"Charming" are we?

SGI member: BTW (I trust you'll take this as a positive cuz I mean it so) I don't know much about your group but I've visited the web site and reading your letters to me. I like the style of how you folks talk about Buddhism. To me, it's very charming, somehow. Frankly, I doubt if it's real accesible to a lot of people these days. But I like it. 

Mark: Charming? I wonder how many people in Kamakura felt the Daishonin was charming? Anyway, I'm glad you like it. How accessible it becomes depends on us. The SGI was, at first, inaccessible (in America) and then it enjoyed explosive growth (like a fire). I doubt we will ever have the  explosive growth of the SGI nor do I think it would be a good thing to have explosive growth at the expense of losing 9/10 of our membership. I am  certain however, we will expand steadily and gradually from a brook, to a stream, to a river, on into the great ocean of Nirvana. 10,000 years and more denotes a steady long term flow, not a flash flood. The flash flood of the SGI in America has drowned (turned off) hundreds of thousands of people to the teachings. Did you know that over 500,000 thousand Gohonzons were bestowed by the SGI in America and there are, as gleaned from the World Tribune and Living Buddhism subscription data, less than 40,000 people actually practicing with the SGI. As the Hoon Sho describes, the cart that has overturned ahead is a warning to those behind. Perhaps the SGI is changing but this has not been proved to my satisfaction. Either way, our Sangha is eternal and it is a matter of finding the members of our eternal sangha which is composed of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.