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The Anticult
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An actual person is writing the SGI-USA material, like that was just posted in this thread. Of course its not Ikeda, that is impossible and absurd.
Its probably one main person in the SGI-USA offices who is in charge of that area, someone who really knows what they are doing.
SGI does have their own publishing company, the Middleway Press. Clearly some of SGI's millions have gone into Middleway, feeding Ikeda's fantasy that he's a successful author. Running a publishing house must be expensive, especially when you're paying ghostwriters for their writing skill and silence. And let's face it, these books don't exactly sound like blockbuster best-sellers. Sure, some devout SGI members buy anything that Ikeda writes -- but that's not a huge number of people -- not when you compare it to the best-sellers that Amazon and the big bookstores are selling. Many, many small, specialized presses have gone out of business in recent years because they just cannot compete with the bigger book retailers. Middleway doesn't have to worry about being profitable, does it? You don't need profits when you've got zaimu.
So who is our mystery propagandist? Greg Martin? Michael Lisagor? Woody Hochswender?
-------Begin Quote, from Middleway Press's Website-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Middleway Press
Middleway Press is the trade publishing division of the SGI-USA, the American branch of the Soka Gakkai International, the 12-million-member lay Buddhist organization committed to world peace through cultural exchange and education for the happiness and welfare of all humanity.
The Soka Gakkai, which means "Society for the Creation of Value," was founded in Japan in 1930, based on the teachings of Nichiren, a 13th-century Japanese Buddhist teacher and reformer.
Though the SGI-USA has published books for decades for its membership, Middleway Press was founded with the express purpose of making the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism and the philosophy of SGI and its president, Daisaku Ikeda, more widely available in the United States.
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Dave McNeill, Reiko Groshell, and Jason Henninger have been listed as contact people in Middleway Press. These names sound familiar. I believe that Jason was a Young Men's Division Leader in SGI. Maybe Reiko was a Young Women's Division Leader?
Middleway Press has sixteen titles listed, most by Ikeda.
These titles were written by Ikeda alone: (well, not counting the ghostwriters)
1. Buddhism Day By Day
2. Buddhism For You: Courage
3. Buddhism For You: Determination
4. Buddhism For You: Love
5. Buddhism For You: Prayer
6. For The Sake of Peace
7. The Way of Youth
8. The Living Buddha (translator Burton Watson, no translators are listed for the other books.)
9. Soka Education
10. Unlocking the Mysteries of Birth and Death
In addition, Ikeda has written these books with other people:
1. Choose Hope (David Krieger, an antinuclear activist, is the co-author.)
2. On Being Human (Co-authors are Rene Simard, a biology professor at the University of Montreal, and Guy Borgeault, an ethics professor at U Montreal.)
3. Planetary Citizenship (Co-author is Hazel Henderson, an economist and writer; she has also been involved with the Ikeda Center in Boston.)
These books were not written by Ikeda:
1. The Buddha In Your Mirror, by Woody Hochswender, a journalist and 25 year member of SGI, Greg Martin, vice-general director, SGI-USA, and Ted Morino, also a vice-general director of SGi-USA. Morino is also the former director of the SGI-USA study department, and has done much translation for SGI.
2. The Buddha Next Door, by Greg Martin, vice-general director, SGI-USA, and Zan Gaudioso, who wrote for some of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.
3. Romancing the Buddha, Michael Lisagor, a 35 year member of SGI, and writer for the World Tribune and Living Buddhism, SGI publications.