Word: shakubuku
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...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...
...Oriental version of Moral Re-Armament. Its Youth Division has a flashy fife-and-drum corps replete with majorettes. Its thrice-weekly newspaper, the World Tribune, is filled with ardent testimonials of what conversion has meant. Every member is expected to help expand the rolls by the practice of shakubuku*-proselytizing -wherever he goes. Those who can afford it are urged to make one of the chartered-jet pilgrimages to the head temple of Taisekiji in Japan, which more than 10,000 members visit daily...
Soka Gakkai makes few demands on its converts: beyond shakubuku, all a person has to do is practice Gongyo-the morning and evening recitation of Buddhist sutras and the chanting of the Daimoku "until they feel satisfied." "It's a matter of practicing," explains one young member. "As long as you're chanting, you're in. If you stop chanting, you're out." Members can chant for anything, any time, and the newer ones often concentrate on material wants: a better apartment, a new job, a new car. Members even testify to such minor miracles...
...front of a Go-honzon, a small wooden altar containing a replica of the original prayer scroll, the Dai-Gohonzon, still enshrined in Japan. * One Soka Gakkai song-to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad-immortalizes the practice: "I've been doing shakubuku all the livelong...
...each composed of 20 to 30 families), companies (made up of six squads), districts (formed by ten companies) and regional chapters. In thou sands of local meetings held throughout Japan on any night of the week, members discuss their spiritual progress and prepare for their highest duty, which is shakubuku (literally, break and subdue), or gaining converts. Until some years ago shakubuku was accomplished by relays of devotees chanting sutras round the clock in a prospective recruit's home and literally wearing him down. In other cases, members burned a family's Shinto altar, or prevented a doctor...
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