I’m studying Living Buddhism, Mar-Apr 2008, section (12), page 64 which is the study for April. It’s amazing to me how dualistic SGI can be at times. As others have noticed our study lectures are really quite high level, especially in contrast to past era’s Gakkai study efforts.

“Earthly desires are enlightenment, and the sufferings of birth and death are Nirvana” is the overriding theme of this section. I’ve been fortunate to have a WD member come into my district that has stepped up to become our study liaison. She presents very mainstream views on the material at district meetings, which leaves me free to present what I want to present. Without her I find myself grudgingly having to represent the party line more than I am comfortable with.

My Gakkai Buddhism is a Buddhism of partial omission. I simply omit cultism when I run head-long into it. In my area there is virtually none of this function, at least in view of my personal sensitivity.

I believe that the Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai is valid, and real. It’s easy to discard something that appears brand new (in the Buddhist-anthropological time line anyway). This is an important point about our Buddhism.

Mahayana, in terms of scholarship and research, did not come into being until long after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha.

This is a hard thing to grasp as Nichiren fully bases his entire life’s work on the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha’s final and ultimate teaching.

The reality remains that Buddhism can certainly not be viewed as being limited only to “the Buddha”. The teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni continued to evolve and develop long after his passing. In fact it continues to develop today. This is perfectly acceptable to myself in light of the vast socio-political changes through centuries of human devolvement. We simply live in a vastly more complex and complicated world today than that of Nichiren, and certainly then that of prehistoric India.

The Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai remains, in my opinion, the newest and most applicable evolution of those teachings for today’s world, at least the omitted Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai.

What I define as the omitted Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai is primarily our tradition of practice. What I omit is the parts I simply don’t understand, which is the emerging dark cultism of M/D and exclusivism.

Enough has been written about the M/D thing, so let me elaborate on my idea of exclusivism. What I mean is our “we are number one!” mentality. Page 65 of the Living Buddhism states “The Soka Gakkai alone has inherited the ultimate law of life and death from Nichiren, correctly upholding and practicing his teaching and spreading it widely throughout the world in accord with his instructions”.

I have my own personal feelings and beliefs regarding this hard-lined stance. First, I know a lot more about other Nichiren sects than the SGI wishes I or any other member did, which makes it difficult to subscribe to such an exclusive belief.

This paragraph is italicized for the simple reason that it contains two key principles;

1) “belief”

2) “exclusive”

Number one addresses how I feel about much of the cultism that is emerging from SGI. It’s one thing to sincerely believe SGI is the one and only Nichiren sect fulfilling Nichiren’s will. As a personal conviction, epiphany or inspiration, this belief creates powerful images and feelings. As a published doctrine, it’s ugly.

Ugly - “Displeasing to the eye; unsightly. Repulsive or offensive; objectionable: an ugly remark”.

This kind of exclusive group doctrine has not played out well for the Jews. I’m at a loss as to why we continue to push this agenda, in public, for all to see. It’s the kind of thinking that is acceptable among the Japanese perhaps, but not throughout the free world.

I object. I will continue to object. My objection has nothing to do with my personal opinion of whether or not this claim is true, rather with the reality that we, as a Buddhist lay organization, shouldn’t be talking like that. For one thing, there is no metric available to prove it, and therefore it remains a belief, not a fact.

Our cult brothers the Scientologists at least have a metric to gauge one’s progress toward “clear”. They have their E-METER used in their practice of auditing, or “clutching the cans” as I have heard it called. We have no “B-METER” or Bodhisattva-of-the-Earth meter or any other method of proving our claims as fact.

I want the SGI to stop talking like we are the Jewish Buddhists. Please.

Number two is that ugly word exclusive;

Exclusive - Excluding or tending to exclude: exclusive barriers. Not allowing something else; incompatible: mutually exclusive conditions.

This is what we are becoming - exclusive. In western thinking exclusive usually denotes something valuable, such as an “exclusive club”. What good is a club that lets just anyone in? As Woody Allen once said, “I would never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member”. Exclusive can be a powerful marketing tool, but for the Buddhism of ultimate human freedom, it blows.

We’re Buddhists, not the Freemasons. We should be inclusive, at least in some ways, or to some degree. Instead SGI, in my opinion, is becoming exclusive.

I don’t know why these things are happening. Perhaps we are losing members to the temple groups of Nichiren Shoshu. Problem is, the more we behave like we are, the more we will lose. "Anyone can join" you say? True, but if you aren't with us, you're against us.

MY Buddhism omits these ugly things, and so I won’t discuss them at the next study meeting - this Saturday.

My Buddhism is what I believe to be the real Buddhism of the Soka Gakkai. It’s the Buddhism of daily practice. It’s the Buddhism of “Earthly desires are enlightenment, and the sufferings of birth and death are Nirvana”. The SGI’s Buddhism is the Buddhism for those who never desired to be Buddhists, rather just wanted to chant to be happy. THAT’S what I mean by inclusive Buddhism. Anyone can chant. Simply stated, this is the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra appropriate for our current age, an age of global universalism, the Buddhism for one world.

Rev. Greg

P.S. I'm still not signing.

Some things are coming to a head as it were, in SGI-USA. First was the Mentor Disciple relationship. Well, it wasn’t really the thing itself, rather it is the suddenly increased, nearly frantic usage of it. Now it’s everywhere and while official publications and video productions avoid telling us that Daisaku Ikeda is OUR personal mentor, no one is stopping the culties from doing so at meetings both large and small.

This and another issue are subtle to be sure. As I’ve stated before Mentor and Disciple is a viable concept, and something that needs to be reflected on in each of our lives. Are we truly seeking out the teachings of Buddhism or are we “making up our own stuff”? M/D is at the very heart of Buddhism as Greg Martin states, but really M/D is at the heart of every religion equally. In it’s simplest form M/D has to do with our own willingness to learn from another person.

Being dictated just who that Mentor is on an organizational level is another thing altogether. Subtly different, it is in fact worlds apart. When we are told who our Mentor is and to whom we have that relationship, we have clearly taken a big step down the road to true cultdom. The Mentor and Disciple relationship is becoming a vow of obedience, and a pledge of ultimate conformity. Conformity is something that the Japanese culture revolves around at it’s deepest core, but not so with our American culture.

Regardless of what our critics say about SGI being a cult, currently we are not identified as a cult in the public eye. Unfortunately so much of what is happening right now may change that for the future. Once we are perceived in the same ranks as Scientology and the Moonies, we will be unable to change that perception - ever.

This Code of Conduct is another frightening thing for me. Code of Conduct is a long time coming in SGI and I applauded it along with the New Leaders Handbook. SGI addressed issues that have long been ignored. The code of conduct signature form bothered me at first, but I wasn’t sure just why. The Code itself basically says that leaders can’t be assholes in the name of Buddhism and SGI. Who but an asshole would disagree with that?

Yet that one sentence - that one brief little sentence, again as subtle as it is, changes everything. It makes the Code of Conduct “something else”. On page 45 at the bottom of the third and final paragraph;

“Not signing, therefore not accepting the Code of Conduct for Leaders, disqualifies one from leadership in the SGI-USA”.

Not signing, therefore not accepting… You’re either with us or against us…

Only the Sith think in absolutes…

Who wrote this? What jackass decided it was necessary or even acceptable to put in this particular sentence? Was it discussed with the SGI-USA legal staff? As I fear, much of these decisions are being made by rank amateurs and those without real world experience in such matters. Even a greater fear is that many of these new policies are being invented by those truly possessing a cult mentality. SGI is still recovering from the 90’s, if you haven’t noticed, and there aren’t lines full of those waiting to take on leadership positions.

I had a long and profitable career in the Corporate world. Being in corporate, as it were, there were many things I had to sign. Confidentiality agreements became common place in the 90’s. They not only said I couldn’t disclose company technology but also routinely stated that if I invented something really cool while I worked there, the company owned it. These weren’t much of an issue really, we all knew that if in fact we came upon some new technological breakthrough, we’d quit first, invent second. There were lots of ways around those sorts of thing.

Also routine were forms stating that we’d received such and such form, read it and understood it. These almost always had to do with legal issues such as sexual harassment, racial discrimination and drug use. These also were no real problem. I had read it, I did understand it. More importantly we signed these things for the simple reason that we wanted to keep our high-paying, well benefited jobs, and there were plenty of people out there who WOULD sign them in order to have those jobs.

No form I ever signed ever said however “by signing you agree you will not shoot meth during working hours. NOT signing it implies that you are shooting meth during working hours”. Or by not signing this form you are admitting you are a racist, sexist bastard intent on destroying the company. There was always a real choice in these matters. The consequences were apparent, none the less there was a choice. “With us or against us” is never a choice.

Wally George was a patriotic American conservative radio and television commentator. He coined the term “Combat TV”. I watched a few episodes back in the 80's when they aired. In a 1983 show Wally demanded that pacifist Blase Bonpane prove his patriotism on national TV by standing up and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance - right there, right then. Blase refused and ended up overturning Wally's desk before storming off the show.

This is a major and critical feature of living in the USA, we don’t have to prove our loyalty to anyone, anytime.

The truth is that I personally support and agree with the Code of Conduct and I prove it through my continued appropriate conduct toward my members. I will however elect not to sign a form that is truly no choice as I am a Buddhist and an American.

Faith in the Gohonzon of the Lotus Sutra does not equal loyalty to SGI-USA, and faith in general does not equal obedience. If we forget those simple realities we ALL will cease to be Buddhists, and in truth will become “something else."

One of the things this did was to provide an umbrella for many very disgruntled members and former members of the Soka Gakkai to hide under. The “Temple Group”, as SGI would later refer to the Nichiren Shoshu (NSS) lay-movement would take on a distinct identity in later years, though in those first few years after the split, the temple was mostly populated by those who simply could never get along in SGI, and those who left because of something some leader said or did that they could not reconcile.

In my recollection, living and practicing in the Sillycon Valley of the San Francisco Bay Area, we had only one or two families disconnect from SGI in order to remain with the Temple, which was Myoshin-ji in Pinole, California. One such family’s mother, we learned later, had aspirations for both her sons to enter the NSS priesthood. This seemed curious to me then, and more so now, as few American’s had even the slightest clue what was involved with entering a Japanese Buddhist priesthood, or if even such a thing was possible. The Father soon was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to leave the family to seek rest and recuperation in peace with a relative. Looking back, as they were a Hispanic family, I also recall that they had come from Catholic backgrounds and this may have accounted for the priesthood fixation, as it has with many Americans who have, since 1990, sought refuge with NSS under the care and authority of the priests.

What is not openly discussed is the actual history of events, moods and subtle nuances of time as it passed during the 90’s. Our “Soka Spirit” movement, which would become a significant movement within the SGI Youth Division, took many years to form. The temple incident was strictly a hush-hush and taboo discussion topic and was not openly discussed for many years after it happened. American SGI had no precedent to learn from in dealing with such an event, and virtually no appreciation for it’s importance in later years.

Only now in this last year has discussion surrounding the events of the actual beginning of this conflict begun to be openly discussed. The schism between the priesthood and the SGI came to a initial peak in 1979. At that time Pres. Ikeda stepped down, in true Japanese fashion, from his position as President of the Soka Gakkai, and was moved laterally to the Soka Gakkai International. In fact I learned a few years later in a personal discussion with Mr. Yoshimachi, an SGI leader of some weight and importance, that at that time Pres. Ikeda clearly did not feel he had the support from the membership to stand up to the already authoritarian priesthood.

All of these events are poorly recorded, and even my recollection of them is jaded by my personal geographic location and my own individual perspective. No one seems interested in recorded actual events, not without strongly slanting them to one advantage or another. As I have stated in previous articles, the Japanese are habitual liars and lying is an historical part of their cultural heritage.

There was another phenomenon particular to the post-1990 excommunication - the appearance of other Nichiren sects. Interestingly, even today few SGI members understand the proliferation of separate and individual Nichiren traditions. Few SGI members began practicing with an interest in Buddhism at all, rather the desire to experience the benefits of practicing Nichiren’s Buddhism.

The ranks of Nichiren Shu swelled slightly as many of the drop-out Gakkai members claiming to want to have nothing to do with politics and in-fighting between the SGI and NSS sought refuge there. Other sects which previously had minimal presence, such as Honmon Butsuryu Shu and Kempon Hokke appeared in the form of cyber sanghas, groups which only existed as internet forums with members communicating only by way of e-mail and messaging via USENET forums such as alt.religion.Buddhism.Nichiren.

Today yahoo groups and other forums have proliferated in a myriad of different forms all claiming some correct version of Nichiren faith. These have always interested me, for many reasons. The most significant curiosity has to do with the very nature of sangha itself, as the word is used in Buddhism.

Sangha: Sanskrit; a term for the Buddhist monastic community.

I was reminded recently by a post from a Nichiren Independent on one of the many such discussion forums to which I am subscribed, of the implications of practicing Buddhism in cyberspace. The post had to do with a request for experiences to be shared. For anyone not familiar with Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism, the cornerstone of the SGI is the discussion meeting. In the discussion meeting it is the personal experience or testament of the benefit of one’s practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo that stands as the pillar of every successful discussion meeting.

Needless to say a cyberspace Buddhist sangha cannot share their experiences in the same fashion as in a face-to-face discussion meeting, rather experiences must be written and posted on a forum. This negates much of the most important qualities of sharing an experience - the non-verbal communication, enthusiasm and other personal human qualities that go hand-in-hand with sharing a personal story.

Most internet users, I believe, perhaps haven’t spent sufficient time “doing the math” of what cyber communication really is. One of the most important things to consider is that without a human being relaying a personal story, the reader is left only with words printed on a computer screen. In order for a persona to be present, the reader must create said persona from their own mind. In essence without knowing the person who posted the experience, the essence of the individual “saying” the words is actually a creation of the reader’s mind, not a true representation of the writer.

This reality sheds what I feel are catastrophic realities on all Buddhist cyber sanghas. In the Soka Gakkai, a difficult aspect of practice in our organization is dealing with all sorts of people, including people we would normally not associate with. We have a cross-section of our US population with representatives of all ethnic racial peoples, peoples of all sexual preference and those from every imaginable life-experience. This makes the SGI a truly international sangha and it is from this wide-based personal association that many inconspicuous benefits arise.

Compare this to the earlier Buddhist sects to come from overseas, such as the American Buddhist Churches of the Nembutsu sect which were present in the US at the end of the 19th Century, and later the esoteric and intellectual American Zen movement. Nichiren Shu made it’s advent in Hawaii much earlier on, shortly after the turn of the Century. All of these groups however and specifically the Buddhist Church were centered around the Japanese community and were virtually 100% Japanese. In this respect their sangha was actually a cultural shelter more than an active Buddhist community.

The cyber sangha, I believe, is destined to the same fate, merely existing as a shelter for the “socially challenged” rather than those sincerely seeking the benefit of sincere Buddhism practice. I do not call a curse on the Nichiren Independents - quite the opposite I wish the best of results from anyone who seeks to embrace the Gohonzon and Daimoku of Nichiren, as well as his writings and teachings.

In SGI there is a bifurcation of Buddhism, in my interpretation. There is both Nichirenism, and the tradition of the Gakkai itself in the form of daily practice, it’s educational tradition and other aspects that are distinctly unique to both the Soka Gakkai and the legacy of the three Presidents. The sooner SGI members come to fully understand this divisional synergy, the better off they will be in the future.

Soka Gakkai has, after 1990, come to recklessly throw about the term “orthadox Nichiren Buddhism”. Many of us parrot such slogans as “just as Nichiren teaches”, and “return to Nichiren's Teachings”.

Orthodox is a hard word and one that has a specific and narrow meaning. I cringe every time this word is used at a Gakkai meeting. I understand it feels good to say it, but our Buddhism is far from orthodox. I hope that as the years unfold we will come to both understand the difference between our Buddhist practice and orthodox Nichiren Buddhism, as well and the inevitability that all things evolve. Orthodox can all too quickly come to mean “stuck” in many ways.

Having spent a considerable amount of time studying the writings of Nichiren, as well as the traditions of other sects, it has become clear to me, since just after our split with Nichiren Shoshu, that its teachings are neither orthodox nor even historically accurate. Additionally it must be made clear in the Soka Gakkai that we still largely attempt to uphold this aberrant form of Nichiren’s Buddhism.

There are Nichiren traditions that fit the label “orthodox”, and Kempon Hokke comes immediately to mind. We in the Soka Gakkai should understand that we are a lay movement, not a traditional Nichiren Sect. SGI members should come to realize that one aspect of the events of 1990 is that we can be free and not enslaved by the authority of a twisted and fantastical tradition, one which more closely resembles the Catholic Church rather than a true Buddhist tradition.

More importantly as Soka Gakkai faithful we are not each obligated to study Nichiren’s teachings in an academic and scholarly fashion. Everyone should strive to find their niche. For those of us who do wish to study, the time has come to begin to sort out that which is real and discard that which has been invented to serve ulterior agendas.

SGI exists to provide a path for every person to become happy through the practice of Nichiren’s Buddhism. Our tradition is one of personal practice and a community which is broad and varied. Whether we like it or not, not everyone who encounters SGI will remain. For those who are fortunate to be able to practice in SGI, we need to make study and personal practice our own personal responsibility and take ownership of our personal understanding of the teachings of Nichiren. Until this happens our Buddhism will in affect be owned by someone else.

Happy New Year

Rev. Greg

You have been kicked off of Zadankai.

Sorry.

Thing is you see Zadankai is for SGI members only. Obviously you were left on for many years after you announced your resignation from SGI because you had been a member and were still contributing. However this last year your only contributions have been negative, and counter-production in any stretch of my imagination.

Truthfully if you had continued to contribute in a constructively critical fashion that would have been one thing - however your knowledge, understanding and opinions of SGI have become outdated, and instead of writing your own posts you basically have just sarcastically supported other negative posts from SGI members.

I'm not mad at you, it was just time for you to go. With you on Zandakai I felt it was not really practical to invite new and hopefully contributing SGI members on. Hope you understand.

We can still be friends though, right?

Greg

Play nice while I am away, and remember, martial arts is like religion; It makes good people better, and bad people worse.

Rev. Greg

Please observe that I am not mentioning his name (actually I don’t know his name), or his e-mail, or the exact name of the forum and I will ask anyone reading to respect his privacy as well, in case they too are on this forum. I do not intend to use my blog to attack individuals.

At first glance the reader may think that I am just holding this post up to show the supremacy of the Soka Gakkai in contrast to Nichiren Shoshu. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There is something about this posts and this individual’s beliefs that deeply disturb me, especially in light of my previous blog entitled “Animal Farm”.

In my supportive opinion Soka Gakkai International continues to behave recklessly, the way people and organizations do when they really don’t think anyone’s watching. Some of what SGI does and says is careless and to a large degree I feel that people like the fellow who wrote what I am about to share are the fallout victims of careless cultish behavior.

In my opinion if Soka Gakkai Internation continues to coddle Japanese culture, we will eventually totally polorize ourselves from the International Community.

I do not believe in my heart the Soka Gakkai outside of Japan is a cult, however I believe there’s plenty of cultish behavior. Whether or not I believe the Soka Gakkai in JAPAN is a cult is irrelevant to me since I basically see Japan as one huge cultural cult in and of itself. I don't even mean that in a bad way - it just is.

The dialog in which the response appeared was a typical sectarian discussion of Nichiren Buddhism. In the ongoing thread such issues were raised politely by myself and others in regards to the historical likelihood that Nikko Shonin only stayed at Taisekiji for a year, and the validity of the Daigohonzon as the supreme mandala over all others and other issues of a historical nature.

This is what followed, as cut and pasted directly from my e-mail account;

This is my reply to irritablegosho - 'scholar'.
It's just an energy taking thing to continue, I really have no
concept of what you people seem to be 'debating' about.
What "Scholarly" community did you refer to? What I found amusing is
that Ikeda ranted for so long about his "Historic" meeting with the
now deceased Arnold Tornybee,[and now deceased Carl Sagan, and new
deceased.....etc. Everyone who ever met him is 'now deceased'.] -
that the biographer hardly gives Ikeda a paragraph of a 900 plus page
authentic biography - which is a completely different concept to
former NSA believers who simply gobbled up Ikedaisms through book
sales and memorized them until nothing else would fit into their
heads. My practice of over 25 years has helped me to see the forest
for the trees. After the 1992 split, America has had nothing but
hardships, we owe nothing to those people of the SGI. We can thank
them for Katrina, flooding all throughout the mid-west, Missouri
Flooding, Tennesse Tornadoes, including the unprecidented flooding in
England, where virtually everyone gave up their practice to follow
that person, and so forth. Everywhere where there are temple members
as well as correct Gohonzon, is relative calm, normal weather while
elsewhere is a mess. The inability for Ikeda to accept "Guidance"
from the High Priest, while they so quickly dispensed same to
thousands of people daily without regard to personal circumstances
tells me, and others, that he felt he was above listening to anyone
else but himself. One of the first great splits in Nichiren Shoshu
was when the Five Senior Priests left Minobu to do their own thing.
They established their own school and wore purple robes, whereas,
Nikko decided to stay and carry out the Daishonin's written will.
It's really a question of choice to follow one creed over another.
For decades fanatics defended Ikeda's every word and movement;
running around wearing little two-way radios - taking care
of 'traffic control' calling him Sensai and bowing and scraping at
the mere mention of his words. Members were encouraged to 'memorize'
President Ikeda's words and quote him, we watched as male and female
members of NSA stumbled over his concepts using pidgin to talk to one
another until finally, after all of that crap and almost having to
sing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - a completely Christian performance -
it was time to say so long. In the 10 years that I practiced with
NSA I had gone on nearly every major Convention, but was never
allowed to go on a Tozan as all seats were reserved for the so-
called "Leaders". When the leaders of the 21st Century in NSA
stumbled and fell; I was able to attend all temple activities and
interesting was finally able to attend Tozan on several occassions.
If you want to sit at your stupid computer and call Taisekiji names,
while at the same time calling yourself a scholar then I'm sorry, you
will have to find a different audience for your outpourings.

From Dai-Nichiren (special edition) “On the Soka Gakkai Problem (II)” - published by the Nichiren Shoshu Bureau of Religious Affairs, an original copy collected by myself during a trip to Myoshin-ji Temple in 1989 or 1990.

“Without a challenging or fighting spirit, we cannot attain Buddhahood. The daimoku of Soka Gakkai members struggling for Kosen-Rufu is the same as that chanted by the three founding Soka Gakkai presidents, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Josei Toda and Daisaku Ikeda, to achieve the happiness of all humankind. If we forget this fighting daimoku of courageous lion kings, our chanting deviates from that of our mentors. In that case, our chanting will not produce the sound of the lion’s roar created by mentor and disciple chanting together. And it will not be the daimoku of Nichiren, but rather become the practice of an inferior teaching that has no relation to the spirit of Shakyamuni. (see Study Guide, p. 63, or March-April 2007 Living Buddhism, pp 101-102).

What is the Gohonzon?

The object of worship in Nichiren Shoshu is the life of the true Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin. In order to save his disciples and believers who would take faith after his passing, the Daishonin inscribed his enlightened life as the object of worship, the Daigohonzon, thereby establishing the cause for the universal propagation of True Buddhism, and the securing of peace throughout the world. All Gohonzons enshrined in temples and homes of believers are transcriptions of the Daigohonzon and derive their power from it.

I found this Introduction Pamphlet during my own studies. It’s stuck in my mind this week, specifically that part about all Gohonzons deriving power from the Daigohonzon.

Disclaimer; if you’re an SGI member reading this, and don’t already realize that the history behind the establishment of a “super Gohonzon” is utterly lacking, you may want to just pass this up, specifically if your faith in your own Buddhist practice revolves around the notion that your team is number one because of the prior relationship with the Daigohonzon.

To continue, this pamphlet is reminiscent for me as it was not so long ago, in the early 80’s, that I enthusiastically embraced this theory of the Uber-Gohonzon making me the best, with the help of a priesthood with an unbroken lineage.

Lin-e-age;1. a. Direct descent from a particular ancestor; ancestry.b. Derivation.2. The descendants of a common ancestor considered to be the founder of the line.

Strange, I couldn’t immediately find a definition of lineage that fits religion and magic.

Anyway, much has changed within me from those initial days of Buddhist practice. I have long since questioned the very validity of the idea of a “lineage”, something that continues to follow and haunt me in my martial arts training and research. “Lineage” ultimately leads to arguing about who has it, and who doesn’t. In the end lineage is an utter intangible - it’s “magic”, the way magic really exists in the world of human beings.

The Gohonzon

“All Gohonzons enshrined in temples and homes of believers are transcriptions of the Daigohonzon and derive their power from it.”

Power. Derives power from it. These sorts of ideas are where the rubber meets the road in religion. In the end if you are a competing sect or cult, you have to have an exclusive product. You can’t afford to market something that can be found anywhere. Alcoholics Anonymous fails miserably as a cult in this respect with their “higher power” philosophy. If you want to have a successful cult (which Nichiren Shoshu has not been until the advent of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai) you can’t push something that is easily obtained, rather you need an exclusive product that only you can provide.

NSS knew this long ago, in one form or another. And so they have evolved the magical, utterly non-Buddhist concept of the Super Gohonzon, the Daigohonzon allegedly commissioned by Nichiren in 1279 as the ultimate purpose of his life’s work.

Creating a pseudo magical object representative of his ultimate teaching - that’s the act of a truly deranged, and frankly stupid man.

Yeah, I said it. Jealous?

Objects are stolen, destroyed, lost and worst of all, they’re fought over.

I have studied the Gosho personally and consistently since I began practicing in 1985. There is nothing I have ever read that was attributed to Nichiren to indicate he was crazy, stupid or utterly lacking in historical perspective, which he would have had to be to do something as insane as creating a single super Gohonzon.

But I digress…

This power thing has interested me - well - forever. Where does this power come from? The Daigohonzon, supposedly composed of camphor wood, has no physical principles that would allow it to contain power, or energy of any sort.

This is my problem with these non-Buddhist “magical thinking” concepts - they butt right up against physics. Now the Christian Scientists, the Evangelicals, witches and Voodoo priestesses and the like, they’re ok with visualizing power coming from somewhere or nowhere. Physics however attempts to view the world in accords to unchanging principles, (for the most part, I’m not a physicist, but I know one).

Power, or energy exists in finite forms, to the best of our current scientific knowledge. Wood does not conduct electricity. Where in the Daigohonzon would energy be stored? Where in our Gohonzons at home is energy received? I do know quite a lot about data communication and I am quite certain that my Gohonzon does not have a modem, wireless or otherwise.

Funny as this may all sound to someone who in invested in Nichiren Shoshu, this is really what it boils down to. Energy is a quantifiable entity. Energy transference is a tangible and scientific process involving physical matter.

The moment you tread the path down “magic power transferred magically to other magic objects” you have utterly left behind the world of Buddhism and stepped square into a big pile of magic Harry Potter doo-doo.

All of this being said, Nichiren Shoshu isn’t messing around. They’ll stick to their story, including the Daigohonzon, one single antique piece of carved wood, being the cause for world peace.

They will because they believe it’s their product, and they’re going to stick with the marketing plan pure and simple, as any good corporation should.

Soka Gakkai is different in this respect. They don’t need magical objects, and they don’t need to market themselves with “We’re number one!!!”. One of these days they’ll understand this, I hope. Until then, continuing belief in magic will always be a weak link for any Buddhist group silly enough to muddy their own waters of clear Buddhistic reason with it.

Having said this, I have come up with an idea of my own. Given the state of digital micro-technology, and batteries small enough to fit into greeting cards, I have some ideas for the Gohonzon of the future, one which actually counts and logs daimoku using Bluetooth tech, and complains verbally if you miss morning Gongyo, sort of like a Nichiren Buddhist Tamagotchi. Now THAT’S power!

Rev. Greg

Obscure Ninja History

It’s fairly well-understood that “Shinobi” activity and the existence of actual Ninja clans and families flourished largely in the Sengaku era, the age of civil war. From the 1480’s to 1600, officially ending with the battle of Sekigahara, the country of Japan was in a constant state of civil warfare due to the destabilization of the Government. Warlords, or Daimyo battled each other for control of their lands, and the country as a whole.

It was during this time that the Ninja existed as “independent contractors” of a sort, and the largest chunk of Ninja history was written. Shinobi activity and history prior to this time in history is problematic in attempting to identify just WHO the Ninja were. Some say they were outcasts, others speculate moon-lighting Samurai or even Ronin (masterless Samurai). Historical references are scarce.

Interestingly there is a completely over-looked reference to Shinobi-type activity in a letter written by the 13th Century priest and scholar, Nichiren Daishonin.

For more information on Nichiren and his Buddhism;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren

One of Nichiren’s staunchest followers was a Samurai named Shijo Kingo. The following is excerpted from www.sgi-usa-study.org/ShijoKingo.doc.

“Shijo Kingo (c. 1230-1300)
A follower of Nichiren who lived in Kamakura, Japan. His full name and title were Shijo Nakatsukasa Saburo Saemon-no-joYorimoto. Kingo is an equivalent of the title Sae-mon-no-jo. His wife was Nichigen-nyo and they had two daughters, Tsukimaro and Kyo’o. As a samurai retainer, he served the Ema family, a branch of the ruling Hojo clan. Kingo was well versed in both medicine and the martial arts, and in temperament was straightforward, loyal, and passionate. He is said to have converted to Nichiren’s teachings around 1256, at about the same time as Kudo Yoshitaka and the brothers Ikegami Munenaka and Ikegami Munenaga. When Nichiren was taken to Tatsunokuchi to be beheaded in 1271, Shijo Kingo accompanied him, resolved to die by his side. After Nichiren was exiled to Sado Island, Shijo Kingo sent a messenger to him with various offerings. Through this messenger Nichiren entrusted Shijo Kingo with his treatise The Opening of the Eyes, which he had completed in the second month of 1272. A few months later, Kingo himself made the journey to Sado to visit Nichiren.”

The letter written by Nichiren to Shijo Kingo, entitled “The Three Kinds of Treasure”, is based on the following incidents;

“Sometime after Nichiren returned from Sado and moved to Minobu in 1274, Shijo Kingo tried to convert his lord, Ema, who was a believer of the Pure Land (Jodo) school and a follower of the priest Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji temple. Lord Ema did not take kindly to his retainer’s belief in the Lotus Sutra or support of Nichiren, whom Ryokan hated, and harassed him on that account. At one point, he ordered Kingo to abandon his faith in Nichiren’s teaching, threatening to transfer him to the remote province of Echigo if he did not obey. In 1277 Shijo Kingo happened to observe a debate at Kuwagayatsu in Kamakura in which Sammibo, a disciple of Nichiren, defeated Ryuzo-bo, a Tendai priest and a protégé of Ryokan. Fellow samurai jealous of Kingo saw a chance to disgrace him in the eyes of his lord and reported falsely to Lord Ema that Kingo had forcibly disrupted the debate. This led Lord Ema to threaten to confiscate Kingo’s fief.
Nichiren drafted a petition to Lord Ema on behalf of Shijo Kingo, which he sent to his loyal disciple. Before long, Lord Ema fell ill, and eventually had to ask Shijo Kingo for treatment. He recovered under Kingo’s care and thereafter placed renewed trust in him. In 1278 Kingo received from Ema an estate three times larger than his former one. When Nichiren became ill in his later years, Shijo Kingo attended to him at Minobu. Kingo also attended Nichiren on his deathbed and participated in his funeral. After Nichiren’s death, he lived in retirement at Utsubuna in Kai Province.”

The following excerpt is from this letter;

“Many people have plotted to undo you, but you have avoided their intrigues and emerged victorious. Should you lose your composure now and fall into their trap, you will be, as people say, like a boatman who rows his boat with all his might only to have it capsize just before he reaches the shore, or like a person who is served no hot water at the end of his meal.
While you are in your lord’s residence, if you stay in the room assigned to you, nothing will happen. But on your way to work at dawn or returning from it at dusk, your enemies are bound to be lying in wait for you. Also, be very careful in and around your house in case someone should be hiding beside the double doors, inside the family sanctuary, under the floor, or in the space above the ceiling. This time your foes will use even more cunning in their plots than before. In the end, no one will be more dependable in an emergency than the night watchmen of Egara in Kamakura. However disagreeable it may be to you, you should associate with them amicably.
The Three Kinds of Treasure, WND, 849-50
Written to Shijo Kingo on September 11, 1277 from Minobu”

Written in 1277, this letter is from an era with vague, if nearly nonexistent records validating the existence of Ninja. The actual word Ninja didn’t even exist. This is what makes Nichiren’s guidance to Shijo so interesting, from a historical ninpo perspective.

While during the Sengaku era, the “subjective Ninja” seems to have existed, that is to say those who’s profession was based on commando warfare and espionage, pre-Sengaku Ninja did NOT exist subjectively. Rather, Ninjutsu existed in a purely objective fashion. In short, “Ninja were as Ninja did”.

When Nichiren warns of enemies “hiding beside the double doors, inside the family sanctuary, under the floor, or in the space above the ceiling”, he is simply warning against those who have been sent to kill Shijo using Ninjutsu. Interestingly that a Priest would find himself in the position of giving tactical advise to a professional soldier, but not so much when you consider that hiding in ambush completely violates the then unwritten code of the Samurai, the code that would eventually become formalized as the Bushido Code. Shijo, being an honest and courageous Samurai may have never considered that someone would hide out and launch a sneak-attack. Such behavior would seem absolutely inconceivable and utterly despicable.

In light of this interestingly historical document, the “who” of the Shinobi is not something we, as modern practitioners, should be too proud of. The persons sent to kill Shijo would have been low-level Samurai, or even local criminals hired to do the task. And yet, for that time, they were “Ninja“.

Rev. Greg

http://sjc.org/

Up until last year SJ had a direct flight to Narita Airport. They moved the flight to Chicago. Now we Ninjas flying from the SJ area must fly into LA and then to Narita in order to train with the last Ninja Grandmaster, Masaaki Hatsumi.

Whether or not you fly out of SJ, or even fly at all, would you support getting that flight back by filling out the survey? Please check "Tokyo" for direct flight choice.

Please support your Ninja today.

I eat Sushi in Marina at a restaurant called “Ichi Riki’s”. It’s famous on the Monterey coast, mostly so because there aren’t many good sushi bars. I avoided it when I first relocated to the Monterey coast because it was popular among the Salinas rodeo culture for all the wrong reasons, and by people who frankly I consider quite ignorant of anything Japanese.

Nonetheless as time passed I ended up there due to necessity and the fact that it’s on the way back home after my dealings in Monterey.

Initially I found both the Sushi chefs to be quite “zero charisma”, in fact I found all the wait staff this way, lacking any noticeable personalities, as though you had to be in some old-guys club to actually get personable service. There’s also loud Japanese women with unidentifiable jobs who don’t seen to be capable of speech without yelling, which at first I found annoying, then later found somewhat comical and entertaining.

I slowly began to form a strange inter-cultural connection with one Taisho however, while the other one remains personality-less to this day.

The first thing I noticed was that the bills for my lunch seemed to always be $16.xx no matter what I ordered. Also, my Taisho buddy started treating me to samples of sushi of his own creation, the first being a dish of seared Ahi tuna, and later all sorts of things from Nigiri sushi to cucumbers soaked in special sauce - all sorts of things. I ate what he served appreciatively and without undo fuss. Apparently this is a Japanese custom, but one which Japanese chefs in America seldom honor due to a lack of trust in their customers that they will actually appreciate or even eat what they create and serve.

I finally remembered to examine my bill on one occasion after eating enough sushi to run into the high 20’s, which the charisma-absent chef would have billed me for - the bill was $16.88 for “1 Nami”. What’s a Nami? A “wave”? I still don't know to this day.

As the weeks have passed we have continued our sushi relationship, all the time growing more mystical. Finally, last week, I apparently was promoted to “Sushi Judan”.

I walked into the resturauant and sat down with my book, “Pruning the Bodhi Tree…” which I’m reading for the third time. Immediately Taisho came with a glass of water and Miso soup, no questions asked, not a word exchanged. This particular day was hotter than normal for the coast and thus the executive decision. I waited quietly to try and read the “energy”, and see what would happen next.

Five minutes later, after laboring over his work station, lunch appeared. No order had been taken, not a word exchanged. One order Unagi, one order Uni, one Ikura (large fish eggs), one Maguro Tuna ( I don’t usually order either Ikura OR Maguro), one Hamachi and one Sake.

Without question I ate, and thoroughly enjoyed it all. I love sushi, ALL sushi, with very few exceptions.

But more importantly was the “unspoken” communication and trust that had appeared. Serving a Gaijin in this way must have been risky venture. I carefully maintained a casual demeanor and continued dining.

In critical Buddhism it is stated that speech is inseparable from the true teachings of the Buddha. Zen-like concepts of “transmission outside the sutras” or that which can only be experienced and not expressed in words, falls under the rubric of non-Buddhist, Hongaku Jiso (original enlightenment) or Tathagata Garhba teachings which are of a “Dhatu Vada” flavor, and clearly not truly Buddhism. Shakyamuni was, in his truest purpose, a criticalist offering a critical and challenging voice to the establishment of the Brahman priests and “Topical” religion of his time.

Once Shakyamuni experienced enlightenment he very well could have kept the secret to him self, but elected to share what he had learned to others, using speech. This is a crucial point when considering what is Buddhism and which is not. Buddhism and the development of language are inseparable from this point of view..

However, this is not so with sushi. Sushi is a Dhatu vada, an independently existing state of being, free from causality.

Once my “lunch transmitted beyond the Sutras” was finished, more followed all without request or question. First was an sushi roll of uncertain variety (maybe a California roll varient?). And, to my concern (because frankly I was getting full) came a single piece of surf clam nigiri and single piece of Sake nigiri.

Truthfully, all things considered, this was my ultimate sushi experience. Whatever secret society exists at Ichi Riki’s, either metaphorically or in actuality, I had been made a member.

Then, pièce de résistance - the check.

$12.49.

I left a $10.00 tip, said “Oishi! Arigato Gozaimashta”, and left completely satisfied both spiritually and physically. Have I attained sushi enlightenment? I do not truly know. One thing is for sure, I will continue my sushi practice, no matter what.

Rev. Greg

The Ongi Kuden is believed to be the notes complied by Nikko Shonin on Nichiren’s lectures on the Lotus Sutra. There is also the Onko Kikigaki which is believed to be a similar document of the same purpose compiled by Niko Shonin. Since the Ongi Kuden has only recently been published by SGI, they point out that the Onko Kikigaki’s brevity and loose organization is yet further evidence of Nikko’s superiority over Niko. Both these writings are based on lecture points on the Lotus Sutra given by Nichiren. They are supposedly based on Nichiren’s personal annotated copy of the Lotus Sutra, the Chu Hokkekyo, but in fact neither document matches the format or content of this still extent Lotus Sutra copy belonging to Nichiren.

Apparently the Ongi Kuden was held in fairly high esteem until Shigyo Kaishu, a student of the famous Nichiren Scholar Asai Yorin, criticized it in his graduate thesis in 1935. He pointed out several inconsistencies in the writing and dating of the Ongi Kuden, some (not all) of which are as follows;

First and foremost, there is no extant version of the Ongi Kuden which was believed to have been compiled and written towards the end of Nichiren’s life. The first reference of it was in a quote in a work called “Hokke Keian Sho” by a Priest in 1503. The oldest actual version of the OK dates to 1539 and was copied by a priest named Nikkyo of the Happo lineage Nichiren school.

Shigyo further pointed out an inconstancy of the date on a seal supposedly affixed by Nichiren - “first day of the month, first year of Koan” but on the 29th day of the second month the name of the era was changed from Kenji to Koan. If the OK was based on lectures given in the beginning of Koan, it should have been dated in the proceeding Kenji. Also, Nikko was gone during this time period on a shakauku mission in the Fuji era and wouldn’t have been present to record the lectures as believed.

In addition, and this is a big issue in Nichiren scholarship - the OK contains too much Hongaku language to be considered authentic Nichiren though. Hongaku is a Medieval Tendai paradigm based on “Original Enlightenment”, that everything *is* the Buddha land, and we *are* Shakyamuni Buddha”. Taken to it’s extreme, as it was through history, the very principle negated the need for Buddhist practice, since we were already originally enlightened. Hongaku language and content is one of the earliest metrics for judging the authenticity of non-extant (not existing in an original document) Gosho.

Later Shigyo revised his work to include the point that in the OK is a reference or quote from the “K’o Chu”, or “a-Hua Ching K’o”, a Yuan dynasty commentary on the Lotus Sutra by Hsu Hsing Shan. This was written in 1295, 13 years after Nichiren’s death./

Nichiren Shoshu quickly responded. Ohashi Jijo wrote, in a journal article, regarding the principles of ji-Hongaku, original enlightenment in principle, and ri-Hongaku, original enlightenment in actuality. He stated that since the ji_Hongaku ties into the the princple championed by Nichiren Shoshu, that Nichiren was the “Originally Enlightened Buddha”, that the existence of this language in the OK validated it’s authenticity rather than disputed it. Also Jijo pointed out that the K’o referred to an earlier commentary, one which Nichiren may have had access to.

This was a major upheaval in the theories regarding Gosho authenticity. Non-sectarian scholars had long since used Hongaku language as an indicator that a non-extant Gosho was apocryphal, though extant authenticated Gosho did sometimes contain Hongaku theory (since Nichiren was in fact a Tendai Mikkyo Priest). Now Nichiren Shoshu was using the existence of Honkagu Shiso to validate the Ongi Kuden. This illustrates and wonderful example of sectarian polemics as they cross over again and again through scholarship. This explanation concluded with the logical assumption that Shigyo couldn’t understand the nature of the OK simply because he failed to grasp Nichiren Shoshu theology.

While the originally enlightened Buddha in the OK is Nichiren, Jijo failed to address numerous other reference to the originally enlightened Buddha through Tendai Hongaku literature.

It was actually a scholar from Nichiren Shu, Minobu that came to the defense of Nichiren Shoshu, interestingly. The continuation of that specific debate is lengthy and I will not address it now.

Also found in the Ongi Kuden are references to Alms Refusal, a later-era Nichiren movement known as Fuju Fuse, not giving or receiving alms from non-believers. This would not have become a significant issue until circumstances arouse in and around the 1400’s, pointing to a much later creation date.

But… clearly when one reviews both the Ongi Kuden and the Onko Kikigaki there is a relationship between the two writings that suggests conflict between the two parties of Nichiren Buddhism’s earliest schism, Nikko Shonin and Niko Shonin. For this reason it’s possible that both were written close to Nichiren’s death, or at least close enough to be seriously considered based on Nichiren’s lectures.

Asai Endo wrote regarding the possibility that both the Ongi Kuden and the Onku Kikigaki were written by opposing factions of the Itchi-Shoretsu debate, an ongoing schism between factions of Nichiren’s followers who debated whether the two divisions of the Lotus Sutra, the trace teaching (Shakyamon or first 14 chapters) and the Origin teaching (Honmon or last 14 chapters) were equal to each other, or that the Honmon was superior to the Shakyamon. The OK refers in several places to the distinction between the trace and origin teachings, and is consistent with the Shorestu position while the Onku Kikigaki mentions this distinction only once and thus seems more consistent with the Itchi position. This also would point to an early creation date, no later than 1400’s.

In truth, this is the reality of Nichiren’s Buddhism. Sectarian practice in wonderful, but things we believe, things we have been told by our sects, are nearly always more complicated than they appear. SGI-USA has recently published a beautiful version of the Ongi Kuden. There are no other English versions presently translated. Nichiren Shu, who has published it’s own version of the Gosho, we likely not bother with the Ongi Kuden.

Should we read the Ongi Kuden? Certainly. The Ongi Kuden AND the Onku Kikigaki stress the two important tenants of Nichiren’s teachings;

1. The theme of the Universality or Non-duality of all phenomena and the primordial enlightened Buddha.

2. The absolute sole supremacy of the Lotus Sutra.

Whenever, and whomever wrote the Ongi Kuden and the Onku Kikigaki certainly were in the Nichiren community. If not Nichiren’s actual words, the Ongi Kuden absolutely represents the development of Nichiren’s teachings. Sadly, for me, the Onku Kikigaki is not yet published in English, and most likely will not be, since it clearly does not serve sectarian interests.

Sectarian practice is supreme, I believe. In our various sects we practice in sanghas, along side others struggling to realize enlightenment in their own lives. Study is not always synonymous with faith, despite what SGI and other orgs say. It’s important to make peace with the reality that sectarian study and scholarly study are related, but different. It’s also important to accept that sectarian study is not always biased, and scholarly study is often not objective.

The concept of “the middle way” of Mahayana Buddhism reaches far and wide, and can be applied to many, if not most aspects of our individual lives.

A philosophy of peace grounded in Buddhism and the SGI President's
humanistic ideas and perspectives on solving these problems are today
gaining broad attention and understanding around the world.

I am not at all interested in criticizing or remonstrating with SGI-USA or Pres. Ikeda. I will leave that to the likes of NBAA and other fringe “holier than thou” groups. I believe in SGI and what Daisaku Ikeda is working towards, and I appreciate and support their efforts in spreading Nichiren’s Buddhism throughout the world. I AM a Gakkai member, pure and simple.

That being said, the above press-release was posted to and discussed on Zadankai last week. One of the observations that was made was that every one of the SGI-USA representatives are Japanese. If you were in NSA (Nichiren Shoshu of America) back in the 70’s you may remember something called “Phase II”. Part of Phase II was the un-Japanese-ation, or Americanization of our organization. From what I recall among other changes that took place the Butsadons in the community centers we changed from traditional Japanese Buddhist designs to a contemporary modern design. I seem to recall that leadership was shifting from purely Japanese towards a larger percentage of Non-Japanese leaders.

So what happened? SGI-USA is still largely a Japanese-run religious corporation in 2007.

The reality of this ongoing Nihon status quo is based on how we perceive faith. Leaders are chosen based on the judgment or measurement of faith. It’s true. It’s been true always. SGI is a faith organization . The problem with this approach lies in how we perceive of one another’s faith, and how we judge it to be strong, or not. In the final analysis we only have each other’s outward behaviors from which to judge.

This seems to me to be a somewhat brutal statement, mostly because I believe we all harbor deep feelings of extrasensory perceptive abilities, to one degree or another. It doesn’t take a career in intelligence to be able to “read” other people. As the senior leaders in SGI grew in our practice from the early 70’s they had nothing from which to judge future leaders than the perception of faith.

Faith. That is our product. If we were a computer corporation our product would be software, or hardware or even service. We’re not. The Soka Gakkai is a faith-based religious corporation pure and simple. We do not have performance reviews for managers, we have nothing to go on but the appearance of faith. Brutally stated, this is fraught with peril.

Simply put, in the SGI “faith” is a measurement of behavior. The specific behavior is nothing more than the appearance of obedience and so it follows that obedience and compliance is the mark of one who has strong faith. These behavioral features are in fact the hallmark of the archetypal Japanese person.

Buddhism and the Japanese

Having been to Japan many times I have witnessed firsthand just how confused Buddhism really is there. The Soka Gakkai along with the Soto Zen sect are two of very few Buddhist lay bodies which strive to understand the teachings of the Buddha in an accurate albeit sectarian context. Elsewhere Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism is intermixed and cross-assimilated with ancient Animism, Monism and the primordial superstition that is ubiquitous and free-ranging in all the World’s religions.

Very simply, where people do not actively strive to understand their chosen religious path, basic primeval beliefs and fears take over. Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or the belief in Morg, God of Fire - unless we practice and work at our belief, we succumb to the basic religious outlook of our ancient ancestors.

Japan is no worse, no better. Shinto is so intertwined with Buddhism that it’s difficult to tell where one stops and another starts. The Japanese barely even understand the basic belief structure of Shinto, their indigenous religion.

This is one launching point for the Critical Buddhism movement of Hakamaya and Matsumoto, understanding and defining what the teachings of the Buddha are, and identifying what has crept into the institution of Buddhism and caused it’s true intention to become obscured and diluted, or worse, to become the source of discrimination, nationalism and imperialism.

How this applies to the current state of the Soka Gakkai, I believe, is that without truly understanding how Buddhism exists as A CRITICAL VOICE means that we ALL have mistaken Buddhism for Japanese racially oriented behavior.

Critical Buddhism and the Japanese Soka Gakkai.

Without a clear understanding of Shakyamuni’s original enlightenment as the critical voice to the established religions of his time, we have committed the age-old mistake of mistaking the uniquely Japanese cultural norms for faith in Buddhism.

It’s an accusation not accurately leveled against the Soka Gakkai, rather it is a fundamental error of the human psyche. We have only what we see and experience from each other with which to make many decisions. Leadership in the Soka Gakkai, I believe, operates no differently.

Bluntly stated, the Japanese appear and act - Buddhist. The SGI, a Japanese organization, trusts it’s own culture, and we non-Japanese only understand and identify Buddhist faith with the Japanese.

We All Do the Same Things, for Completely Different Reasons

It is natural that so many Japanese thrive in the Soka Gakkai. While for many beginning a practice of Nichiren’s Buddhism is a ginormous step towards human revolution and self-discovery, for many Japanese the Soka Gakkai is a cultural safe-haven, a place where their natural culturally approved behavior and outlook is both welcomed and rewarded.

This phenomena, I believe, transcends good and bad, wrong or right. Rather it is just a natural intercultural interaction, one for which all players are equally responsible.

How does a faithful Buddhist non-Japanese behave anyway? I personally wouldn’t know. I have only my trusted leaders to look towards for an example, but not a complete cultural model from which to model my own outlook. I too am personally lost in a sea of Japanese culture.

From a Critical Buddhism perspective, true Buddhism does not equal obedience. Itai Doshin (many in body, one in mind), for which the Soka Gakkai praises itself, is not based on the surrendering of one’s opinion or voice for the greater good. Rather Buddhism must have a critical voice, an individual voice, while at the same time working towards a united goal.

It’s a tricky thing, a work in progress, hopefully a labor of love. One thing is certainly true in my opinion, anyone on the payroll of a Buddhism sect, or anyone who has surrendered their voice to a confidentiality agreement, cannot truly be practicing true Buddhism.

In the final analysis, lest the reader mistake me for a critic, the Soka Gakkai continues to do the one important thing - we all struggle together while chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. While we are not evolving as quickly as some wish, we are evolving nonetheless.

Rev. Greg, Critical Nichiren Buddhist Ninja

As a drummer I used to listen to the upper-crust drummers, guys I learned from. Most of them were “Drummer’s Drummers”, the kind of guys that you could only appreciate if you actually had a fair amount of skill and knowledge to begin with. The irony is that most of these upper-level musicians make poor livings and drummers in this paradigm are often destined to only play drum clinics and seminars rather than real gigs with real audiences or selling records like real musicians. We all have our place in the universe I suppose.

But for writing - I clearly don’t like “communication to confound”. Where as I struggle to edit my writings to simplify, I often get the impression that Hubbard edits to add extra wording. Obviously he isn’t concerned about speaking to a wide audience.

Nonetheless, Critical Buddhism is really having it’s way with me.

The original authors tear apart a dearly held value about Buddhism and Buddhists, one regarding “wa” or harmony. Yeah, that’s the first thing most people who don’t know real Buddhism say “oh, Buddhism is so harmonious and peaceful”.

According to Hakamaya and Matsumoto, only the concepts of dependant origination and non-self are truly Buddhism. They state, quite authoritatively (which represents another subject they write at length about, authoritative writing) that the Buddha Shakyamuni was quite simply a critic, one who criticized the majority religion of his time. It is criticism itself that is truly Buddhist.

I Think I’m Turning Japanese

This doesn’t leave much left frankly, which is where “the storm” comes into play. Thousands of years of evolved teachings, art and culture are, quite simply, non-Buddhist. Surprised? Frankly I wasn’t. I’ve struggled with this very concept for decade(s). On a very simplistic level I began to question the role of Japanese art, culture and customs inside the Soka Gakkai. In the early 70’s before I began practicing it was quite popular to use Japanese language, customs and traditional Japanese Buddhist furniture and adjuncts in the practice of Nichiren Buddhism. Even in the 80’s it seemed there was a strong influence of “I think I’m turning Japanese”.

I experienced it in the 80’s and at the same time couldn’t help wondering what was truly Buddhist and what was merely Japanese. In the last few years it has started to evolve in my mind that it is difficult to discover true Buddhism in a Country that is traditionally Buddhist, a Country which had assimilated Buddhism hundreds of years prior. All religions, it seems, go through cultural assimilation. Even Jesus Christ was a critic in this connotation and the Catholic Church the ultimate assimilation.

Having been surrounded by the Japanese for longer than I can clearly recall and now having traveled to Japan for seven years I can see Japanese religious archetypes, specifically those faithful who truly seek the teachings of Buddhism and those who follow because it is their cultural identity to do so. While in SGI most are of the first type, I can honestly attest that there are those members who could as easily be Jodo Shinshu rather than Nichiren if their family members had encountered that sect first.

This is not meant as a cruel value judgment rather an observation.

In fact it is the Japanese authors of “Critical Buddhism” who state that a Japanese person cannot truly BE a true Buddhist, that Buddhism must be encountered and embraced outside of a culture in which it has been assimilated and mixed in with it’s indigenous religions. Ouch. It makes brutal sense however that only in a culture in which Buddhism is the critical voice against established religions can true Buddhism truly thrive.

Critical Buddhism, in it’s most brutal form, is problematic for Nichiren Buddhists. We actively practice and our very infrastructure, specifically our object of worship - the Gohonzon - exists in a Sino-Japanese framework. Were one actually motivated to construct a sectarian movement from the Critical Buddhism literary works they would have a difficult time doing so inside SGI or another Nichiren body. To excise all of Japanese culture would be artificially hostile, in my opinion.

The Case of Pop Buddhism

Critical Buddhism isn’t an easy pill to swallow. The front cover illustration is a withered tree stump with only two bare branches, one for dependant origination and the other for selfless-ness. Through the critical magnifying lens however such issues plaguing Nichiren Buddhism, the issue of the Daigohonzon for one, are swept away as utterly non-Buddhist. Nichiren himself seems to stand up very well to Critical Buddhist theory however, something I find curiously comforting.

Opposing Critical Theory is Topical Philosophy. I’ve spent the last two months desperately building a definition of “Topical Philosophy”, “Topos” and “Locus” in my mind where none resided previously. Hakamaya built the house of Critical Buddhism on the works of Western Philosophers Descartes and Vico, Descartes being an advocate of the Critical and Vico answering with his Topical. This was difficult for me as I lack training in classical Western Philosophy. I’ve pondered Hakamaya’s need to use Western thought to validate his own Eastern, but his house stands upon a firm foundation nevertheless.

Years ago I coined the term “Pop-Buddhism” in discussion son Zandakai, the first online SGI forum. I meant this to refer to the tendency of SGI members to accept anything they heard in regards to Nichiren Buddhism, and the rather ugly habit of little-knowing leaders to parrot things they had heard and never validated, or in some cases invented themselves.

One story I heard often was a prophecy in the Lotus Sutra about a man appearing in the final 500 years of the later day of the law. There is such a prophecy but it was made by Mialo, a disciple of Chi-I, Tientai and not in the Lotus Sutra. There were other tidbits - superstitions regarding how to set up and maintain your water cup, popular meanings for the use of incense, juzu beads and other details of our practice.

Larger forms of Pop Buddhism included the pseudo religion of the Woman’s Division administration of the World Tribune, our organ newspaper. Many Woman had been taught that there was “benefit” to be gained by taking care of World Tribune Subscriptions. This in fact isn’t completely bogus - any act of volunteerism, if performed with the right spirit - can lead to a positive experience. It’s called “cause and effect”. It was the teaching and passing on of this principle that formed Pop Buddhism.

Experiences and explanations of topics at discussion meetings were Pop Buddhist, including explanations of the Gohonzon I.e. “it’s a mirror…”, “it’s a karmic bank, you save then withdraw…”. This phenomena, seldom seen today due mostly to a vastly improved study program, was in fact “Topical Buddhism” on one level of the Critical Buddhist work. Pop, or Topical Buddhist thought includes happily all it encounters without question, and without criticism. As long as the source is an authoritative one, I.e. a leader, then all was included eagerly.

Harmony through Conflict

The problem remains what to do with conflict in Buddhism. None of us in the Buddhist world is without conflict, unless we aren’t truly studying. Kempon Hokke still remains the most orthodox in my opinion, with Nichiren Shu continuing on it’s happy way and Soka Gakkai waving the banner of “Soka Spirit!!!!”. Nichiren Shoshu still proclaims it’s superiority through it’s possession of the plank manadala and there are a myriad of cult-like cyber offshoots on the web, each with it’s proclamation of superior lineage to Nichiren.

Many unsuspecting Buddhist consumers still expect Buddhism and Buddhists to be harmonious and peaceful, and yet one look inside “Pruning the Bodhi Tree…” suggests differently. The mindset still exists that if you can’t beat them, you should join them. There are those who still firmly believe that if you can’t have faith that the Daigohonzon is of Nichiren’s hand, and was intended to be the ultimate Gohonzon, then you shouldn’t remain a member of either SGI or Nichiren Shoshu. Rarely do we decide in which sect to practice based on these issues, rather we use these issues as validations to our choices afterwards.

All we have to do to remain Buddhist about this all is simply not to beat each other up or start a war over all of it. We all make our choices, more often on principles much less defined than what sect is most correct. If we can continue to criticize without hating, dialoging without fighting, then we can continue to act Buddhist while being Buddhist.