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September 08,
2000
Editorial: The Right Time
By Jeff Farr
Associate Editor
That bell
is not an evening bell,
but the bell of dawn.
- SGI President Ikeda, “Soar—Into the Vast
Skies of Freedom! Into the New Century!”
It is a big relief in chapter 11 of The Untold History
of the Fuji School when the Soka Gakkai finally appears.
After centuries of Nichiren Daishonin?s Buddhism being
cooped up with a small group of priests at the head temple,
the common people, represented by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
and Josei Toda, ride in to save the day. They rescue this
philosophy and deliver it to the world.
Showing up seven centuries after the Daishonin?s time,
the Soka Gakkai has always had a mystic rhythm to its
history. In this vein, second Soka Gakkai president Toda
used to say, “The Gakkai should advance a major
step every seven years.” He used the analogy of
ringing a bell: “Let?s sound a bell every seven
years to mark our progress toward kosenrufu. Let?s aim
to strike seven bells!” (February 1997 Living Buddhism,
p. 42).
Looking toward the future, SGI President Ikeda expanded
on this idea in a speech a month after Toda?s death. At
the May 3, 1958, general meeting, he shared how our organization?s
history could be divided into “seven bells”—
seven seven-year periods from 1930–79. From today?s
vantage point, it is clear how the Soka Gakkai did “sound
a bell every seven years,” as Toda envisioned:
• 1930–37: Makiguchi and Toda began the Soka
Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creation Education Society) on Nov.
18, 1930, by publishing the first volume of The System
of Value-Creating Pedagogy. The initial period of our
movement, the early years of Makiguchi and Toda?s Buddhist
practice, closed in 1937 with the official inauguration
of the organization and the launch of steady propagation
efforts.
• 1937–44: The Soka Kyoiku Gakkai grew to
a membership of 3,000, mostly educators. In 1943, first
president Makiguchi stood up to the priesthood to protect
this Buddhism?s integrity, while the Nichiren Shoshu priests
complied with the military government in accepting State
Shinto. Makiguchi was thus arrested and met his death
in prison on Nov. 18, 1944—exactly 14 years after
the organization was founded.• 1944–51: During
these postwar years, Toda followed in Makiguchi?s steps
to rebuild the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, which had fallen apart,
as the Soka Gakkai (Value-Creation Society). On May 3,
1951, seven years after Makiguchi?s death, with the organization
back to its prewar size, Toda accepted the presidency.
• 1951–58: At his inauguration, Toda determined
to increase the membership to 750,000. This is the point
where kosen-rufu started to spread at a rapid pace. Toda
accomplished his goal at the end of 1957, shortly before
his death. The Soka Gakkai?s future course was set with
his 1957 call to youth to abolish nuclear weapons and
the March 16, 1958, ceremony at which he turned his responsibilities
over to young Daisaku Ikeda and the youth division.
• 1958–65: President Ikeda took leadership
as third president in 1960, the same year he started his
travels for kosen-rufu outside Japan, with the United
States as his first destination. The Soka Gakkai surpassed
a membership of 3 million, President Ikeda?s target for
the seventh memorial (sixth anniversary) of Toda?s death.
• 1965–72: The Soka Gakkai focused on the
completion of the Grand Main Temple (Sho-Hondo) at the
Nichiren Shoshu head temple to support the burgeoning
worldwide movement. While he led the Soka Gakkai to a
membership of 7.5 million, 10 times Toda?s 1951 determination,
President Ikeda saw to the completion of the Soka University
campus in Japan to actualize the ideals set forth in The
System of Value-Creating Pedagogy.
• 1972–79: The international movement started
to come together, leading to the formation of the SGI
on Guam in 1975, with representatives from 51 nations
in attendance. Various anti–Soka Gakkai parties
incited a conflict between the priesthood and the organization
in the late 1970s, ending in President Ikeda, resolved
to do whatever it took to protect the membership, stepping
down as Soka Gakkai president.This 49-year history takes
the Soka Gakkai from its birth, through its transformation
into an international movement, to a crucial moment that
tested its spiritual identity. The appearance of strong
anti–Soka Gakkai forces signified that the SGI was
in accord with the Lotus Sutra?s teaching that enemies
of the Buddha must appear if the Bodhisattvas of the Earth
are correctly spreading the teachings. This was the opportunity,
then, for the SGI to prove it was a gathering of the Bodhisattvas
of the Earth. Thanks to President Ikeda?s resilient leadership
at the time—reminding us that the organization?s
core mission was to save and serve the common people—the
SGI stayed the course, survived the dispute and started
moving straight toward the 21st century with a solidified
sense of purpose.
On May 3, 1966, President Ikeda had first shared his vision
of a second set of seven bells—a new history for
the Soka Gakkai beginning in 2001. On Nov. 18, 1978, when
the “first temple issue” was coming to a head,
President Ikeda announced a series of four fiveyear plans
to cover 1980–2000, the years between the first
and second seven bells. Here is how the five-year periods
have played out:
• 1980–85: Coming out of the conflict, President
Ikeda decided to strengthen the SGI by developing more
capable leaders, particularly youth leaders. A new generation,
many who grew up in the organization, began propelling
the spread of this Buddhism. Inspired by the 1975 formation
of the SGI, organizations in many countries became much
stronger and larger.
• 1985–90: Toward the 700th anniversary of
the head temple in 1990, the SGI donated more than 100
temples to the priesthood, hoping that, despite the difficulties
in the late ?70s, Nichiren Shoshu would continue supporting
the kosen-rufu movement. At the same time, the SGI became
increasingly involved in peace activities, including efforts
for nuclear disarmament and refugee relief, often in concert
with the United Nations. President Ikeda opened the first
Soka University of America campus in Calabasas, Calif.,
in 1987, which became an international graduate school
for Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
• 1990–95: The intent for these five years
was to get everything squared away for the SGI?s activities
in the new century. Fortunately, Nichiren Shoshu?s attacks
on the SGI, which peaked with the excommunication of all
SGI members in 1991, freed us from the priests? authoritarian
attempts to control our activities.
• 1995–2000: While the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood
destroyed the Grand Main Temple, the SGI spread its movement
to 163 countries. Throughout the world, the new generation
raised by the pioneers became the central figures of the
movement, in turn working to raise the next generation,
which will take the lead in the second seven bells. Interfaith
activities became a crucial part of the SGI?s ongoing
peace activities. The construction of the Soka University
of America campus in Orange County, Calif., to be an international
liberal arts college, was undertaken.Which brings us to
today. Here we are, standing on a mountain of SGI history—and
a mountain of prayer. Behind the scenes, every step of
the way, has been the rhythm of Nam-myoho- renge-kyo;
the members? sincere prayers to progress kosen-rufu are
what have made the Soka Gakkai?s history so impressive.
President Ikeda has explained that the five-year periods
and the first seven bells represent Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
—- the five or seven Chinese characters that make
it up (the five being myo, ho, ren, ge and kyo, and the
seven being these plus nam, made up of two characters).
(Likewise, High Priest Nichijun, regarding Toda?s goal
of 750,000, once said, “I believe President Toda
called forth these people in the number of 750,000, representing
the five or seven characters of Myoho-renge-kyo.”)
The first seven bells and the five-year periods also express
the oneness of mentor and disciple, which is based on
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. As President Ikeda told Kansai Senior
High School students during a February Q-and-A session:
“My mentor and I are linked together by the rhythm
of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And that is why I must realize
his dreams and ideals, why I must keep exerting myself
” (April 7 World Tribune, p. 4).
Our prayers for kosen-rufu, too, can link us with the
SGI?s history and the spirit of the three presidents.
And our prayers can create the SGI?s future. The second
seven bells are, after all, up to us. Aren?t we fortunate
to be practicing Buddhism in the SGI right now, to be
alive when the time is so right? “From a mundane
view, I am the poorest person in Japan,” the Daishonin
writes, “but in light of Buddhism, I am the wealthiest
person in all Jambudvipa [the entire world]. When I consider
that this is all because the time is right, I am overwhelmed
with joy and cannot restrain my tears” (The Writings
of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 977).
Who are the luckiest people in the world today? We are.
The second seven bells are about to ring—history
is about to be made—and we are here not only as
witnesses to the dawn of a new era but as the creators
of it.
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