends.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all feel nervous and out of place the first time we are in a large gathering and when we have to introduce ourselves. Most of us can sense the sincerity and genuineness of people in our first interactions with them. Many leaders in society rarely practice what they preach.

B. Intrigue:

Josei Toda is an educator with more than 40 businesses which all go bankrupt after the war but he is focused on rebuilding Soka Gakkai, an organization made up of volunteer ordinary people with the vision of wiping out the misery from their lives and making them happy. He has strong convictions in his vision and mission, but we are left to wonder how he will be able to do this when there is a clampdown by the government on all businesses and people are barely able to make ends meet with even government ration in short supply. He restarts his business waiting for the right time and creates a correspondence course for the youth who are out of school. He partners with his friends who betrayed him before the war, knowing that they are only interested in profits and do not really care for the cause. Will this be enough to change the tragic destiny of the nation? How can he turn this situation around? Will he be betrayed again?

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We want Toda to succeed but we are intrigued by his methods.

C. Empathy:

Toda decides that on principle he wants to pay back his investors even though the government doesn’t honour even the fire insurance on his old office building that has been razed to the ground by the bombings. Even his business friends think he’s being too idealistic, no one expects to recoup their investments before the war, but Toda is adamant. The investors, however, hound him and abuse and embarrass him for being late on his payments. Young Daisaku faces their wrath silently while seething with anger on the inside.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We can empathise with injustice and greed when someone is trying to do the honourable thing.

D. Likability:

Josei Toda has a great sense of humour and in an early morning lecture trying to illustrate how important thoughts and words are asks someone in his class “Do you want a dog?” When the man nods. Toda draws the image of a dog on the blackboard and asks him “What is this?” The man replies: “It’s a dog.” Toda says: “Okay then, take it!” He once tells Young Daisaku while taking a stroll at the university campus “One day we will build our own University that will have students from all over the world but for now, all I can treat you to is a subsidized cup of coffee at the student cafeteria!”

He calls Daisaku to his home on Sundays to teach him every subject he can think of and tells him he will be the foremost scholar in the world and able to hold a conversation with the world’s leading thinkers and leaders one day.

When Daisaku is arrested on false charges, Toda in his frail health rushes to the airport before his interrogation and pleads with him “Daisaku please don’t die. You have to live for me.”

Before his death, he tells Daisaku “I had a dream that I went in Mexico. Daisaku, I want you to travel the world on my behalf. There are people waiting everywhere for you.”

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: To have a mentor who really cares for you and sets impossible dreams in life that allow us to surpass them is a rare and unique thing.

Character: Daisaku Ikeda (CA)

A. Relatability:

Daisaku joins the Boys Magazine, and he knows nothing about the publishing world and feels like he doesn’t belong. He struggles to learn on the job and has to quit night school in order to help his mentor rebuild his businesses when he steps down as Soka Gakkai president to protect the organization from any bad press associated with his business failings.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all had the fish-out-water experience in our first jobs where you need to learn things on the job that you were not aware of.

B. Intrigue:

Daisaku is arrested on false charges and is forced to confess to the charges to save his mentor – The Osaka Trial. He reluctantly assumes the presidency of Soka Gakkai after Toda’s death when the media predicts a collapse of the organization even with the Osaka trial still hanging over his head. He meets with scheming Nichiren Shoshu priests to have a dialogue and protect the members. He is betrayed by his own attorney. He steps down from the presidency to alleviate the situation, but it only gets worse. He journeys to China and Russia even as the Japanese politicians view this with deep scepticism. He meets with US and Russian counterparts during the Cuban Missile Crisis and is warned by an influencing politician to call off his meeting with President Kennedy. He stands outside the Berlin Wall and vows to bring it down. He meets the world’s leading philosophers and leaders as an ordinary citizen. How will he transform the deeply divided nations and bring them together? How does he do it just as an ordinary citizen?

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We want Daisaku to succeed and live to change the world. We are intrigued by how he plans to accomplish such an impossible goal of a world free from hatred, violence, and nuclear weapons.

C. Empathy:

Daisaku pushes himself beyond his physical limits despite severe tuberculosis and runs a high fever on most days but never allows his frail health to stop him from meeting people and encouraging them. He uses his time even while travelling and resting to dictate notes for his articles and books, constantly thinking about the future.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We have all pushed ourselves physically but to do it on a sustained level for decades is not easy but relatable especially those sleepless nights trying to finish an important project or meet a deadline at work.

D. Likability:

Daisaku Ikeda is charming and treats even the people behind the scenes with immense respect. He always goes to meet them first before entering any event or building. He thanks everyone he meets. He loves children and plays with them with zeal. He is a photographer who captures nature in all its stunning natural beauty, he plays the piano to warm the hearts of members who are not allowed to meet him, and he sends thoughtful poems and messages to people he meets hoping to spark a fresh start in their lives.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: He values people and listens to them. He seeks out those not just in the limelight but the ones toiling away behind the scenes unnoticed by everyone. He genuinely cares for everyone.

Character: Soka Gakkai members (TC)

A. Relatability:

Ordinary hardworking people are affected by the war and the facing daily challenges of jobs, finances, relationships, and sickness while being misled by corrupt leaders and greedy politicians.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: They are one of us. We can relate to their daily struggles.

B. Intrigue:

Soka Gakkai members remain undefeated in the face of extreme challenges including being ridiculed by corrupt priests and ostracized by Unions and boycotted by their neighbours and co-workers. They still continue to fight and win their respect and become community leaders.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We are intrigued by the machinations of the Unions and priests to destroy the lives of sincere ordinary people and root for them to win.

C. Empathy:

The extreme injustices faced by the Soka Gakkai members for not toeing the line at their places of work, from their neighbours and in their communities is heart-breaking to see.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We can relate to these injustices in our own lives.

D. Likability:

Soka Gakkai members are optimistic and cheerful. They respect everyone and treat them as unique and irreplaceable comrades. They act as a “good friend” to even those who have been marginalized and ostracized and forgotten by society.

CONNECT TO AUDIENCE: We all like having genuine sincere and cheerful friends who can always give us hope and be there in our times of need.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Three Gradients

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to find the emotional gradient that fits my story and characters and assigning action and challenges to their weaknesses for each.”

The 3 Gradients: Desired Change

Emotional Gradient: Excitement

Action Gradient: Daisaku wants to enlist like his brothers in the war. He believes the military propaganda.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: He doesn’t get his parent’s permission.

W: He has tuberculosis

Emotional Gradient: Doubt

Action Gradient: Japan loses the war. Daisaku’s home is bombed twice. The warmongers turn pacifists to save themselves. Brother dies in Burma.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Doesn’t know who to trust anymore?

W: Doctors say he won’t live to 30. Doesn’t know how to help his mother grieve her sons.

Emotional Gradient: Hope

Action Gradient: Daisaku meets his mentor Toda. Decides he can trust him and joins Soka Gakkai. Drops out of school to support Toda’s business and gets private lessons from him.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: What is the meaning of life?

W: Ignorance

Emotional Gradient: Discouragement

Action Gradient: Toda steps down from presidency as his businesses go bankrupt… Daisaku imprisoned on false charges… Toda dies… Media predicts the collapse of the organization.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: How to reinstate Toda as president? How to protect Toda and members? Who will succeed?

W: Self-doubt

Emotional Gradient: Courage

Action Gradient: Daisaku assumes the presidency. Begins his worldwide journey for peace.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: First Priesthood issue. Asked to step down.

W: Gives in to the demands if it will quell the injustices to members but they only intensify

Emotional Gradient: Triumph

Action Gradient: Dialogues with world leaders. Establishes SGI and becomes the president. UN peace proposals. UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Challenge / Weakness Gradient:

C: Excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu

W: Running out of time. Turns 96.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Transformational Structure

“What I learned doing this assignment is… that I was able to clarify the change agent and transformational characters using this model and found it very useful to create an engaging structure. Adding the profound elements helped identify the gradients of change in each beat.”

Transformational Logline: A disillusioned Japanese nation in misery from the devastating war seeks world peace and annihilation of nuclear weapons and awakens to the profound truth that a change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world.

Change Agent (s):

Daisaku Ikeda, a disillusioned Japanese teen diagnosed with severe respiratory disease feels emasculated and unpatriotic feels betrayed by the nation’s leaders who sent innocent youth to die in the war and encounters his mentor Josei Toda to awaken to his mission for world peace.

Josei Toda (The Mentor) with a vision to create a world free from misery and nuclear weapons. Having been arrested alongside his mentor Makiguchi by the thought police for opposing the state religion of Japan under the Peace Preservation Law and losing his own mentor in jail, avowed to avenge his mentor’s death by rebuilding an organization, Soka Gakkai, of ordinary people to empower youth to create a world that upholds human dignity while the Japanese nation struggled to rebuild after the war. Finally, making a declaration of nuclear abolition before his death to pass on the baton to more than 750,000 young successors and notable one youth in particular, Daisaku Ikeda to carry on his legacy.

Transformable characters: Soka Gakkai members, Japanese nation and the world.

A nation that was broken and starving with young people without any hope was revitalized by the painstaking efforts of one youth who vowed to carry on his mentor’s legacy to build lasting peace.

From just 3000 Soka Gakkai members when it started out to create a worldwide movement that spanned 192 countries and territories with more than 12 million SGI members worldwide who voluntarily support and take action to actualize the vision in their daily lives as global citizens.

MINI-MOVIE STRUCTURE:

MM1: (Status Quo)

1941, Tokyo – Two boys, Daisaku and his elder brother Kiichi play with broken mirror shards from their mother’s dressing table.

War breaks out. Military propaganda in schools. Elder brother is enlisted in the Japanese Army. Educators Toda and Makiguchi are arrested.

Daisaku tries to enlist without telling his parents.

Air raids in Japan destroy Ikeda’s home twice. Daisaku and his younger brother salvage a doll house and a pink umbrella. His mother still remains cheerful. Daisaku’s bedridden father finds out and fights to keep Daisaku at home.

Daisaku joins the munitions factory.

Daisaku is diagnosed with tuberculosis doctors say he won’t live until 30. Daisaku is lost and defeated. Meets his friend on Morigasaki beach to discuss their path in life and feels helpless to guide his friend correctly.

Makiguchi dies in prison, Toda vows revenge to rebuild Soka Gakkai.

US Pilot, a young boy of 17, parachutes onto the streets and gets beaten up – Daisaku shares the incident with his mother. Her immediate reaction and worry for the boy despite him being an enemy opens his eyes to the magnanimous heart of a mother and her immense compassion.

World Events: World War 2 breaks out. Japan faces devastation and suffering. Yalta conference. Japanese Occupation.

Turning Point (Call to Adventure): Daisaku encounters his mentor, Josei Toda, who awakens him to the mission for world peace.

World Event: Indian Independence.

Change Agent: Josei Toda (The Mentor)

Transformational Characters: Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese nation, Soka Gakkai members.

Old Ways: Buys into the war propaganda of the state; youth are enlisted; schools are converted to munitions factories; Loss of young people and family members in war; Air raids and bombings that destroy homes and devastating atomic bombings; Angered by the spiritual void and betrayal of warmongers turned pacifists overnight; Nation faces food shortage and high inflation and occupation forces; Youth question the meaning and purpose of life while school are closed; Mistrust fraudulent intellectuals and politicians who sang praises of war and drove large numbers of youth to their deaths

The Vision: Toda vows to rebuild Soka Gakkai and says “I will eradicate misery from the face of this earth”

Challenges: Daisaku doesn’t get his parents’ permission to enlist. A nation whose youth have lost purpose and meaning in life

<b style=”background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Weaknesses: Daisaku has tuberculosis; Ignorance and suffering

MM2: (Denial of Call)

Daisaku Ikeda, struggling with his illness and feeling betrayed by the nation’s leaders, initially doubts his ability to bring about change in a world devastated by war.

He loses his elder brother to war and seeing his mother’s pain and grief shows him the futility of war and he avows to stop the next war at all costs.

He recalls his brother’s words on the barbaric nature of war on the frontlines.

World Event: Daisaku’s brother dies in Burma, highlighting the personal impact of the war.

Turning Point (Locked into Conflict): Daisaku witnesses the suffering of his nation while grieving the loss of his brother, decides to join Toda to create a world free from misery and war.

Challenges: Doesn’t know who to trust anymore?

Weaknesses: Doctors say he won’t live to 30. Doesn’t know how to help his mother grieve the loss of her son.

MM3: (Hero tries to solve problem)

Daisaku and Toda work together to rebuild the organization Soka Gakkai to empower ordinary people for a peaceful world.

Daisaku drops out of school to support Toda’s business. Joins Boys magazine.

World Events: Cold War and Space race begins.

Turning Point (Standard Ways Fail): Daisaku’s efforts face opposition from arrogant priests and calculating warmongers. Toda goes bankrupt and steps down as president of Soka Gakkai.

Change Agent: Daisaku – drops out of school to stick with his mentor Toda while everyone else quickly forget their promises and leave their mentor.

Toda’s Vision: “Ordinary people are great. Those who have suffered the most have the greatest right to happiness.”

Daisaku’s Vow: Tells Toda: “I have chosen to follow you till my last breath of life.” Asks Toda: “Will you still be my mentor?”

Old Ways: Members mistrust warmongers turn pacifists to save their hide from the occupation forces.

New Ways: Finding a mentor whom one can trust

MM4: (Hero Forms New Plan)

Daisaku realizes that he needs a larger, better plan to counter the oppression and betrayal. Daisaku stays with Toda and gets him back on his feet while facing the wrath of the investors. He takes private tuitions from his mentor and calls it Toda University.

He gets Toda reinstated as president of Soka Gakkai. Toda vows to introduce 750000 households in his lifetime and establish correct teachings in Japanese society.

Kasahara incident – Priesthood reprimands Toda and asks him to resign from his post as head of the lay believers of Nichiren Shoshu.

Toda’s declaration against nuclear weapons resonates globally as the world faces the potential of nuclear conflict. He hands over the baton to his youthful successors, especially Daisaku.

World Event: Cold War tensions escalate, and the nuclear arms race intensifies.

Turning Point or Mid-point (Plan Backfires): Daisaku is arrested on false election violation charges. Daisaku confesses to save his mentor who is frail from illness. Toda dies fulfilling his mission as Soka Gakkai membership reaches 750,000 households.

New Ways: Fights in local elections to root out corruption; Daisaku schooled at “Toda University” – private tuitions by his mentor Toda; Takes the baton of world peace from Toda

Challenges: How to reinstate Toda as president? How to protect Toda and Soka Gakkai members?

Weaknesses: Self-doubt; Daisaku gets arrested

MM5: (Hero Retreats & Antagonist prevails)

Daisaku assumes the presidency of Soka Gakkai as the media speculates a collapse of the organization after Toda’s death.

Arrogant priests impose restrictions on Soka Gakkai, causing internal conflict and setbacks.

Yubari Coal Miners and sincere Soka Gakkai members face a boycott from their communities while Ikeda rushes to support them fight for their rights.

World Event: Berlin Wall is erected, symbolizing the divisions in the world.

Turning Point (The Decision to Change): Geopolitical forces continue to justify the existence of nuclear weapons despite the declaration. Daisaku vows at the Berlin Wall to bring it down.

New Ways: peace, culture and education as tools to express mentor’s vision; Fighting back the priesthood and Yubai Coal Miners’ union

MM6: (Hero’s Bigger, Better Plan)

Daisaku and Soka Gakkai members unite to challenge the oppression and betrayal by the trio led by Soka Gakkai’s attorney Yamazaki.

Soka Gakkai and SGI led by Daisaku undergo a period of rapid global expansion from 1980-2000.

World Events: Daisaku’s global dialogues with China and Russia coincide with significant events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK Assassination. He regrets not meeting President Kennedy after cancelling his trip to placate a prominent Japanese Politician.

Turning Point (The Ultimate Failure): Daisaku steps down as president of Soka Gakkai while he continues his dialogues with world leaders. SGI members from 55 countries meet and establish Soka Gakkai International in Guam and appoint Daisaku as their President.

Betraying Characters: Soka Gakkai Attorney Masatomo Yamazaki; In collusion with: Soka Gakkai Vice President Genjiro Fukushima and Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader Takashi Harashima

New Ways: Dialogues for peace with neighbours and community

Challenges: First Priesthood issue. Daisaku asked to step down; Daisaku is barred from attending meetings and encouraging members of Soka Gakkai.

Weaknesses: Daisaku gives in to the demands if it will quell the injustices to members but they only intensify; Soka Gakkai members who rely on their mentor feel lost; Soka Gakkai leaders remain silent as Daisaku is silenced.

MM7: (Crisis & Climax)

Daisaku starts writing UN peace proposals in 1983 and building institutions to promote peace, culture and education which win International recognition.

SGI members unite with their mentor Daisaku despite severe attempts to create a schism between them by the Nichiren Shoshu priests.

Soka Gakkai is excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu but the members are unperturbed as they celebrate it as the day of Spiritual Independence.

World Events: Cold War ends, and Berlin Wall comes down, marking a shift in global dynamics.

Turning Point (Apparent Victory): Daisaku’s resilience and support from Soka Gakkai members lead to a surge in global membership.

New Ways: Dialogues with world leaders and thinkers; Exhibitions for peace, culture and education; Soka schools to foster the next generations of global citizens.

Vision: Daisaku tells Soka Gakkai members to celebrate their ex-communication from Nichiren Shoshu as the day of Spiritual independence.

Challenges: Soka Gakkai is ex-communicated by Nichiren Shoshu.

Weaknesses: Soka Gakkai refused a chance to have any dialogue with the Nichiren Shoshu priests. Daisaku Ikeda running out of time due to old age turning 96.

MM8: (New Better World)

Daisaku conducts over 8000 dialogues for peace and completes writing 30 volumes of his novel series The New Human Revolution.

SGI has 12 million members in 192 countries and territories. Youth vow to carry on his legacy of peace with the spirit “I am Shinichi.”

Ikeda receives receiving 390 honorary doctorates and over 800 honorary citizenships. He establishes world-renowned Soka Schools, Soka University, Min-On Concert and Fuji Art Museum, and many other institutions. Ikeda is awarded as World Poet Laureate.

Daisaku makes every dream of his mentor Toda a reality even the ones he said to him half-jokingly.

Daisaku’s relentless efforts culminate in Soka Gakkai’s support for the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

World Event: SGI supports ICAN on the UN treaty, reflecting a global push for nuclear disarmament.

Epilogue: (New Status Quo)

Daisaku Ikeda is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, cementing his legacy as a change agent for a better world.

The world acknowledges the profound truth that a single individual’s transformation can shape the destiny of a nation and the whole of mankind.

World Event: Daisaku’s global impact and peace efforts continue as the world faces ongoing challenges.

Final Turning Point: Daisaku Ikeda’s journey for peace continues through his writings and the global impact of his dialogues, leaving a lasting legacy. Soka Gakkai members work together for a more peaceful, sustainable future.

New Ways: Building a global solidarity of more than 12 million worldwide; SGI partners ICAN to petition nations to sign the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons

Profound Truth: A change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Sunil Pappu.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Lead Characters (4A)

“What I learned doing this assignment is…that it is hard to pinpoint the transformable characters of my story as it spans a lifetime, but I was able to identify them using the HOW TO questions. I also found a way to narrow down the betraying characters.”

1. THE TRANSFORMATIONAL JOURNEY LOGLINE: A disillusioned Japanese teen diagnosed with acute respiratory disease feels emasculated and unpatriotic until the devastating war destroys his world and he seeks a mentor he can trust to find purpose and awaken to a life of meaning to actualize his mentor’s vision for world peace and annihilation of nuclear weapons.

2. THE CHANGE AGENT: The Mentor – Josei Toda

a. Their Vision: To create a world free of misery and nuclear weapons.

b. Past experience that fits that vision: Having been arrested alongside his mentor by the thought police for opposing the state religion of Japan under the Peace Preservation Law and losing his own mentor in jail, avowed to avenge his mentor’s death by rebuilding an organisation of ordinary people to empower youth to create a world that upholds human dignity while the Japanese nation struggled to rebuild after the war. Finally, making a declaration of nuclear abolition before his death to pass on the baton to more than 750,000 young successors and notable one youth in particular, Daisaku Ikeda to carry on his legacy.

3. TRANSFORMABLE CHARACTER (S): Japanese nation and Soka Gakkai members in particular

A nation that was broken and starving with young people without any hope was revitalized by the painstaking efforts of one youth who vowed to carry on his mentor’s legacy to build lasting peace. From just 3000 members when it started out to create a worldwide movement that spanned 192 countries and territories with more than 12 million members who voluntarily support and take action to actualize the vision in their daily lives.

4. THE OPPRESSION: Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood with the backing of the government

Arrogant priests who want to disrupt the unity of the lay organization constantly impose their arbitrary standards to restrict the members from working freely to help their families and societies while they themselves do not follow in their actions what they preach. Corrupt and greedy they were morally bankrupt.

5. BETRAYING CHARACTER (S): Soka Gakkai Attorney Masatomo Yamazaki; In collusion with: Soka Gakkai Vice President Genjiro Fukushima and Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader Takashi Harashima

Masatomo Yamazaki

In the early 1970s, the Soka Gakkai hired Yamazaki as an official legal advisor. While Yamazaki’s intentions initially appeared sincere, he neglected to make earnest, genuine efforts and thus began to view the Soka Gakkai as a place to further his personal ambitions. Yamawaki began to involve himself with the legal matters of Nichiren Shoshu, too, cultivating connections among the priesthood as a result. At the same time, he exploited his position as an attorney for personal financial gain and also started his own company. He stopped participating in Soka Gakkai activities and became motivated by greed and love of money.

After being informed of such incidents, Soka Gakkai leaders would meet with Yamazaki to reprimand him for his self-serving behavior. While on the surface, he would apologize and seem to self-reflect, in truth, he continued to distance himself from President Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai. He later colluded with corrupt and ossified Nichiren Shoshu priests in an attempt to oust Daisaku Ikeda from his position as Soka Gakkai president and take control of the Soka Gakkai.

Genjiro Fukushima

Fukushima was a member of another Nichiren Shoshu lay organization before joining the Soka Gakkai in 1960. He attended Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan, and several years after graduation, was hired by the Soka Gakkai. At the time, Fukushima strove hard in his Soka Gakkai activities and displayed a high level of capability. Over time, however, he displayed an arrogance that had members questioning his real intentions.

President Ikeda was well aware of these tendencies, yet was determined that over time, through sticking with the Soka Gakkai, Fukushima would be able to overcome his arrogance.

He said of Fukushima: “If Samejima could continue his faith in earnest for 30 years, then he would gain mastery over himself and show wonderful proof of achieving human revolution. But if he was overtaken instead by ambition and tried to use the Soka Gakkai for his own objectives, in time he would leave the organization.”

Here, President Ikeda observes that people are not necessarily doomed to be evil simply because they have an arrogant or self-serving nature. Therefore, he belived that no one is destined to be evil. Rather, functioning as good or evil is our choice.

Over time, Fukushima revealed his intentions to undermine the Soka Gakkai. In early 1979, Fukushima, who was a Soka Gakkai vice president at the time, began speaking ill of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood despite President Ikeda’s repeated attempts to resolve any misunderstandings with Nichiren Shoshu and forge unity.

Fukushima’s reckless statements caused the priesthood to demand that President Ikeda step down as Soka Gakkai president. And it was none other than Masatomo Yamazaki who delivered this message.

Fukushima was relieved of his position as Soka Gakkai vice president shortly following this incident. Losing his leadership position caused him to harbor a grudge against the organization. Not only did he leave the organization, he created his own newsletter to spread homespun lies about the Soka Gakkai in collaboration with Yamazaki and tabloid journalists.

Takashi Harashima

Yamazaki noticed a potential schism in another religious organization. He proposed, in discussion with disgruntled leaders from the group, that they start a new religious organization from which he intended to profit by helping to legally establish this new religious body. It was revealed later that Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader Takashi Harashima, who was under Yamazaki’s influence, helped draft the doctrine of this new religious body. Harashima also later betrayed the Soka Gakkai together with Yamazaki.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Analysis of DEAD POETS SOCIETY (4B)

“What I learned doing this assignment is… how many gradient changes were there in the story to achieve this fantastic and profound film. It was a wonderful way to see this film as I have never seen it before in all the many times I watched it earlier. I have a more nuanced understanding now of the role of the change agent that could help me in developing my own story. The gradient of change astounded me as if each beat of the story was a gradient of change in itself.”

ANALYSIS OF DEAD POETS’ SOCIETY

We are looking at this movie from the perspective of the change that occurs for the lead character and the audience.

1. What is the change this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?

From conformity to finding one’s individual voice.

At the very beginning, it sets out the four pillars of the school – Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence – that it will destroy. Neil even mocks them as Travesty, Horror, Decadence and excrement.

2. Lead characters:

o Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?

Mr John Keating – the new English teacher. His senior yearbook entry records: “Man most likely to do anything.”

His vision: To make his students free thinkers

His past experience: Besides his stellar record in school, he chose to teach because he loves it. He started a Dead Poet’s Society while in school and knows what the school can do to the students with its rigid rules and traditions. He has been through the journey that he wants his students to go on.

o Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey?

The inductees of the Dead Poet’s Society but mostly:

Todd Anderson – the shy new joinee in class who is terrified to open his mouth. He follows in the shadows of his elder brother and thinks he has nothing important to say and fears speaking in public. He creates an impromptu poem in class that delights everyone and, in the end, he leads the class in chanting O captain! My Captain while standing on the desk defying his principal Mr. Nolan.

Each of the others with the exception of Cameron all undergo a transformation in the end.

Niel Perry – from having no agency due to his father’s decision-making to defying him to follow his dream of acting and in the end taking his life so that his father can no longer live his dreams viciously through him.

Knox Overstreet – who is smitten by Chris, gives up on her because she is already engaged to a boy. He gathers the courage to call her and gets invited to a party where he kisses her forehead and gets punched in the face by her fiancé and threatened. He walks over to her class with a flower bouquet and a poem he’s written for her and makes a fool of himself. He wins her over in the end and she agrees to watch the play with him holding hands throughout.

Charlie Dalton – who is a rich kid with no real inclination to pursue his studies really sets the example for the rest of the class; inviting girls to join their club and even publishing an article in the school journal asking them to let girls enrol at Welton and mock calls god in the assembly when the principal threatens expulsion and takes the punishment without giving up names. He punches Cameron for snitching. He refuses to sign the statement and gets expelled.

o What is the Oppression?

The school’s conformity to its four pillars set a hundred years ago.

3. How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story?

Old Ways: It’s the best prep school in the US with a hundred-year-old tradition with a proven track record. Over 75% of the graduates join Ivy League colleges. That is why parents send their sons to study here.

How we connect: We all wish we attended prep schools like this or want to send our children to these schools. Kids dream of going to study at these prestigious schools all over the world. The old boys of such schools still hold onto the nostalgia, returning to their alma maters and even enrolling their children and several generations to these schools.

4. Looking at the character(s) who are changed the most, what is the profound journey? From “old ways” to “new way of being.”

Identify their old way: Every one of the students at these schools has a set path mostly decided in advance by their parents or guardians. They just have to conform to it and they will become successful lawyers, bankers, engineers or doctors.

Identify their new way at the conclusion: Everyone has a unique voice and they do not have to conform to any one way of doing things. Each of us needs to listen to our inner voice and live our life to the fullest by seizing the day – Carpe diem!

5. What is the gradient of change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?

The gradient of Change:

Redefining their vision: Keating introduces them to the Latin phrase Carpe diem – Seize the day!

Shocking and unusual methods: ripping off pages of the prescribed textbook to poetry

Reversing stereotypes: He calls himself the intellectual equivalent of 98-pound weakling who had copies of Byron kicked in his face at the beach but then we find out he had a very impressive record at school – varsity team, editor of the school annual, dead poets society club an even thing man with the caption “Man most likely to do anything”

Reverse psychology: Goes down Amnesia lane and reminiscences about DPS but tells them to forget it as the school administration would never allow it.

Resurrecting the DPS – Perry decides to restart it and know the directions to Indian Cave.

Surprise: Keating expected them to go ahead and leaves a book “Five Centuries of Verse” with a note on how to start the DPS meetings

First DPS meeting: Everyone sneaks away at night to the Indian Cave and gathers for their first meeting breaking the rules

Class assignment: Todd writes and rewrites his poem while everyone else is engaged in extracurriculars like rowing, fencing, and even listening to rock music on the radio illegally while dancing on the terrace. He finally tears it up.

Football with a twist: Keating introduces a new sport – reading a verse before kicking the ball with music playing in the background on an old record player.

Todd overcomes his fear: Todd creates a very good impromptu poem with Keating’s help and overcomes his fear of public speaking.

Knox calls Chris and gets invited to a party: Overcoming his fear he dials her and she invites him to a party

Point of Conformity: Keating has them walk in the courtyard without conforming to others

Todd’s first unmanned flying desk set: Todd is encouraged by Neil to throw away his parent’s thoughtless birthday gift

Girls join DPS: Dalton brings girls to join the DPS club

Knox gets knocked out at the party: He seizes his moment and kisses Chris on the forehead and gets punched in the face by her fiancé Chet while she tries to stop him. Chet threatens to kill him.

Charlie publishes an article in the journal – Under the name of Dead Poets Dalton publishes an article asking for girls to be allowed to Welton.

A phone call from God – Principal threatens expulsion in a school assembly for the article but Charlie mock calls from god and mocks the principal.

Give up names or else– He takes the spanking but doesn’t reveal the names of the members in DPS

Principal Nolan makes a thinly veiled threat to Keating – He warns him of his unorthodox teaching methods

Keating warns the boys – don’t be stupid he tells Charlie and the boys. He does joke that it would have been daring if it were a “collect call from god”

Neil goes to the rehearsal – he writes a letter on behalf of his father to the principal. His father finds out from another parent and makes an unannounced visit. He threatens him to cancel his participation.

Neil confides in Keating – He tells him about his passion for acting. Keating tells him to convey the same to his father. He tells him he just can’t talk to his father that way. He feels trapped.

Knox brings flowers and a poem to Chris – He barges into Chris’s class to read his poem about Chris in front of the whole class and embarrasses her.

Neil lies about speaking to his dad – he tells Keating he spoke to him and he will get to do this play.

Chris warns Knox – Chris comes over to the boys’ dorm to warn Knox that Chet is out to kill him. He invites her to the play and she agrees. They hold hands during the play.

Neil’s father comes to the play – He stands near the door and asks to speak to Neil even as the crowd gives him a standing ovation for his performance and drags him out. He tells Keating to stay the hell away from his son.

Neil will go to Military school – Mr Perry tells Neil he is taking him out of Welton and will enrol him in a military school and then Harward and then a Doctor. Neil has something to say but says Nothing. Whispers to his mother that he was very good.

Neil kills himself – When his parents go to bed he takes out his dad’s revolver and shoots himself in his study.

Todd finds out – Todd blames Neil’s father and runs out into the snow screaming for Neil.

Keating cries in an empty classroom – he opens the book he lent to Neil that is sitting on his desk and cries.

Neil’s Memorial service – DPS sing the hymn in tears at Neil’s memorial where Nolan announces a thorough investigation into the events leading up to his death

Cameron is a fink – Charlie tells everyone that Cameron has told Nolan all about their club. Cameron tells them they already know and they can’t save Keating but they can save themselves if they are smart like him. Charlie punches him in the face.

Todd is called to Nolan’s office – Todd sits beside his parents as Nolan tells him to sign the statement that implicates Keating in the death of Neil. Keating is made the scapegoat to take the fall for the school.

Nolan substitutes for Keating – He asks everyone to turn to the pages that have already been ripped out of their books. Keating comes to collect his personals and overhears them and smiles.

Todd speaks out – Todd yells out to Keating that they didn’t want to. He gets up on the desk defying Nolan’s protests to get down and calls out O Captain! My Captain! Keating says Thank you, boys. All the others follow suit except for Cameron.

6. How is the “old way” challenged? What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change?

Prescribed text is ancient history – Rips out J Evan Pritchard, PhD’s Understanding Poetry – Keating asks the class to rip out the pages to their prescribed text. He skips some of the realists and doesn’t go in an order to teach his class

Shakespeare is boring – he reads out Shakespeare as Marlon Brando and John Wayne.

Geeky Society for losers – Dead Poets Society is not boring and it’s for romantics

There is no set path – Neil discovers his passion for acting and would rather die than not pursue it

I’m not an embarrassment – Todd finds out he does have something important to say and he has a poet in him after all

There is no honour in betraying your friends – Cameron says there is an honour code in this school – we tell the truth when teachers ask us. But he in fact betrays his friends and saves his own skin by making his teacher Keating a scapegoat to take the fall for the school.

Discipline is meaningless without passion – Mr Perry was more concerned for his son to not disobey him because he couldn’t see his passion and lost him to his foolishness.

Traditions that don’t allow one to question their purpose and meaning are useless – The schools’ rigid prescribed methods didn’t have room for any free thinkers to emerge

Excellence without a soul – the pursuit of noble professions is necessary to sustain life but poetry, beauty, romance, and love are what we stay alive for

7. What are the most profound moments of the movie?

Each gradient of change mentioned above was a profound moment for me. I had to keep stopping every few minutes to make notes. I was very moved by the film when I watched it using this profound model. Wow! What an eye-opener!

8. What are the most profound lines of the movie?

“You can call me Mr Keating or more daringly O Captain! My Captain!”

“Gather ye Rosebuds while ye may” – Latin term for that sentiment is “Carpe diem” – Seize the day”

“Now I want you to rip that page. Rip It! Be gone J Eavn’s Pritchard PhD… It’s not a bible you’re not going to hell for this… Rip it!

“Keep ripping gentleman. This is a battle, a war. The casualties could be your heart and soul. Armies o academics measuring poetry No we will not have that. No more Mr J Evans Pritchard.”

“Now in my class, you’ll learn to think for yourselves again. You’ll learn to savour words and language. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

“We don’t read and write poetry because it is cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.”

“Medicine, Law, Business, Engineering these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But Poetry, beauty, romance, love these are what we stay alive for.”

“That you are here. That life exists and identity; That the powerful play goes on and you can contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

“What is the Dead Poet’s Society… You mean it was a bunch of guys sitting around, reading poetry? No Mr Overstreet. It wasn’t just guys. We weren’t a Greek organization. We were romantics. We didn’t just read poetry. We let it drip from our tongues like honey. Spirits soared, women swooned, and gods were created, gentlemen. Not a bad way to spend an evening eh?”

“Thanks, Mr Perry for that stroll down amnesia lane.”

“Why do I stand on the desk… to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.”

“You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all.”

“Mr Anderson, don’t think I don’t know this assignment scares the hell out of you, you mole.”

“Mr Anderson thinks everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn’t that your worst fear? I think you’re wrong. I think you have something inside you that is worth a great deal.”

“The point Charlie is that she was thinking about me. I’ve only met her once and she is already thinking about me… I can feel it. I know she is going to be mine. Carpe diem!”

“I think you underestimate the value of this desk set. The shape is rather aerodynamic. I can feel it. This desk set wants to fly. The world’s first unmanned flying desk set… oh my don’t worry. You’ll get another one next year.”

“So what are you going to do? Charlie? Damn it, Neil! The name is Nuwanda”

“Phone call from god. I think collect would have been daring!”

“I can’t talk to him this way. You’re acting for him too The role of a dutiful son.”

“Dead poets Honor. You’re so infuriating.”

“Cameron is a fink”

“O Captain! My Captain!”

9. How does the ending pay off the setups of this movie?

The Principal opens the school semester announcing the proud academic achievements of previous batches but in the end, the student who started out as meek and voiceless defies his principal in class to get up on the desk and daringly call out “O Captain! My Captain!” The principal who talks about the four pillars of Honor, Tradition, Discipline and Excellence has dishonourably made Mr Keating the scapegoat hiding behind the tradition to regurgitate texts that do not inspire students to seek knowledge, the strict discipline that couldn’t prevent a promising student from taking his life as he felt trapped by it and lastly found excellence in the superficial academic achievements and grades rather than the depth of a person’s soul.

10. What is the Profound Truth of this movie?

Everyone has a unique voice, and we need to find our voice even if it means going against the conformities of society.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Transformational Journey

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to think of the change from old ways to new ways while creating a character logline that portrays the transformational journey.”

Title: Shin’ichi – The Disciple

Concept: A Japanese youth disillusioned by the war seeks a mentor. He carries on his mentor’s legacy to rid the world of misery to create the largest global organization of ordinary people while pivotal world events crisis-cross his journey for peace.

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>1. Lead Character Logline:

• Lead character with an issue: A disillusioned Japanese teen diagnosed with severe respiratory disease feels emasculated and unpatriotic.

• Journey: drops out of school to seek a mentor and to find purpose after the devastating war to rebuild his life

• Transformation: to awaken to his mission as an ordinary citizen conducting over 8000 dialogues for peace, building numerous institutions to carry on the legacy of his mentor and receiving 390 honorary doctorates and over 800 honorary citizenships … etc

Character Logline: A disillusioned Japanese teen diagnosed with acute respiratory disease feels emasculated and unpatriotic until the devastating war destroys his world and he seeks a mentor he can trust to find purpose and awaken to a life of meaning to actualize his mentor’s vision for world peace.

2. Old Ways

Problem statement: Young Daisaku feels emasculated and unpatriotic when he is not able to join the war efforts with his sickly self.

– Buys into the war propaganda of the state

– Envies his brothers who are enlisted

– Tries to hide his respiratory disease to join the army.

– Joins munitions factory

– Loss of brother in the war

– Air raids that bomb his home twice

– Angered by the spiritual void

– Questions Meaning of life?

– Could not trust fraudulent intellectuals and politicians who sang praises of war and drove large numbers of youth to their deaths

3. New Ways

The solution state: Daisaku finds a mentor for life and awakens to his mission to work for world peace as an ordinary citizen

– Finding a mentor whom he could trust

– Schooled at “Toda University” – private tuitions by his mentor Toda

– Poetry, Songs, Fan dance, Piano and Photography as tools to express his vision

– Dialogues for peace – with world leaders, thinkers, artists, scientists, nurses, doctors, religious leaders, etc

– Building institutions to promote peace, culture and education

– Writing concrete peace proposals to UN for more than four decades

– Building a global solidarity of more than 12 million worldwide

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s First Three Decisions

“What I learned doing this assignment is…to identify the profound truth of my story and what change the audience needs to experience and how to bring that about using an entertainment vehicle to deliver it.”

The Three Decisions:

Title: Shin’ichi – The Disciple

1. Profound Truth: A change in one single individual can bring about a change in the destiny of the world.

2. Audience Change: Inspired to become the one in their own lives

3. Entertainment Vehicle: Embellished true story (also using the metaphor – pivotal world events which crisscross the protagonist’s journey a la Forrest Gump)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Sunil Pappu.

[Sunil Pappu]

Sunil Pappu’s Analysis of Groundhog Day

“What I learned doing this assignment is… there can be profound meaning in a comedy and even if the message is a cliché if delivered well though a gradient of change it can have a powerful impact on the audience.”

———————QUESTIONS FOR THE MOVIE——————-

We are looking at this movie from the perspective of the change that occurs for the lead character and the audience.

1. What is the CHANGE this movie is about? What is the Transformational Journey of this movie?

CHANGE: from trying to do the bare minimum to living each moment to the fullest;

Transformational Journey: Phil from a snooty weatherman to a humble helpful member of the small town of Punxsutawney

2. Lead characters:

o Who is the Change Agent (the one causing the change) and what makes this the right character to cause the change?

Rita – whose love he seeks; forces the change.

o Who is the Transformable Character (the one who makes the change) and what makes them the right character to deliver this profound journey?

Phil is the transformable character – first, he makes superficial changes learning to manipulate her feelings, but she sees through the superficiality; in the end, when he no longer wants to just impress her and genuinely builds relationships with everyone, she falls for him.

o What is the Oppression?

To relive the same day every day stuck in a small town one hates.

3. How are we lured into the profound journey? What causes us to connect with this story?

Old ways: Phil is a bit of a diva – gets the job he wants; the producer he chooses and the hotel he wants to stay at; gets the attention of the town folk; looks down on the homeless; hides from his old schoolmate; curses the simpletons who celebrate a worthless festival every year honouring a groundhog (a glorified rat).

How we connect: This is how most of us see our daily lives – a seemly meaningless cycle of pretence and unhappiness.

4. Looking at the character(s) who are changed the most, what is the profound journey? From “old ways” to “new way of being.” Identify their old way: Identify their new way at the conclusion:

Old Ways: to try and get by each day with pretence and self-importance

New Ways: to see each day as an opportunity to make the most of it and build relationships, work on self-improvement and give joy to others

5. What is the gradient of the change? What steps did the Transformational Character go through as they were changing?

The gradient of change:

Denial: Refuses to believe that he’s reliving the same day and thinks he must have gone crazy; even gets an MRI and seeks psychiatric help.

Victimhood: tries to sell his sob story to two drunks who are willing to listen to him

Swings to the extreme: who cares about the consequences of our actions if there is no tomorrow to answer for? He vandalizes the mailboxes, gives a police car a chase, drives onto the railway tracks towards a speeding train; jokes with an officer and gets thrown in jail

Manipulation: He takes advantage of people like Nancy by remembering facts about them and manipulating them and gets her to sleep with him

Goes after his prize: He tries to woo Rita using his manipulation, but she sees through his superficiality each time. He gets dejected and bitter.

Gives up: He tries to kill himself using various means and doesn’t succeed.

Learning curve: He learns things because they are fun to do and he wants to do them because he likes helping people.

Ultimate Test: Rita follows him one day and realizes he is quite the town hero and falls for him and decides to stay with him through the night. He is humble about his achievements and doesn’t do them to show off but because it makes him feel good and he likes helping people.

Transformation Tested: He wakes up to tomorrow and is thankful for the day. He wants to live in the small town.

6. How is the “old way” challenged? What beliefs are challenged that cause a main character to shift their perspective…and make the change?

Old ways are challenged – He still can’t get Rita to sleep with him and she sees through him every time.

7. What are the most profound moments of the movie?

Phil wakes up to the same day.

Phil is able to predict the answers on jeopardy and impresses the old folk in the room.

Phil wrecks the town and faces no consequences for his actions

Phil genuinely becomes a good artist and musician

Rita is not impressed with Phil despite his best efforts

Phil tries to kill himself in multiple ways

Phil becomes a genuinely caring person in the end

Last line: “Today is tomorrow.”

8. What are the most profound lines of the movie?

Phil tells Rita: “What if there would be no tomorrow?”

Cheers to: “World peace of course!”

The psychiatrist asks Phil to set his next appointment date: “How is tomorrow for you?”

Tells Rita: “I don’t deserve someone like you. But if I could, I’d never let you go for the rest of my life.”

Finally, he’s figured it out: “I think I’m god!”

In the end, he says to Rita: “No matter what happens tomorrow, I’m happy now because I love you.”

Last line: “Today is tomorrow”

9. How does the ending pay off the setups of this movie?

Phil hates the small-town mentality and can’t wait to get back to his city life but ends up wanting to live there in the end because of the relationships he has built in town.

10. What is the Profound Truth of this movie?

We need to make the most of every moment of every day and build relationships with everyone and we need to be honest about it and make efforts to be our best.

[Sunil Pappu]

Hello everyone,

I’m Sunil Pappu, a writer/producer with paid writing assignments from Delhi, India.

I have a shopping agreement on my latest TV series with a Bollywood producer and working on notes from another for my latest feature script.

I specialize in thrillers with strong female leads. I have written eight spec scripts including two TV series/pilots. I have also completed eight writing assignments in the last three years. My screenplays and TV shows have been placed in several International screenwriting contests including Big Break and JIFF.

I am a veteran TV executive producer with two decades of award-winning documentaries and shows. Some of the international brands I worked with are National Geographic, Sony Entertainment Television, ESPN, MTV, and World Sport Nimbus.

I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, a master’s in TV, Radio and Film from Newhouse School, Syracuse, NY and a master screenwriter certificate from ScreenwritingU.

Through this class, I would like to learn the profound model to create my next project which is a biopic I have been waiting to write for a while.

Looking forward to working with you,

Cheers

Sunil

[Sunil Pappu]

I, Sunil Pappu, agree to the terms of the release form below:

GROUP RELEASE FORM

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

[Sunil Pappu]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply.

Sure you can email me at sunilrpappu@gmail.com

I’ll try and get my feedback to you once I’m done with Deb’s.

I am not sure I can get to it before the weekend though as I have producer’s notes on a script to get to before Friday.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Cheers

Sunil

[Sunil Pappu]

Hi Bob,

I’m exchanging with Deb at the moment. I would be happy to do round 2 with you if that’s okay.

BTW, I’ve done the same thing with my story as well. I’m still not sure I have a working outline yet.

Cheers

Sunil

[Sunil Pappu]

Hi Deb,

I think email would be less of a clutter. You can email me at sunilrpappu@gmail.com

I’ll try and get back to you with my feedback end of the week as well.

Cheers

Sunil

[Sunil Pappu]

Hi Deb,

I would love to exchange feedback.

Thanks

Sunil

[Sunil Pappu]

Thanks, Bob. Appreciate your comments.

Sunil