Komazawa University is a university founded on the teachings of Buddhism and the spirit of Zen, which is the basis of both its education and research.
Buddhism teaches us how to nurture our spirits to treat all things with care, and these teachings are based on insights into the core nature of things. In Buddhism, these insights are called "wisdom" and this state of mind is called "compassion". Komazawa University is a place where students can develop themselves through deep and broad explorations of various academic disciplines, while at the same time polishing their wisdom and nurturing their compassion.
In Zen, Buddhism and the practice of self-formation through wisdom and compassion is called spiritual training, and the ideal result of this spiritual training is enlightenment. The founder of the Soto sect, Zen Master Dogen, taught that the ideal of enlightenment is not beyond our reach, but is alive and well in our daily spiritual practice, a concept which he called, "shusho itto", and means that spiritual practice and enlightenment are one and the same.
The ideal way of education and research in universities based on the teachings of Zen Master Dogen can be succinctly expressed as, "Gyogaku ichinyo", which means that the "spiritual practice" of pursuing self-improvement and the "learning" through academic research are one and the same, and this is the motto by which we aim to educate our students at Komazawa University.
At Komazawa University, "spiritual practice" is the process of making academic research one's own flesh and blood as seen through the high logic of Buddhism, and this is what true "learning" is. The self that is formed in this way will continue to seek both a broader compassionate heart, as well as higher wisdom, in the real world, and will always continue to learn new things even after graduating. This continuous process of spiritual practice and learning is the ideal that Komazawa University stands for.