January-June 2018, Volume 45(PDF)
Proposed thematic introduction
Buddhism’s One Vehicle in a World of Many Religions
The Buddhist term “One Vehicle” (Skt., ekayāna) means a supreme vehicle for liberating all people from suffering. The Lotus Sutra teaches that in Buddhism there is only One Vehicle, unifying earlier teachings that the Buddha taught as skillful means to bring all people to buddhahood.
In a modern context, Rissho Kosei-kai teaches that the One Vehicle represents all the Buddha’s teachings for leading all people to buddhahood. The world of the One Vehicle is a world of harmony, where all national, racial, and religious differences are overcome.
In today’s multicultural world, in which people of diverse values and ways of thinking often live side by side without sharing a common religion or culture, it is essential for people of different ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds to acquire the art of harmonious coexistence, not by rejecting or assimilating one another but by respecting and accommodating each other.
For this aim, interreligious dialogue has become more crucial than ever. Rissho Kosei-kai shares a keen awareness of this need.
How should we understand the One Vehicle in the context of the present-day need for interreligious dialogue and cooperation? Does it provide us with conceptual resources for negotiating unity and diversity in our world? Or can it be viewed as an inclusivist concept embracing all religious traditions within one’s own set of religious principles?
How should we understand the One Vehicle in the context of the present-day need for interreligious dialogue and cooperation? Does it provide us with conceptual resources for negotiating unity and diversity in our world? Or can it be viewed as an inclusivist concept embracing all religious traditions within one’s own set of religious principles?
