Donald Shimoda

Hey Donald, you're funny. Thank Myoho indeed! I once suggested to an SGI leader that SGI should do a Sunday morning program on cable TV like the Christians do as a way to introduce more folks to Nichiren Buddhism. He just started talking about something else like I hadn't said anything. So I'm not sure if he didn't like the suggestion that we copy Christians or if he thought all religious services on TV were bad. You know, even though I'm not an SGI member and don't intend to join up again, if SGI had a TV program with folks chanting, I would watch and chant along.
VW

Hey Donald!

Yeah...I was there! The good old days...when I wasn't good and I wasn't old!

One note on the meaning of "Shakubuku"...it has the two words for "break" and "subdue"...but there is no "and"...
It doesn't mean to "break and subdue" an erroneous believer's faith..it means to "break" that which "subdues"...in other words, to liberate...I find that amuch kinder, gentler definition...

Thanks
David

Hi Donald,

Here is a great explanation of the word "shakubuku" and the characters that compose it:

http://www.gakkaionline.net/Imagery/Shakubuku.html

One note: I now see that shoju (accept and receive) and shakubuku are not opposites but two different methods of propagation that must both be motivated by compassion and whose aim in both cases is "geshu" or "sowing" the seed of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. There is so much more but I will let it rest.

I was an SGI member back in the mid-80s in Philadelphia and I participated in street shakubuku. I actually think it was a good experience for me. It was also the way I was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism: someone just handed me a card with the Odaimoku written on it (I still have it) and invited me to a meeting. Of course I was just a punk wandering about drunk with nothing else to do at the time, it was a fun adventure for me to get invited off the street to some bizarro Buddhist meeting. If someone approaches me nowadays about anything (say a free carpal tunnel syndrome exam) I am extremely annoyed and wave them away and walk quickly past. I am a 39 year old office drone and family man now - I am busy and have responsibilities, and no time for other people's nonsense, come-ons, begging, and promotions. At my age I now find street evangelism the grotesque activity of people with no life. Bah! Humbug!

Anyway, when it was my turn to do street shakubuku (this was during my punk years when I had no life) I really found it to be a challenging experience that I needed. First, it helped me overcome my shyness and unwillingness to just walk up to strangers and introduce myself. Secondly, my leader at the time really got on my case about the attitude I would get when people told me they were not interested. I pretty much had the punk-rock contempt of anyone who was not like myself down pat. People not interested in the existential meaning of life were obviously hopeless brain-dead office drones with no life. My leader asked me the extremely poignant question that has been with me ever since "How can you presume to act like a bodhisattva when you hold everyone in contempt?"

Going back to the time of the Buddha when he and his renunciant disciples toured the streets on alms rounds, Buddhists have always found ways to do a kind of public witness for their teachings and practice. Naturally, alms rounds are not something that is acceptable in mainstream cosmopolitan cultures, where being a parasite is not excusable even if it is supposedly for a higher purpose. But I can't help but thinking that there should be some way to inoffensively bear witness in public to the Wonderful Dharma. And on the part of the practitioner it is good to have an opportunity to learn to reach out, have practical opportunities to cultivate compassion and humility in one's interactions with others (i.e. challenge one's shyness and perhaps defensive contempt), and to just share the Dharma with those who might be open to it but might otherwise not ever encounter it or pay attention to it.

Anyway, just my thoughts about street shakubuku. Come to think of it, if I were invited to a Buddhist meeting today and had some time - I would probably go just to chant with others and enjoy the lively discussion (probably all the livelier once they discovered who they had unwittingly invited into their midst).

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Hi, Don! This blog entry really took me back down memory lane! How could I forget those forays into Westwood or into the parking lot at Ralph's where we would snag people off the sidewalk and bring them to meetings! A lot of people got introduced that way.

Personally, though, I do agree with your member that this may be the only way of hitting the 500,000 mark by 2010. Back in the old days, we used to hand out Gohonzons like candy at Halloween and of coure, people had no idea what they were getting into and so therefore dropped off as soon as they joined. I wonder who came up with the 500,000 goal? Do you know? Again, thanks for the trip, and where do you live? I'm here in LA, as you can tell. Byrd in LA

haha, the new layout is pathetic...

best wishes
peter

Off of his medication...

Rev. Greg