After three years of silence, an area leader who I consider a friend, called me. The last time we spoke, I yelled at him for uttering what I considered a Gakkai curse. You know the kind of curse I’m talking about – the kind where it is insinuated that without active participation in the organization, one’s efforts will come to naught.
He asked me how I was. “Fabulous,” I said. It’s strange, I had thought about him earlier that day, wondering how he was doing. Of all the things I miss about the organization are my friends. So it was nice to hear his voice. He seemed a bit surprised that I was doing so well. He was even more surprised that I had published another book that included the experience of our mutual friend, Pascual Olivera. I told him that I wrote a blog, had a website, a radio show, and was working on some new books. I told him that since I left the organization, for some reason, my life was 1000 times better. He asked me how my health was, and I said that it was great. Actual proof is impossible to refute.
It struck me as odd that he wasn’t even aware of the new book. You’d think that word of a book about Nam-myoho-renge-kyo would be of compelling interest to people who chant, regardless of sect. There must be a curtain of silence surrounding me in the organization – or maybe he’s just good at poker. We talked about blogs but he was unaware of how it all worked and didn’t know that I wrote one on Buddhism. For a moment, I thought that SGI Plaza must truly regard us/me as irrelevant.
Then he announced that because of the shakubuku campaign, the organization had reached a membership of 100,000. With that success, they have a target of 500,000 new members by 2010. Also, he mentioned that they now had a new system for care and retention of new members.
We were interrupted by another call on his cell phone. He was on his way to a meeting in Wisconsin. We agreed to meet in a month or so, the next time he comes to Champaign-Urbana in central Illinois. When he does, I’ll have a few questions for him.
I must admit, that I was perplexed by his statement of SGI-USA membership. How many members were there to begin with, at the start of this new campaign? At what point were there less than 100,000 members? Honestly, I remember membership claims of 300,000, 100,000, and so on. Whenever I wanted to “know” the actual membership, I used my own weird method of calculation. First, I looked at the paid subscription totals posted yearly, by law, in the World Tribune. Then, I assumed that 33% of the actual membership didn’t subscribe. Then I figured that at least 20% of the members had multiple subscriptions. In the late 80s’that number used to be more than 50%. I carried at least seven subscriptions. When all the numbers were crunched, I figured that there were about 25,000 members.
So, unless my friend and the statistics department people are using the Enron accounting method, that means that in the past few years, the SGI-USA has added 50-75,000 new members. This is just a ballpark number. If true, this is some amazing accomplishment. My gut feeling is that it just isn’t true. Further, I don’t believe that the SGI-USA will achieve a membership of 500,000 by 2010, for the simple reason that the ideal time for mass conversions ended in the 70s. What would be the reason for many thousands of people to join the organization? I agree that people want to be happy, experience benefit, reverse loss, feel that they are contributing to the accomplishment of world peace, learn about Buddhism, and attain enlightenment. The way to conquer suffering and our quest for self-discovery is primal. In the 60s and 70s, the Vietnam War and a massive cultural upheaval made the time ripe for young people to look beyond the traditional order to find the meaning of life. Although people are no less desiring to end suffering, gain fortune, and to realize world peace, there is clearly no cultural dynamic at work to compel people to join the SGI.
It is my opinion that the SGI would do better to retain their senior membership who begin to question matters, and eventually leave. These senior members are typically forgotten – are too difficult to fix, and considered better off, away from the general membership. It’s easier to get new members and teach them the practice than to reconcile the doubts and problems of the old-timers. This has been my experience.
I am truly torn about this subject. One part of me is deeply sympathetic to the goals and virtues of the SGI. It teaches people how to chant and experience the magnificence of the Gohonzon. It instructs people not to look outside their own lives for the source of their problems. It provides a body of like-minded believers the forum to share their struggles and dreams. All of this, I believe is good.
What is troubling to me is the organization as the defacto object of worship, the perpetual idolatry of Mr. Ikeda, the top down leadership that is portrayed as grassroots driven, bottom-up. I no longer understand the value of the soka spirit movement, nor do I agree with numerous doctrinal teachings like the authenticity of the Dai-Gohonzon, and Nichiren as the true Buddha of Mappo. I once accepted these ideas, but after independent research, I can no longer accept them. But in my mind, this does not make the SGI bad, just in need of doctrinal revision to bring it in line with contemporary scholarship and the truth.
What is your opinion?
Last week, I learned that Modern Buddhist Healing was published in India. Jaico, a 57-year-old publisher with more than 1600 titles is now in the process of making my book widely available to the people of India. They are the publisher of the famous book, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Sri Sri Parmahansa Yogananda.
Learning that my book was published in India came as a complete surprise to me. I have been relentlessly promoting my latest book, without giving much attention to the first one. Interestingly enough, after nearly three years on the market, Modern Buddhist Healing is still selling well. It continues to spread, not by anything that I am doing to promote it, but by word-of-mouth alone. Somehow, I believe that Nichiren would be pleased to see this reality unfold.
In October, at a book signing, a woman brought a copy of each book to the signing table and asked me what the difference between the two books was. She was ready to embrace Buddhism, having just left a very intense New Age religious cult. She wanted to know what my spirit was like for the first book and how it changed during the second book.
I told her that when writing Modern Buddhist Healing, I was like a solider that had been in a great battle and was returning home to report the news. For the second book, I was an ex-patriot, sharing a small smattering of my personal memoirs while freely writing about my heroic comrades, without concern for the general’s approval. I think she understood.
I would like to thank all of you that have supported my work. There may be some who wonder how this accomplishment was possible considering my departure from the society. There never was offical organizational sanction here in the US – not even an official pat on the back (even though PI & Mr. Tsuji gave it two big thumbs up). Let this serve as a lesson for all. With a direct connection to the Buddha and dharma of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, all good things are possible. I believe that the best is yet to come.