 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
8. Why Has the SGI Focused
on the High Priest So Much? |
|
|
|
Jeff Farr
Associate Editor
When Nikken, current Nichiren Shoshu high priest, excommunicated
the SGI in 1991, one choice our organization could have
made would have been to walk away from the whole mess,
ignoring all the terrible things that he was doing. We
could have devoted all our energies to making the best
SGI possible.
Why, then, have we kept talking about Nikken? Why has
the SGI kept such a strong spotlight focused on him-on
pointing out his bad points-for all these years?
Nichiren Shoshu, under Nikken's leadership, is negating
Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism by spreading a twisted version
of it throughout the world. Nichiren Shoshu's religion
is not the Daishonin's religion at all-but Nikken is still
pretending that it is. He is in charge of this spiritual
con game, enticing people away from correct Buddhist practice.
The SGI's Soka Spirit efforts have been, in the face of
Nikken's efforts to confuse, all about clarifying the
Daishonin's Buddhism-what exactly this Buddhism is and
is not. An important component of this has been letting
people know that Nikken's lead has taken Nichiren Shoshu
far, far off-track.
True Buddhist leaders lead through their behavior. The
Daishonin teaches that the real meaning of Buddhist practice
lies in one's ehavior as a human being (The Writings
of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 852). In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni
expresses the three virtues this way: Now this threefold
world / is all my domain, [corresponds to sovereign] /
and the living beings in it / are all my children. [parent]
/ Now this place / is beset by many pains and trials.
/ I am the only person / who can rescue and protect others.
[teacher] (The Lotus Sutra, pp. 69—70).
Do we see these virtues in Nikken's actions? First, Nikken
has not been the kind of sovereign Shakyamuni is talking
about. Instead of embracing all of us, Nikken has tried
to destroy our unity and turn us on one another. In 1991,
he ordered the Soka Gakkai to disband and excommunicated
12 million lay believers; he split the body of practitioners
in two.
Second, the Lotus Sutra says that a true teacher directs
people to enlightenment by instilling in them the correct
teachings. It is in this area that we see perhaps the
worst thing about Nikken: the way he has discarded the
Daishonin's teachings. He has tried to fool people into
taking his new ones-which revolve around deference to
him as an intermediary between the Gohonzon and us-as
the real deal on the Daishonin's Buddhism. When he had
the chance to teach, Nikken chose to miseducate.
Third, Nikken has failed to show us the immense parental
compassion, which a Buddhist leader must. The Grand Main
Temple, for example, was the crystallization of 8 million
members' sincere offerings of more than $360 million (which
would be triple that today, somewhere around a billion
dollars). The destruction of this edifice of peace was
a slap in the face to each one of these 8 million people.
So, do we pay no attention to someone who does the things
that Nikken has done and just proceed toward kosen-rufu?
Or is facing this kind of person-denying his or her slander
outright-the quickest, surest way of achieving our dreams
for kosen-rufu?
The Daishonin devoted his life to refuting slander. And
all of his efforts, all his writings, are our greatest
education. The SGI's Soka Spirit movement, based entirely
on these, is the same education for a new era.
As the Daishonin writes: It is a time when...truth and
error stand shoulder to shoulder, and when Mahayana and
Hinayana dispute which is superior. At such a time, one
must set aside all other affairs and devote one's attention
to rebuking slander of the correct teaching. This is the
practice of shakubuku (WND, 126).
It's clear, then, what the Daishonin thought we should
do when someone set on slandering the Law appears before
us: something. We must say something, we must do something,
and we must prove the truth.
|
|
(Originally published in the World
Tribune, Jan. 21, 2000)
|
|
|
|
|
