I attended the Youth Division meeting this last weekend at our Community Center in Santa Clara California. As I no longer live in “the Valley” I don’t often get to attend meetings there. It was wonderful. In true YD style the energy was high, the experiences were incredible, and even the food was decent.
I was able to reconnect with many old friends and leaders I haven’t seen in a long time, including our Area Chief who was present at the first Shakabuku meeting I attended.
Standing back in the crowd I looked around and could clearly see the YD leaders, the YD members who were “invested” and the wide-eyed guests who were cared for and talked to by their guests as the meeting progressed.
I am always wondering what guests think of SGI meetings. We’re not what the public would expect “real Buddhists” to be like. Much of Buddhism in America seems very “fashionable” to me. When I was at my first NSA Shakabuku meeting (Nichiren Shoshu of America, our old name) I remember thinking how strange it was that there was so many different people - people from such difference walks of life.
I remember really being drawn to the life condition of the two women who gave experiences. Mostly I remember being utterly drawn to the Gohonzon. I knew nothing of Japan, Chinese writing, Buddhism or anything related to anything I saw that night, but the Gohonzon was really seriously cool. I knew right away I wanted one of my own, and I wanted to chant to it. In 20 years I have never stopped.
The first Gohonzon I ever saw was the little Omamori, or traveling Gohonzon that was issued by Nikken at the time. This was my first and strange as it is I can still taste the flavor of the night when I saw it held in the hand of the Young Men’s Division who Shakabuku’d me. It seems different from any other in my memories, a tangle and web of interlacing kanji forming a sort of matrix. I thought to myself “when I join I’m buying one of those!”.
I think the Youth Division meeting was a good first experience for the guests I saw and watched. If you practice in SGI you know that introduction meetings don’t always go well. I have come to understand that every member and every guest still has their own karma and they get what they need. I hope.
At moments during the meeting my negativity arose and I would become cynical of all the mindless smiling and laughing. I quickly reminded myself that there’s enough anger and negativity in the world to counter-balance ALL of the mindless positivism SGI creates so it all comes out in the end, hopefully in some state of balance.
SGI Youth Division meetings - a good time. Go to one in YOUR neighborhood right away!
I was recently e-mailed a memo from a senior leader regarding – ack – street shakabuku. Wow. Street shakabuku.
If you don’t know what that is, it’s walking around the street introducing people to Nam myoho renge kyo. It’s very old fashioned, something I was never really comfortable with. It includes knocking on doors, hanging around in shopping malls and any other sort of random shakabuku effort.
First, I should explain the word shakabuku. I’m not sure, but I recall that this translates literally into “to break and subdue”. Ouch. In the US however it simply means to introduce to Buddhism.
Anyway, someone in some meeting I did not attend apparently stated to a very senior leader that they thought the only way to reach our new membership goal was to begin to do street shakabuku.
The leader replied;
SGI-USA does not endorse or support doing street shakabuku or door to door shakabuku, and that this policy should be shared with those who propose it. In some situations such as college campuses where casual interactions are customary it may be ok, but going door to door or breaking in on activities people are doing is intrusive and should not be done.
Whew!, thank myoho for new times and new approaches! Street shakabuku is something I do not miss.
Hello! My name is Donald Shimoda. I’m a Chapter Chief in the Soka Gakkai International. Welcome to my blog.
I was put in charge of our new statistics program recently. I mention this because I’ve read some unfair criticism on the net, and even on Fraught with Peril, regarding the new statistics.
I thought I would share my perspective on this new movement, in the hopes of perhaps clarifying some confusion. I cannot promise I will be able to help the chronically confused though!
According to a statistics meeting this last week, our chapter has 73 members. I wish it was 524, or 723, but it’s 73. We have two districts in our chapter. We counted up our members by division and had to subtract some of the total count. Apparently either we’ve lost members or our original counts were uh, hopeful.
Are our Chapter statistics inflated? Well, yes and no.
Certainly we don’t have 73 members attending meetings on a regular basis. Our stats have factored in inactive family members. But as family member they are important and well, I couldn’t leave them out! Would you?
Part of our stats also has members who I have never met. This is where I stood my ground. I stood my ground when it came to adding some of these members in. My Japanese Woman’s Division members insisted we keep member’s cards in our box (we have special boxes you know, for the membership cards) that no one had seen for years. This is where I drew the line. No “totally unaccounted-for members” allowed in our stats. Now I have to chant that I am able to meet some of these less seen members.
I guess the real question is, “what makes one a member of SGI?”
This criteria has changed throughout the years. Used to be that if you missed a single discussion meeting we’d come hunting you down for fear you’d gone taiten. I don’t think that was realistic, nor was it fair to wag those labels around like that. I’m thankful that SGI has grown up some through the years.
Anyway, I feel like, at least in my chapter, we’re keeping it real. Certainly taking care of members is an important part of practicing Nichiren’s Buddhism in
the Soka Gakkai.
I wish I was better at it, but I keep trying…