Zen and the SGI

“The fifth volume of Great Concentration and Insight states, “There is a type called Zen men, but their masters and disciples are blind [to the truth] and lame [in practice], and both masters and disciples will fall into hell.” In the seventh volume we read: “[There are ten ways necessary for understanding and practicing Buddhism correctly. Of these, except one], the nine ways have nothing in common with the ordinary priests of the world who concentrate on the written word, nor do they have anything in common with the Zen masters who concentrate on practice. Some Zen masters give all their attention to meditation alone. But their meditation is shallow and false, totally lacking in the nine ways. This is no empty assertion. Worthy persons of later ages who have eyes to see will understand the truth of what I say.” 

The seventh volume of On “Great Concentration and Insight” states: “‘Priests who concentrate on the written word’ refers to men who gain no inner insight or understanding through meditation, but concern themselves only with characteristics of the doctrine. ‘Zen masters who concentrate on practice’ refers to men who do not learn how to attain the truth and the corresponding wisdom, but fix their minds on the mere techniques of breath control. Theirs is the kind of [non-Buddhist] meditation that fundamentally still retains outflows. ‘Some Zen masters give all their attention to meditation alone’ means that, for the sake of discussion, T’ien-t’ai gives them a certain degree of recognition, but from a stricter viewpoint they lack both insight and understanding. The Zen men in the world today value only meditation [as the way to realize the truth] and have no familiarity with doctrinal teachings. In relying upon meditation alone, they interpret the sutras in their own way. They put together the eight errors and the eight winds, and talk about the Buddha as being sixteen feet in height. They lump together the five components and the three poisons, and call them the eight errors. They equate the six sense organs with the six transcendental powers, and the four elements with the four noble truths. To interpret the sutras in such an arbitrary manner is to be guilty of the greatest falsehood. Such nonsense is not even worth discussing.” — The Opening of the Eyes 

SGI members go to toso after toso, chanting one million Daimoku after another, yet they sometimes assert that the prime point of the Lotus Sutra is the oneness of SGI mentor and disciple or that the Lotus Sutra teaches interfaith and other times they assert that the prime point of the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha-nature possessed by all beings. They know nothing of the doctrines contained in the 16th Chapter of the Lotus Sutra and the Opening of the Eyes. They lack both insight and understanding. In the end, they are guilty of the greatest falsehoods. 

There are several reasons for the slanders and distortions which characterize SGI’s teachings: 

1). Except for Makiguchi, the SGI members have not experienced martyrdom. They have had a relatively easy go with propagation and have, on occasion, resorted to bullying tactics themselves, something a Buddhist who has experienced severe persecutions first hand would never resort to. 

2). The way of the Samurai and Bushido [way of the warrior], remnants of the retainer/lord relationship, the principle of saving face, and the Zen Buddhist model of master/disciple relationship characterizes the Soka Gakkai 

3). Possibly the greatest digression from the Way of Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin is the zennification of the SGI. The Buddha stated: “be a lamp unto yourself” and the Buddha as well as the Daishonin taught that we should follow the Law and not persons. It should be obvious that the SGI exhortations to seek guidance, going so far as to have a Guidance Division, is actual proof of this distortion. Those who embrace the highest Law and the Supreme Object of Worship, need never be impelled to seek guidance and develop what is virtually a master/disciple relationship with anyone, even one deemed a senior in faith.

In Zen Buddhism, whatever the master says is followed without hesitation or question. In SGI, one often hears, “Follow no matter what.” I have heard such arbitrary non-Buddhist opinions as, “‘If you sincerely follow the guidance of your leaders, even if they are wrong, you will gain tremendous benefit.” Such teachings are endemic in the Soka Gakkai and in Zen. This is not the Lotus Sutra Buddhism of Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin. 

Even if the SGI were to adopt the Object of Worship of the Original Doctrine and admit that the identity of the Original Eternal Buddha was Lord Shakya, it will take many generations to purge the SGI of the Way of the Samurai, Bushido values, the way of lords and retainers, and the insidious master/disciple teachings of Zen. 

The Lotus Sutra and the writings of Nichiren Daishonin trump the worldly ephemeral successes of the two mentors. The ten million Soka Gakkai converts, by virtue of their false mistaken faith and practice based on the Taisekaji teachings mixed with value creationism, Yui Yoga, and Bushido, have become demons who will destroy True Buddhism in no time. Nichiren states in the writing, Happiness In This World: 

“There is no true happiness other than upholding faith in the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by “peace and security in their present existence and good circumstances in future existences.”” 

He further states in Embracing the Lotus Sutra: 

“Now, if you wish to attain Buddhahood, you have only to lower the banner of your arrogance, cast aside the staff of your anger, and devote yourself exclusively to the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra. Worldly fame and profit are mere baubles of your present existence, and arrogance and prejudice are ties that will fetter you in the next one. Ah, you should be ashamed of them! And you should fear them, too!” 

One million times zero equals zero. Since the Soka Gakkai rejects the Lotus Sutra teachings and Buddha Shakyamuni of the Juryo-hon Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, how can SGI member’s happiness be anything but an ephemeral happiness? SGI members’ happiness is based on worldly fame and profit, not unlike the zenmen. 

We hear over and over about what SGI, "achieved” but what did they really achieve? Nichiren states, quoting the Nirvana Sutra:

“Kashyapa, because [in the past] I devoted myself to the correct teaching, I have been able to achieve this diamond-like body that abides forever and is never destroyed.” 

In the USA there are perhaps twenty or thirty million new evangelical believers in the last ten years. They espouse great happiness but Nichiren states, “because [in the past] I devoted myself to the correct teaching…” We should ask ourselves, are the Soka Gakkai teachings the correct teachings? Is it correct to abandon Shakyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sutra? The ten million Soka Gakkai adepts faith and practice is based on a dream or more appropriately termed a nightmare, the nightmare of the Taisaekaji teachings expounded by Toda and Ikeda: 

“…the Gohonzons that we recieve are also the living flesh of the Original Buddha whose eyes have been opened according to the principles of the actual Ichinen Sanzen in the passages depths of the Juryo Chapter and the true attainment of Buddhahood by plants and trees. Why would this very Gohonzon not be the true aspect of the eye opening of wooden and painted images? This is absolutely not found in the heretical sects outside of Nichiren Shoshu, and is a profoundly secret doctrine which only Nichiren Shoshu possesses.”– Daisaku Ikeda Soka Gakkai Daibyaku Renge 

“….He knew all too well that the age of the Latter Day of the Law had already come, when prophecy foretold a decline in the power of Shakyamuni’s Buddhism; he knew it would have been entirely inappropriate to bring back Shakyamuni’s Buddhism as a new set of beliefs. He was able to bring the people a totally new kind of Buddhism because he was convinced of his identity and missions to save all people in the Latter Day of theLaw.” — Daisaku Ikeda (pg. 212 Selected Lectures on the Gosho)

The Lotus Sutra admonishes him: 

“Shame on such monks! — they will preach their own fictions.”

And Nichiren states: 

“I had gone to many centers of the religion during those twenty years, in the quest of Buddhist truths. The final conclusion I arrived at was that the truth of Buddhism must be one in essence. Many people lose themselves in the labyrinth of learning and studies, through thinking that every one of the diverse branches might help to the attainment of Buddhist ideals.” — Works pp 1770-71 

And again in Myoho Bikuni Go-henji: 

“According to the Zen Sect, the true teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are not transmitted through sutras. They say that sutras including the Lotus Sutra are like a finger to point at the moon or a ferry to cross a river; and that it is no use after seeing the moon or crossing the river. Zen Buddhists say such a thing as they learned, without thinking what they say. But they are actually slandering Shakyamuni Buddha and preventing propagation of the Lotus Sutra. Thus, the people in this country are all committing a grave sin, more serious than the Five 

Evils, without realizing it.”

In Those Initially Aspiring to the Way, he writes: 

“…As for other types of people, it would appear that, even if they do not understand the meaning of the Lotus Sutra and are ignorant but have earnest faith, then they will invariably be reborn in a pure land. For it says in the Lotus Sutra, “They will be born in the presence of the Buddhas of the ten directions,” and “She will immediately go to the World of Peace and Delight.” These passages give clear proof that one who has faith in the Lotus Sutra will be reborn in a pure land. 

Chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra states: 

“Whether during the Buddha’s lifetime

Or after his extinction

If there be any who slander

Such a sutra as this,

Who, seeing those who read and recite,

Write or hold this sutra, scorn and despise, hate and envy them

And bear them a tenacious grudge.

Concerning the recompense of such people’s sin,

After their lifetimes end

They will enter into the Avici hell.” 

Although neither the evangelicals nor the SGI members have faith in the Lotus Sutra, it is better to be an evangelical who doesn’t slander the Lotus Sutra than an SGI member who slanders both the Lotus Sutra and the true believers of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren. Their holier than thou pronouncements based on the heretical SGI teachings are a castle built on sand.

As far as SGI’s assertions that the SGI teachings frees one from birth and death, that is not possible if one is to believe Nichiren Daishonin that the Lotus Sutra is the means: 

“What I call the Heritage of the Great Thing Concerning Life and Death is nothing else than the Scripture, the Lotus of the Perfect Truth. Fo rthe Sacred Title of the Lotus was handed down from the two Buddhas, Sakyamuni and Prabhuta-ratna (Taho or “Many Treasures”), to the Boddhisattva Visista-caritra (Jogyo or “Emminent Conduct”), when the Buddhas appeared in the Heavenly Shrine, and from eternity the heritage has been kept without interruption.”

In another writing, we read, 

“Then to utter the Sacred Title of the Lotus with the conviction that the three are one — the three, that is, Sakyamuni, the Buddha who from eternity has realized Buddhahood; the Lotus Sutra, which leads all beings without exception to Buddhahood; and we, beings in all the realms of existence.” 

How can you be one with Buddha Shakyamuni who from eternity has realized Buddhahood if you reject Him? Chanting mechanical daimoku with no conviction in Shakyamuni is not the way to free oneself from the fetters of birth and death. 

On Establishing the Correct Teaching states; 

“The host said: There are numerous passages that could be cited and a wide variety of proofs. For example, in the Golden Light Sutra we read: “[The four heavenly kings said to the Buddha], ‘Though this sutra exists in the nation, its ruler has never allowed it to be propagated. In his heart he turns away from it, and he takes no pleasure in hearing its teachings. He neither makes offerings to it, honors it, nor praises it. Nor is he willing to honor or make offerings to the four kinds of Buddhists who embrace the sutra. In the end, he makes it impossible for us and the other countless heavenly beings who are our followers to hear this profound and wonderful teaching. He deprives us of the sweet dew of its words and cuts us off from the flow of the correct teaching, so that our majesty and strength are drained away. Thus the number of beings who occupy the evil paths increases, and the number who dwell in the human and heavenly realms decreases. People fall into the river of the sufferings of birth and death and turn their backs on the road to nirvana.” 

The Selection of the Time states: 

“The Buddha says determining the future, “Depend upon the teaching, not upon the people. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna says, “If one depends upon the scripture it is a correct argument; if one does not depend upon the scripture it is an incorrect argument.” T’ien-t’ai says, “Again, if it conforms to the scripture, quote and use it. If there is no corresponding sentence or corresponding meaning, then one should not believe and accept. ” Dengyo says, “Depend upon what the Buddha taught, not upon the oral tradition.” If one follows these scriptures, treatises and commentaries, then one should not base oneself on dreams. Once should only treasure the passages in the scriptures and treatises…” 

Since the SGI abandons the scriptures, treatises, and commentaries, what is it that they have faith in? The words and the oral teachings of Toda and Ikeda? I don’t see anything about a mentor being necessary for attaining Buddhahood nor that new car or raise.

Nichiren writes: 

“The essential key to Nichiren’s disciples and followers is, namely, adherence to the Lotus Sutra.” 

The Lotus Sutra states: 

“But if one, after the Buddha’s extinction,

In the midst of an evil world

is able to preach this sutra, this is indeed hard…..(LS Ch.11) 

What the Soka Gakkai teaches is not “this Sutra”. 10,000,000 million SGI believers or 1,500,000,000 Muslims, are not equal to one Nichiren believer that has faith in the golden words of the Sutra. Most SGI members haven’t even read the Lotus Sutra. They go by the hearsay of the mentor, the Human Revolution, or the World Tribune. The SGI teachings on the Master-disciple relationship, value creation, receiving and giving guidance, no worth or role for solitary Bodhisattvas, the practice of shoju in this degenerate evil age, are all hearsay and oral teachings which Nichiren completely rejected. How sad for them. How sad that SGI members confuse Anger or Rapture for Buddhahood. 

Nichiren states: 

“Then what teaching should the country of Japan learn if its people are to free themselves from the sufferings of birth and death? As for this question, the Lotus Sutra states, “After the Thus Come One has entered extinction, I will cause it [the Lotus Sutra] to be widely propagated throughout Jambudvipa and will see that it never comes to an end.” 

Note, it doesn’t say to cause "Value Creationism”, “Human Revolution”, or “Taisekaji Mysticism” to spread.

In the Opening of the Eyes, we also read: 

“It is also laid down that one should “rely on sutras that are complete and final and not on those that are not complete and final.” We must therefore look carefully among the sutras to determine which are complete and final and which are not, and put our faith in the former. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna in his Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra states, “Do not rely on treatises that distort the sutras; rely on those that are faithful to the sutras.” The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai says, “That which accords with the sutras is to be written down and made available. But put no faith in anything that in word or meaning fails to do so.” The Great Teacher Dengyo says, “Depend upon the preachings of the Buddha, and do not put faith in traditions handed down orally.” Enchin, also known as the Great Teacher Chisho, says, ‘In transmitting the teachings, rely on the written words [ofscriptures]. ‘”

SGI's relies on the inferior teaching of the Human Revolution and those Nichiren Shoshu teachings that distort the Sutra and the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin. They depend more on the preaching of Daisaku Ikeda than they do on the preachings of the Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin and they hardly rely on the written words of the Sutra and Nichiren Daishonn. They are far more evil than the Zen men who make no pretense of practicing what the Buddha taught.