Promoting People-Centered Buddhism

Revealing our innate Buddhahood against the gravity of our deep-seated ignorance of it may be likened to walking uphill. It is much easier to go along with an authoritarian vision of religion, which is why former Nichiren Shoshu high priest Nikken Abe’s religious orientation can easily sway many people.

For this reason, we as SGI members have never taken lightly the issue of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood. Instead, we have been striving to clarify Nikken’s teaching as “this one evil,” just as Nichiren challenged the erroneous Buddhist teachings of his day (see The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 15). We need to grasp the issue of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood as the essential issue of Buddhism today. For this reason, we have been calling on one another to understand the negative workings that are attempting to destroy the path of kosen-rufu we are building.

Outside Japan, people often ask, “How should we approach this issue if we are not directly involved with any temple members?” I also started to receive similar questions in Japan. In the future, more and more members will have no direct experience with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood.

When I respond to such questions, I try to stress the importance of challenging “the one evil within”—that is, both our own tendency to be authoritarian and to be overly dependent on authority. It becomes more and more important to challenge our own religious views that resemble those of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood. In other words, all of us must establish a spiritual foundation by challenging ourselves, chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and enjoying benefit through self-reliant faith.

It is also important that we teach others about the benefit and meaning of our Buddhist practice. Step by step, we should strive to convey the essence of Nichiren Buddhism. Such steady efforts, I believe, will become our equivalent of the struggle against the distortions of the priesthood. Challenging these, then, will continue to be the crucial basis for our movement to promote religious reformation.

Therefore, if you know a temple member, it becomes all the more important to teach him or her about the errors of the priesthood’s teachings. We must strive to help as many people as possible awaken to the authoritarian reality of Nichiren Shoshu. This is our essential struggle against life’s negative functions, through which we can truly promote the expansion of our kosen-rufu movement and break through our inner negativity, allowing us to enjoy immense benefit.

Though Nikken stepped down from the position of high priest in December 2005, and Nichinyo Hayase has taken his place, it is just as important today to clarify the destructive acts committed by Nikken from the standpoint of Buddhist study. It is also important to understand that the authoritarian nature of Nichiren Shoshu, as the sect has been redefined by Nikken, remains the same.

By excommunicating the Soka Gakkai in 1991, Nikken transformed Nichiren Shoshu into an erroneous school of Nichiren Buddhism, which may be appropriately called the “Nikken sect.” Nikken is the founder of the sect. From now into the future, all high priests of Nichiren Shoshu will be known as the successive high priests of these new teachings, as their lineage of succession descends from Nikken.

In this presentation, I will discuss the meaning of this appearance of Nikken’s teachings and confirm their essential nature as an authoritarian religion.

From a broad perspective, the issue of Nichiren Shoshu arose when the Soka Gakkai was elucidating the essential nature of Nichiren Buddhism as the teaching to genuinely help people and was spreading it throughout the world. Put another way, the issue of Nikken arose at the time when worldwide kosen-rufu was advancing significantly. In this issue, therefore, we must perceive the nature of Buddhism and religion as a whole against the background of the broad current of times.

The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people can realize the state of Buddhahood, and Nichiren Buddhism gives us the concrete means to do so. People fundamentally changing their own lives—this is the essence of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Buddhism.

One reason why the propagation of the Lotus Sutra necessarily comes with obstacles is that “this Lotus Sutra is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand” (The Lotus Sutra, p. 164). There are two aspects of this difficulty:

1) It is most difficult to understand and believe in the universality of Buddhahood—that all people possess the Buddha nature and can attain Buddhahood.

2) It is most difficult to understand and believe in a people-centered religion because it is unprecedented in history.

So when the propagation of the Lotus Sutra is carried out in earnest, persecutions will arise because of people’s disbelief and lack of understanding. The Lotus Sutra itself expounds this point.

The issue of Nichiren Shoshu, then, can be viewed as a matter of great importance directly related to the Lotus Sutra’s essence as being “the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.”

The Lotus Sutra explains the three powerful enemies as oppressors of the sutra’s practitioners. (See LS, 193–95) The three powerful enemies may be described as the alliance of old-fashioned, authoritarian religions from before the Lotus Sutra’s appearance.

During Nichiren’s time, many people believed that the Buddhist schools based on the provisional sutras other than the Lotus Sutra represented Shakyamuni’s true teachings. In contrast, Nichiren established a religion based on the Lotus Sutra teaching of the universality of Buddhahood and challenged the preconceived notions of Buddhism in his day.

At the beginning, in response to Nichiren’s propagation efforts, the believers of the Pure Land school reacted negatively and persecuted Nichiren. Eventually, however, the priest Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji (the suffix -ji means “temple”)—a leader of the revival movement of the older, traditional Precepts school—appeared as the third of the three powerful enemies, that is, as an arrogant false sage. Ryokan and other eminent priests of the other established schools, in league with government officials, formed an alliance against Nichiren. This became the basic formula of persecution toward Nichiren.

When the worldwide propagation of Nichiren Buddhism was carried out in earnest, a similar formula of persecution arose. This can be described as the essence of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood issue.

In present-day Japan, schools based on provisional sutras as well as schools based on the Lotus Sutra have fallen into the category of “funeral Buddhism,” or religion based solely on rituals. The same can be said of Nichiren Shoshu. Many priests think that this form of ritualistic religion is genuine Nichiren Buddhism. The appearance of Nikken is symbolic of this tendency in Nichiren Shoshu. Nikken excommunicated the Soka Gakkai in order to control ordinary believers and they call it “restoration.”

The preamble of the “Soka Gakkai’s Rules and Regulations” states, “President Makiguchi, who taught Buddhism as a guide for daily living and a philosophy of value-creation, bequeathed to posterity the spirit of selfless dedication to spreading the Law by offering his life for Buddhism” (June 7, 2002, World Tribune, p. 3).

Makiguchi and Toda remained undefeated by World War II–era government persecution, while the other lay believers renounced their faith. At that time, the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood totally abandoned Makiguchi and Toda, who continued to practice the correct teachings and refused to accept State Shinto rites as part of Nichiren Buddhist practice. As a result, they were imprisoned.

President Toda, who inherited the spirit of Makiguchi, stood on the side of ordinary people and faced persecution. In prison, he awakened to the idea that “the Buddha is life itself” and made the concept of Buddhahood accessible to all people. Upon this realization, he also awakened to his mission as a Bodhisattva of the Earth.

Based on the idea that once awakened, everyone could become a Bodhisattva of the Earth, President Toda encouraged many people to take faith in Nichiren Buddhism and transform their identity from being people who were seeking salvation into people who were actively working for others’ happiness. Thus President Toda initiated his struggle for kosen-rufu based on the idea of human revolution—one’s inner reform through awakening to his or her innate Buddhahood—and achieved his long-held goal of helping 750,000 families take faith in Nichiren Buddhism.

In this way, the Soka Gakkai painstakingly created its movement. During this period, based on the idea of building harmony between priesthood and laity, we supported and cherished the priesthood. There were a few Nichiren Shoshu priests who understood the significance of the Soka Gakkai’s appearance. Some of the previous high priests, in fact, praised the Soka Gakkai’s mission.

Nichiko, the fifty-ninth high priest, for example, praised President Makiguchi as “surpassing the capacity of ordinary priests.” Nichijun, the sixty-fifth high priest, also stated: “President Makiguchi was born an emissary of the Buddha. Through the Lotus Sutra, he revealed his identity and achieved his place of honor.”

Nichijun also commented about President Toda, “It is President Toda who caused 750,000 families to emerge from the earth embodying the five and seven characters of Myoho-renge-kyo.”

Nittatsu, the sixty-sixth high priest, remarked about President Ikeda, “President Ikeda is the successor of the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, advancing kosen-rufu as a general of propagation.”

Although some high priests offered those words of praise, most of the Nichiren Shoshu priests, despite publicly emphasizing harmony between the priesthood and laity, resented the Soka Gakkai’s progress. Behind the scenes, there was always a scheme to create a priest-centered movement and control the Soka Gakkai.

For example, when High Priest Nichiko Hori included the Soka Gakkai’s wartime persecution in the history of Buddhist persecutions in his work The Essential Writings of the Fuji School, which was republished after the war, some priests tried to interfere. Nichiko commented: “My inclusion of the Soka Gakkai’s persecution was not welcomed by the priesthood. There were those who were against it. But that wasn’t right. For the sake of the future, the Soka Gakkai’s persecution must be included in the history of Buddhist persecutions. It was the greatest of all persecutions that took place [in the history of the Fuji school]. Mr. Makiguchi’s martyrdom has great meaning. No priests can match him.”

The Soka Gakkai’s way of practicing Buddhism is that the ordinary people bring forth their own absolute happiness. The priesthood, however, continually tried to assert its authority and create a movement to control people. With the Soka Gakkai’s growth, the priesthood’s movement to assert its religious authority intensified.

Put simply, the movement of the Soka Gakkai and the SGI is to reveal the essence of Nichiren Buddhism as a people-centered Buddhism. As a reaction, the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood continually tried to reestablish itself as a priest-centered Buddhism in order to control people and confine them within it. This reactionary movement always existed in the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood. When Nikken was high priest, it reached its high point.

It clearly manifested around 1977 as the first priesthood issue. At that time, the relationship between the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the Soka Gakkai was restored by a huge compromise on the part of the Soka Gakkai. (For more details, see The Untold History of the Fuji School, pp. 139–53.)

But the movement of a people-centered Buddhism could not be stopped. The tide created by the Soka Gakkai to practice Nichiren Buddhism as a world religion was continually rising. The popular movement kept expanding. And, eventually, an even stronger reaction came from the priesthood, initiated and led by Nikken.

During this time, there were Soka Gakkai members who sought salvation through the prayers of priests at the end of their lives. Nichiren Shoshu temple members today still hold such a subservient attitude toward religion.

But now, with the expansion of worldwide propagation, the time has come to demonstrate which religious attitude is more genuinely Nichiren Buddhist. The contrast has become clearer than ever between the Soka Gakkai advancing worldwide propagation led by President Ikeda and the priesthood’s reactionary moves led by Nikken.

The situation came to the surface in the form of Nikken’s machinations. The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood tried to separate Soka Gakkai members from President Ikeda and thereby destroy the Gakkai’s movement as a people-centered Buddhism. The priesthood schemed to gather subservient believers—enough to meet their needs. As Nikken famously said, “It will be OK if we can get 200,000 Soka Gakkai members come over to the temple side.”

Nikken and the rest of the priesthood, as well as temple members, promote the traditional, authoritarian view of Buddhism in which believers serve priestly authority. On the contrary, the Lotus Sutra teaches that Buddhism should be practiced by the people, for the people. Indeed, the priesthood issue comes down to the struggle between these two opposing views of religion—humanistic and authoritarian.

If we look at recent religious trends, a traditional, authoritarian view of religion still prevails throughout humanity. In our efforts to promote kosen-rufu, Nikken may seem yet another foolish priest, but his influence, in reality, is very strong.

He tried to destroy our strong progress toward kosen-rufu, our movement to promote worldwide kosen-rufu under President Ikeda’s leadership. He tried to destroy our authentic Buddhist movement in favor of his priestly authority and priest-centered Buddhism. For this reason, we must clearly view his teaching as the source of much confusion, and accordingly we must challenge it.

The true nature of the Nichiren Shoshu is evident when we examine their tenets, which essentially boil down to the following three points: 1) the authority of priesthood, 2) the authority of high priest and 3) the authority of rituals. That is all. There is no substantial teaching there. Because many human beings, however, still hold to an authoritarian view of religion, they can still succumb to these ideas.

It is up to us whether we can further expand, at this time of worldwide kosen-rufu, the spirit of the Lotus Sutra that all people can attain Buddhahood, that all people can reveal themselves as Bodhisattvas of the Earth. The issue with the priesthood represents the most important juncture at which we can either advance or retreat.

In other words, it is easy to point out Nikken’s errors or his slanderous behavior toward Buddhism. But it is extremely difficult to transform the underlying cultural base upon which Nikken stands or the human tendencies that allow authoritarian, priest-centered religion to thrive. For this reason, we must now go beyond refuting Nikken alone. Our challenge that began with the Nikken sect has entered a new phase, one in which we must endeavor to reform the spiritual soil of humanity at the fundamental level.