Editing Soka Gakkai (section)

=== "Life force" and "Human Revolution" ===

Soka Gakkai teaches that this "self-induced change in each individual" – which Josei Toda began referring to as "human revolution" – is what leads to happiness and peace.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joseitoda.org/religious/hr.html|title=Human Revolution|website=www.joseitoda.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dobbelaere|first1=Karel|title=Soka Gakkai|date=1998|publisher=Signature Books|isbn=978-1-56085-153-0|pages=9, 70}}</ref>

Josei Toda studied a passage from the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra (considered the introduction to the Lotus Sutra) that describes Buddhahood by means of 34 negations – for example, that it is "neither being nor non-being, this nor that, square nor round". From this, he concluded that "Buddha" is life or life force.<ref name="Encountering the Dharma">{{cite book|last1=Seager|first1=Richard|title=Encountering the Dharma|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24577-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag/page/48 48]|date=2006-03-16|url=https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book|last1=Tamaru|first1=Noriyoshi|editor1-last=Macachek and Wilson|title="The Soka Gakkai In Historical Perspective" in Global Citizens|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924039-5|page=37|year=2000}}</ref>

Toda considered the concept of "Buddha as life (force)" means that Buddhism entails transforming society.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seager|first1=Richard|title=Encountering the Dharma|page=53}}</ref> Ikeda has been quoted as saying, "Faith is firm belief in the universe and the life force. Only a person of firm faith can lead a good and vigorous life{{nbsp}}[...] Buddhist doctrine is a philosophy that has human life as its ultimate object, and our Human Revolution movement is an act of reform aimed at opening up the inner universe, the creative life force within each individual, and leading to human freedom."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shimazono|first1=Susumu|title=Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern world|page=436}}</ref>

The concept of life force is central to the Soka Gakkai's conception of the role of religion and the application of Nichiren's teachings. Ikeda states that "[o]ur health, courage, wisdom, joy, desire to improve, self-discipline, and so on, could all be said to depend on our life force".<ref name="Winning In Life With Daimoku">{{cite journal|last1=Ikeda|first1=Daisaku|title=Winning In Life With Daimoku|journal=Living Buddhism|date=September 2014|page=51}}</ref>