Word: gakkai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Claiming 16 million adherents, Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society) is by far the most successful of the new religious movements. It has its roots in ancient Buddhism, and followers are included in the statistics for Buddhists, not in the "new religions." Unlike other new Japanese sects, Soka Gakkai is intolerant, going so far as to preach that "Shinto is a heretical religion that we must destroy." Contrary to Japanese custom, Soka Gakkai also asks its believers to proselytize, and has moved abroad: it claims 200,000 members in the U.S., mainly in California. Soka Gakkai teaches that continual repetition...
Lotus Sutra. Although Soka Gakkai is based on the teachings of a zealous 13th century Japanese monk named Nichiren Daishonin, who sought to demystify and simplify Buddhism, it has little in common with Zen or other more meditative sects. The emphasis is placed on repeated chanting of the Diamoku, (worship formula) in praise of the lotus sutra. Members must prove their piety by making fresh converts. One of their most debatable practices is shakubuku, or forcible persuasion, which some critics charge has often bordered on brainwashing...
...organization had a phenomenal growth after Ikeda, the son of a Tokyo seaweed vendor, became its leader in 1960. Since then, membership has grown from 1.3 million to 10 million, and converts have been made in more than 30 different countries. To propagate its teachings, Soka Gakkai publishes a daily newspaper, Seikyo Shimbun (circ. 4.5 million), operates its own university, Soka Digaku, near Tokyo, and has built a temple as big as the Houston Astrodome at the foot of Mount Fuji...
...organization founded the Komeito party in hopes of wiping out corruption in government. Although the party is now theoretically independent of Soka Gakkai, believers in the sect account for 90% of party membership. With 30 representatives in the lower house of the Diet and 24 in the upper house, Komeito has become a force to be reckoned with. Says Yoshiaki Masaki, the party policy board chairman: "We stand on the side of small people and work against the base of authority in Japan...
Ikeda lives modestly in a Japanese-style house with his wife and three children. By many of his followers, he is regarded as a reincarnation of Nichiren, and he obviously relishes the role. True to the teachings of Soka Gakkai, Ikeda equates faith with power-and he makes no bones about the fact that power is what his organization is after. Why not? Says he: "You have to have power to do anything at all meaningful...