An excerpt of SGI President Ikeda’s speech at the Youth training meeting, Soka University Los Angeles, Calabasas, California, October 1, 1991 Niko’s Slander of Nikko Shonin Yesterday, at the conference for leaders of the United States and Canada, I talked briefly about the reasons for Nikko Shonin’s departure from Mount Minobu. The fundamental cause for his departure lay with the decadent priest Mimbu Niko [one of the five…
The following speech by SGI President Ikeda was given at the 9th general meeting of the Study Department at Josei Toda Memorial Auditorium in Osaka, Japan on January 15, 1977. (It was published in English in the April, 1977 Seikyo Times, p. 6) I offer my sincerest congratulations on the holding of today’s study department conference. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to participate on such a…
By SGI President Ikeda “The reason Nichiren repeatedly denounced the slander of the Law committed by the various Buddhist schools of his day was because their erroneous teachings prevented people from revealing their full inner potential. He was not driven by a self-righteous, out-of-hand rejection of other sutras apart from the Lotus Sutra as representing slander of the Law. Rather, his actions can be seen as a manifestation of…
The Gohonzon conferred by the SGI are based on an original Gohonzon transcribed by the 26th high priest Nichikan (1665–1726), known as the restorer of Nichiren’s teachings. He is known as the restorer because previous high priests had deviated from the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin. Today’s priesthood labels this Gohonzon as counterfeit because it was not sanctioned by the current high priest. When their scheme to take control of the…
The SGI began to confer Gohonzon upon qualified members throughout the world in October 1993. These Gohonzon are reproductions of a Gohonzon transcribed by the 26th high priest, Nichikan Shonin, in 1720. The SGI took this action based on its mission and qualification as the sole body of harmoniously united believers that inherits the lifeblood of faith from Nichiren Daishonin. This decision is most fitting and proper in light of the…
After Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment in India around 2,500 years ago, he began teaching others what he had realized, and the first Buddhist Order was founded. Among the many disciples who followed the Buddha was his cousin Devadatta. Eventually, Devadatta succumbed to his own weakness, and he turned against Shakyamuni. These are the highlights of his tale. Devadatta was a man of supreme evil, who conspired to take Shakyamuni’s…
The following is a translation of a thesis by Masahiro Kobayashi, research fellow at The Institute of Oriental Philosophy in Hachioji, Tokyo. It was published in the July 1993 issue of The Daibyakurenge, the monthly study journal of the Soka Gakkai in Japan. It was first published in English in the September 1993 issue of the Seikyo Times. Nichiren Daishonin submitted “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace…
By the Association for the Reformation of Nichiren Shoshu and the Association of Youthful Priests Dedicated to the Reformation of Nichiren Shoshu The following article is based on a treatise presented in 1993 to the Soka Gakkai Headquarters from the Association for the Reformation of Nichiren Shoshu and the Association of Youthful Priests Dedicated to the Reformation of Nichiren Shoshu. The authors of…
The priesthood’s emphasis on the direct worship of the Dai-Gohonzon over worship of one’s personal Gohonzon completely contradicts its own tradition. Throughout the history of Taiseki-ji, the successive high priests transcribed Gohonzon so that believers could practice the Daishonin’s Buddhism without directly praying to the Dai-Gohonzon. Hori Nichiko, the fifty-ninth high priest and renowned scholar of the history of Nichiren Buddhism, explained that the Dai-Gohonzon was intended to “be kept in…
SGI President Ikeda has been submitting peace proposals to the United Nations since 1983. They cover a broad range of topics and offer solutions to the challenges facing humankind. In some of them, he has addressed the nature of the conflict between the SGI and the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and religion in general. The following excerpts are from those proposals. 1996 Peace Proposal— Increasingly, people around the world are…