tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post4692237769284400142..comments2023-10-20T18:03:01.821+09:00Comments on GlobalTalk 21: The Meaning of Komeito as a Coalition PartnerJun Okumurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-10338031707456963042008-11-04T23:42:00.000+09:002008-11-04T23:42:00.000+09:00Dear All:The Soka Gakkai is more along the lines o...Dear All:<BR/><BR/>The Soka Gakkai is more along the lines of the Christian teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg and Joseph <BR/>Smith of the Mormon Church. The SGI initially re-interpreted the Lotus Sutra and the writings of Nichiren Daishonin by virtue of their association with the Nichiren Shoshu, the heterodox sect of Nichiren Lotus Sutra Buddhism. Then they re-re-interpreted the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren to fit in with their Value Creation and Human Revolution "theology". They coopted the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra, (Namu Myoho renge kyo) but it is just window dressing for SGI Value Creationism and Human Revolution.<BR/><BR/>Nichikan Shonin who inscribed their Object of Worship (Gohonzon) stated, "We chant the Lifespan Chapter of the Lotus Sutra to smash the Chapter of Expedients and we chant the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra to smash the Lifespan Chapter of the Lotus Sutra. <BR/><BR/>The SGI have less to do with Nichiren Daishonin than the mormons have to do with Jesus.<BR/><BR/>Mark of the Kempon Hokke.mrogowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16595065134349519599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-12245947679836827912008-08-27T01:40:00.000+09:002008-08-27T01:40:00.000+09:00Wait, I'm sure I-don't-know-who's on third.Wait, I'm sure I-don't-know-who's on third.Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-73176675633594346792008-08-25T15:10:00.000+09:002008-08-25T15:10:00.000+09:00Okumura-san - I do not know whether it is I-know-w...Okumura-san - <BR/><BR/>I do not know whether it is I-know-who or not. Which means it could just as well be I-don't-know-who. And whatever it is I know about I-don't-know-who would not be much.MTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04626942240117432624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-65108201895104390612008-08-22T09:20:00.000+09:002008-08-22T09:20:00.000+09:00Michael: I think that your analogy of Sokagakkai t...Michael: I think that your analogy of <I>Sokagakkai</I> to Protestantism points to a broader truth that is explored by Mark Oppenheimer in <A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2171416/" REL="nofollow"><I>For the Love of Xenu</I></A>. <I>Sokagakkai</I> is behaving like all other successful religions/sects—indeed any institution as they mature. You have encountered it at a somewhat later point in its life history than I did. For more on this, please read <A HREF="http://son-of-gadfly-on-the-wall.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-personal-take-on-sokagakkai.html" REL="nofollow">my latest post</A>Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-67733861338762118192008-08-21T23:53:00.000+09:002008-08-21T23:53:00.000+09:00Some people believe that Sokagakkai’s political ac...<I>Some people believe that Sokagakkai’s political activism is a tool to satisfy Daisaku Ikeda’s personal, worldly ambitions. There may be some truth to that, but it does not mean that the more legitimate explanations for the Komeito’s raison d’être are untrue.</I><BR/><BR/>As it happens, my wife is a Sokagakkai member. This is something I learned not to mention in Japan because many people there seem to believe that it's a cult of raving lunatics whose leader is trying to take over the world. And after a run-in with the members in Japan, frankly I understand why the negative sentiment exists. For the record my wife is not a raving lunatic.<BR/><BR/>Needless to say I've learned a lot about Sokagakkai, and I started doing so long before getting married. I approached it with a lot of skepticism, as I do any organized religion and especially evangelical ones. The first part I became comfortable with was Daisaku Ikeda - long story short, I never saw him do anything that I felt overstepped his role as a spiritual leader and peace activist. However I was only ever exposed to SGI's own information about him and have always wondered about where his public image in Japan as a megalomaniac came from. So, Jun, when you say that there may be some truth to it, I'm interested to know why.<BR/><BR/>(Granted he can look a little scary to me when standing in front of a thousand members hailing him in unison, but I always thought that was a sort of Japanese thing that one might also see at a corporate rally. I suspect my own Shacho would have tried to pull it off if the staff had given him enough respect to play along, but with all of us maverick foreigners around it was unlikely.)<BR/><BR/>P.S. I feel that it's more apt to compare Sokagakkai to Protestants because there's an ideological overlap at the core - rejection of the old church's authority, and a focus on scripture instead.Michael Reimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16477283798428025947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-83280217504818502612008-08-21T19:09:00.000+09:002008-08-21T19:09:00.000+09:00Thank you, Anonymous.MTC, do you think that this A...Thank you, Anonymous.<BR/><BR/><I>MTC</I>, do you think that this Anonymous is you-know-who?Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-79791537798118573812008-08-21T18:59:00.000+09:002008-08-21T18:59:00.000+09:00Good answer!Good answer!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-37269592134299859672008-08-21T18:56:00.000+09:002008-08-21T18:56:00.000+09:00Anonymous: Sokagakkai, not SGI, which is its inter...Anonymous: <I>Sokagakkai</I>, not <I>SGI</I>, which is its international arm—let’s be precise here—is not in the game to stave off government intervention. <I>Sokagakkai</I> has always been pacifist, but never leftist. Besides, a conservative government that never managed to eliminate the Socialist Party or the Communist Party would never have been able to shut down a religious movement that not even the totalitarian WW II government ever managed to tame. <BR/><BR/>Then why is <I>Sokagakkai</I> in the political game? Initially, it appears to have had the unworldly ambition of giving <I>Nichiren-shu</I> an elevated national status, somewhat like the Anglican Church in England. It has (I think) left those militant years behind and become much more of a normal, established religion. (Think, Mormons?) <BR/><BR/>So what is it up to now? My guess is that it continues to hold to a genuine pacifist agenda on the international front and to seek to satisfy its desire to give-spiritual-and-material-comfort-to-the-huddled-masses from its earliest years. The founder of the eponymous Nichiren sect was a political and social activist; his tradition lives on in <I>Sokagakkai</I>.<BR/><BR/>Some people believe that <I>Sokagakkai’s</I> political activism is a tool to satisfy Daisaku Ikeda’s personal, worldly ambitions. There may be some truth to that, but it does not mean that the more legitimate explanations for the <I>Komeito’s</I> raison d’être are untrue.Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-59548510707844871882008-08-21T17:33:00.000+09:002008-08-21T17:33:00.000+09:00Does the Komeito have any goal other than to back ...Does the Komeito have any goal other than to back the ruling coalition to prevent any government crackdown on Soka Gakkai?? <BR/><BR/>If SGI was leftist oriented and had that much power, money, property, and organization, the government would have shut it down in the '60s.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com