SGI's false exclusive claim for social engagement

"You are not socially engaged Buddhists" -- SGI member

Then one is either dead or a forest dwelling monk. SGI's false exclusive claim for social engagement, as all their other claims to exclusivity, is bogus.

Nichiren turned to texts rather than a mentor. Why not you?

“Though Nichiren would eventually trace his Dharma lineage from Šakyamuni through Zhiyi (538–597) and Saicho (767-822), he never did form a close personal relationship with any living person whom he revered throughout life as his teacher, as Dõgen did Ruzhing or Shinran did Hõnen. It was during his early years on Hiei, Takagi suggests, that Nichiren developed his lifelong habit of turning to texts, rather than human teachers, for instruction and the resolution of doubts, an approach that he later equated with the Nirvana Sutra’s admonition to “rely on the Dharma and not upon persons.” -- unknown [to me] author

What do you say when you meet an SGI member or leader?

"You are all a bunch of low life conditioned liars."

No mentor, master, nor living teacher is necessary

"This is what the Lotus Sutra means when it says, “This is what is called observing the precepts.” The Reverend Annen in his On the Universally Bestowed Bodhisattva Precepts states: “The Lotus Sutra is saying that those who are capable of preaching the Lotus Sutra deserve to be called observers of the precepts.” That is, such persons do not, as described in the sutras prior to the Lotus Sutra, have to observe the precepts under the supervision of a teacher. They have only to put their faith in this sutra to become observers of the precepts." -- Nichiren

Why we suffer all manner of retributions as did Nichiren

"Question: How can you be certain that the exiles and sentences of death imposed on you are the result of karma created in the past?

Answer: A bronze mirror will reflect color and form. The First Emperor of the Ch’in dynasty had a lie-detecting mirror that would reveal offenses committed in this present life. The mirror of the Buddha’sLaw makes clear the causal actions committed in the past. TheParinirvāna Sutra states: “Good man, because people committed countless offenses and accumulated much evil karma in the past, they must expect to suffer retribution for everything they have done. They may be despised, cursed with an ugly appearance, be poorly clad and poorly fed, seek wealth in vain, be born to an impoverished and lowly family or one with erroneous views, or be persecuted by their sovereign. They may be subjected to various other sufferings and retributions. It is due to the blessings obtained by protecting the Law that they can diminish in this lifetime their suffering and retribution.”

This sutra passage and my own experience tally exactly. By now all the doubts that I have raised earlier should be dispelled, and thousands of difficulties are nothing to me. Let me show you phrase by phrase how the text applies to me. “They may be despised,” or, as the Lotus Sutrasays, people will “despise, hate, envy, or bear grudges against them”—and in exactly that manner I have been treated with contempt and arrogance for over twenty years. “They may be cursed with an ugly appearance,” “They may be poorly clad”—these too apply to me. “They may be poorly fed”—that applies to me. “They may seek wealth in vain”—that applies tome. “They may be born to an impoverished and lowly family”—that applies to me. “They may be persecuted by their sovereign”—can there be any doubt that the passage applies to me? The Lotus Sutra says, “Again and again we will be banished,” and the passage from theParinirvāna Sutra says, “They may be subjected to various other sufferings and retributions.” [These passages also apply to me.]

The passage also says, “It is due to the blessings obtained by protecting the Law that they can diminish in this lifetime their suffering and retribution.” The fifth volume of Great Concentration and Insight has this to say on the subject: “The feeble merits produced by a mind only half intent on the practice cannot alter [the realm of karma]. But if one carries out the practice of concentration and insight so as to observe ‘health’ and ‘illness,’ then one can alter the cycle of birth and death [in the realm of karma].” It also says, “[As practice progresses and understanding grows], the three obstacles and four devils emerge in confusing form, vying with one another to interfere.”

From the beginningless past I have been born countless times as an evil ruler who deprived the votaries of the Lotus Sutra of their robes and rations, their fields and crops, much as the people of Japan in the present day go about destroying the temples dedicated to the Lotus Sutra. In addition, countless times I cut off the heads of the votaries of the Lotus Sutra. Some of these grave offenses I have already paid for, but there must be some that are not paid for yet. Even if I seem to have paid for them all, there are still ill effects that remain. When the time comes for me to transcend the sufferings of birth and death, it will be only after I have completely freed myself from these grave offenses. My merits are insignificant, but these offenses are grave.

If I practiced the teachings of the provisional sutras, then these retributions for my past grave offenses would not appear. When iron is heated, if it is not strenuously forged, the impurities in it will not become apparent. Only when it is subjected to the tempering process again and again will the flaws appear. When pressing hemp seeds, if one does not press very hard, one will not get much oil from them. Likewise, when I vigorously berate those throughout the country who slander theLaw, I meet with great difficulties. It must be that my actions in defending the Law in this present life are calling forth retributions for the grave offenses of my past. If iron does not come into contact with fire, it remains black, but if it contacts fire, it turns red. If you place a log across a swift stream, waves will pile up like hills. If you disturb a sleeping lion, it will roar loudly." -- Opening  of the Eyes

"It is the same with Nichiren’s disciples and lay supporters. The Lotus Sutra reads, “Since hatred and jealousy toward this sutra abound even when the Thus Come One is in the world, how much more will this be so after his passing?” It also reads, “It will face much hostility in the world and be difficult to believe.” The Nirvana Sutra states, “By suffering an untimely death, rebuke, curses or humiliation, beatings with a whip or rod, imprisonment, starvation, adversity, or other minor hardships in this lifetime, one can avoid falling into hell.” The Parinirvāna Sutra says: “They may be poorly clad and poorly fed, seek wealth in vain, be born toan impoverished and lowly family or one with erroneous views, or be persecuted by their sovereign. They may be subjected to various other sufferings and retributions. It is due to the blessings obtained by protecting the Law that they can diminish in this lifetime their suffering and retribution.” -- Letter to the Brothers

Nichiren on taking faith in Shakyamuni

"Nowadays, those who seek the way no doubt hope for a better existence in their future lives. Yet they cast aside the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha, while never failing even for an instant to revere Amida Buddha and call upon his name. What kind of behavior is this? Though they may appear to the eye to be pious people, I do not see how they can escape the charge of rejecting their own parent and devoting themselves to a stranger. A completely evil person, on the other hand, has never given his allegiance to any Buddhist teaching at all, and so has not committed the fault of rejecting Shakyamuni Buddha. Therefore, if the proper circumstances should arise, he might very well in time come to take faith in Shakyamuni."

"The mentor represents the function of the Buddha" -- SGI leader

If Daisaku Ikeda represents the function of the Buddha, what an error prone Buddha is he."

You are correct

SGI is a completely different religion. We believe in and practice Nichiren Lotus Sutra Buddhism and you practice Ikedaism.

Only Daisaku Ikeda is mentor in SGI

World tribune, 9-15-00:

"One of the things we hear in the SGI is that we should reply to President Ikeda's expectations. As children, we strive to live up to our parents' expectations, to reply to their love for us. If we are lucky enough to have teachers who care, we strive to live up to their expectations. In becoming adults, we leave the realm of our parents' expectations. Once we leave the realm of our parents' expectations, whose expectations do we live up to? Our own? Our friends? We tend to set our expectations just within the limits of our comfort zone and do not realize our own potential or genius. It is the mentor who sees the greatness in us that we don't see ourselves..." 

and further down... 

"In The Human Revolution, the character Shin'ichi Yamamoto, representing a young President Ikeda, left the realm of his father's expectations and entered into that of his mentor in life, Josei Toda. As depicted in the book, Toda visits Shin'ichi's father one day and asks, "Will you entrust Shin'ichi to me?" After contemplating Toda's character, and acknowledging Shin'ichi's feelings for Toda, his father consents. Toda exclaims: "How splendid! I, Toda, will be entirely responsible for Shin'ichi. Please set your mind to rest" 

Guess who is the mentor who will replace YOUR father?... 

"But we are all comrades in faith, standing shoulder to shoulder, not front to back, following our mentor, President Ikeda, not one another." 

"You are SGI"

http://www.vocaleyes.org/vocaleyes/group/view/id/10247

Of 117 proposals ["ideas"] offered by SGI-UK members, 2 [TWO] were adopted.

SGI members truly believe that Daisaku Ikeda is necessary to attain Buddhahood.

If they didn't believe that Daisaku Ikeda was necessary for them to attain Buddhahod, they would never be members of the Ikeda cult.

Those were the days.

I know how hard it is to maintain faith in the SGI in the information age. Wasn't it easy before we knew the truth about the SGI, when everything was filtered through our leaders and any doubts we had were quickly quashed by a leader telling us we lacked faith?

SGI and Nichiren Shoshu create doctrine and history out of thin air in order to make themselves look good

Niko [not Nikko] accompanied Nichiren to Sado Island and remained with him the entire time there. Another example: Nikko founded Taisekeji but spent the last 36 years of his life at Kitayama Honmonji temple, his grave facing Minobu. Were the DaiGohonzon at Taisekeji when he died, his grave would have faced Taisekeji. 

"Let president Ikeda into your heart!"...The advanced psychology of Ikedaism

9-15-00 World Tribune study material:

"As the American poet and author Robert Bly says in Iron John, we search for a "second father" or "a second king..." "We can each ask ourselves: Is there anyone we know or have heard of who possesses true greatness? If so, we should leave with him or her". Early in my youth I faced a huge test in my relationship with President Ikeda. I loved him from the first and considered myself his disciple. But I was very young and had no clue about the obstacles that I would face in the future.

After a particularly severe set back in my life, I felt that I had failed as a disciple. Before I realized it, I was overcome with negativity. "I have failed him;' I thought. And my heart broke.

I had to think deeply about what he really meant to me. What is a disciple? What does a mentor think about a disciple? I came to understand that I had a very shallow view of the mentor- disciple relationship. When I realized that President Ikeda's belief in me, his belief in my potential, was unconditional, I was able to pull myself out of the depths of that hell...

I heard the mentor disciple relationship explained once as the mentor being like a transmitter and the disciples like receivers. President Ikeda is always transmitting. It is up to us to receive the message. Several months ago I heard a young woman describe her struggle with the mentor-disciple relationship. She was devoted to her practice, to kosen rufli and her members. She was acting as a person of the same mind as the mentor. But although she respected President Ikeda and thought he was "a great guy" as she put it; her heart was closed to him. And this troubled her. She was frustrated by the fact that she "just did'nt get it." This was some thing she pondered through many prayers. Then one night as she was standing alone out under the stars at the Florida Nature and Culture Center, she had an awakening, a realization. It was a matter of trust It wasn't President Ikeda; it was her ability to open her heart to him. Her father had been a very respected professional, but behind closed doors he was an abuser feared by the family. She realized that this was the "wall" between herself and President Ikeda. All of her chanting and prayers had led her to see this and suddenly she "got it" and tears began to flow down her cheeks. Her receiver was turned on."

There is only one way to interpret this passage.

"The person who erects one image of Lord Shakya is a person who constructs the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten directions." -- Nichigenyo Shakya Butsu Kuyo ji, On the Lady Nichigenyo's offering to the Buddha Shakya

Nichiren praises Nichigenyo for erecting a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Some sects still assert Nichiren as Original Buddha.

"Grand Master Miao-le further explained, "Wise men know the cause of a phenomenon; a snake knows that it is a snake. Bodhisattva Maitreya does not know those great bodhisattvas coming from underground because he is a disciple of a temporal Buddha, while those great bodhisattvas are disciples of the Original Buddha." (Noppa, Kaimoku Sho, page 164) 

"Maitreya had never seen the bodhisattvas that appeared from underground to attend the Ceremony in Open Space with the Original Buddha Shakyamuni. After Maitreya questioned Shakya, he received the following answer: 

"Maitreya! It was I who taught and guided those great bodhisattvas whom you said you had never seen. After I attained perfect enlightenment in this world, I taught, guided, controlled them, and encouraged them to aspire for enlightenment.... I have taught and guided them since the eternal past." (P. 166) 

Nichiren, identified and revealed himself as Jogyo (the leader of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth). If all those bodhisattvas coming from underground were disciples of the Original Shakyamuni, then Jogyo too was a disciple of the Original Shakyamuni. Please note, "since the eternal past". If Shakya taught Jogyo since the eternal past, how could Nichiren be the Original Buddha that taught Shakya?? Yet, some sects still assert that Nichiren is the Original Buddha. -- author unknown

The Lotus Sutra Bodhi Tree

The various Nichiren sects are all branches of one sect. New branches are forming all the time and some of the new branches will become major trunk sized branches while others will remain small and twig-like. Some of the major branches are diseased and need to be cut off at their base or they will kill the trunk and roots. Other less severely diseased branches should be judiciously pruned. If the tree is cared for properly, all healthy branches, whether large or small, will form buds and flower. 

SGI's World of Animality and Anger

SGI's selective tolerance is based on the Worlds of Animality and Anger and on the lower ego. The absolute exclusivity of the Nichiren faith is based on the compassionate Worlds of Bodhisattva and Buddha, the Lotus Sutra teachings of Nichiren, and the higher ego. In SGI, those who criticize SGI, regardless of their righteousness are rejected while those who praise SGI, regardless of their beliefs or doctrinal underpinnings, are accepted.

My disagreement with SGI's perspective is soteriological (pertaining to the doctrine of salvation) and I will attempt to prove that homage and reverence of the Original Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni and not another "archetype", is a fundamental component of the doctrine of salvation of the Lotus Sutra. To reject this Buddha for an impersonal Buddha-nature or another archetype [such as Nichiren] and thus to take this particular Buddha out of the Law, is a serious mistake and a cause for descending into the Lower Worlds.

"The Lotus Sutra states, "I alone can save them" (Chapter 3) and "I likewise am the Father of the World, The One who saves from the various sufferings and travails." (Chapter 16)

Nichiren says, "Bear in mind that the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra contain only a few passages elucidating the truth, but a great many words of praise." In the same work, Nichiren writes:

"Only the Lotus Sutra represents the wonderful teaching preached directly from the golden mouth of Shakyamuni Buddha, who is perfectly endowed with the three bodies. Therefore, even Universal Worthy and Manjushri were hardly able to expound so much as a single phrase or verse of it. How much more difficult then must it be for us, who are no more than ordinary people living in this latter age, to embrace even one or two words of this sutra! (The Blessings of the Lotus Sutra)

Is it possible that salvation will take place in one who lacks gratitude? Can one possible obtain the fruit of Supreme Perfect Enlightenment by rejecting or failing to recognize one's loving father while praising and acknowledging a stranger as father? Is gratitude not an essential component of the LS doctrine of salvation?

Nichiren states over and over, "Shakyamuni is the only Buddha endowed with all three virtues and to whom we owe a profound debt of gratitude." (Encouragement to a Sick Person) and again, referring to Shakyamuni Buddha, "The debt of gratitude we owe him is deeper than the ocean, weightier than the earth, vaster than the sky." Is not the vertical gratitude to Shakyamuni Buddha for attaining Buddhahood fundamental to the horizontal transmission of the Dharma in gratitude to all people?

Those Buddhists who lack gratitude for their father Shakyamuni Buddha are no better than birds or beasts according to Nichiren Daishonin and therefore, their attainments can not possibly go beyond the World of Animality. 

Nichiren, warning of the effect of embracing an archetype other than Shakyamuni Buddha writes,

“All the four directions will be afflicted by drought, and evil omens will appear again and again. The ten evil acts will increase greatly, particularly greed, anger, and foolishness, and people will think no more of their fathers and mothers than does the roe deer. Living beings will decline in numbers, in longevity, physical strength,dignity, and enjoyment. They will become estranged from the delights of the human and heavenly realms, and all will fall into the paths of evil. The wicked rulers and monks who perform these ten evil acts will curse and destroy my correct teaching and make it difficult for those in the human and heavenly realms to stay there. At that time the benevolent deities and heavenly kings, who would ordinarily take pity on living beings, will abandon this impure and evil nation, and all will make their way to other regions.” (On Establishing the Correct Teachings)

Also, SGI's selective tolerance are the Worlds of Animality and Anger and based on the lower ego. The absolute exclusivity of the Nichiren faith is based on the compassionate Worlds of Bodhisattva and Buddha, the Lotus Sutra teachings of Nichiren, and the higher ego. In SGI, those who criticize SGI, regardless of their righteousness are rejected while those who praise SGI, regardless of their beliefs or doctrinal underpinnings, are accepted. This is the World of Anger

Lord Buddha Shayamuni revealed in the essential section of the Lotus Sutra

"The first is the object of worship (honzon). All people in Japan as well as the rest of the world should revere the Lord Buddha Shayamuni revealed in the essential section of the Lotus Sutra as the object of worship (honzon). That is to say, the object worshiped should be the Buddha Shakyamuni and Taho Buddha in the Stupa of Treasures. The other Buddhas standing outside the Stupa and the four bodhisattvas such as Jogyo should be their attendants." -- Repaying Debts of Gratitude: 

"Shakyamuni Buddha, the Lord-preacher of this pure land, has never died in the past, nor will He be born in the future. He exists forever throughout the past present and future." -- True Object of Worship

Nichiren, Nikken, and Ikeda discuss "Gohonzon".

Nichiren: The Gohonzon is the very life and land of the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya of the Juryo Chapter of the Lotus Sutra. It is more valuable than my own life. 

Nikken: That is why we printed them up like Grateful Dead posters. 

Ikeda: And why we sold hundreds of thousands of them to every Tom, Dick and Harry with $12.00 in their pocket. 

Nichiren believer: We have always been very careful about who we allow to receive Gohonzon and we will continue to prudent 

Nichiren: I wouldn't even bestow a Gohonzon on Usabusa and she was chanting for 14 years and never missed Gongyo. 

Nikken: We were sure that those who had $12.00 in their pockets had deep faith. Oh well, live and learn. 

Ikeda: That was then and this is now. Now they must also buy a years subscription to the World Fibune and Living Ikedaism. 

Nichiren believer: There are believers who are chanting for thirty years in America who wish to obtain a Nichiren Gohonzon but we are loathe to give them one because of their warped faith. 

Nichiren: I have inscribed my life in sumi ink. 

Nikken: We thought you'd enjoy the smell of the San Francisco dump, the flames of the mid-Manhattan incinerator, and the warm and cozy socks [in sock drawers]. 

Ikeda: You are being overly dramatic, Nichie. Your life in sumi ink? LOL. Those who sing Forever Sensei and have my picture beside the altar are the true votaries. I myself am the banner of propagation in the Latter Day.

Nichiren believer: Since the Gohonzon is so important to you Master, how could we indiscriminately bestow them upon others? 

Nichiren: I have inscribed this Gohonzon for you. It will protect you like a sturdy house in a storm, like a bodyguard skilled in martial arts, or like a mother lion protects her cubs. To abandon this Gohonzon is the cause of the greatest misfortune in this life and the road to hell in the next. 

Nikken: We have Craig Bratcher, Nichiu, and the priest Goto. 

Ikeda: We have Guy McCloskey, Terry, and Kathy Ruby. 

Nichiren believer: Master, we will teach each and every person that the Gohonzon is more valuable than life itself and if our believers were to abandon the Gohonzon we would refrain from teaching the Lotus Sutra. 

Nichiren: It appears that the DaiGohonzon breeds evil men.

Nichiren believer: We have been teaching this for many years. Thank you for reaffirming our understanding.

Nikken: Impossible, look at me, priest Goto, and Nichiu the leper. 

Ikeda: Haha. how can a plank of wood breed evil men?