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4. 'My Thoughts on Leaving
Nichiren Shoshu,' by Bando Sato
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On Sept. 9, 1999, Bando
Sato, chief priest of Daien-ji temple in Kanagawa, Japan,
announced that his temple had left Nichiren Shoshu. Here
is a complete translation of his letter to Nikken:
To Mr. Nikken Abe High Priest of Nichiren Shoshu:
The Daishonin, founder of this school, states in The Actions
of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra: “Even if my counsel
is heeded, if I am not given due respect as the votary
of the Lotus Sutra, then the country will perish. How
ominous that the authorities have turned hundreds of persons
against me and have even banished me twice! This country
is surely doomed, but since I have asked the gods to withhold
their punishment on our land, it has survived until now.
However, that punishment has finally descended because
these unreasonable actions continued. And if my counsel
is not heeded on this occasion, the gods will cause the
Mongol empire to send its forces to destroy Japan”
(“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,”
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 773).
Respecting the Daishonin as the true Buddha of the Latter
Day of the Law is the basis of this school’s creed
and its sense of justice. However, it has become clear
that you, the high priest, have committed grave slander,
asserting that the Dai-Gohonzon, whose inscription constitutes
the ultimate purpose of the Daishonin’s advent in
this world, is a forgery. Nothing could be more disrespectful
toward the Daishonin than this. It is certain that Nichiren
Shoshu will continue to decline and eventually perish
if such an exceptionally arrogant person remains its high
priest.
Daien-ji is a temple that I take care of for the sake
of kosen-rufu on the Daishonin’s behalf. However,
as long as we must obediently follow you and the current
priesthood, we will unable to carry out the true teachings
of the Daishonin and Nikko Shonin or maintain a joyful,
vibrant faith directed toward kosen-rufu. If we maintain
our ties with your sect, we will only wind up committing
grave slander ourselves. In this vein, I am now convinced
that parting with Nichiren Shoshu is the true way of the
Buddha’s disciples. With this resolution to leave
Nichiren Shoshu, I share my current thoughts with you:
The decisive factor that convinced me that you are not
qualified to be chief administrator of Nichiren Shoshu
is the recent leak of the so-called Kawabe Memo, which
proves that you asserted the Dai-Gohonzon, this school’s
most essential object of devotion, is counterfeit.
Shocking indeed were the contents of this Memo, as reported
in the July 7 Domei Tsushin (Association Newsletter) a
publication of the Association of Priests Concerned About
Nichiren Shoshu and Dedicated to Protecting the Law, a
group of reformist priests. According to this memo, in
a private meeting with Reverend Jitoku Kawabe at Tokyo’s
Imperial Hotel on Feb. 7, 1978, when you were Study Department
leader of Nichiren Shoshu, you expressed your erroneous
view that the Dai-Gohonzon is a forgery. Kawabe’s
notes include explicit statements from you that betray
the orthodoxy of the Daishonin’s Buddhism, such
as, I found this out [that the Dai-Gohonzon is counterfeit]
through various forms of analysis such as examining the
brush strokes of the Chinese characters and Somebody copied
onto the Dai-Gohonzon the daimoku and seal part of a Gohonzon
conferred upon Nichizen that was transferred from Hodo’in
temple to the head temple.
When I heard this, I could not believe it. My initial
reaction was to wish that the memo was untrue, although
upon seeing it I trusted that Reverend Kawabe actually
wrote it.
The way in which you and the Administrative Office handled
this matter crushed what little hope I had for the future
of this school. Pressed by the seriousness of the matter,
the Administrative Office hurriedly issued two notices
— neither of which was effective in clearing up
our doubts. These notices only lent further proof that
there indeed had been an appalling conversation about
the Dai-Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of True Buddhism
between you and Reverend Kawabe.
Either you or Reverend Kawabe is now obviously lying.
Ironically, a second Kawabe Memo was leaked, in which
Reverend Kawabe had jotted down his options for coping
with the leaking of the initial memo. In it he reveals
that one of his options is to do what I think is right,
even if it means quitting the priesthood. The second memo
eloquently displays how confident Reverend Kawabe was
in the accuracy of the first memo’s content.
All of this notwithstanding, I went to the head temple
to attend the teachers seminar slated for Aug. 26–27,
with some hope remaining that you would offer a convincing
explanation of what had happened. All the priests present
were eagerly looking forward to hearing something from
you on the matter.
However, neither you nor the executive priests of the
Administrative Office addressed the issue at all. You
merely focused on something completely unrelated, greatly
playing up some new development in the Seattle Incident
trial.
Obviously, what you were attempting to do was shift people’s
attention somewhere else. This made me feel that you are
intolerably irresponsible and self-righteous. Many of
our seniors and fellow priests were disappointed and some
were even angry. A number of them are closing their hearts
to you due to your deep-seated hypocrisy.
In the final analysis, that you chose to remain silent,
offering no explanation, proved to me that you know that
the Kawabe Memo is true. It is now proven that you are
a man of grave slander who has advocated that the Dai-Gohonzon
is counterfeit.
The Dai-Gohonzon is the source of this school’s
faith. It is the foundation of its creed. The heritage
of the Law that is transferred from one high priest to
another boils down to the Dai-Gohonzon. It is clear that
the Fuji school’s pure current of faith no longer
flows in your life. You never placed your faith in the
foundation of our creed and once denied it. That you assert
the Dai-Gohonzon is a forgery means that you are fraudulently
holding the office of high priest. What value does Nichiren
Shoshu continue to hold, if its high priest denies the
Dai-Gohonzon? Nichiren Shoshu then has nothing more to
offer the people.
I became a priest of Nichiren Shoshu in 1978, at age 18.
I became a priest because I wanted to save as many people
as possible with the great beneficial power of the Dai-Gohonzon.
I wanted to help people embrace the True Law. However,
I am now confronted with an unheard of situation: Nichiren
Shoshu’s high priest denies the Dai-Gohonzon.
Should I continue to follow the high priest with absolute
faith in him? Or should I part with the current Nichiren
Shoshu? The choice is now crystal clear to me.
Nikko Shonin states in his Twenty-six Admonitions, Do
not follow even the high priest if he goes against the
Buddha’s law and propounds his own views (Gosho
Zenshu, p. 1618).
And the Daishonin states, One should abandon even one’s
teacher if he or she is misguided (WND, 747).
High Priest Nikken, you gave me special favors when I
was assigned to the Students’ Department. You also
favored me by appointing me the first chief priest of
Daien-ji temple. And I still remember the many considerations
you have extended to me over the years.
However, the primary thing I have to do as a priest of
Nichiren Shoshu is to follow the Daishonin’s and
Nikko Shonin’s teachings. If I continue to follow
you, it would be a path of hypocrisy. My way of repaying
my debt of gratitude to you is to pursue the correct way
taught by the Daishonin and Nikko Shonin -- to right the
wrongs of High Priest Nikken, who has no faith and has
committed grave slander. With this belief, I have resolved
to free Daien-ji from Nichiren Shoshu. It is my determination
to save all of Daien-ji’s 500 believers from your
misguided ways.
Furthermore, how you dealt with Reverend Kawabe, whom
you forced to apologize about this matter in the official
Nichiren Shoshu notices after the first memo leaked, is
a problem. In these notices, you made him say that it
was all a mistake in my note-taking, and that he defamed
the dignity of the Dai-Gohonzon. Hence, I expected that
you would deal him a considerable demotion or something
like that. What actually happened, though, was this: After
a long closed-door session with General Administrator
Fujimoto, General Affairs Department Chief Hayase and
Reverend Kawabe, you decided to give Reverend Kawabe a
substantial promotion. He moved to Daigan-ji temple in
Tokyo from Nissho-ji temple in Sapporo at the end of September
this year.
Daigan-ji is situated in a prime location of Tokyo’s
Shinjuku ward. Its former chief priest, General Affairs
Department Chief Hayase, built extravagant lodging quarters
there for himself and his family. Moreover, it is rumored
that Reverend Kawabe’s son, Shoshin, will be transferred,
in another promotion for the family, to this temple as
the senior Kawabe’s assistant chief priest. For
such a young priest to be transferred to a temple in Tokyo
is truly unprecedented. Although Nissho-ji is above Daigan-ji
in ranking among the branch temples, everyone knows that
a transfer from Sapporo to a temple in the center of Tokyo
is in reality a promotion.
Again, if the two notices issued by the Administrative
Office are true, Reverend Kawabe should have been given
a severe reprimand, in the form being transferred back
to the head temple with no branch temple assignment. This
did not happen. This suspicious promotion of Reverend
Kawabe clearly shows that what he wrote in his memos was
true: You harbored an appalling notion that no other high
priest has ever had.
Justice has been lost in the current Nichiren Shoshu,
which is now blindly committed to covering each and every
mistake made by the high priest, including spreading lies
in official Administrative Office notices, remaining silent
before a meeting of senior priests and manipulating personnel
matters to appease Reverend Kawabe. You are now at his
mercy; he knows your points of weakness, including your
past assertion against the authenticity of the Dai-Gohonzon.
Nothing is more condescending toward the people of this
school than the manner in which you have handled this
issue.
A number of priests, including the Reverends Homyo Yamamoto,
Kido Fukuda and Kashiwazaki have been demoted this year
because of personal reports to the head temple by Hokkeko
members.
But what of Reverend Kawabe? After rocking all of Nichiren
Shoshu by spreading the notion that the high priest entertains
doubts about the Dai-Gohonzon, he was apparently treated
to what amounts to a promotion. It is said that some 120
or 130 priests have thus far written memos of apology
in response to complaints from Hokkeko members. Nichiren
Shoshu should be an organization where mutual encouragement
and profound compassion are commonplace. But nowadays
Nichiren Shoshu has become a cold-hearted sect where backbiting
and purges abound. This solely stems from your self-righteous
and perverse nature.
Now that the Kawabe Memo has revealed the true nature
of your faith and character, all the doubts I have had
about you have been confirmed.
Another questionable matter that you need to clarify is
the issue of your alleged heritage. It is now clear from
the fact that you were vehemently criticizing High Priest
Nittatsu on Feb. 7, 1978 [also detailed in the Kawabe
Memo], that you could not have received any heritage of
the Law from him. You have asserted that you received
the heritage from him on April 15—just two months
after you had this private meeting with Reverend Kawabe.
In no way could High Priest Nittatsu have transferred
the heritage of Buddhism to a person like you, who lacked
any intention to support his mentor.
Another thing that has been bothering me is the fact that
ever since you took office, you have continued to destroy
those structures that were dear to the former high priest.
Nothing is as heartbreaking as seeing the destruction
of the Grand Main Temple (Sho-Hondo), the Grand Reception
Hall, the Six-Compartment Lodging and the Daike-jo Temple,
as well as the cutting down of camphor woods and cherry
trees in the general lodging area. What enabled you to
do this so easily is that your heart is devoid of any
appreciation for High Priest Nittatsu. The Grand Main
Temple, in particular, was a culmination of all the former
high priest’s accomplishments. Yet, having already
asserted that the Dai-Gohonzon is counterfeit, it must
have been quite easy for you to deny your own praise of
the Grand Main Temple as Study Department chief, and destroy
this structure that housed the Dai-Gohonzon.
Also, I wish to cite one last example of your error: the
excommunication of the Soka Gakkai. You were able to excommunicate
the Soka Gakkai so mercilessly because you had put yourself
in the center of everything, instead of basing yourself
upon the Dai-Gohonzon. You could not have cut off the
Soka Gakkai if you had really been aware of how difficult
and important it is to convert even one person to the
Daishonin’s Buddhism and nurture his or her faith.
In any case, Nichiren Shoshu under your leadership --
the leadership of someone who, at the fundamental level,
has no faith in the Dai-Gohonzon -- has become an organization
that now thrusts goals upon its believers. The 300,000-participant
pilgrimage slated for 2002 is not geared toward helping
believers develop their faith. It is aimed only at satisfying
your ego and enhancing the prosperity of your family and
relatives. You have said that this pilgrimage is based
on an order from the Daishonin himself. But using his
name in such a self-serving manner exactly constitutes
failure to pay him due respect.
Also, no one in the school voiced a request for the building
of a new structure like the planned Hoando. Your desire
to build it one meter higher than the Grand Main Temple
can only be called childish. You destroyed the Grand Main
Temple, and now plan to collect $150 million more from
believers supposedly to replace it with Hoando, this is
really for no other purpose but to feed your own ego.
The Daishonin states: Buddhism is like the body, and society
like the shadow. When the body bends, so does the shadow
(WND, 1039). It is clear that Nichiren Shoshu’s
current incorrigible distortions are grounded in the abnormality
of a high priest who, on the deepest level, has no faith.
Daien-ji was completed as the 10th of the 200 temples
whose construction was initiated by Soka Gakkai Honorary
President Ikeda. Daien-ji’s construction was supported
by the sincere donations of Soka Gakkai members in the
Yamato area of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was to serve their
activities for kosen-rufu. And I believe that this temple
should be returned to those members who made donations
for its construction, so that they can use it freely for
its original purpose. This is how I feel about this temple.
Returning it to them is the right thing to do.
I hereby declare that Daien-ji will sever ties with Nichiren
Shoshu. I also strongly request that you, High Priest
Nikken, who is lacking in faith to the point where you
have denied the Dai-Gohonzon, resign as soon as possible.
Bando Sato
Chief Priest of Daien-ji temple
Sept. 9, 1999
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(Previously published in The
Justice Chronicle, Oct. 1, 1999)
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