Thursday, October 4, 2018
Why is Nichiren the Supreme Votary of the Lotus Sutra and Daisaku Ikeda a poseur?
"But the sutra says, “How much more will this be so after his passing?” By this we know that, in a future age after the passing of the Buddha, there are bound to be persecutions and difficulties even greater and more fearful than those that occurred during his lifetime. If even the Buddha had difficulty bearing up under such persecutions, how can ordinary people be expected to bear them, particularly when these troubles are destined to be even greater than those that occurred during the Buddha’s lifetime?
Though one might wonder what great persecutions could possibly be more terrible than the huge rock thirty feet long and sixteen feet wide that Devadatta rolled down on the Buddha or the drunken elephant that King Ajātashatru sent charging after him, if persecutions greater than those that arose during the Buddha’s lifetime keep occurring again and again to someone who is not guilty of the slightest fault, then one should realize that that person is a true votary of the Lotus Sutra in the age after the Buddha’s passing."
Can you believe what Daisaku Ikeda used to teach?
"In this sect (Nichiren Shoshu), the Living Essence, Uninterrupted Light of the Law has been bestowed like the transferal of the water of the Law from one vessel to another upon each specifically chosen High Priest in the lineage until the present day. To the last, the True Buddha is Nichiren Daishonin, and **we must revere the inner enlightenment of the High Priests, which is only bestowed on and between High Priests, in the same way that we revere the Daishonin." -- Daisaku Ikeda, May 3, 1979
" ... the 'Treasure of the Priest' refers to the High Priests in the line of Nikko Shonin, who are the only ones who have received the transmission of the Living Essence of the Law until the present day. Furthermore, all of the Priests are the disciples of the High Priest. They are the House of the Law. Consequently, no matter what the circumstances may be, we must hold the Priests in a place of importance." -- Daisaku Ikeda, February 28, 1978
No priests in Soka Gakkai?
Italian SGI leaders [responsabili] are known as "Ministers of Worship."
The claim:
The claim:
"Soka Gakkai is a modern lay Buddhist movement. It is the largest Buddhist sect in Japan with 8 or more million members and an additional 4 million members in other countries. [8] “Soka Gakkai” translates as “Value-Creation Society.” The organization follows the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin (1222–82), a Japanese monk who crafted a reinterpretation of Buddhism based on the Lotus Sutra. Since its founding in1930, The Soka Gakkai has been the object of a lot of criticism and even persecution. Unlike other Nichiren sects, Soka Gakkai does not have a class of priests, and its emphasis is on the practitioner rather than dogma......"Daveler16 (talk) 21:51, 10 July 2014 (UTC)
The reality:
The organization follows the teachings of Nichiu, Nichikan, Nichigen, and the Three Presidents of the Soka Gakka. Like other Nichiren sects, Soka Gakkai has a priestly class [in Ghana, in Singapore, and not to mention the business suited SGI priests of Shinanomachi*, Tokyo] but it's emphasis is on Daisaku Ikeda rather than doctrine.
"At the present time, the Soka Gakkai itself is the one and only group of united priests which receives and inherits the 'lifeblood of faith.'" -- Daisaku Ikeda, Seikyo Shinbun, 9/18/93
Receiving the same benefits as Shakyamuni Buddha
"Shakyamuni’s practices and the virtues he consequently attained are all contained within the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo. If we believe in these five characters, we will naturally be granted the same benefits as he was.
With full understanding of Shakyamuni’s teachings, the four great voice-hearers said, “This cluster of unsurpassed jewels has come to us unsought.” They represent the world of the voice-hearer that is within ourselves. The Buddha stated, “At the start I took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled. I have converted all living beings and caused them all to enter the Buddha way.” ShakyamuniBuddha, who has attained perfect enlightenment, is our own flesh and blood. His practices and the resulting virtues are our bones and marrow. The “Treasure Tower” chapter of the Lotus Sutra says, “He who is capable of guarding the Law of this sutra will thereby have offered alms to me and to Many Treasures. . . . One who guards this sutra will also have offered alms to the emanation Buddhas who have come here adorning and making brilliant all the various worlds.” Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions represent the world of Buddhahood within ourselves. By searching them out within us, we can receive the benefits of all these Buddhas. This is what is meant by the following passage: “If one listens to them [the preachers of the Law] for even a moment, one will immediately attain supreme perfect enlightenment.” The “Life Span” chapter reads, “It has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood.” 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, who 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, 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 Takenouchi supported Empress Jingū and later her grandson Crown Prince Nintoku as a highly valued minister. The bodhisattvas Superior Practices, Boundless Practices, Pure Practices, andFirmly Established Practices represent the world of the bodhisattvawithin 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.” -- Nichiren's most important writing
The Soka Gakkai "Lotus Sutra" by Zen man Burton Watson is not an excellent translation
Burton Watson translates a passage from Chapter 21 of the Lotus Sutra as follows:
"At that time the Buddha spoke to Superior Practices and the others in the great assembly of bodhisattvas, saying: "The supernatural powers of the Buddhas, as you have seen, are immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable. If in the process of entrusting this sutra to others I were to employ these supernatural powers for a measurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of asamkhya kalpas to describe the benefits of the sutra, I could never finish doing so. To put it briefly, all the doctrines possessed by the Thus Come One, the storehouse of all the secret essentials of the Thus Come One - all these are proclaimed, revealed, and clearly expounded in this sutra.
For this reason, after the Thus Come One has entered extinction, you must single-mindedly accept, uphold, read, recite, explain, preach and transcribe it, and practice it as directed. In any of the various lands, wherever there are those who accept, uphold, read, recite, explain, preach, transcribe, or practice it as directed, or wherever the sutra rolls are preserved, whether in a garden, a forest, beneath a tree, in monks quarters, in the lodgings of white-robed laymen, in palaces, or in mountain valleys or the wide wilderness, in all these places one should erect towers and offer alms. Why? Because you should understand that such spots are places of religious practice. In such places have the Buddhas gained anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, in such places have the Buddhas turn the wheel of the Law, in such places have the Buddhas entered parinirvana."
Bunno, Kato, Etal. translates the same passage:
"At that time the Buddha addressed Emminent Conduct and the host of other Bodhisattvas: "The divine powers of buddhas are so infinite and boundless that they are beyond thought and expression. Even if I, by these divine powers, through infinite, boundless hundred thousand myriad kotis of asemkheya kalpas, for the sake of entailing it, were to declare the merits of this sutra, I should still be unable to reach the end of those [merits]. Essentially speaking, all the laws belonging to the Tathagata, all the mysterious, essential treasuries of the Tathagata, and the very profound conditions of the Tathagata, all are proclaimed, displayed, revealed, and expounded in this sutra.Therefore you should, after the extinction of the Tathagata, wholeheartedly receive and keep, read and recite, explain and copy, cultivate and practice it as the teaching. In whatever land, whether it be received and kept, read and recited, explained and copied cultivated and practiced as the teaching; whether in a place where a volume of the sutra is kept, or in a temple, or in a grove, or under a tree, or in a monastery, or in a lay devotee's house, in a palace or a mountain, in a valley or in the wilderness, in all these places you must erect a caitya and make offerings. Wherefore? You should know that [all] these spots are the thrones of enlightenment. On these [spots] the buddhas attain Perfect Enlightenment; on these [spots] the buddhas roll the wheel of the Law; on these [spots] the buddhas [enter] parinirvana." (Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21, The Power of the Tathagata)
Leon Hurvitz translates this same passage;
"The Buddha then addressed Him of Superior Practice along with the others in the great assembly of Bodhisattvas. "The spiritual powers of all Buddhas are similarly immeasurable and boundless, beyond conception or imagining. Were I, for the sake of entrusting this scripture to others, to expound its merits and virtues for untold and limitless hundreds of thousands of myriad millions of eons by means of these-spiritual powers of mine, I would still not be able to exhaust its riches. In short, all the Teachings that I as a Tathagata possess, all the spiritual powers that I have at my disposal, all my unseen storehouses and all my extremely profound activities are expounded, revealed and explained in this scripture. For this reason, after my parinirvana, you should wholeheartedly accept and hold to it, study and recite it, understand and expound it, write it down and make copies of it and, just as you preach it, so practice in accordance with it.
"If there is anyone in any land or country who accepts, holds to, studies, recites, understands, expounds, writes down, copies or practices it as he preaches it, be it in a place where Scripture books reside, or in a garden, or in a grove of trees, or under a tree, or in a monk's quarters, or in the lodging of a white-clad layman, or within the halls of the nobility, or on a mountain, or in a valley, or in an open plain, therein will a stupa be raised and an offering be made. And for what reason? Know that such a place is indeed a seat for enlightenment: in such places Buddhas find Complete and Perfect Enlightenment, in such places Buddhas turn the Wheel of the Dharma, in such places Buddhas enter parinirvana."
"Because you should understand that such spots are places of religious practice."(Watson)
"You should know that [all] these spots are the thrones of enlightenment." (Bunno)
"Know that such a place is indeed a seat for enlightenment."(Hurvitz)
Now, my dear readers, don't you think that, after seeing these highlighted sentences and reading again and again the three translated passages above, that the SGI advisers to Watson had an agenda to mute the Buddha's message and passion for the Lotus Sutra? Please, think about it. Watson's passage is drab and passionless. Bunno's is vibrant and filled with passion and Hurvitz's is to the point. Do you think the Buddha was passionless or circumspect? The SGI are psychological manipulators. Do not be fooled.
Documentary proof of the principle, Transmission Through the Sutra Scrolls and Writings of Nichiren Daishonin.
"Do not put faith in traditions handed down orally." -- Nichiren Daishonin
Nichiren on plagiarism and foolishness
"The translators of the newer versions of the sutras learned about T’ien-t’ai’s doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life when they came to China. When they translated Sanskrit sutras into Chinese, some put T’ien-t’ai’s principle into their translations, and others claimed that the originals they had brought from India already contained it. Some of the scholars of the T’ien-t’ai school were simply pleased that other schools were expounding the same doctrine as theirs, while others praised the Buddhism of India and slighted that of China, or discarded their original doctrines and adopted new ones. These scholars yielded to their devilish nature and to foolishness. Ultimately, however, without the seed of Buddhahood, that is, the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, sentient beings cannot become Buddhas, and any statue or painting would be an object of devotion in name only."
"Mentor/Disciple, they are shoving it down our throats"
Half of a recent WT was devoted to mentor and disciple. This is the rule rather than the exception.
"Ghandi was not great because he had publications tauting (touting) him, neither was Martin Luther King.
If President Ikeda is a great, wise, man, people will flock to him. We don't need the publications to tell us that.
I am ready to drop all of my subscriptions to SGI pubs.
I would rather read experiences (sanitized by the SGI to sound all the same) rather than read this mentor and disciple stuff.
What is going on with this M&D [sic] crap?
Re: Mentor & disciple, I am sick of it.
They are shoving it down our throats. I think it is their way of solidifying SGI doctrine, which is to be based on this concept. They've had to throw out much of the Shoshu doctrine, and so we have THIS. If we don't buy into it we're bound for the hell of incessant suffering. I wouldn't mind the concept so much if they didn't take it upon themselves to decide who my mentor is going to be. It might be a nice idea if the mentor wasn't mandated.
This summer's Living Buddhism is also almost entirely devoted to the "Mentor/Disciple relationship". This is a pretty strong push in the publications right now, and my feeling about it is that M/D has become a sort of "caulk" for the SGI. As long as the M/D relationship is a prime point of faith, it can be used to distract attention from any policy or doctrinal issue.
As I discussed last week, Japan (and perhaps to a limited extent our own study department in Santa Monica) is very engaged right now in trying to sort through exactly what form of Nichiren Buddhism we are going to be teaching as we nobly march forward into the 21st century. This involves a lot of interpretation, decision-making,and discussion to which we gaijin are cordially not invited. If faith becomes a matter of a personal loyalty oath to an individual rather than about our own inherent Buddhahood, or if we can somehow be convinced that our own inherent Buddhahood is contingent on a fantasy relationship with someone we've never met, then the subject can always be changed whenever there's a conflict. If (like some of us) you have problems with the Gakkai's choice to continue slandering other forms of Nichiren Buddhism, a layer of M/D caulk can be applied to sort of give the appearance of a flat wall of agreement,and the subject can be changed to the questioner's lack of faith and need to build a better fantasy relationship with his or her mentor. It is a strategic means whereby the organization can avoid dealing with the inevitable cultural conflicts which have arisen and will continue to arise. Personally , I think it is doomed to failure, since the caulk will only cosmeticallycover any cracks and not actually strengthen the structure.
At the end of the day, though, people will be able to meet together and chant without an emphasis on building a fantasy relationship if that's what they want to do. If the current emphasis is really disturbing to you,, you can always chant and study with people who feel likewise. The only thing I would offer as a caveat is to try to keep things positive. Our Fifth Wave gatherings out here are not about venting frustrations with any particular group or any particular organization's way of doing things. They are an opportunity for people to get together and do faith, practice and study of Nichiren Buddhism.
Hang in there, hope you are well, Best, Byrd in LA
Yes, I think you have expressed the reality pretty well here. And this is one of the reasons non-denominational meetings will continue to be interesting to a lot of people. Americans have a real aversion to being compelled to admire or emulate anyone. It may not be true, but we like to flatter ourselves that we choose our own leaders and we decide whom we will admire. Non-denominational gatherings will just simply continue to make it possible to understand Buddhism without using a mandatory Mentor as an intermediary between ourselves and the Lotus Sutra, or ourselves and Buddhism. That's one of the basic rules of the Fifth Wave, I think - no mandatory mentors.
Well, I hope everyone has a good week this week. I myself have started a new morning exercise routine. I'm hobbling a bit, but otherwwise feeling well. Best regards, Byrd in LA
"...If President Ikeda is a great, wise, man, people will flock to him. We don't need the publications to tell us that..."
Maybe we need a little reminding now and then...For example, a recent issue of "Living Buddhism" repeats the name "Ikeda" some 200 times within its 13 pages..not counting footnotes or direct references Ikeda makes to himself...
That's right...the word "Ikeda" is printed over 200 times in one issue...mostly with gushing adulation about his mentorship, his wisom, his compassion...and of course, how the "lifeblood" of Nichiren flows through him to us...
Just reading one issue of Living Buddhism you see the name "Ikeda" 200 times...maybe the guys over there are slipping...I suggest they set a target for 1000 times in the next issue!
Welcome to Ikeda Buddhism. Well, has it really come to that? Is this truly the direction we've been on ALL ALONG? I REALLY do wonder.
I bring this up all the time with my SGI friends and either they are embarrassed about it or don't like it. Ikeda calls the shots in the SGI."
"Trustworthy teachers do not exist in the Latter Age" -- Nichiren
"Usually teachers are persons. However, trustworthy teachers do not exist in the Latter Age; so there is much evidence of regarding the dharmas as teachers.." (Shugo Kokka-ron, noppa, p.2)
You got that right Shinichi (Daisaku)
From the The Human Revolution Vol. IX, Readings for September 2007 "Spark" pp. 1167-1168
"The Kempon Hokke school was founded by Nichiju in Kyoto about one hundred years after Nichiren Daishonin's death. It maintained that the Buddhist doctrines should be transmitted by the scriptures only and not from mentor to disciple..." -- Daisaku Ikeda
SGI adopts many strategies other than the Lotus Sutra.
For example, SGI features failed mediation expert Mari Fitzduff on their Ikeda Center website. She was [is?], among other things, a mediator between Palestinians and Israelis. We see how far even the mediation of nation states has taken us in resolving this crisis, let alone mediation through individuals such as Ms. Fitzduff. Yet, they feature one of her essays on conflict resolution involving fundamentalists.
Her approach, as is SGI's, is doomed to failure because it fails to take into account the wonderful power and influence of Myo to revive, revitalize, and restore.
http://www.ikedacenter.org/ikeda-forum/2014-dignity
http://www.ikedacenter.org/ikeda-forum/2014-dignity
Response to the scholar Lokesh Chandra
"The Soka Gakkai is the Dharma rain that is fast ushering in a century of “human flowers” in full bloom." -- SGI supporter, the scholar Lokesh Chandra
"The Nirvana Sutra says, “Rely on the Law and not upon persons.” How deplorable, how pitiful, that scholars of this latter age, believing that they are studying and applying the Law of the Buddha, should on the contrary bring about the destruction of that Law!" -- Nichiren
SGI creates a new term for non-duality
"Non-positionality." This describes perfectly what SGI stands for... nothing
The SGI is as slippery as an eel.
Almost every member of the Ikeda cult will append their blogs, books, websites, etc. with the statement, "these are my opinions only and do not represent the official SGI position." Even on the official Daisaku Ikeda website, the Soka Gakkai PHD commentators and analysts will not attribute official SGI policy to their views.
No Soka Gakkai member or leader beneath Vice General Director may take full responsibility for their words. No one save Ikeda and the top salaried Soka Gakkai "Ministers of Worship" are considered by the Soka Gakkai as official representatives or spokespersons whose views fully accord with the Soka Gakkai's. There is always a caveat to their arguments.
How to remove Soka Spirit parasites from the body of the Buddha
Soka Spirit[s] are parasites engorged with the blood of Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin. Filled with vainglorious declarations and vows to defend what Daisaku Ikeda has entrusted to them, they burrow deep into the flesh of the Buddha and the Supreme Votary of the Lotus Sutra. Failing to emerge into the sun of the true teachings, they must be removed by medicament, forceps, matchstick, liquid soap, ablation, or desiccation. Occasionally, amputation or radical surgery, including enucleation and pneumonectomy is warranted.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
I have a puzzle for my readers
Go to the Soka Gakkai Institute of Oriental Philosphy page (http://www.iop.or.jp/index.html) and search for any articles on Nichiren's Lotus Sutra Buddhism. Then search for articles on other sects of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Confucianism. One can come to no other conclusion that Nichiren and Nichiren Lotus Sutra Buddhism is now marginalized in the Soka Gakkai. Truthfully, only here is Nichiren Lotus Sutra Buddhism faithfully taught and practiced, exactly as Nichiren in his authenticated writings.
A blockbuster
By Laurence O. McKinney
Read in French
As our world wobbles towards the Twenty First Century, we see how the omnipresence of media in the lives of educated men and women creates an automatic pyramid of value based on the power of money. Multinational corporations pay millions of dollars for endorsements of major figures who command a world audience. The most difficult to obtain is the academic nod from Harvard University, quite possibly the best known, respected, and thereby most powerful educational institution in the world. And yet Harvard itself is not invulnerable to the ambitions and strategies of those who wish to associate themselves with the world's most legitimizing authority. As Harvard alumnus Tweed Roosevelt once remarked to me "The best metaphor I ever heard was that running Harvard was like herding cats!"
With each college and university department and graduate schools operating with varying degrees of autonomy, it is not that difficult to create the suggestion of acknowledgment or affiliation which may in fact not exist. Harvard is far too decent and disorganized, to have an office of "misappropriation" and few attempt it. It would take a five year strategy, the assistance of a few well meaning academics, and million of Japanese dollars, to try to convince the world that Daisaku Ikeda, recently excommunicated civilian leader of the massive Japanese based Soka Gakkai was in fact a legitimate spokesman for world Buddhism and respected at major world academic centers, chiefly among them Harvard University itself.
At the onset, I should make it clear that I have no hidden agenda. I have at all times been treated with openness and honesty by every member of the Boston SGI (Soka Gakkai International) community I have met. They all have good memories of their sensei and many have been chanting happily for as long as twenty years. I have nothing but respect for any method which helps anyone improve themselves. Likewise, as President Ikeda has introduced millions to a method which has helped so many, he is clearly my spiritual superior. Still, trying to co-opt Harvard at his age is dangerous hubris. The whole story of the Boston Center seems so convoluted that one Harvard professor wondered out loud if perhaps somebody else was behind the Harvard strategy. And that Ikeda was innocent. Another, slated to speak at a Center "Dialogue" was upset that I had been asking questions.
No member of the Boston SGI other than Rob Epstein seemed to have visited or been involved with the Cambridge based Boston Research Center for the 21st Century. It remains as much a mystery to them as it has been to everyone else. Boston SGI even contacted SGI officials in the West Coast and asked them to help out, but there was no response from Los Angeles until the day this article was written and still no answers.
What was behind this multi-million dollar Buddhist World Peace "stealth center" that was already operating in Harvard Square? Nobody knew anything about it, and Buddhists the least. In compiling this article, I spoke to a half dozen Buddhist professors and the department heads at both Harvard and the Harvard Divinity School, and at all times promised to respect their desire for anonymity. This is not about the Lotus Sutra; it is not about World Peace, it is not even about Buddhism. It is mainly about strategic self-legitimization and the academic oversight that allow it to occur in an age when a Harvard connection can make or break global ambition.
Harvard Professor Christopher Queen, lecturer in Buddhism and Dean of the Extension School at Harvard, mentioned that the Soka Gakkai were doing some interesting things in Cambridge and had high praise for the Executive Director, Virginia Strauss. Following his lead, I called and spoke with her about an interview for CyberSangha. The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century was not Boston SGI she explained, but an international research center dealing with broad based social issues. She was busy and tired from her trip to South Africa. Rob Epstein, Soka Gakkai's New England regional coordinator was in Japan. She promised to send me literature and put me in touch with SGI's PR maven, Al Albergate, in Los Angeles. It was the second week in January.
When I received the materials, I experienced the four noble shocks. First, this Center was no office suite of some struggling Buddhist community. These were the very people who had paid millions to purchase and retrofit the largest remaining Georgian structure right next to Harvard, the Elks Club building on Harvard Street, right up against the landmark Old Cambridge Baptist Church and across the street from the Harvard Freshman Union. I was amazed because I also had watched the construction for months, wondering who had come up with the cash for the pricey location. I called up a friend at the Baptist Church, a hive of social activists, where popular theologian Harvey Cox often preaches. He put it in a nutshell. "I call him [Ikeda] the Steve Forbes of Buddhism. It's a simple message, a conservative basis and he could pave the Square in gold. Better that the Elks, but I sure wish he was on the parish building committee". It was true. Someone had just poured millions of dollars into a red brick state of the art Buddhist communications center and nobody had heard about it.
The second surprise was even more jarring. The oldest incorporated Buddhist group in Cambridge is the Cambridge Zen Center, students of the Korean monk Seung Sahn. They had recently helped establish the first local intra-sect Buddhist association and their Victorian row house logo is well known to both Boston Buddhists and the worldwide Buddhist audience of Tricycle magazine. The new logo of the Cambridge based Boston Research Center was nearly identical. It was the facade of the Elks Club and it would have passed at six inches for the logo of the Zen folk who had been here nearly forever. Either Ikeda was trying to associate himself with a well known symbol associated with a venerable Cambridge Buddhist landmark, or they had no idea that there were any other Buddhists in Cambridge. I contacted the Zen Center and they had never heard of the Soka Gakkai Center. Millions of Dollars had been spent in Harvard Square in the name of the Buddha, and not one Buddhist group in Boston knew a thing about it.
The third noble shock was when I discovered that eminent Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman and internationally respected theologian Harvey Cox were contributors to the new line of books from the Elks Club Center. These books with impressive titles like 'The United Nations and the World's Religions' were in fact mainly transcripts of talks given as "Dialogues", especially one held at Columbia University nearly a year ago. The Center's own newsletters filled page after page with these events, with even more interviews and quotes from Messieurs Thurman and Cox. I began to read more carefully. Invited to present opening and concluding remarks was Harvard Professor of Divinity Harvey Cox, who said that he had been fortunate to have been in on the Center's thinking about this conference since the beginning of the year." To those who hadn't known what was happening in Cambridge, it sounds like Harvey Cox feels grateful the Center was nice enough to include him.
Bearing in mind that the Center was pouring tons of concrete and erecting a massive forty foot brick elevator shaft right next to the Cambridge Baptist Church's famous flagstone steeple at the time it reads differently of course. Naturally he would be in on the thing from the very beginning, but he's never stepped forward to endorse Ikeda. I have known Harvey Cox since 1976 and Bob Thurman since 1981 and both are fair minded men, intellectually open and both gifted with the rare ability to make legitimate scholarship speak with a common voice.
Still, it seemed unlikely that either of them were fully aware of how their quotes and likenesses were being reproduced and shipped out by the busy elves at the Elks Club. Moreover the same names kept appearing at the dialogues, and they seemed completely heterogeneous. The Center kept calling itself Buddhist but there were no Buddhists in evidence at all. It seemed involved in an entire panoply of charitable discourses and events. Here sat John Kenneth Galbraith having lunch, there an announcement that Ronald Theimann, Dean of the Harvard Divinity School was giving a talk about public religion at the Center, and Professor Bryan Wilson again. This is not the Californian who wrote 'Good Vibrations' but the eminent Oxford don [emeritus] who co-wrote a book in 1994 called 'A Time to Chant' promoting Daisaku Ikeda's side in the very controversy which had so shaken his sect, the mass excommunication of President Ikeda and his entire staff in 1991.
So far the parts made no sense. Why would Ikeda spend so much money in Harvard Square and tell no one about it? Why co-opt the logo of a venerable Cambridge center while telling no Cambridge Buddhists of his existence? Why produce "Dialogues" about all sorts of subjects, attended by small audiences, which were then made into books that nobody would buy? The answer was the fourth noble shock, in a paper published last year by Ms. Straus herself in the scholarly journal Buddhist Christian Studies. At the end of the article, which extolled the work of President Ikeda throughout, was a sentence or two which immediately caught my eye. "In September 1993, Ikeda founded the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century. His lecture, 'Mahayana Buddhism and 21st Century Civilization', delivered at Harvard University just prior to the Center's opening, became the founding spirit."
I was there when that 1993 talk occurred, and remembered it well. Faced with increasing controversy in Japan, Ikeda was not on anybody's welcome mat, and certainly not Harvard's. The talk was given at a small auditorium in the basement of the Department of Asian Studies which had been privately reserved by a member of the faculty sympathetic to his teachings. No Harvard official invited him or greeted him, there was no scholarly interchange, few if any members of the Boston SGI could get in to see their beloved sensei, and fewer Harvard students.
When Harvard professor Charles Hallisey learned that some of his graduate students in Buddhism were not going to be admitted he threatened to boycott the lecture. There was no departmental invitation, the Harvard Press Office knew nothing about it, and it was reported nowhere. One Buddhist senior faculty member grumped for years afterward that he hadn't even known that Ikeda had shaken his hand until he saw it printed in various international SGI publications all that year describing Ikeda's triumph at Harvard. Nobody else even knew about it, except now in a scholarly journal where it was being portrayed as Ikeda's invitation to Harvard and Harvard's respect for his scholarship.
Daisaku Ikeda invited to Harvard? Ikeda lectured at Harvard? That would have been a stretch. I remember slogging through a late winter snow four years ago to hear Rob Epstein discuss the SGI at the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum. He was articulate, clear, self effacing and open minded.
Masatoshi Nagatomi, Harvard's eminent Buddhist who had helped start the forum was in attendance, and the conversation was lively. It was also sad because only about ten people had shown up. It wasn't the snow. It was exactly the way that the Harvard Buddhist establishment felt about Ikeda and the SGI. Epstein did a good job of setting out the situation he was faced with. Even though Ikeda had been trashed by the evil Nichiren priesthood, his problems in Japanese economic and political scandals didn't really affect the United States SGI. After all, President Ikeda hadn't done anything remotely political or social at all in this country and the method of Nichiren Daishonin still worked for them. If fact, he saw the problems in Japan as leading to a less Japanese dominated SGI and perhaps a new opening to a better future.
However there was a much deeper problem which only the leadership in Japan could have realized. No matter what the disagreement with the priesthood was based on, the excommunication of the Soka Gakkai leadership would be devastating outside their Japanese financial base. While the Soka Gakkai were in charge, and Ikeda was in charge of the Soka Gakkai, they had their own private priesthood and the SGI forged no links to any other Buddhist groups.
Ikeda never appeared with the Dalai Lama, the Pope, or any other religious leaders. His sect was rich, he was all powerful, and aside from token appearances at various UN functions and donating large sums of money, he didn't worry that other Buddhists thought he was not a righteous roshi. He could have cared less.
Now, it was panic button time because without a real lineage, he was just another private citizen with his own cult that happened to use methods pioneered and modernized by the Nichiren Sect. His entire international reputation rested on his recognition and respect as a Buddhist leader, and now he was just the Chantmeister of the Ikeda Society. He had to drop everything and do what he could to re-invent himself as the born again Secular Sort of Buddhist Leader respected by important academics and top universities around the world. It made no difference what the Buddhists thought anymore, they were poor and too disorganized. But it was terribly important that international groups and societies still thought that he represented a Buddhist voice and not just a self financed, self promoted, self indulgent Ikeda-Dharma from his writings to his famous on-the-fly Zen photography.
By 1992 it was becoming clear that getting a Harvard endorsement had become ichiban number one priority. He could have chanted for it but it was faster to erect a huge communications center and scholarly sound stage to create and distribute so much Ikeda and Harvard material worldwide that by the time any Harvard cat-herders realized what was up and asked him politely not to use Harvard's name quite so freely, or at least pay the trademark fee, both the SGI and every NGO they were connected with in every country would have already been saturated with so many Harvard Coxes, Galbraiths, Carnesdales, Thurmans and Thiemanns that the only audience he needed to impress would believe his name was Daisaku Harvard Ikeda, Harvard respected world Buddhist spokesman and leader.
It was a simple strategy, a scholarly 'Field of Dreams'. Just find a convenient location less than two blocks from the Harvard faculty club, get a Harvardy-like Georgian building, spend big dollars fixing and furnishing so it looks like the Harvard Overseers Library, and invite them. They will come. Let them speak on whatever they choose, pay a good honorarium, tape it, edit it, print it, and promote it worldwide. Last fall the Center gave a $20,000.00 grant to a Harvard professor at the Kennedy school. They have a lot more where that came from and a yen to spend it.
No wonder they had made no connections with Buddhist groups or Cambridge social service agencies who couldn't promote him. This wasn't anything to do with Buddhist compassion. It was simply a massive public relations campaign by a man genius enough to realize that an elegant showcase to congregate Harvard scholars in his own name was worth more that the few million he paid for the Elks Club.
Further reading into the Straus article made it clear that this was, indeed, the purpose of the ongoing promotion. "Convinced that the universalism of the academic world enables exchanges to take place transcending national borders and ethnic differences, Ikeda frequently visits universities around the world for discussions with faculty and students and to deliver lectures that elucidate Buddhist philosophy."
Yes, he delivers lectures in tiny auditoriums which are tightly controlled and allow for no substantial exchange. Few faculty and fewer students are allowed to participate and nobody has ever suggested that he elucidate anything except his own press. It continues, "Ikeda has not only forged through these lectures an international network of humanistic scholars but has also pioneered the communications of applied Buddhist philosophy in the West." Really? I guess he never read Jack Kerouac, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn or anyone else.
More to the point, nobody I know considers himself forged into any Ikeda Network. Certainly not Mr. Cox or Mr. Galbraith. Dr. Bryan Wilson, perhaps, but he promotes a book promoting Ikeda. The paragraph ends exactly where one might expect, "In lectures at, for example, Moscow State University, the University of Sophia, the University of Buenos Aires, the University of the Philippines, the University of California at Los Angeles and Harvard University, Ikeda explains in accessible language such concepts as dependent origination, the Eastern orientation towards inner directed spirituality, human reverence for life based on the notion of Buddha potential and bodhisattva or compassionate action." Aside from the fact that "bodhisattva" does not mean compassionate action, that says it all. The scholars reading the article will assume that Ikeda is a welcome repeat lecturer at Harvard, where his ideas get a lot of respect and he is surrounded by admiring Buddhist faculty and students. However the lineup of universities is a tad strange. Moscow State, Sophia, and Harvard? He hasn't started any new Centers in Sofia or Moscow. It's clear that it was worth the investment in the Harvard Square real estate. Those lectures at Sophia weren't getting him any respect.
The PR people in Los Angeles eventually set me up with a SGI stalwart, but they managed not to answer any of our questions until two weeks past my deadline. In the meantime, I met Virginia Straus personally at the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum.
We spoke cordially as she left a pile of flyers for the latest Ikeda Harvard-Go-Round. These will be yet more "Dialogues", again held in the controlled confines of the Center. "Open to the Public" but limited seating. Go figure. If seating's limited, we expect seating "limited" to be knowledgeable individuals for some critique or peer review. If it's anyone who wants to come, why not have a big place and pay to promote it? It's the same formula as Ikeda's first Harvard "lecture" and the Columbia dialogue, producing the academic equivalent of an infomercial, talking heads with a few eminent Harvard names, a few emeriti and junior faculty, and a few outright apologists speaking before a small audience of those who got there on time. Nobody else to hear them, nobody else to see them, no substantial input to anything really but new grist for a few more books and PR for the Center and Ikeda.
Total cost? A few thousand in honoraria. Within weeks, each talk will be manufactured into books and pamphlets, tapes and teasers, and sent all over the world. The lineup is impressive. There's David Maybury-Lewis from Cultural Survival, and Dean Ronald Thiemann from the Divinity School, there's Christopher Queen and yup, there's Prof. Bryan Wilson who seems to have some "Time to Chant" about Ikeda's crusade at every Ikeda dialogue. None of the speakers are top Buddhists of course, but nearly all of them are from Harvard. There are dozens of good universities in this area, and top Buddhist resources, but instead all these are miscellaneous Harvard people. They could have invited Cornel West from the Divinity School, he knows about religion and race, they could have invited Masatoshi Nagatomi, he's a real Buddhist scholar, they could have invited Gordon Kaufman. The series stretches across an entire spring. I sent another letter to the Center, asking for a meeting. It would only be a few minutes. Wrong move. I'm not a Harvard person. I get a letter back. Ms. Straus was happy to meet me at the Forum, but has no time and declines to meet with Cyber Sangha, the Institute or with myself. She is much too busy producing sensei's informercials, that is the "dialogues". She won't have time to meet with me all spring in fact. Sorry about that. It is now the second week of March, and I am finally awakening to the fact that the lack of cooperation from SGI Los Angeles is quite deliberate. The idea that Ginny Straus can't find fifteen minutes in the next two months is laughable, and we both know the real reason. I'm asking questions and they're spooked. My Harvard professor was right.
Oh well. This weekend Harvard is celebrating the retirement of Masatoshi Nagatomi, the senior and most respected member of the Harvard Buddhist Community. This retirement is being celebrated by two days of talks and lectures by his students for the past thirty years, many of whom have teaching appointments all over the world.
They are returning to Harvard to honor their sensei. Three different Harvard departments are signing on as sponsors. Across the street at the Elks Club, they're in some sort of huff. Either that or they haven't learned that there are real eminent Buddhists at Harvard yet. At least they haven't shown any interest in those who don't shake the hand of Ikeda with a smile and take the darned honoraria with a little respect for the guy who paid for the fancy digs and the spread. Does he have to elucidate that too? It's called dependent origin; the cash to pay for all of this originates in Japan so you don't have to feel guilty about it. Take the podium, take the check and take your time. It' all for you.
The Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum earnestly asks for ten and twenty dollar donations. The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century hasn't sent a yen yet and nobody's holding their breath.
Still, everybody in Ikeda's million dollar palace on Harvard Square knows very well that it's what Nagatomi has that Ikeda would chant all day for if he really thought it would work: Real respect from Harvard, without manufactured press, without the honoraria, the plush luncheons, or the grants. Harvard's respect means more than money, even all the money available to Daisaku Ikeda. It may take him a few more lifetimes to get it, but Harvard's been around a long time and it won't be the first time or the last. If it doesn't work out, he can always open up a supper club and hope for an honorary. Harvard's seen plenty of religious poseurs, but good sushi is hard to find in the Square. Even President Ikeda would agree about that, and if he and Ms. Straus ever decide to open their doors to other than the influential or important, I will be the first to report on their honesty, openness, and generosity of spirit.
Until then, I think they did a great job on the Elks Club, and the SGI of Boston still get my votes as a better show than all the talking Professors at Harvard. Sensei should turn around and appreciate the good he's done, and not try so hard to be the Harvard flavor of the month. It could be a long wait.
If you believe the SGI teachings, or at least the teachings of SGI Chas, is equal or superior to ours..
I suggest you check out the debate on arbn... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren
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