Daisaku Ikeda recalls:

"I heard the emperor's August 15, 1945, radio announcement of the end of the war. My complex feelings at the time remain indelibly engraved in the core of my being."

While this might seem too lofty a subject for your average bedside reading, don't worry. Written in an easy, light tone, the chapters move swiftly, with no resemblance to the textbooks of your past. But while the layperson can get on top of the idea of global discord and harmony, do not think that you will be able to move in and out of the material without consequences. You will be forever changed. When you consider the task at hand, and the role Daisaku and we as individuals have, you may feel momentarily overwhelmed.

"When the twentieth century began, there was a general belief that human progress was limitless. The lofty ideals and high purposes envisioned at the outset of the century were obliterated, however, by the extremist ideologies that swept the world, leaving slaughter in their wake. Perhaps no other century has been witness to such endless tragedy and human folly; the global environment has been grievously damaged, and the gap between rich and poor seems ever widening."

What inhibits the world from making peace? What can bring about a change in character? What is really meant by a culture of peace? This is extremely topical, considering the events of September 11th and the possibility of war that hovers over our daily lives like heavy clouds that threaten thunder. Daisaku uses the Buddhist way of life as a conduit in which to change our ways, to create a world where peace remains:

"The Buddhist understanding of life can help us translate the ideal of an inner transcendence of difference into the actualities of daily life. In other words, we can achieve a state in which we are no longer caught up in or constrained by our awareness of difference."

"The people of the world are obviously looking forward to the arrival of a world without war, a world of eternal peace."

Covering such intense subjects the world's growing poverty rate and continuing lack of education presents an opportunity in which to reflect on not just your own experience, but of those less fortunate than you. This is what will bring about global understanding. This is what is going to change the world. Daisaku writes,

"Humankind is faced on every side by inescapable dilemmas; the threat of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction, the intensification of ethnic discord, damage to the environment from the effects of global warming and destruction to the earth's ozone layer, and the spread of psychopathic, brutal criminality."

"Eternal peace is a continuum consciously maintained through the interaction of self-restraining individuals within a self-restraining society."

"Tolerance can help us create a new epoch of coexistence, shining the light of hope into the dark shroud of pessimism."

1. Mutual respect of territorial rights
2. Mutual nonaggression
3. Nonintervention in domestic politics
4. Equality and reciprocity
5. Peaceful coexistence.

Through the threat of nuclear war, ethnic exclusivism and national sovereignty, we are introduced to a provocative work. Unfortunately, we are not the ones most in need of understanding these materials. Our leaders are. However, armed with this knowledge, we have enough power to change the world ourselves. And we will have Ikeda to thank.

"To find and follow a universal Way is one of the most important goals for civilization in the new century."