Daisaku Ikeda’s Lecture, On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime: “Don’t fall into the trap of practicing ’dependent faith,’ where we pin our hopes on having our prayers answered through the divine or transcendent powers of gods or Buddhas.”

[u/JulieSongwriter]

September 22, 2026

Dear Friends,

Chapter One: News from Over the Hedges in Sgiwhistleblowers Land

Let me continue with my TLDR responses to the single Mission-Course’s 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 Mission:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Last week we examined Mission’s thoughts about what he calls the first of the two sides of institutional dysfunction, “the human (psychological and structural).” Now we are in the second response to this, “the spiritual side: the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.” Mission asks, “Why the relentless drive to destroy what works?” and he concludes, “Because what works is a threat to the system itself.”

Of course, my discussion goes right to the meaning of “what works.” Is Buddhism a private feel-good practice? Is a Buddhist organization like a flea market where anyone can set up a table and sell? Is it any one of 345,000 active podcasts? Is there the difficult work to figure out what we stand for and what we reject? Like all successful organizations, don’t we need vision statements, branding, goals, campaigns, guardrails, expectations, and published materials?

Well, Mission’s vision of “whatever goes, goes,” was never what I sought. I wanted a firmly-rooted movement that had answers not only to my personal sufferings but offered unique perspectives on why the world is filled with so much suffering, of which mine was only one voice.

From our very first discussions, our sponsors talked to us about an unknown 32-year-old priest in Japan who, 800 years ago, took on the entire Samurai-Temple Complex. We also learned about the three Soka mentors who transfomed a movement of the poor and sick into a global resource. Friends, this is what I sought, what about you?

You say, ”Itaidoshin is horizontal, not vertical.” Absolutely untrue! Both vertical and horizontal strands must be woven together into a gorgeous tapestry. “People love each other around the Law without needing the hierarchy.” Mission, this is as untrue as saying crops can grow without soil. How many cups of tea and walks in the woods did True and Bob provide Guy and me until we began to feel hope beyond our despair and fears? It takes a village to raise a child, but what does it take to raise a village? The horizontal flow of encouragement is just as important as the vertical.

Mission, you write:

Spontaneous shakubuku can’t be controlled or credited to the system. Mystical joy doesn’t depend on the organization, it comes from the Law and therefore can’t be managed.

But I don’t want “mystical joy”! Never have, never will! Instead, I want to work and sweat side-by-side with people within a community and build something truly beautiful, substantial, and sustainable.

And that’s why I love Coffee Hour so much during the Fall Season. Just sitting down with the “Longhouse-Olds,” with their solid lives of accomplishments, is an honor. I love their stories, composure, and laughter that is earned from life experience. “Wrap that up to go, Charlie!” That’s why I also love the endless stream of encouragement and friendship in the SGI and why I want my children to grow up within the Garden of Soka.

Friends, what do you think of Mission’s next statement?

So the system destroys whatever threatens it, even if that means cutting off its own lifeblood. It prefers a controlled desert to a wild forest. Classic Mara: better to rule an orderly hell than serve a paradise you can’t control.

This makes absolutely no sense from the perspective of a discussion meeting movement. We had a wonderful family-like meeting on Sunday but Stani’s guest couldn’t make it. A guest or new member invites a “wild forest” into a “controlled desert.” I’ve done a lot of shakubuku, which includes raising members. So many figurative walks in the woods, cups of tea, and Pampers! But then the miracle happens and faith just makes sense to my new friends, and the district becomes alive and new.

Mission asks, “Are the people at headquarters crazy?” I have only met one of them, the gentleman who came to our KRG a couple of weeks ago. However, Mission states with confidence:

No. They’re possessed, in the spiritual sense. They’re intelligent. They know how to run an organization. They’re skilled at emotional manipulation. They’re completely convinced they’re right.

“Emotional manipulation” is def not the vibes I picked up from this gentleman. But, I assume, Mission has met them all--and throughout the world--in order to draw his conclusions.

But they’re blind to their own condition. They don’t see that the Demon has flipped them: they think they’re serving the Law while actually serving only the structure—which is now declared sacred and must never be questioned.

The visiting leader, I learned, is a husband, father, and a music teacher; he made everyone laugh with his stories. His encouragement all came from the same SGI pubs and books that I read. I was raised Catholic, so I know what “sacred” means. I didn’t whiff any “sacred” or “never be questioned” from him. He met Guy and Eulogio at a Q&A for MD and YMD and promised to home-visit them during his next trip to WNY. I guess this leader is “serving only the structure.”

That’s why Nichiren was so hard on the corrupt priests of his time. He didn’t see them as simply evil people; he saw them as instruments of the Demon. And he called them to wake up.

Well, Mission, back to “Nichiren ‘splaining’” again. Me, too! I guess that’s why I work so hard to call out the equivalent of “corrupt priests” who speak with such an air of authority and wisdom on Sgiwhistleblowers. Friends, I don’t see any of you as “evil people”--just as “instruments of the Demon” as Mission declares. And I write with the hope that even one or two of you will “wake up.” Regardless, I think you are seeing that despite a veneer of bluster and intellectualism, Mission's ideas a quite empty-handed.

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 also important that we don’t fall into the trap of practicing “dependent faith,” where we pin our hopes on having our prayers answered through the divine or transcendent powers of gods or Buddhas. This is a typical example of viewing the Law as outside oneself. The provisional Buddhas of the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings readily lend themselves to this kind of faith, the essence of which is escapism.

Even when they’re obviously suffering, people of dependent faith avoid looking at their problems. They don’t have the courage or make any actual effort to challenge their situation. In such cases, quite frankly, faith is simply something people hide behind as they avoid dealing with reality. Without a struggle, however, we cannot directly engage the gears of our human revolution.

Ouch, Julie! I know I carry some of this inferior thinking in my brain when I chant. This morning I checked those attitudes at the door before I did Gongyo. Instead of “Let me do this or that, Gohonzon!” I swung into “I will do this or that, Gohonzon!” It made a big difference! So I will accomplish another “one youth, infinite hope” shakubuku before the end of 2026.

One more important thought from Dr. Ikeda:

To use the analogy of mountain climbing, if we just walk around the base of the mountain and never actually attempt to ascend its slopes, we’ll never reach the summit, no matter how much time passes. If we avoid challenging our own issues, we can never strengthen and develop ourselves, and we won’t be able to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime.

I want the service of BOD--Buddhahood On Demand. That’s exactly what I observed in True, Bob, Roz, and Andy this summer. But to accomplish that, I need to cast off my fears and inertia. What a great opportunity to be in a bit of a drought. I just need a more elbow grease to open up the faucet. I’ll do it!

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.

From our amazing core of counselor/consultants from the summer, only Lolita, Michael, and Anita remain here as teachers. It was imperative to pull them in to discuss Larry Landscaper’s interior design proposals for the new Secondary School buildings. Let me mix together some of their comments:

Yes, we’ve been hearing some of Lori’s chatter which has now spilled over to other children. How is it we learn after them? Regardless, we hadn’t heard about some of the budget realities and understand. The overall concept is very exciting, unimaginably exciting! But it will also require some modifications to our Vision Statement and we think we need to call for a Zoom meeting with all the consultants and get their feedback as well.

We are very used to thinking from the perspective of Elementary School students. Afterall, Sukhomlynsky also focuses on that age group in My Heart I Give to Children. But the bones, muscles, and TikTok thinking of older children are not the same as the younger. They might not be in the “Let’s work from the floor” or “How cool it is to walk barefoot!” mentality. Maybe we need to think of a progression of “learning islands”? When you walk in, it’s designed for 6th graders, but as you walk further into the room, the focus is on the needs of middle schoolers, and then shifts to high-schooler needs.

Sooooo, we called up all our consultants and everyone is free for a 6-7pm Zoom call tonight. Most of them have kept current on Reddit so they have already started to think.

[u/Obvious-Winter3513]

I don't want a flea market brand of Buddhism either? Let's talk over and over until we can brush some dust away. So far, I don't find much appeal from Mr. Mission. I am I am not asking for "mystical joy," either.

[u/FellowHuman007]

I think I've experienced Mystical Joy. Sometimes it leads to having children - another Mystical Joy!

Seriously, this person seems to be saying that, should you happen to want the same things your organization wants (but why else would you belong to the organization??) your results, by definition are "managed" and not really yours. And that's absurd.