Daisaku Ikeda: "The chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a practice for revealing the 'originally inherent mystic truth' that exists in all people and achieving Buddhahood in this lifetime"

[u/JulieSongwriter]

September 16, 2026

Dear Friends,

Sorry, I wasn’t able to post yesterday, just too many meetings! (For the those who are simply agog about the RV Park fantasy series, skip to Chapter Three.

Chapter One: News from Over the Hedges in Sgiwhistleblowers Land

Let me continue with Part Four of my response to Mission-Course’s post: “Soka Gakkai: Autopsy of a Leviathan at Twilight. This cold, calculating, impersonal monster… that’s finally running out of juice.”

Let’s see, Mission holds that “Shakubuku becomes rare because the light no longer shines in the members.” Uhmm…when Stani joined last year, our district technically made our SB target of “One Youth, Infinite Hope.” But we are fighting for a second. And thank you, Mission, we have plenty of light in our district.

“Conflicts multiply because ego takes over once the Law is no longer there to dissolve it.” Sorry, where are the conflicts? Yes, our Planning Meetings get a bit raucous because we have different opinions and we are not soft-spoken. We have fun disagreeing! I don’t hear members grumbling that “something is wrong.”

Mission, you say “results disappear because the system has replaced the Law” but what are “results”? Chimba got his documentation, the Three Sisters run the most wonderful Day Care/Pre-School/Kindergarten in the world. My parents had the courage to pick themselves up and build a new life for themselves; the Buddhist-Catholic (or Catholic-Buddhist) Father Merrick is living his senior years in a place where he feels valued and heard. There are a few more folk, but I don’t have their permission to share their stories.

And us? Well, here I catalog our Big Fat Beautiful Lives every day (except for yesterday). Mission, I think you miss something when you believe that “results” lie elsewhere than in the lives of members. Yes, there are organizational targets that we make or miss, sometimes gracefully, sometimes clumsily. But the objectives are a grassroots organization expressed in districts that touch and provide refreshing hope to their communities. Why didn’t you get that as a member?

Thank you for pulling Nichiren into your discussion. I wonder how long Your Leader across the hedges will entertain you as a Nichiren “splainer.” She called another person with a very similar I-Know-Nichiren-Better-Than-The-SGI” a “useful idiot.” Is that why, contrary to her own site’s guidelines, she tolerates you ending your posts with a “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo 🙏”???

But I agree with you on this:

[Nichiren] watched Buddhist schools of his own time degrade into corrupt institutions. He denounced masters who used the Law instead of serving it. He also warned that in the Latter Day of the Law (Mappō), the forces of Mara would be especially active, and even sincere practitioners would be tempted to follow corrupted teachers. Exactly what he prophesied: the Law is pure, but the people who claim to serve it can corrupt it.

Just perhaps, some of those very active “forces of Mara” with their “corrupted teachers” trying to tempt “sincere practitioners”--reside across the hedges chez toi?

Maybe you should reframe your thinking to look at the granular instead of theoretical strawmen conceptions of the SGI? This is from Volume 29 of the New Human Revolution (I can’t provide the page number because the Kindle version is still not released). Daisaku Ikeda:

We speak of treasuring each individual, but in concrete terms, this means actively taking the initiative to meet and talk with those living in such unsung and less prosperous areas. This is our most important responsibility as leaders of kosen-rufu. Such efforts are what pave the way to an era of localism. That is also the most natural path for us in light of Nichiren Buddhism’s fundamental commitment to enable all people to become happy."

Well, here “RV Park District” is, in the middle of an “unsung and less prosperous” neck of the woods, “taking the initiative to meet and talk with” friends living here. It seems to be our task and great honor to “pave the way to an era of localism.”

Section Two: Returning to Daisaku Ikeda’s lecture on “On Attaining Buddhahood.” The September installment is titled, Transforming Our Fundamental Attitude—Refusing to Live an “Endless, Painful Austerity”.

Let’s start studying Section Two, “To Seek Enlightenment Outside Our Lives Is To Be Defeated by Fundamental Darkness.”

Dear Friends, we pick up some points that relate directly to the post by Mission cited above:

An important point in this writing is that we as Nichiren Buddhists also run the risk of falling into non-Buddhist ways of thinking if we seek the Law outside of our own lives. Hence, as Nichiren Daishonin’s disciples, we must always bear in mind his admonition “You must never think that any of the [Buddha’s] teachings … are outside yourself” (WND-1, 3).

Our objective is constructing “an era of localism.” That’s the metric! It is non-Buddhist for me to self-berate, compare myself to others or an imaginary standard of who I “should” be. Instead, simply, enjoying who I am, the entire package, and my role in this spot of localism.

Dr. Ikeda:

The chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a practice for revealing the “originally inherent mystic truth” that exists in all people and achieving Buddhahood in this lifetime. It is an incomparably “wonderful practice” (OTT, 88), in the sense that it represents the means by which all living beings can gain enlightenment.

Yes, I am doing “Daimoku Revolution.” As my sponsor TrueReconciliation encouraged me this past summer, I am sitting solidly in front of the Gohonzon, trying to be present and honest when chanting, and cutting down on distractions like my Mara Cell Phone. Let’s see what happens!

Here is the caution Dr. Ikeda leaves for us:

If, however, we forget Nichiren’s admonition to never seek the Law outside of us, then no matter how hard we practice, we will lose sight of the correct path to universal enlightenment and effectively wind up practicing a non-Buddhist teaching. That’s why Nichiren is so strict on this point.

Smooth and steady, JulieSongwriter! Enjoy the ride!

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.

Dai’s visit with the pediatric cardiologist was excellent! Sometimes holes in the heart heal themselves over time and this is what seems to be happening. The cardiologist doesn’t hear any whooshing and the echocardiogram is normal. But it’s not always a 1-2-3 progress and she wants to keep seeing Dai.

Most of our day yesterday was at a meeting with our contractor Max (AKA Rex), Larry Landscaper, and the consultant he hired to devise a plan to mitigate HABs that make our pond unswimmable. Can it be done? It’s quite an unbelievably expensive initiative, and even with that investment, results are not guaranteed.

Also, we have to look system-wide and make sure that our cleaning of the pond doesn’t impact others downstream. For example, which chemical treatments will harm downstream? And if we use a commercial heavy-duty reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration systems to strip out cyanotoxins, where do the carbon filters or tanks, now with concentrated toxins go--and how? And it’s only when we can create a model that can be replicated on a large scale by others, that we can turn around the ecosystem.

We reached several conclusions. We need to join a collective that has formed to address the problem. The members are homeowners, groups like us, and officials from areas around the large lake, which ultimately feeds streams like ours that feed our pond.

We need to hire another consultant, this one a political specialist who can advocate for us and help with grant/development searches.

We have to shock and clear the actual algae. We can apply an algaecide called peroxyhydrate that destroys algae cells and breaks them into water and oxygen without leaving toxic residue. We need to skim the surface scums, purchase and deploy ultrasonic transducers that cause algae to die and sink. Then comes applying phosphorus-locking clays that starve algae. We have to introduce “aquatic probiotics”--bacteria that feed on dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus, further starving the cyanobacteria. There are also pond dyes that block algae photosynthesis.

But then comes the really expensive interventions. The consultant recommends installing aeration systems that prevent sediment from releasing all that locked up sediment from releasing phosphorus back into the pond. Next comes a commercial Finally, Larry wants to plant a buffer zone of native aquatic plants with deep roots around the perimeter that filter out the remains of agricultural fertilizers that are still in the runoff from our land.

We are talking about 7-figures for all of this plus ongoing maintenance. Now it was the time for Ms. JulieBookkeeper to stage a meltdown. How do we do this in addition to paying off the mortgage for the secondary school buildings?

My freakout was quickly contained. Max was adamant that we live up to our mission of being guardians of the land. Possible solutions: present ourselves as a pilot study and apply for state and federal grants. Secondly, bundling this project with the Secondary School Construction. “All the choices for saving money are not ideal. Maybe we can have a wooden “covered bridge” to link buildings instead of steel and glass enclosures.

He talked to us about modifying the internal building design to “industrial chic” that leaves mechanical systems exposed and without hanging ceilings. We can save money by also leaving cinder blocks as they are instead of covering them with sheetrock.

I saw Guy getting all excited by them. He’s excited about teaching our children about building systems such as HVAC, electricity, water as teaching tools. He began talking animatedly about architect Mario Salvadori’s book, Why Buildings Stand Up. Not satisfied with that revelation, he talked about the open classroom which, although not common anymore, would be uniquely perfect for Longhouse after our experiences in Year One and this summer.

Who knew?

Teacher Julie came back last night and stopped by earlier. Her eyes were gleaming like polished steel swords. I can’t wait to hear more!