All posts by Soka Spirit Editor

On Nov. 28, 1991, an event of unprecedented magnitude in the history of Buddhism occurred. The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, led by High Priest Nikken, excommunicated 10 million lay believers of the Soka Gakkai International. For the priesthood, they ceased to be one of the largest, global Buddhist schools. For the SGI, it was the birth of spiritual independence. Conditioned by centuries of government-sanctioned power over the lives of Japanese…

On Nov. 28, 1991, Nichiren Shoshu High Priest Nikken Abe excommunicated the ten million members of the Soka Gakkai International, which comprised about ninety-nine percent of all Nichiren Shoshu believers. Introduction For some 700 years, the priesthood has been charged with the responsibility to protect the Dai-Gohonzon and perpetuate the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin. The mission of the SGI—since its inception in 1930 (as the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai)—has been…

OUT OF CONTEXT: MANIPULATING THE TEACHINGS In a sense, religious scripture is not absolute. That is, different people may derive different inspiration or act differently in response to the same text or passage. Upon reading a religious teaching, some may respond with selfless love and compassion, others may behave arrogantly, and still others lash out destructively. This is perhaps why Nichiren Daishonin states that actual proof—the reality of how…

—SGI President Ikeda (Sept. 28, 2001 World Tribune) “Justice only shines when we challenge and triumph over evil. I cannot emphasize enough, however, that bloody, hate-filled revenge is utterly foreign to Buddhism. As a famous passage from an early Buddhist text says, ‘Hatreds do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by not hating; this is an eternal truth’ (The Dhammapada, p. 8). Nichiren Daishonin, though the…

“Please allow me to introduce myself,” says The Devil in the Rolling Stones’ classic tune “Sympathy for the Devil.” Unfortunately, devils are not usually so obvious. By nature, they are devious and hard to identify. In addition, our powers to discern good and evil are diminished by two things: our own ignorance or delusion and the cunning of “the devil himself.” In Nichiren Buddhism “devils” symbolize a function of…

The Soka Spirit movement is a gold mine of opportunities to learn more about Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. The basics of faith are now cast in new light, revealing their deeper meaning—with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood’s views as points of contrast. For this reason, our understanding of the temple issue will naturally translate into a clearer view of our faith, into greater joy and benefit from our practice. The meaning…

By Alain Berger, Los Angeles  I was strolling through the Renoir exhibit at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art recently, admiring an exquisite painting of a woman holding a child, when I heard a man behind me make a comment to his female companion: “that was their nanny, she was his model, I bet you anything she was a lot more than that” he said with a sneer…

The Heritage of the Law What is the “heritage of the Law”? In other words, what is the original spirit or heritage that must not be lost in the transmission of the teachings? Is it merely the knowledge that the Law is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo? Is it something that can be passed on in writing or inscribed on the Gohonzon? In his writing “The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life,”…

Eye-opening Ceremonies Are Meaningless By SGI President Ikeda President Ikeda gave the following speech on Dec. 23, 1992 in Tokyo. It was published in the February 1993 issue of the Seikyo Times, pp. 4–9. Today I would like to speak about the concept of the “opening of the eyes,” about which a number “of people have recently inquired. As the name suggests, the original meaning of the “eye-opening” ceremony…

1) They claim SGI Gohonzon did not Receive the “Eye-Opening” Ritual Performed by the High Priest Nichiren Daishonin never mentioned an eye-opening ceremony being necessary for Gohonzon. He simply addresses the established religious tradition of this ritual as it applies to statues or painted images of the Buddha and in particular, refutes the practice in the True Word (Shingon) or esoteric Buddhism. He writes: “It is the power of…