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5. The Main Point
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By Craig Green & Jeff
Farr
Los Angeles
In 1979, as the priesthood's true, political agenda was
becoming clearer and clearer, an episode happened with
SGI President Ikeda that put everything into perspective
for the Soka Gakkai leaders. To this day, leaders who
were there share their experience as a reminder to us
all.
May 3, 1979: President Ikeda had been forced by the priests
to resign but was set to attend the Soka Gakkai Day meeting
at Soka University — the 19th anniversary of his
presidency. With the priests present, members felt intimidated
to even clap after President Ikeda's speech. Leaving the
gymnasium, though, some women spontaneously called to
him. President Ikeda turned to the Soka Gakkai leaders
with him and asked, "Who will take care of them?"
He then stated: "The Soka Gakkai exists to make such
people, the genuine common people, happy. For that purpose,
Buddhism, too, exists. Don't you think so? You have to
remember this point."
In this short statement we can see the difference between
the SGI and the priesthood: The SGI exists to make the
people happy. The priesthood has been using people. The
Soka Gakkai leaders present made a new determination that
day. If kosen-rufu was just a game to the priests, if
the members were just pawns and Nichiren Daishonin's teachings
just something to manipulate, the Soka Gakkai was going
to stand up to these priests.
No. 5 in a series
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(Originally published, World
Tribune, July 4, 1997)
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