Word: gakkai
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Willis hopes to popularize the personal. In the U.S., she contends, Buddhism remains a religion of white elites. The few practicing African Americans tend to belong to Soka Gakkai International, a school of the religion that emphasizes simple chanting, usually for prosperity. Willis prefers a more rigorous dharma and is developing meditations for Buddhist centers that focus on race. Her teachings have not yet reached the masses, but, as she is quick to point out, "I'm not a proselytizer." She is, however, a philosopher with a bold agenda. "People tell you for centuries that you're just a cattle...
...with an extremely strict sitting meditation practice, often enforced with whacks from a ceremonial wand. As a tool toward faster enlightenment, Zen's Rinzai school had its students wrestle conundrums, or koans, such as the famous query "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The late-blooming Soka Gakkai practice, favored by Tina Turner, is also nominally a Japanese Mahayana offshoot, although rather atypical in its teaching that the repetition of a four-word phrase, translatable as "Devotion to the mystic law of the Lotus Sutra [scripture]," can gain adherents happiness and material amenities in this world...
...READ WITH INTEREST IAN BURUMA'S article, "Lost Without a Faith,'' about how the Japanese are looking for new gods [Cover, April 3]. Buruma has keen insight into the Japanese mentality. I don't agree, however, with his opinion that Soka Gakkai members worship Daisaku Ikeda, honorary president of the group, as a monarch. The Soka Gakkai is a grass-roots Buddhist organization whose goal is the establishment of world peace. Since it stands on the side of the common people, it has always been criticized and persecuted by the authorities. Its first president, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, a renowned educator, died...
...most famous new religion is the Soka Gakkai, a sect based on Buddhism. Its leader is a man named Daisaku Ikeda, who is treated by his followers more like a monarch than a priest. Then there are more obscure figures who claim to have found the secret of universal happiness and peace for all time. Though these leaders may collect a great deal of money from their followers--and though the involvement of the Soka Gakkai in national politics through its own political party, the Komeito, is widely criticized--most of these religions are relatively harmless...
Ikeda, president of the world peace organization Soka Gakkai International and author of several books on Buddhism, civilization, life and peace, was accompanied by a large entourage of followers, assistants, photographers and security personnel...