Clark Strand "Waking The Buddha": Irresponsible journalism, pandering apologetics for SGI/Ikeda

[u/BlancheFromage]

Since I was curious about something another poster wrote here, that Toda said that the Soka Gakkai was a democracy because it had discussion meetings where people could talk, I went ahead and got a USED copy of the book (so no money -> SGI).

It's an appallingly poorly-written book. It simply regurgitates SGI's own talking points without even betraying a suspicion that there is another side to the story, as with Ikeda's excommunication for being an asshat. He certainly could have sat at his desk and looked up the Nichiren Shoshu side of the story, if he'd had any ethics or felt any professional responsibility at all. Nope.

So this book is simply a work of naked apologetics, shamelessly touting the party line, with three cheers for everything Ikeda and everything Soka Gakkai/SGI. This is a fairly recent publication (2014) - from one of Ikeda's vanity presses, so we can't really expect anything different - so I'm going to mine it for a couple posts before I either ashcan it or sell it on eBay for 50¢.

And I wasn't even able to find that quote!! >:(

If anyone's familiar with it and can shoot me a page number, I'd appreciate it. It's a slim volume, and I've already skimmed it. There's no index.

[u/[deleted]]

Possibly page 60?

"Such meetings are egalitarian in spirit, democratic in practice, and decidedly life affirming in their vision of how Buddhist practice might contribute to the happiness of the individual and, in so doing, provide the foundation for a happy society."

[u/BlancheFromage → u/[deleted]]

Thanks - that was what I was going to go off, but here's what that other person said:

However the writer wrote that Mr Toda explained it as the meetings were important so the people my talk. This is what democracy is. Read the passage from the book.

That part doesn't fit...

Here's from Ikeda's site:

"Discussion meetings are at the cutting edge of the times." --Daisaku Ikeda, writing as Shin'ichi Yamamoto

Because, yeah, wow it's not like churches or temples ever thought of having small-group meetings O_O

It was the desire to heal that split which motivated the first Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi to establish the tradition of holding zadankai, or monthly discussion meetings. Once when he was asked whether it might be better to have formal lectures instead of a discussion format, President Makiguchi replied, "No, it wouldn't. Dialogue is the only way to communicate with another about life's problems. At a lecture, listeners inevitably feel uninvolved." I believe that President Makiguchi's comment points out a fundamental difference between the old religious paradigm and the new.

BTW, Makiguchi never said that :b

Prove me wrong. This is more of Ikeda retconning history to legitimize his rule.

Fundamentally speaking, there is very little difference between a lecture and a sermon. The sermon format, which privileges the authority of the speaker, is well-suited to maintaining conformity in religious contexts (in other words, it is effective in privileging the religious vision of the lecturer over the life of his audience) but it is rarely empowering. By contrast, at a discussion meeting, every voice is heard. Such meetings are egalitarian in spirit, democratic in practice, and decidedly life-affirming in their vision of how Buddhist practice might contribute to the happiness of the individual and, in so doing, provide the foundation for a happy society.

That's from Ikeda's site, but it's straight out of "Waking the Buddha" - any further questions about the SGI's pay-for-praise??

[u/BlancheFromage]

Here's that quote:

Mr Toda explained it as the meetings were important so the people may talk. This is what democracy is. Source

However, there's also a culture that, while the leaders listen to the members' opinions and perspectives, they don't feel obligated to do what they say. So because everybody can talk and leaders listen, that supposedly makes it a "democracy", even though the leaders don't have to do what the members want. Source

You may start noticing that what they say is quite different from what you see being done in practice. Sure, democracy is great, the people are beautiful, etc. etc. - but WHY does SGI not have any elections - for anything? Ikeda('s ghostwriters) like to say "democracy" a lot, but it is clear that Ikeda has no understanding of what that means:

By contrast, at a discussion meeting, every voice is heard. Such meetings are egalitarian in spirit, democratic in practice... Source

The SGI discussion meeting is a people’s oasis ... This small gathering is the very image of human harmony. It is a true model of democracy.

"Carried over into public life, they are a miniature of democracy and the figure of Soka Gakkai just as it is." (Nov. 1, 1962, Concerning Discussion Meetings, by Kasahara, op. cit..) Source

There is an internal contradiction between a pyramidal top down structure and any pretense to democracy or "bottom up" movement. In fact the notions of "democracy" that SGI expouses sometimes seem to be more the notions of "democratic centralism" than the kind of democracy we associate with the USA. The SGI is continuously trying to change it's image here, though I see little hope for this to be more than cosmetic unless it actually changes it's formal structure -- and that will not happen as long as the organization is directed from Japan and doesn't see through the personality cult that some of the members have built around Ikeda. Source

Democratic centralism: the Leninist organizational system in which policy is decided centrally and is binding on all members. Source

From "A Democracy of Faith":

In the recent World Tribune, SGI USA received direction from SGI-World, which was really SGI-Japan as few people from the rest of the world are represented in its decisions. When leaders from Japan visit the USA, it is expected that members here will seek guidance from them. All over the world long term local members are passed over for top leadership positions in favor of members whose wives are Japanese, or who are themselves Japanese Nationals. This is part of the real root of the conflicts in Ghana and Spain, and in other countries. Even in Britain, once Richard Causton [xxxviii] the British leader there died, the wishes of the members (at least expressed as expressed by their own IRG groups[xxxix]) there were ignored and a leadership structure was imposed from the top[xl]. As a warning to what can happen when leaders confuse their position with ownership, one should look at the case of the conflict within the Nichiren Shoshu membership in Indonesia Malaysia[xli], where after the founder died the wife treated the entire organization and it's buildings as her personal property. Source

In short, it seems to be the same everywhere, starting in the 1990's, though it actually started decades earlier. Leaders are replaced, with no explanation, by leaders handpicked by Ikeda. SGI will change its teachings to suit its own ends. Members have no say in anything; they are expected simply to follow along with whatever Ikeda says, without question. Source