American Religion

The Justice Chronicle, provided by Soka Gakkai International-USA, is a free monthly e-mail in support of the Soka Spirit movement. Soka Spirit is the SGI's educational effort to create value and deepen our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism through increased awareness of issues surrounding the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the spiritual foundation of the SGI movement.

1) NEWS: SOKA GAKKAI SENDS PROTEST TO TABLOID PUBLISHER

On July 12, the Soka Gakkai delivered a letter of protest demanding a retraction to the president of the publishing company Shinchosha, Takanobu Sato. The letter expresses indignation over an article in the July 18 issue of Shinchosha weekly tabloid Shukan Shincho, which claims that the photographs featured in the Dialogue with Nature exhibition were taken by a photographer other than SGI President Ikeda. The Soka Gakkai, countering that the article's allegations are uncorroborated and groundless, is demanding a retraction and apology.

Shukan Shincho and Shinchosha have lost numerous libel suits filed by the Soka Gakkai over the years. The latest loss comes after a Tokyo High Court found the publisher and tabloid guilty of willful defamation on June 27. The two defendants were fined for damages (see Justice Chronicle 142).


2) VIEWPOINT

AN AMERICAN RELIGION

By Eileen McGruder, Los Angeles

Recently, I was struck once again by how Nichiren Buddhism, founded by a 13th century Japanese priest, speaks so clearly to the American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality. These concepts have now become accepted ideals throughout the world, but not yet realities, including here in the United States.

While the Declaration of Independence states, All men are created equal, perhaps it would have been a more accurate reflection of the founding father's beliefs to say all rich, white guys are created equal. Those words would not likely inspire a revolution, however.

By the time the founding fathers came to the business of governing, as opposed to the business of revolting, there was even less interest in equality. You won't find the word equality or equal in the United States Constitution -- at least not in the sense used in the Declaration of Independence. In fact, in many respects, inequality is a basic assumption of the constitution as originally written.


For instance, our every ten-year population census is mandated by the constitution in order to determine the number of congressional representatives for each state. In 1788, upon ratification of the constitution, that number was calculated by y adding to the whole Number of free Persons,¸ excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 2(3)). In other words, each of the thousands of African American slaves in the United States counted as only three-fifths of a person. Native Americans counted not at all.

The constitution left up to the individual states the determination of voter eligibility (Art. I, Sect. 4). At the time of its ratification, many states required that a man (women were not even considered), not only be free and white, but that he own property in order to be able to vote. And perhaps most damning of all, the constitution in Article IV, Section 33, sanctioned and enforced the institution of slavery. It was not until 1868 with the Civil War amendments that the word equal at last came to mean something in the constitution with the passage of 14th Amendment and its requirements of due process and equal protection of the laws for all people.

In our system of government, as set up by the constitution we have three branches of government -- legislative, executive and judicial. Congress makes the laws, the president enforces them, and the court interprets them. Under this system, in theory, the U.S. Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on whether or not a law is constitutional and therefore stands as the foremost protector of the people's rights, of their equality. Yet it was the Supreme Court that, 30 years after the passage of the 14th amendment, said that it was okay to have separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites -- which is why it was that Rosa Parks used to sit at the back of the bus, why there were segregated and very unequal schools throughout the United States. It was also the Supreme Court which upheld the indefinite detention without charges of United States citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.

I say all this, not to denigrate the contributions and accomplishments of our founding fathers and people who thereafter have served in our government. Many of them were visionaries for their times. But I think we must always remember that we cannot depend on laws, declarations, constitutions or institutions to protect and foster our essential equality. Nor can we depend on heroes or heroines to rescue us from oppression.

Many of us were taught in school that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. In fact, it was the abolitionist movement which began 100 years before the Civil War that created the environment which allowed or even required President Lincoln and the Congress to make the decision they did. The same is true of the progress that has been made because of the women's movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement. The freedom and equality we enjoy today was fought for every step of the way by countless, unnamed courageous people.

There are still battles which must be fought in courts and in legislatures at every level of government with all the non-violent means at our disposal. However, in the final analysis, the legislature cannot legislate and the courts cannot order the hearts and minds of people. That is where the delusion of separateness and inequality between people begins. So it is in the hearts and minds of people that the battle must ultimately be fought.

As members of SGI-USA we are supremely well equipped for this battle with he sharp sword of the Lotus Sutra (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 695). At its very core, Nichiren Buddhism is a religion of equality. Nichiren Daishonin says, Shakyamuni Buddha who attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from one another (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 216). SGI President Ikeda explains that this signifies that the founder, Nichiren Daishonin, the object of devotion, the Gohonzon, and all common people like ourselves are alike entities of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo (Selected Lectures on the Gosho, p. 122).

Thus, in the relationship between those who are devoted and that which is devoted to, as well as between the founder/mentor and the disciples -- there is absolute equality. Because there is equality in these most fundamental of relationships, it also extends to our environment and the people in it as well -- if we believe it.

This concept of equality is also at the heart of the differences between the SGI-USA and the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood. The Nichiren Shoshu teaching is one of inequality in those relationships, as well as in the relationship between the laity and the priesthood. In ways which are both direct and subtle, this inequality and separation is reinforced. For example, Nichiren Shoshu has proclaimed that it is arrogant to even speak of equality between the laity and the priesthood. In a more subtle line of reasoning, they refer to the different
oles played by laity and priests. Likening it to a soccer team, they claim it is the priest's role o protect the temple ( he goalkeeper) and the laity's role to defend the temple through volunteering service and Gokuyo (forwards and defense men) (September 2001 Nichiren Shoshu Monthly, p.1). I am always deeply suspicious of the different roles argument, as it reminds me that people once thought it was a woman's
ole to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

Nichiren Shoshu also teaches a concept called he lifeblood received by only a single person. It refers to the allegedly unbroken transmission of the law from the Daishonin to each high priest in succession (see The Untold History of the Fuji School for further information regarding the successive high priests of Nichiren Shoshu). This concept is then used to create distance and inequality between the believer and the object of devotion, the teachings and the founder. According to Nichiren Shoshu, he sanctioning of the object of worship by the High Priest, who is the only person to be bequeathed the Daishonin's Buddhism, what makes the attainment of Buddhahood possible (100 Questions and Answers, p. 36). Thus the believer must rely on the high priest to sanction the object of devotion in order to attain enlightenment.

Nichiren Shoshu further teaches that there are secret transmissions received by only a single person, including those ransmissions referring to Gohonzon transcription (page 41). Of course, since these are secret transmissions received by only a single person, there is no reason to expect that we would understand their contents¸the specific bequeathal of the entity of the Law is a secret transmission which others are not permitted to peruse¸. Those not included in the specific bequeathal of the entity of the Law must strictly refrain from arbitrarily commenting upon it (p. 28). With its secret transmissions, too esoteric for lay persons to understand, Nichiren Shoshu separates the believer from the teachings, so that the believer must rely on the priest to interpret the teachings.

In contrast, President Ikeda says that Buddhism assures us that all people are essentially Buddhas, and as such, the most sublime possible existence. The Daishonin's egalitarian declaration, therefore, completely departs from religions that place human beings in a position inferior to the deity. At the same time, his lofty, humanistic declaration fundamentally supports modern declarations of human rights which have tried to restore human dignity and take absolute power out of the hands of authorities supposedly representing the absolute being (Selected Lectures on the Gosho, pp. 265-66).

Part of our human revolution is the struggle to dispel the delusion of inequality and separateness which stems from the poison of anger. With its teachings, Nichiren Shoshu has disarmed its followers in the battle for their own human revolution, without which there can be no kosen-rufu.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir¸[but] America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned (Aug. 18, 1963, Washington D.C.). As practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism in the SGI, we have both the means and the mission to make good on that promissory note, to make the ideals of freedom, justice and equality, realities around the world.


SOKA SPIRIT IN THE PUBLICATIONS

This section highlights articles published in the World Tribune and Living Buddhism related to the Soka Spirit movement.

July 26 World Tribune, Seize the Day, page A: In her article Developing the Capacity to Care, SGI-USA Young Women's Leader Wendy DeSouza encourages young women to look to the Soka Spirit movement as a source of developing compassion.