Nichiren Buddhism

[tumbleweed41]

Does anyone here practice, or had experiance with Nichiren Buddhism or Soka Gakkai?
Recently made a friend who is a practitioner and he has my curiosity up.

 

[Engyo]

Hi, TW -

I have been practicing Nichiren Buddhism since 1981. I was a member of Soka Gakkai USA until around 2000. My wife is an ordained Nichiren Buddhist minister. What would you like to know?

 

[SageTree]

Based on that reply's likelihood of being awesome and informed, I'd like to hear anything or even a trusted link to be shared.

:namaste
SageTree

 

[Twilight Hue]

Does anyone here practice, or had experiance with Nichiren Buddhism or Soka Gakkai?
Recently made a friend who is a practitioner and he has my curiosity up.

Nichiren Buddhism is recognised as a legitimate school such as Nichiren-shu but sorry I happen to find SGI a cult at worst largely due to its organisational structure and a number of its practices and habits involving proselytizing, although the conference held at the Berkley Zen Center years ago involving a participation of SGI practitioners reveled some interesting insights regarding the Lotus Sutra. -NM-

 

[Breathe]

What would you like to know?

Can I ask, why did you leave SGI? What prompted you to?

 

[Engyo]

Hello, Odion et al -

We left SGI-USA for a variety of reasons. "We" in this instance indicates a group of about 10 families. Some of the reasons were doctrinal, but most at the time had to do with disagreements with SGI-USA's positions regarding what constituted ethical behavior, both as an organization within the business community, between the organization and its members, and within the organization between members and leadership. A lot of this revolved around our feeling that standard rhetoric and actual behavior differed greatly. Some of this was international or national, but a lot of it was local to Houston SGI-USA. A good part of our discontent was related to the behavior of SGI & SGI-USA regarding the split with Nichiren Shoshu, but that wasn't all of it by any means.

Roughly 18 months after drifting away from SGI-USA, we were introduced to Nichiren Shu. We were much more comfortable with the doctrinal stances of Nichiren Shu, as well as being more comfortable with the business model (akin to "standard" Protestant Christianity in the US) and the internal dynamics of Nichiren Shu sanghas. Most of us decided to take refuge with Nichiren Shu (taking refuge is a formal way of saying to join, BTW), and to create a Nichiren Shu sangha in Houston. Several families later split off because they were not interested in expanding the sangha into a Temple, and the rest of us were. A couple of families have returned to SGI-USA, some more participate in a UU-Buddhist group, and the rest make up the founding membership of Myoken Temple.

Is this what you were interested in?

 

[tumbleweed41]

Thanks for the input. The 'Brochure' I was given seemed a little cultish to me.

 

[Engyo]

Thanks for the input. The 'Brochure' I was given seemed a little cultish to me.

Nichiren Buddhism is an entirely valid sub-tradition. It is a Japanese Mahayana school. There are some 35 or 40 recognized Nichiren variants in Japan; approximately 10 of these have any real presence outside Japan.

Nichiren (the founder) lived from 1222 to 1282, roughly contemporary with Dogen and Shinran for you Zen and Pure Land folks. He was ordained as a Tendai monk, and his doctrines and teachings are derivative of original Tendai thought.

TW, I think some of what you probably found "cultish" is very similar to our reasons for leaving SGI-USA. That said, SGI was a gateway to Buddhist practice for me, and for many other folks, and I can't fault that by itself.

 

[Brendan Liam]

I know this thread is dead. But in case it was still of any interest. I joined SGI in about 1991.
I disagree with some of their stances... and likewise with Nichiren Shoshu. Although this is the tradition I still practice, just mostly alone, or with my family. I don't really care for what SGI has turned into. That doesn't mean there's not value there, but yes-many of them are very culty. Been that way for close to 2 decades if you ask me. Pushing the materialism, etc... which I don't care for. Anyway, I can discuss it at length if anyone is interested.

 

[gaurded]

I know this thread is dead. But in case it was still of any interest. I joined SGI in about 1991.
I disagree with some of their stances... and likewise with Nichiren Shoshu. Although this is the tradition I still practice, just mostly alone, or with my family. I don't really care for what SGI has turned into. That doesn't mean there's not value there, but yes-many of them are very culty. Been that way for close to 2 decades if you ask me. Pushing the materialism, etc... which I don't care for. Anyway, I can discuss it at length if anyone is interested.

I have my doubts too. Some is good but ego's are getting involved. Say you need some time out to bring balance into your life or studying something out side of SGI and the old love bombs come back. So I am thankful I have no credit left on my phone to reply to messages