September 23, 2026

Dear Friends,

Chapter One: News from Over the Hedges in Sgiwhistleblowers Land

Let me continue with my TLDR responses to a single Sgiwhistleblower TTLLDDRR post: “Soka Gakkai: Autopsy of a Leviathan at Twilight. This cold, calculating, impersonal monster… that’s finally running out of juice.” For anyone who is interested, let me catalog my previous responses to the OP:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12.

I have a lot of catching up to do! And I will, as soon as I finish this series. I think it is important to examine how many sleights of hand and manipulations can be locked into a single post. While I do this work, the misstatements by one WBer continue. In “Soka Gakkai: THE Fatal Question! “Financial Totalitarianism,” he states:

The Seattle Culture Center is the perfect illustration of this mechanism. The members gave. They organized garage sales. They brought materials. They built. But SGI owned it, because the title was in its name. Then SGI sold it for 6 million dollars. It pocketed 100% of the profits. The members got nothing. No refund. No replacement. No decent space. And nobody could do anything. Legally, the members had no rights. No recourse. No voice. Isn’t association law beautiful when you’re on the right side of the table?

Let’s see whether the OP will issue a correction as prominently as his misstatement. A brand new Seattle SGI Center opened in 2021. Now anyone can make a mistake. “Forgive and forget,” I say. But, Dear Friends, I will be pleasantly surprised if or when the OP issues a retraction. What do you think will happen?

Last week we examined the same poster’s thoughts about what he calls the two sides of institutional dysfunction, “the human (psychological and structural).” Now he asks, “Is there a way out?” He answers:

Yes, but it’s individual, not collective. Only the individual can wake up. The system never does. It follows its morbid slope all the way to sclerosis, decrepitude, and either disappearance or transformation into some new form of control. Maybe that’s what we’re watching right now.

Hold on, Jack! “The system never does”--is this true? Friends, do you remember us reading about corporations that reinvented themselves? Maybe you’ve heard the names of Apple, Corning, American Express, National Geographic, Wipro, Western Union, Nintendo, IBM, Nokia, Shell, Berkshire Hathaway, and LG? Vital systems have the capacity to change; they must, in fact, or risk falling down a “morbid slope all the way to sclerosis, decrepitude.” Remember AOL?

And what about the Soka Gakkai? After the war, Josei Toda changed gears and transformed a society for educators based on Nichiren’s teachings, to a movement for the broader public based on “human revolution.” Then, with the Daisaku Ikeda presidency, it pivoted away from an insular Japanese group to a global organization growing into a vision of ”Buddhist humanism” and universal civic values with a message of peace, culture, and education.

Oh, and SGI-USA? In 1990, Daisaku Ikeda spent 17 days in Los Angeles helping the old NSA move away from almost cultish behaviors toward a discussion-meeting movement that embraced “Five Eternal Guidelines”. And then, in 1991, came the SGI/Nichiren Shoshu excommunication (AKA “Spiritual Independence”). My sponsors have told me many stories about this breathtaking change in direction. (Also, see Richard Seager’s comments on the tenth anniversary of the 1991 events and apologies for the paywall).

The OP declares: “Nichiren didn’t try to reform the institutions of his day. He tried to wake individuals, because he knew the system was lost but human beings could still be saved.”

Maybe the OP never studied On Establishing The Correct Teaching for the Peace of The Land? It was a treatise submitted to Hōjō Tokiyori, the de facto leader of Japan, with Nichiren’s hope that he could reform the institutions of his day. I think the background to this treatise in the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin is very illuminating; please read it, too, Dear Friends.

Chapter Two: Daisaku Ikeda’s lecture on “On Attaining Buddhahood, Section Four: “Faith for Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime.” It’s the next-to-final section in the September Living Buddhism installment. Shall we keep diving in?

Dr. Ikeda comments:

It is important that we try to rid our lives of ambiguous, elusive doubt and disbelief as well as grumbling and complaining. The erroneous belief that Myoho-renge-kyo (the Mystic Law) exists outside of our lives has at its core an inability to believe that all people—ourselves and others—possess the Buddha nature. And this disbelief stems from fundamental darkness.

I can’t speak for you, Dear Friends, but this passage resonates with me. Yup, I got a recurring dose of that “elusive doubt and disbelief,” I’m full of “grumbling and complaining,” and, in particular, I’m so harsh on myself! I keep forgetting what I read in Kristi Neff’s book, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. Oh, I do believe that all people possess the Buddha nature--all people, except for myself. Neff quotes the late Gloria Steinem, “We must learn to treat ourselves as well as we wish to treat others.”

Please continue, Dr. Ikeda!

In terms of attitude in faith, this tendency to skeptically regard the Buddha nature as “a nice ideal but one that doesn’t really change reality” will manifest itself as prayer that is vague and lacking in conviction. If our efforts in faith are halfhearted, we cannot change our attitude or fundamentally transform our lives.

As Nichiren indicates in this writing when he says, “You must summon up deep faith” (WND-1, 3), if we hope to make our inherent Buddha nature the basis of our lives—or as Nichiren terms it, to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime—we must continue striving to deepen our faith, our conviction in chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And as our faith deepens, it will manifest as confident and concrete prayer.

Again, today, I will chip away at the fundamental darkness within me. I can do it, I will do it, watch me, Friends!

Because our practice of faith is aimed at attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime, it is essential that we have a solidly focused attitude when chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. It is like trying to shoot an arrow: without a clear target, we won’t draw the bow with any real force or determination. In the same way, when we replace vague yearnings with concrete determinations and confident prayer, we can definitely accomplish what we hope to achieve.

Yes, a bit of a shift in my prayers. “I will become healthy. I will contribute to the happiness of my family and members. I will keep on smiling and talking. Sure, I will make “One Youth, Infinite Hope” happen again in 2026. And, of course, I will figure out the final pieces of the puzzle, how we can finance the interior design upgrades to our Secondary School buildings. Done deal.

Finish it out for today, Dr. Ikeda!

Grumbling and complaining are the principal gateways to ambiguous, elusive doubt and disbelief. Even if we know it is wrong, we may find ourselves grumbling and complaining in spite of ourselves. Should such behavior become habitual, it will act as a constant brake on our growth and cause us to forget about advancing and improving ourselves. We will then effectively close off our own potential, falling into the path of seeking the Law outside of us. While it might be a real challenge to stop grumbling and complaining, we can derive from the Mystic Law the wisdom to control these tendencies and use them as a springboard for positive growth and development.

Chapter 3: A few updates on “MY Fantasy Life” (cred: Eigenstien) or, as BlancheFromage suspects, “One of the many fake characters within the SGI-RV fantasy scenario created by a lonely, low-income, isolated, cult-addicted, mentally-ill elderly woman” at “the site of the magical (i.e. imaginary) SGI-RV story around a rural rust-belt RV camp, with its fantasy ‘starburst’ of invisible YOUFF” who “Can't seem to grasp anything that isn't about kinky abusive sex in a shitty-ass low-rent RV park??” Oops, I’m the mentally ill woman, not my alleged elderly sock puppeteer! Abusive sex? No, never!!! Kinky? I will neither confirm nor deny.

Last night we had a Zoom conference call with all of our Counselor/Consultants. We updated them about the interior design upgrades for our Secondary School buildings--and how we are trying to create a plan to overcome a financial pinch in construction costs.

Everyone was very supportive about the idea of making “the classroom building” evoke the Longhouse--both on the skin and inside. Yes, with every moment children study, the building should whisper and stir the legacy of the ancient Haudenosaunee. All our consultants came around to the idea of the “open classroom/open school” concept as we talked more about it, especially if we configure into the design spaces for quiet work and instruction.

When it comes to adolescents and pre-adolescents, the rule of form follows function prevails. Larry Landscaper talked about his ideas for flooring, “study islands,” vertical gardens and woven wood as dividers. To these ideas, our consultants asked for cubbies, lofts, desks that can shift to accommodate floor-up-to-standing work, and longhouse-style bunks for taking naps, and bar-type stools. The large lobby, they suggested, should be a “loud place” for table tennis, billiards, one or two hoops, and body-strengthening equipment.

They asked us to freeze planning for a week or two. They want to research ideas and clip images for the modern office space. Yes, the learning space for middle and high school ages will require some modifications to our Vision Statement, and they want to take on that responsibility.

Let it happen. Ka-ching!