I've helped to convince many people to leave the SGI. I spoke to one person for 5 years until he eventually left the SGI but I don't know how much I actually contributed to his decision or if it was solely due to his own awakening. Other people have thanked me for helping to open their eyes to the true nature of SGI. I've been doing this for so long and I have been read by thousands of people, so I may never know to whom I have made an impact. Its like two ships passing in the night or a distant lighthouse warning of the shoals ahead and sometimes, it's just planting a single seed of doubt.
Simultaneously, I recommend to a new convert from the Soka Gakkai to begin chanting the seven character Daimoku, Namu Myoho renge kyo and to read various translations of the Lotus Sutra Gosho from many sources and without the SGI footnotes. More often than not, they continue their practice as an Independent and seek out a copy of a Ni8chiren inscribed Gohonzon.
Yes, you and this site offer a hopeful alternative to those whom once thought that they had stumbled upon the most fortunate means for deriving their happiness and navigating their lives wisely through a minefield of dare and chance - only to come to a disappointing dead end. However, in that duration of futility, I'm thinking that most experienced something......something profound, something real, something worthy of further investigation - I know I did. That "other site" is entertaining and lends itself to a "I wasn't the only one" comradely, but it becomes repetitive and boring after while, and does not satisfy our thirst for that truth and meaningfulness that we once thought we had. Something tells me that within the pages of this site lies the truth of Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteThanks you. Shakyamuni Buddha of the Lifespan Chapter is to be found in the disciples and believers of Nichiren. Nichiren teaches in his most important work:
ReplyDelete"The Shakyamuni Buddha within our lives is the eternal Buddha since time without beginning, who obtained the three bodies more than numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago. The “Life Span” chapter states, “Originally I practiced the bodhisattva way, and the life span that I acquired then has yet to come to an end but will last twice the number of years that have already passed.” He was speaking of the world of the bodhisattva within ourselves. The bodhisattvas, as numerous as the dust particles of a thousand worlds, p.366who emerged from beneath the earth, are the followers of the Shakyamuni Buddha present in our lives. They follow the Buddha just as T’ai-kung Wang and Tan, the Duke of Chou,56 served as ministers to King Wu of the Chou dynasty and later assisted his son and successor, the infant King Ch’eng; or just as the Chief Minister Takenouchi57 supported Empress Jingū and later her grandson Crown Prince Nintoku as a highly valued minister. The bodhisattvas Superior Practices, Boundless Practices, Pure Practices, and Firmly Established Practices represent the world of the bodhisattva within ourselves. The Great Teacher Miao-lo says: “You should understand that one’s life and its environment at a single moment encompass the three thousand realms. Therefore, when one attains the Buddha way, one puts oneself in accord with this fundamental principle, and one’s body and mind at a single moment pervade the entire realm of phenomena.”
When is the last time you heard Shakyamuni Buddha of the Juryo Chapter of the Lotus Sutra mentioned in the Soka Gakkai. All you hear is "Ikeda, Ikeda, Ikeda, Ikeda, Ikeda".