BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 269The basic premise is that secular activity, when approached with the proper
attitude, provides the ideal arena for a fulfilling religious life of self-cultivation.
Ancestor rites, as we have seen, function to improve one's ongoing rela-
tionship with one's ancestors, living and dead. They also function to improve
family ties among the living, based on the principle that "the family that re-
cites together remains together." The act of chanting offers an opportunity for
change of heart, as one reflects on debts owed to one's forebears; the daily
repetition of the chant demonstrates one's sincere appreciation for the gift of
life. The ancestors, in turn, are expected to bless one's current affairs and may
even find ways of offering valuable lessons or timely warnings through dreams.
Thus the active interdependence of all things includes the dead as well as the
living.
Proselytizing is an opportunity to show gratitude to the Eternal Buddha
and to the organization for the benefits that one has received through mem-
bership. It is also an opportunity to do good for the world by making the Bud-
dha's message more widely available. In addition, it acts as a test of one's purity
of heart, as success or failure in winning converts is believed to be a measure
of the sincerity of one's motives. Kosei-kai's methods of proselytization are
fairly nonconfrontational. In fact, cooperation with other groups, both reli-
gious and secular, has been a major theme in the organization's work. In 1970,
Kosei-kai convened the first World Conference on Religion and Peace and
has since continued to take a leading role in the activities of the conference,
which now meets on a regular basis and includes members from sixty nations.
At approximately the same time, Kosei-kai helped to form the Brighter Soci-
ety Movement, a public-spirited consortium of government and private orga-
nizations working fogether for the general improvement of the quality of life
in Japan. Kosei-kai members are also active in reliefwork. Each member of
the organization is asked to fast for three days a month and to donate the re-
sulting savings for overseas aid. The organization hopes that people exposed to
the pure hearts ofKosei-kai members involved in these good works will be
attracted to the faith, thus hastening the day of the Pure Land on Earth.
Interestingly enough, the one area in which Kosei-kai's efforts at external
cooperation have been least successful is with other new religions. Niwano
made an effort to forge an alliance with other groups whose teachings center
on the Lotus Sutra, but the effort came to nothing, as each group feared domi-
nation by the others. In the 1970s, Kosei-kai and other new religions banded
with the Liberal Democrat and Democratic Socialist parties to turn the tide
against Komeito, the Soka Gakkai party-a paradoxical case of religions unit-
ing with political parties to protect the separation of politics and religion--but
the concerns of this union have not spread to other areas. This tendency to
unite only around ad hoc issues is typical of the uji pattern that these new reli-
gions follow; it suggests that they will maintain their separate identities as long
as no major crises face Japan.
Scholarly discussions of the new religions tend to focus on two themes:
what do the religions represent, and what do they augur for the future? The
second question is impossible to answer with any certainty, but an answer can