Re: Soka Gakkai International -- SGI
Date: December 03, 2010 08:33PM
It seems that there is a lot of dialog that is bottled up in sgi members
with no way to express their true feelings and thoughts anywhere within the sgi itself..
The organization is made up of people, and should be molded by the voices of those people....as a democracy....
sgi has seemed to morph into a personality cult with Mr. Ikeda as the central figure..
..they used to emphasize the central figure concept, but I think they have now established a different theme, mentor-disciple, which has overtaken everyone.....
The organization seems to revolve around the printed text publications, more than living speech among members...
Without healthy, open communication, the organization will atrophy
and decline....
The dialog concept is emphasized in the external sense re: the org, but not internally....
You can talk to a senior in faith about it...I imagine....
Anyway, I wrote an extremely long post but the computer didn't file it....
I suggest daimoku as a good tool to sort out the flaws of the org....
the org is supposed to support the continuance of one's practice, which everyone can assume is not an easy practice.
The flaws of the organization are there partly because people
are flawed.....
That doesn't excuse irresponsible leadership, of course...
The problem is that people have become passive sometimes,
afraid to speak out for the good of the org.... and by extension themselves....
Nichiren realized the contradictory schools of thought, and made himself a real pain in the ass to those schools...
Makiguchi realized the flaws and problems of Japanese education and made an effort to work those problems out...
Toda was completely with that idea in his support of Makiguchi.
When Ikeda came along, Japan was like a beaten up prize fighter, down for the count....
He did a lot to revive the org, and hence Japan's circumstances, so you have to take the long view about those accomplishments, and acknowledge them...
I don't find the publications offensive....I always find them encouraging...
but they are printed text, as opposed to living speech and dialog...
maybe you have to see them as a tool of the practice, which can follow its own course
....that is to say, they should be read as a chronicle, not as scripture....
they exist only to encourage people...that's it....
they are like the flag in the putting green...just indicating a point of focus....like a lighthouse of sorts....
to steer clear of peril.....
they really are about returning to the basics of chanting,
more or less.....the basics are permanent....they never, ever, ever change...
..Like Churchill's quote.....'Never ever, ever give up'
.....he was refering to the bastard Nazi's and England's life and death struggle with them...
..the British were very close to being wiped out and were fighting like hell for their very existence, I would claim.....
I have many stories to relate about flaws in the sgi...
we all do....
but don't worry too much....take it back to chanting...
you will see a change in your viewpoint ....at least I always
do.......
I usually, after a bit of chanting...start breaking out in happy laughter...its the strangest thing....
Buddhism is designed for human happiness..which is why people do it initially .....
it is very hard to continue....but it can be done
many people have quit....like that gosho, "to begin is easy, to continue is....[well]... difficult''....
I have quit the org more than once, the first time I took an incredible plunge
into a hellacious zone....
....but the chanting is the
essence......
it ain't easy....everyone knows that....but it can be a helluvalot
of fun...eventually....
you have to sink your teeth into something in the real world, you know
don't just be a chant/ a holic....
find your true passion...or chant to find your true passion...
there are lots of interesting things to do, you just have to discover your 'thing'.....
that is probably the key to the whole freakin' mess...
...maybe.....
and chant for the poor org to get itself together...
it will improve with care...
Ikeda is human and he knows it.....he has flaws...but I have personally seen his astounding sincerity as well....nobody is perfect...
You can write to him, you know....he responds to folks....
you probably know a few of those stories...
just chant....is my take....
I have been through alot in life...if I may say so....
relationships have frequently been horrendous with others, members included,
but we chant to help ourselves get closer to one another...
to care about someone else....
I mean, care about someone beyond the spouse or parent or child.
and of course to improve ourselves....'cause that's all we really have, possibly.....
Sakyamuni didn't even consider himself the leader of the
Samgha, or Buddhist community....so there is a lesson to that story......
Nichiren was abandoned by most of his countrymen, not entirely though....he still had loyal followers who empathized with his extreme ordeals, I gather.....
If you doubt the practice's authenticity, you might read the
gosho "On the buddha's behavior'' which is a straight autobiography....the part with the meteor at the beach...
that is historically verifiable.....
Nichiren always mentioned his negative
karma and such, just like everyone else, including Mr. Ikeda
....but the beach meteor has got to say something to an intelligent person....that is, Buddhism has some power....
he was chanting, I imagine, when they lowered his head for instant decapitation....with a razor-sharp, samurai sword...
I sure the hell would have been chanting, if it were my head on the chopping block...
Don't fret about the org too much....in fact....you are the org,
you could say....raise some G/D hell with some senior....they can suck it up...I am sure....
feedback is the only way they have to navigate the blind vessel of believers, I gather....
How else could they do it?
I guess you have to chant for the health of the org..
..Mr. Ikeda seems to be winding down....at least he just skipped the last big monthly meeting in Japan.....
He realizes his best work is probably behind him....
so he probably wants to hand the peace movement to his underlings
....at least that's what his rhetoric implies....
He probably is getting tired....like anyone else at the helm
for decade upon decade....
peace always,
Enough said,
b....