Word: nichiren
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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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...
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...
...have a problem, or if you want something to happen or not happen. It's you you are chanting to. It's just like adding fire to yourself." Hancock began chanting two years ago. As a convert to the Buddhist sect known in the U.S. as Nichiren Shoshu of America, he would light a candle twice a day, ignite incense, uncover a vial of water, strike a bell and begin his low, rhythmical prayer. Hancock has chanted for his band, for a new agent, for a wider audience, for higher fees. It took little more than a year...
...that purportedly allows one to succeed at whatever is within one's capacity. The H-R Latter Day Saints Student Association is the vehicle through which undergraduates become part of the larger Mormon community here. (Active Mormons at Harvard number about 25, comparing favorably to the four followers of Nichiren Shoshu and unfavorably to those of the Christian Fellowship, which draws about 110 students from Harvard and Wellesley each term to weekend retreats.) According to Scott Birdsall, one of the Mormon activists who served as a missionary in Uruguay, about five Harvard students are now on two-year leave...
...year-old Guru Maharaj Ji--but then, dazzling light can be hallucinated in a realistic fashion if one tries hard enough. The doctrines of the Bahai's and the Christians also seem plausible--if one really wants to believe them. So with the chanting of TM and Nichiren Shoshu; by sitting still and poising the mind on a single subject, determination can be channelled toward achieving previously hard-to-reach goals...