In this week’s Buddhist essentials study meeting, we learned about Refuting the Nikken sect, or in other words, Fighting Against Evil. Scholars and learned people say that we should learn from history so that we do not repeat the folly of the past. The materials below are from the Elementary Level/Youth Level 3 Study Exam book.

1. Many SGM leaders today are pushing the idea of only trusting the General Director; GD will fix the problem today; we must have utmost loyalty to GD because he was specifically appointed by Ikeda Sensei. Let’s see what the exam study material says about this:

Nikko Shonin admonished in his 26 Admonitions: “Do not follow even the high priest if he goes against the Buddha’s Law and propounds his own views.”. In the same 26 Admonitions, Nikko teaches that if the High Priest should commit an offense which a priest must never do, originally, he must be excommunicated immediately. However, he may still be allowed to remain a common priest to start over again, assuming the way of fundamental apology.

2. GD wrote in September Cosmic that “…leaving the SGI means abandoning happiness. Such is the solemn conclusion.”

Nikken sect based itself on the erroneous beliefs of worshiping the High Priest, revering him as absolute authority. They asserted that members have to trust Nikken and no one else, for he is appointed as the High Priest. If members did not listen and follow the High Priest, then members would not be able to find absolute happiness. This was against Nichiren Daishonin teaching. Heritage of the Law is through faith and accessible to all, open to all people, not only through the High Priest. The heritage of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism is originally opened to all the people and not monopolized by just a small group of people.

In The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life, the Daishonin teaches, “Nichiren has been trying to awaken all the people of Japan to faith in the Lotus Sutra so that they too can share the heritage and attain Buddhahood.”

3. Everybody is wondering why one man, TKH, who is the main reason for the Johor incident, is still holding such a high position in the General Council of SGM. This man is the root cause of the current disunity and destruction of the organization. Why is he not excommunicated or demoted? Study material said:

The conduct of disrupting and causing disorder to the religious organisation of the Buddha is a grave offense of destroying the teachings of the Buddha, deluding the people and causing them to fall into suffering. Nikken’s grave sin of “Disrupting the harmony of the Buddhist Order” is the fifth cardinal sin. (The five cardinal sins are (1) killing one’s father, (2) killing one’s mother, (3) killing an arhat, (4) injuring a Buddha and (5) causing disunity in the Buddhist Order.

4. This week is gokuyo week:

Over the years, the priesthood of Nichiren Shoshu started to be a mere shell in spirit and practice, transforming into a “funeral-rites Buddhism”. As a result, another grave sin of the Nikken sect is in misusing ceremonial rites such as funeral ceremonies, memorial prayer services, posthumous Buddhist names and toba offerings, as tools for making money out of Buddhism.

The Daishonin teaches that, “true priest are those who are honest and who desire little yet know satisfaction.”  However, the actual condition of Nikken and his evil priests are such that they are extremely corrupted and decadent.

If the Daishonin teaches that true priest should desire little, then shouldn’t SGM follow that guideline, that is, only asking members for contribution when the need arises? When SGM is already sitting on top of millions of ringgit in cash, why do we still need to ask members for more money? Are we turning SGM into a “funeral-rites Buddhism”?

5. Lastly, we would also like to highlight one paragraph from the book:

Furthermore, the priesthood unjustly stopped the conferral of the Gohonzons to Soka Gakkai’s members. This was a base and mean religious oppression (by) using the Gohonzon as hostage, (such that) if Gakkai members wanted to receive Gohonzon, they must followed the priesthood.

When SGM started to threaten to remove Gohonzon from Johor members, are they also trying to create a religious oppression?

We would advice you to read this study book on fighting against evil. We could see so many similarities of the past and what’s happening currently. Evil come in a different form, most notably now it is from within. We must have the courage to stand up and the wisdom to recognize this evil.

The Daishonin teaches that no matter how great the cause we make or how we strive hard in our Buddhist practice, if we do not denounce the enemies of Lotus Sutra we will not be able to attain enlightenment.

In On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, the Daishonin teaches, “Rather than offering up ten thousands prayers for remedy, it would be better simply to outlaw this one evil.” and 

“The only thing to do now is to abandon the evil ways and take up those that are good, to cut off this affliction at the source, to cut it at the root.”

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