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| Buddhism in Action |
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| "Finding My Niche" |
| By Charles Osawa, Brazil |
There is a Buddhist principle that a positive change in the depths of the life of an individual will lead to positive changes in the broader environment. I believe that the role of education is to help facilitate such a change within people; and that if human beings come to recognize their interconnectedness with the life around them and come into a positive relationship with their environment, they can effect far-reaching changes. Herein, as I see it, lies the significance of the activities of the SGI's Amazon Ecological Research Center (CEPEAM) in Manaus, Brazil, where I work.
It was a similar sort of inner change in my own life which led to me working for the protection of the Amazon and its people. My mother and my grandmother struggled financially to enable me to attend university. There, feeling passionately about the exclusion of economically disempowered people from educational opportunities, I became active in student rallies and demonstrations. But my anger spilled over into my personal life and I was often in fights. I developed a severe drinking problem and would often drink myself into oblivion. It was while recovering from one of these binges that I began to reflect on my life. I decided that I would have to make some serious readjustments.
I told my shocked mother that I would like to attend an SGI discussion meeting with her. My grandmother was one of the first SGI members in the Amazon region, but I had had no interest in the "deep" questions of life and had written off my mother's and grandmother's practice as an addiction to the "opiate of the masses." However, I now felt I wanted to reevaluate matters.
I was surprised, therefore, at the change I began to feel within me as I chanted at the meeting, a sense of being able to revive my life. Reading SGI President Ikeda's writings reconfirmed this sensation.
I began to pray to establish a firm sense of direction in my life, to develop my humanity. I wanted to lead the kind of life that would be of value to others.
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| A New Direction
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It was after this that I made the determination to work for the protection of the Amazon, the great heritage of Brazil. Shortly after this, through a set of fortuitous circumstances I was introduced to one of most well respected scientists in the region, and I volunteered to help him collect data for his research.
On my days off from university, where I studied agronomy, I traveled into the forest where we camped and conducted our research. I worked for free because I wanted to learn as much as I could.
When CEPEAM was established a few years later in 1993, I was in a perfect position to contribute and was invited to participate in its research projects. I am currently in charge of the SGI-Brazil CEPEAM team in Manaus.
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| Schoolchildren visiting the Amazon Ecological Research Center |
The Amazon region cannot by any means remain untouched in the face of our global patterns of consumption. The people of the Amazon know that their lives and well-being are interwoven with the fate of the forest, but hunger for profit can drive them to participate in the exploitation of the forest.
Our activities at CEPEAM are guided by a Buddhist humanist perspective that recognizes that people are not marginal, or intruders in the natural environment, but an integral component of it. It is vital to sustainably manage what has now become rampant exploitation, as well as to ensure that enough areas are protected from exploitation. This is the objective of our various conservation and preservation activities. Another important focus is education. Each year some 1,800 school students, researchers and other members of the public visit and participate in activities at CEPEAM.
I believe that as people's ecological awareness is nurtured, they will become the fulcrum of a new, creative equilibrium on our planet.
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| [ Courtesy April 2006 SGI Quarterly ] |
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