Makiguchi's Pacifism Confirmed, and Putative Scholar Brian Victoria's
Inaccurate Cherry-Picking Research Exposed, for Jon Petry -
Jon Petry initially states,
Chas is truly a special case. In fact I tend to think at times he is
doing this effort on his own while at others I think this is all part
of some silly SGI program to keep any real discussion on this board
shut down. After all ARBN did a lot of damage to the SGI story line
early on when people fist started using the internet. People found
out quickly that there were other schools of Nichiren Buddhism than
the SGI. They found out there were other versions of history than the
one pushed by SGI. They found out that the SGI was much smaller than
they were told it was. They were exposed to a serious critique of the
SGI for the first time. And they asked questions of their senior
leaders, questions that their senior leaders could not answer.
The truth can be inconvenient at times and the SGI leadership has been
squirming for a number of years as the number of people questioning it
has grown, people who cannot merely be dismissed as mentally deranged
as the SGI has attempted to label them in the past. Worse yet events
in their history have been exposed to the glare of public exposure and
they do not like that.
For example:
SGI Myth 1: The SGI is the only Buddhist group who stood up to the
Japanese government during WWII and was pacifist.
SGI Fact 1: The SGI as it is formed now did not exist prior to WWII.
However its founders, Makaguchi and Toda were not pacifists, in fact
they were far from it. There are speeches in existence in which they
affirm their loyalty to the Japanese government and the war. However
they did remonstrate against the imposition of the Imperial Talisman
as an object of reverence as well as in their interpretation of Rissho
Ankoku-ron, urged the Japanese Government to suppress all other
Buddhist sects and force everyone to convert to Nichiren Buddhism.
They were imprisoned for the crime of lesse majesty, for their
disrespect of the Imperial Talisman not because they were pacifists.
This claim by the SGI does add insult to the injury endured by
thousands of Buddhists in Japan who did demonstrate against the war
and who were abandoned by the leaderships of their respective sects.
Many of those people were imprisoned and executed. Others such as
Nichidatsu Fujii were sent into exile.
SGI Myth 2: The SGI has always held fast to its principles and never
compromised them.
SGI Fact 1: The examples of the SGI violating its own principles are
in fact too numerous to detail. But one which is relevant to Chas'
regular rants is the claim that they have held fast to Nikko's
admonitions while the NST has not. In particular they chastise the
NST for sending priests for education at Rissho University which is
run by the Nichiren Shu. Apparently they have forgotten that SGI
members have also attended that university, some with the approval of
their own governing body in Japan. Of even greater amusement however
are two other events. Shortly after the split between the SGI and the
NST in the early 1990's the SGI approached the Nichiren Shu with an
offer. They would affiliate as a lay organization within the Nichiren
Shu and pay for all overseas missionary work, of course with them
running it. The Nichiren Shu, having seen what the SGI had been doing
to the NST, politely and firmly declined the offer. The second
incident occurred when the SGI approached the Nichiren Shu and offered
a million US dollars for a Nichiren authored Mandala. This offer was
also rejected.
SGI Myth 3: The SGI loves democracy
SGI Fact 3: In fact the SGI while making lip service about democracy
has been adamant about stamping out any attempts by its membership to
adopt democratic principles in its own governance. Leaders within the
SGI are appointed by the higher ups and serve at their pleasure with
no accountability to the rank and file. In fact when SGI members
became aware on the web that in the Nichiren Shu, the lay
organizations did have elected leaders, the SGI through proxies such
as the Rubys and other made posts belittling that fact. Similarly the
SGI has refused to allow any rank and file movement towards actual
financial accountability, keeping its finances a closely held secret.
Members have no knowledge of what happens to their money once it is
donated nor are they allowed a say in how it is to spent. This is
vastly different from say NONA, the Nichiren Shu lay organization in
the USA, which regularly provides information to its members as to
what funds have been taken in and how they have been spent, including
a say at the local level as to how they should be spent.
These are but a few of the issues that have been exposed here on ARBN
over the years and caused the SGI no small amount of trouble. They
are inconvenient truths that Chas and others like him would just as
soon see burried, never to see the light of day. So Chas avoids them
through his spam.
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Chas. replies,
From Jon Petry,
| Chas is truly a special case. [snip]
Everyone is a special case. Your opinion of who I am and why I speak
are your opinions, as are yours of the impact of ARBN. Slandering the
Sangha is not a good cause. There are other schools of Buddhism,
distortions of Nichiren and Buddhism in general, yet only Nikko
Shonin's Fuji School correctly practices the Law at the heart of the
Lotus Sutra instead of incessantly slandering it. On this point I
offer you three quotes from the Gosho Zenshu, one from Sensei and one
from Nikko Shonin (I capitalize the relevant lines for clarity):
Quote #1 - From the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, p.
77-78, Chapter Seven - The Parable of the Phantom City, Point Seven,
on the passage "Now you must press forward diligently / so that
together you may [all] reach the place where the treasure is.",
.. The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: The
.. word "all" refers to the Ten Worlds. The word "together"
.. refers to the words [of the Buddha in chapter two, Expedient
.. Means] "hoping to make all persons / equal to me, without
.. any distinction between us." The word "reach" means to
.. arrive at the level of the highest effect, the state of
.. Buddhahood. "The place where the treasure is," the treasure
.. land, is the holy mountain, Eagle Peak.
..
.. Nichiren and his followers, those who chant Nam-myoho-renge
.. -kyo, one and all will "together reach the place where the
.. treasure is." This one word "together" means that, as long
.. as they are together with Nichiren, they will reach the
.. treasure land. BUT IF THEY ARE NOT TOGETHER WITH HIM, THEY
.. WILL FALL INTO THE GREAT CITADEL OF THE AVICHI HELL.
[By the way, the first paragraph clarifies the issue of Buddhist
Democracy, without specifying the form, which I will discuss later on.
(Thank you once again, Nichiren Daishonin.)]
Quote #2 - From "The Minobu Transfer Document", WND II, p. 993,
.. I NICHIREN, ENTRUST ALL OF THE TEACHINGS I HAVE PROPAGATED
.. THROUGHOUT MY LIFE TO NIKKO, ACHARYA BYAKUREN. He should be
.. the great guide and teacher in the spread of the essential
.. teaching.
..
.. When the head of the nation accepts this Law, the ordination
.. platform, or sanctuary, of Hommon-ji temple should be
.. established at Mount Fuji.
..
.. We must wait for the proper time for this. This is what is
.. meant by the specified ordination. My followers should abide
.. by this document.
..
.. Nichiren
..
.. The order of the transmission of the Law: from Nichiren to
.. Nikko. The ninth month in the fifth year of Koan [1282],
.. cyclical sign mizunoe-uma
Quote #3 - From "The Ikegami Transfer Document", WND II, p. 996,
.. I transmit the fifty years of teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha
.. to Nikko, Acharya Byakuren. He should be the superintendent
.. of Minobu-san Kuon-ji temple. ANYONE, EITHER LAY BELIEVER OR
.. CLERIC, WHO GOES AGAINST THIS, IS A PERSON WHO ACTS AGAINST
.. THE CORRECT TEACHING.
..
.. At Ikegami in Musashi Province
.. Nichiren
..
.. The thirteenth day of the tenth month in the fifth year of
.. Koan [1282], cyclical sign mizunoe-uma
In Living Buddhism (April 1998), President Ikeda wrote an article on
Nikko Shonin's 26 Admonitions.
<http://sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/SokaGakkai/Study/26Adm/>
Quote #4 - Sensei writes:
.. These articles of warning were originally intended for
.. priests. Nonetheless, we in the SGI, awakened [to our
.. mission] as Bodhisattvas of the Earth, have strictly put
.. these admonitions into practice.
..
.. President Toda composed and dedicated the following poem to
.. youth:
..
.. You, young people,
.. ENGRAVING IN YOUR HEARTS
.. THE TWENTY-SIX PRECEPTS,
.. dedicate your lives
.. to the path of the Mystic Law.
..
.. The "twenty-six precepts" in this poem refers to Nikko
.. Shonin's twenty-six warning articles. President Toda urged
.. young people to struggle for kosen-rufu, just as the second
.. high priest admonished, with the spirit of not begrudging
.. their lives.
Quote #5 - President Ikeda completely lists Nikko Shonin's 26
Admonitions, (from which I include the parts relevant to my arguments)
.. I will here set forth some articles for the sake of later
.. students of Buddhism. This is solely because I treasure the
.. [Daishonin's] golden words regarding kosen- rufu.
..
.. [... The 26 Admonitions go here...]
..
.. I have set forth these 26 articles for the sake of the
.. eternal salvation and protection of humankind. THOSE WHO
.. VIOLATE EVEN ONE OF THESE ARTICLES CANNOT BE CALLED
.. DISCIPLES OF NIKKO.
..
.. thirteenth day of the first month of the third year of the
.. Genko era (1333).
.. Nikko(Seal)
..
.. Note: The Fuji school is the line of Nikko Shonin's
.. followers. The "late master" is Nichiren Daishonin.
People will continue to believe and hold forth on the idea that there
is even a glimmer of daylight between, or even the tiniest bit of
difference between these wonderful persons, as far as what Buddhism
is. There is not. They all agree with Nichiren Daishonin.
The function of dividing, of pitting one against the other is the
devilish function. The view of Buddhism as being different in any way
from what these men say is in and of itself, the purest delusion and
the fundamental ignorance or darkness.
I'm just as sure as I can be, that your next argument is to declare
everything I quoted as a forgery (the standard Five Senior Priest's
treachery), and to that I quote Nikko Shonin's 3rd Admonition:
.. 3. There will [in the future] appear persons who slander our
.. school, saying that the Gosho are forged writings. You must
.. not associate with such evil priests.
I cannot participate in such a discussion. The rest of your charges
are unsubstantiated, as usual. We will address what substantiation
might consist of, below.
More from Jon Petry,
| ... the SGI leadership has been squirming [snip]
More unsubstantiated and frankly, not substantiable subjective
allegations. Characterizations such as these presented as evidence are
like asking "When did you stop beating your wife?" It is called the
Fallacy of Interrogation, where an unsupported assumption is inserted
in a question, or a challenge argument, in this case. [See
http://members.aol.com/standardcharter/logic.html]
================================================================
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Myth 1: The SGI is the only Buddhist group who stood up
| to the Japanese government during WWII and was pacifist.
Notice how, without presenting any proof, a statement is pre-
identified as a myth. This is also, the Fallacy of Interrogation.
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Fact 1: The SGI as it is formed now did not exist prior
| to WWII. However its founders, Makiguchi and Toda were not
| pacifists, in fact they were far from it.
Notice how you (Jon Petry) state an untruth about the SGI, and then
immediately reverse yourself.
How could Makiguchi, who died during the war ... be a founder of a
group that did not exist until after the war? This logical fallacy has
no name and is frankly pathetic. You don't even believe your own
rhetorical excesses.
As far as the names Soka Kyoiku Gakkai [education emphasis], Soka
Gakkai [broad education and culture emphasis], SGI [international
emphasis], they really are all the same provisional organization, born
in 1930 and going through stages of growth, much like a person does.
Like little Nicky, becomes Nick, Jr., and then Nicholas the lawyer.
Apparently, you (Jon Petry) have appointed yourself the arbiter of
what names should go with what things. Are you really suggesting that
our organization should run their candidate names for the sangha by
you for approval? Get real.
More from Jon Petry,
| There are speeches in existence in which they affirm their
| loyalty to the Japanese government and the war.
Substantiation would consist of stating "Who, What, When and Where".
What did the specified person say in what publication or speech, at
which location, and when? Waving an unsubstantiated allegation is like
Joe McCarthy waving around his envelope with the names of Communists
in the State Department that he never got around to disclosing (filled
with blank paper).
"Who, What, When, and Where", Jon Petry. Then you are easily refuted
when you make your errors.
I will pre-fetch your response. The putative scholar Brian Victoria's
articles about Mr. Makiguchi have been debunked, as he takes
statements out of context wildly. (Another Zen priest on a rampage
against the Lotus Sutra and its votaries.) Victoria is neither
researcher nor scholar, in any sense that I would respect. [I have
planned to write a toxic zen story about him, once I get some other
more crucial things out of the way.]
There are three articles (and counting) debunking the roshi's
inaccuracies:
1. Critical Comments on Brian Victoria's "Engaged Buddhism: A Skeleton
in the Closet?", by Koichi Miyata.
<http://www.globalbuddhism.org/3/miyata021.htm>
Here's two sample paragraphs from page 1,
.. Turning to my first point: Victoria quotes a passage from
.. Makiguchi's 1903 work Jinsei Chirigaku (The Geography of
.. Human Life), in which Makiguchi notes that Russia was
.. engaged in a policy of expansionism in the search for year
.. -round harbors. Victoria asserts that this world view was
.. identical to that of the government of Japan, a view used to
.. justify the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), then the
.. annexation of the Korean peninsula (1910) and the founding
.. of the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932). Victoria's
.. assertion, and his implicit criticism of Makiguchi,
.. simplistically links analysis of the global situation with
.. the policies taken in response to that. Makiguchi was merely
.. voicing what was then the accepted understanding of the
.. geopolitical motives for Russia's expansionist policies, a
.. view held not only by the Japanese government, but shared by
.. the British, with whom Japan had formed the Anglo-Japanese
.. Alliance. Certainly I know of no scholar of political
.. geography who rejects this commonsense view in favor of one
.. that Russia posed no danger. If we were to extend Victoria's
.. argument, the logical conclusion would be to find not only
.. Makiguchi but everyone who studies political geography
.. guilty of complicity with Japanese aggression.
..
.. Elsewhere in Jinsei Chirigaku Makiguchi points out that the
.. countries of Western Europe had a great deal of trouble
.. operating their colonies, and expresses doubts about the
.. value of acquiring colonies, particularly from the point of
.. view of the financial burden that they would entail. If
.. Victoria had read Jinsei Chirigaku carefully, he would not
.. identify the thoughts of Makiguchi with the expansionist
.. doctrine of the time.
A putative scholar, indeed. Scholars who make sweeping allegations
need to have a similar sweep in their thorough coverage of the
material, otherwise their conclusions are far too easily upended,
along with any respect for their scholasticism.
Brian Victoria cherry-picks the evidence to support his attacks on
Makiguchi's pacifism in the same manner that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/
Wolfowitz cherry picked the WMD intelligence for their erroneous
arguments for the justification to invade Iraq without provocation.
They simply slavered to get their hands on Saddam, and Victoria simply
slavered to trash Makiguchi ... for some reason [this will be shown
forensically in a circumstantial case for libel].
Miyata's third point is especially damning, although he does not jump
on Brian Victoria with the hobnail boots that I use. [Miyata appears
to be a nice person.] Victoria is clearly completely ignorant of the
circumstances of political discourse at the time, which provides the
context for Makiguchi's view of the Emperor as a constitutional
monarch, versus the military's view of him as absolute and all-
justifying god-emperor. That dispute, which ended in 1935, is not even
noticed by Victoria in his skin-deep analysis of Makiguchi's writings
before 1935.
This demonstrates an utter ignorance of a field which is not his own,
Japanese political history. This is a similar error to Shockley the
Nobel Prize-winning Solid State Physicist burying his career and
reputation eternally, by his "scientific" approach to racial science,
and the bad application of statistics to intelligence testing, that
was so thoroughly debunked in "The Mismeasure of Man" by the late
great Biologist Stephen Jay Gould. [That last is one great book.]
Finally, there is the faulty translation of the line "praying" to the
Emperor, which in context should be beseeching the Emperor, because he
is talking about petitioning the authorities for redress. Now we must
question every line translated by Victoria, as well. Is there anything
left to trust him on? Apparently not.
2. Two Views of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi's Attitude toward Japanese
Militarism and Education, by Dayle M. Bethel.
<http://www.iop.or.jp/0313/bethel.pdf>
Bethel finds similar broad errors in Victoria's work, which show that
he simply neglected to read Makiguchi's writings thoroughly, even the
ones that he quotes from!!! This may be simply a lack of mastery of
Japanese, which makes a non-native reader lazy about thoroughly
reading the works of someone. However we may understand the reasons
for the loathing of thorough coverage by those with an agenda, that
Wolfowitzian lack of thoroughness provides a rich ground for exactly
the kind of profound injustice that Brian Victoria has committed
against Tsunesaburo Makiguchi.
Bethel goes to the lengths to prove his point by his extensive
Appendices that constitute half of the paper's content, and which
contain a broad spectrum of Makiguchi's pacifism in his writings and
pound home the charge of cherry-picking with a torrent of counter-
evidence. Bethel pounds him like a stake into the ground, but nicely,
of course. These are nice people.
3. A Critical Analysis of Brian Victoria's Perspectives on Modern
Japanese Buddhist History, reviewed by Daniel A. Metraux.
<http://www.globalbuddhism.org/5/metraux04.htm>
This paper is more of an appeal to simple reason, that Victoria's
assertions against Makiguchi are just so totally outweighed by vast
evidence against his allegations, that they are totally unsupportable.
More from Jon Petry,
| However they did remonstrate against the imposition of the
| Imperial Talisman as an object of reverence as well as in
| their interpretation of Rissho Ankoku-ron, urged the
| Japanese Government to suppress all other Buddhist sects
| and force everyone to convert to Nichiren Buddhism.
This is a distorted description of what Nichiren asks people to
observe, and to do. In brief,
1. The Lotus Sutra is Shakyamuni's highest teaching and in the Nirvana
Sutra, Shakyamuni makes his final demand that the followers of the
Buddha honestly discard the provisional teachings (T'ien-T'ai
identifies these as the pre-Lotus Sutra perfect teachings, Tripitaka
teachings or Hinayana, connecting teachings and specific teachings).
"Buddhism" based on the provisional teachings is not really Buddhism,
according to the Buddha. See below.
<http://www.sgilibrary.org/search_dict.php?id=815>
2. Once the highest practice of the Law at the heart of the Lotus
Sutra was expounded by Nichiren in the Gosho, lesser Lotus Sutra
practices join the provisional teachings as the enemies of the Lotus
Sutra.
3. From quote #1, either you are in the Treasure Land with Nichiren
Daishonin, or in Avichi Hell. I defer to your enlightened decision as
to your choice of path, of course.
4. Nichiren Daishonin wants you to follow Nikko Shonin exactly (from
quotes #2 and #3).
5. Nikko Shonin wants you not to ignore even one of his 26 Admonitions
(from quote #5).
6. Josei Toda wants the followers of Nikko (the SGI) to engrave the 26
Admonitions in our hearts in quote #4 (we are not a precepts practice,
because Nichiren states that "Precepts are traitorous" in the "14
Slanders" Gosho, so that is why we engrave them in our hearts, and not
obey them as a set of rules).
7. Every single one of these documents was carefully handed to me by
President Ikeda, without whom I would never have heard about Nam-Myoho-
Renge-Kyo. (Thank you, Sensei.)
8. There are no accidents in this chain of events and documents.
Accept it or not, Jon Petry !!!
Followers of Nichiren "wipe out" slanderous temples by converting
their believers to the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren's practice according
to the Gosho. [From the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, p.
77]
As the government forced the followers of the Fuji School into
practicing Shinto, if those unfortunate victims complained that the
authorities should be selecting a correct Buddhism, instead of the
pitiful corruption and sham of a religion that is Shinto, who's to
blame them? Of course, when the government is selecting your religion
for you, they will never, ever get it right (hence the first amendment
to the U.S. Constitution).
More from Jon Petry,
| They were imprisoned for the crime of lesse majesty, for
| their disrespect of the Imperial Talisman not because they
| were pacifists.
There was no law against pacifism, because the Japanese government of
the time could not conceive of it. So the absence of that specific
pacifism charge against them is insufficient evidence of non-pacifism.
Openly stating that the Shinto Talisman was not a valid religious
object was the same thing as stating that the Emperor was not a god.
Either action was clear treason against the god-Emperor and his holy
war, and hence it was in-your-face-arrest-me pacifism, of the most
noble kind.
This is because these acts removed the religious justification for the
conflict itself, and also removed the blanket Shinto-Zen holy
authorization for war criminality and holocaust action ("The hand that
holds the sword is the Buddha's hand" - D.T. Suzuki). This is all
summarily explained in Miyata's paper.
More from Jon Petry,
| This claim by the SGI does add insult to the injury
| endured by thousands of Buddhists in Japan who did
| demonstrate against the war and who were abandoned by the
| leaderships of their respective sects. Many of those
| people were imprisoned and executed. Others such as
| Nichidatsu Fujii were sent into exile.
Yeah. The point is that individuals of those Buddhist organizations
were fooled into believing that the leaders would stand up against the
military government. When the time came, all of those Buddhist leaders
and their organizations folded, or were arrested and gave in to
pressure from the police. This left their members to suffer the worst
form of persecution combined with the humiliation of abandonment by
their leaders. Shame !!!
Of the leaders of the various Buddhist movements that stood against
the war, only Josei Toda resisted to the end of the war, after
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi had resisted until his death. Among all the
Buddhist organizations, only the SGI in the person of Josei Toda,
resisted and survived to the end, never giving in to the persecution
even in the tiniest way. Makiguchi, as he was led to the detention
center clinic where he soon died, refused to even take the arm of the
guard who offered to help him. THAT is real and determined, enduring
resistance.
Oddly, Brian Victoria seems to have missed this salient point, or to
be incapable of mentioning it ... for some reason? Let me deal with
that now, and unlike the others, I am not in any way a nice person.
In his book "Zen at War" first published in 1997, he has a 6th chapter
on the resistance to the Zen-state war machine. This chapter is in two
sections, organized resistance and the resistance of individuals. In
the organized resistance section he talks about the initial resistance
of very few groups, all of which were crushed. The last resistance
group (he states erroneously) was the Youth League for Revitalizing
Buddhism (Shinko Bukkyo Seinen Domei) led by a man named Seno. On page
73, Victoria describes Seno's arrest for treason against the emperor
system and capitalism (fascists hate communists),
| Seno ... In 1942, however, he was given an early release
| from prison due to ill health. By that time, of course, all
| traces of the League had been eradicated. So, too, had all
| traces of the Buddhist resistance to Japan's war efforts
| (8).
Buried at the end of the book in Note 8 on page 201, is Brian
Victoria's ridiculous explanation of why he neglects to mention the
Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, which would upset his point that Buddhists did not
stand up to Imperial State Zen. His actions are partly explained by
the fact that chapter 6 would have to be re-written, since the central
thesis would be wrong. Victoria is a Zen Roshi, and of course the
culpability of Zen in the war is more easily borne if no one acted to
stop them and the complicity was then universally shared by all
Japanese Buddhists. [Then everyone is corrupted and evil, so nobody
can point fingers at Zen.]
He states in Note 8, that the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai was unworthy to be
mentioned because the arrest of their leaders was for not accepting
the Shinto Talisman, and they were simply being intolerant of other
religions. Once again, his ignorance of context, and his skin deep
coverage of the material while cherry-picking the evidence leads him
to the wrong conclusion. If he knew anything about Nichiren Buddhism,
he would know that neither Makiguchi nor Toda would ever physically
bow to an alter once it was defiled by a corrupt object from a
slanderous Buddhism, like the Shinto Talisman.
You cannot defeat an evil, if you continually bow to it.
In fact, that was the purpose of the Shinto Talisman, to force the
people of Japan to bow to the principle that the Emperor was a god,
and that the war was therefore a holy crusade and the holocaust
actions and war crimes committed were therefore not slanders of the
Buddhist Law. Upending all of that at the root, by Makiguchi and
Toda's fearless resistance, was the greater treason against the
Emperor and the war. Both Seno's group and Makiguchi's groups were
Buddhists. Both were pacifists, in spite of the wrongful assertions of
Victoria's sadly lacking scholarship. Both demonstrated organized
resistance to the military regime. Finally, Seno dropped out in 1942,
while Makiguchi and Toda persisted to the bitter end, upending
Victoria's chapter 6 premise. This injustice against the votaries of
the Lotus Sutra by a Zen Roshi was no accident.
Forensically, we can see the order of Brian Victoria's offenses
against the truth.
1. First he makes his thesis in chapter 6, page 73, of his book "Zen
At War" in 1997, that no Buddhist organization stood against the war
after 1942, even though Makiguchi and Toda were arrested on July 6th,
1943 after repeatedly speaking out against the divinity of the Emperor
in discussion meeting after discussion meeting in the Soka Kyoiku
Gakkai during 1941-1942, knowingly in front of secret police
informants. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi died in the Tokyo Detention Center
on November 18th, 1944. Josei Toda was released from detention
unrepentant, shortly before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
the end of the war.
Even if you did not believe that Makiguchi was a pacifist, you would
have to describe the stubborn actions of the Soku Kyoiku Gakkai as
"organized resistance" to the Shinto-Zen state and therefore the
Imperial Way Buddhism war effort, and to the divine emperor system
during the war. Which would have made Victoria's chapter 6 at least a
negligent oversight. Victoria himself, presents the view that the
subjugation of all the temples under Imperial Way Buddhism was part of
the war effort in the second half of his book, which makes resistance
to Imperial Way Buddhism effectively war resistance. His own views IN
THE SAME BOOK would make this "oversight" an irrational
compartmentalizing of the prima facia evidence, causing the
destruction of his arguments across half of his book.
2. Adding the buried Note 8, on page 201, as an afterthought to cover
his buck-naked ass, while neglecting to reform his thesis in chapter
6, is clear and unmistakable intellectual dishonesty.
3. In the fall of 2001, Victoria writes his cherry-picking attack
paper, "The Putative Pacifism of Soka Gakkai Founder Makiguchi
Tsunesaburo" (Japanese Studies; Dec2001, Vol. 21 Issue 3, page 275).
In the view of 1 and 2 above, the effort to write this paper is
unmistakably exposed as a guilty murderer's attack on the reputation
of his murder victim in the court of public opinion, to avoid
prosecution for the original crime: Victoria's initial scholarly
laziness and incompetence of judgement in an area of expertise outside
his own, and the subsequent coverup of his foolishness in a notation
at the end of the book. Furthermore, he also duplicated his cherry-
picking attack article in the Journal of Global Buddhism <http://
www.globalbuddhism.org>, also published in the fall of 2001. Once was
not enough.
4. Finally, Victoria stubbornly regurgitates his identical spew in the
2006 second edition of "Zen At War" on the same page 73, although Note
8 is now relegated even further back to page 239. Now it is clearly
not just a negligent oversight that became a discardable data point
(more like the majority of the data thrown out whole-hog) that in turn
disturbed a cherished theorem ... it becomes a serial murder of the
truth. So, a great man's reputation is tarred to cover up his critic's
lack of meticulous and comprehensive study of the great man's work and
the simple historiography of his time.
Diggin' a deep, deep hole, dudes (Jon and Brian). An abyss. Avichi
hell for countless kalpas. Repent now !!!
================================================================
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Myth 2: The SGI has always held fast to its principles
| and never compromised them.
Once again, the Fallacy of Interrogation. See the discussion above.
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Fact 1: The examples of the SGI violating its own
| principles are in fact too numerous to detail.
Both the quality and quantity of your substantiation are insufficient.
No human organization is perfect, but we must not let the perfect be
the enemy of the good. Nichiren Shoshu and the transfer-boxless
exploits of Nikkenists who through outright fraud stole the Fuji
School from the followers of Nikko Shonin ... well, that's not merely
imperfect. That is a wholesale ripoff of a religion with the collusion
of the Japanese government. The Japanese government and the courts
need to set things right, now that the transfer box has been shown not
to be in the possession of the fraudulent High Priest-of-the-moment.
More from Jon Petry,
| But one which is relevant to Chas' regular rants is the
| claim that they have held fast to Nikko's admonitions while
| the NST has not.
This is the typical confusion. Priests are not lay-persons, even
though in NST they have blurred the distinction as far as personal
behavior is concerned, while retaining and grandly enhancing the
higher caste-distinctions between priests and laity.
Both Nichiren Daishonin and Nikko Shonin knew the difference between
priests and lay-persons. Their clear and unmitigated disregard for the
integrity, personal and otherwise, of the vast majority of priests
during their time is on the record. They wanted to avoid, as far as
they could, the cancer of an evil and perpetual dynasty of priests
taking root in the Fuji School. They were also clearly not served well
by Fuji School priests after Nichimoku Shonin, with the singular
exception of Nichikan Shonin.
As an example of the discernment of Nikko's views expressed in the 26
Admonitions between priests and lay persons, let's look at Admonition
#25,
.. 25. My disciples should conduct themselves as holy priests,
.. patterning their behavior after that of the late master.
.. However, even if a high priest or a priest striving for
.. practice and understanding should temporarily deviate from
.. [the principle of] sexual abstinence, he may still be
.. allowed to remain in the priesthood [as a common priest
.. without rank].
Since gazing at my lovely kindergarten teacher at the age of 5, I have
not had a moment even approaching the thought of any sexual abstinence
for myself. So I would never have entertained the delusion that I
belonged in a priesthood requiring abstinence. This is merely being
honest about oneself and not misrepresenting for corrupt reasons.
As a lay follower of Nikko Shonin, clearly and unmistakably, the only
way that I can follow the 25th Admonition is to NOT follow any priest
who is not celibate, or any high priest who tolerates lapses of
celibacy in the priesthood. This is because any one of these lapses is
also a cessation of their being a follower of Nikko Shonin, and the
initiation of their becoming a fraudulent priest of the Fuji School.
Although it is not necessary to follow what happens when Fuji School
priests abandon Nikko Shonin (the fact of that abandonment alone, is
evidence enough against them), let's see what happens when faith is
abandoned.
Sex, marriage and having families are the underlying problems with
Nichiren Shoshu (and other) priesthood clans and their clan wars for
control. If the family relationships of celibate priests were extended
to the lay-members as children, rather than the filial family
relationships of non-celibate priests to inheriting descendents, none
of the troubles of the Fuji School in the last century would have
occurred.
On April 25, 1872 the Meiji government lifted the Tokugawa ban on
priests marrying.
From "The Untold History of the Fuji School", Ch. 10, p. 92-93:
<http://sokaspirit.org/resource/downloads/10_UHFS_Chapter_10.pdf>
.. Once the restrictions were lifted by the new regime, priests
.. gladly started to marry. This is a clear indication that the
.. Buddhist community had lost the integrity to decide on
.. matters of Buddhist tradition. Instead, priests regarded the
.. government as the legitimate authority over their
.. traditions. Put simply, the years of strict government
.. control had made the Buddhist clergy entirely dependent on
.. political authority. Some contend that the Meiji government
.. issued the decree to enfeeble the morale of the Buddhist
.. community and thereby elevate Shinto, which was viewed as
.. the chief means of extolling imperial authority.
..
.. Nichiden criticized priests of other Buddhist schools for
.. their elation over the government decree, regarding it as an
.. expression of imperial mercy. He stated that despite the
.. trend in the Buddhist community, the priesthood of the Fuji
.. School should uphold the precepts of the Daishonin and Nikko
.. Shonin and remain celibate. But eventually the priesthood at
.. Taiseki-ji succumbed to the trend.
..
.. The priesthood's renouncement of celibacy had a significant
.. effect on the development of the Fuji School. It gave rise
.. to nepotism and the hereditary succession of priesthood
.. positions and temple properties within the school. Factions
.. of related priests formed, vying for control. Instead of
.. regarding the spread of the Daishonin's Buddhism as their
.. goal, many priests became increasingly bound by family ties
.. and personal interests.
Having decided to follow Meiji while spurning Nikko Shonin and his
25th admonition, the 54th High Priest Nichi'in (from 1869-1874) was
soon (through cause and effect) faced with an unfortunate circumstance
(5 months later), from his newly adopted Meiji master,
From "Confirming Our Path of Faith - Temple Issue Handbook" (green
booklet), p. 36:
<http://sokaspirit.org/resource/downloads/Confirming_Our_Path.pdf>
.. [Nichi'in] Requests the government to allow the sect to
.. remain independent of other Nichiren schools. However, the
.. government orders all Nichiren schools to merge despite
.. their differing doctrines to make it easier for the
.. government to control them.
Once forced into the broad and all-encompassing (1) Nichiren School in
September 1872, the long and tawdry road was chosen for Taisekiji:
[(2) May 1874: placed under the Shoretsu School of all temples that
think the essential teaching is superior, as a sub-branch of the broad
Nikko branch.
(3) February 1876: placed under a separate Nikko Branch (later
renamed Hon'Mon) of the broad Nichiren School, under the 55th HP
Nippu.
(4) September 1900: Taisekiji is "allowed" to become its own branch,
the Fuji branch of the Nichiren School, under 56th HP Nichio, the
first married HP.
(5) June 1912: Taisekiji is "allowed" to become its own school:
Nichiren Shoshu.]
So, causes follow effects, which always spring from causes. But like I
said, the mere evidence of abandoning the principles initially, was
enough for me to consider them as corrupt without the playing out of
that corruption.
After priests could marry in the Fuji School and still retain their
position in the hierarchy as priests pretending to have the appearance
of Nikko Shonin and Nichiren Daishonin, without the substance ...
Nichiren Shoshu was doomed.
However, the abstinence of lay members, even those who are obsessed
with sex, is not in the focus of interest for Nikko Shonin in this
document. Lay abstinence traditions like the Shakers, are a self-
limiting proposition. The Fuji School has a self-limiting priesthood
abstinence tradition, thanks to Nikko Shonin and his 25th Admonition.
For Admonitions 18 and 19, the difference between laity and priesthood
is obvious and indisputable.
.. 19. Black robes should not be worn [by priests].
..
.. 20. Jikitotsu should not be worn [by priests].
So, priests and lay-persons are different. And Fuji School priests are
as different from Nichiren Shoshu priests as day is from night.
More from Jon Petry,
| In particular they chastise the NST for sending priests for
| education at Rissho University which is run by the Nichiren
| Shu. Apparently they have forgotten that SGI members have
| also attended that university, some with the approval of
| their own governing body in Japan.
SGI lay-persons who ignore the warnings of Nikko Shonin's 26
admonitions will suffer and then dig their way out of the hole,
through practice (and that includes their leaders who bid them to
ignore Nikko Shonin). Nikko said nothing about changing the status of
lay-persons who fall short. He was quite explicit about how he treated
priests who fell short, he kicked their ass out the door. For a
TEMPORARY deviation from abstinence, and that doesn't mean marriage or
weekly trips to the red light district, he said to demote them to
common priests. Either married or philandering priests are clearly not
acceptable to Nikko Shonin, and he doesn't seem to care which is
which.
This is the pattern. Priests are not treated the same as lay-persons,
because their corruption leads to the current evil state of affairs,
with a contest for control of the transfer box, and fraud in the
succession of the position of the high priest.
The second admonition, and second only to practice according to the
gosho, means that metriculating at Nichiren Shu's Rissho University is
a violation,
.. 2. The doctrines of the five senior priests differ in every
.. regard from the teachings of the late master.
The training for priests at Rissho University is vastly different from
the education for lay-persons. If you go to their website (which I
would not recommend to my worst enemy), you will find they teach the
caligraphy and design of Gohonzon, along with all the forms of
Japanese Buddhism. Gohonzon pop out of their instructor websites, here
and there, like the nadir or absolute zero of pornography. (Bring your
barf-bag.)
There is a class where they teach that the Dai-Gohonzon is a fake,
Nikko and Nichimoku are liars, and all the transfer documents are
forgeries.
Does anyone with even a tiny discerning intellect think for a second
that Nikko Shonin would approve of having his priests trained there?
After a cursory inspection, I figure that Fuji School priests and
candidates attending Rissho University are violating at least the
following admonitions of Nikko Shonin (I have capitalized the relevant
phrases),
1. The doctrines of the Fuji school MUST NOT DIFFER in the least from
the teachings of the late master.
2. The doctrines of the five senior priests DIFFER IN EVERY REGARD
from the teachings of the late master.
3.There will [in the future] appear persons who slander our school,
SAYING THAT THE GOSHO ARE FORGED writings. You must not associate with
such evil priests.
4. Those who produce forged writings and say that they are Gosho, or
who practice with the view that the ESSENTIAL AND THEORETICAL
TEACHINGS [of the Lotus Sutra] ARE THE SAME, are parasites in the
lion's body.
5. You should refrain from indulging in poetry or non- Buddhist works,
or from engaging in idleness and chatter WITHOUT [having the aim of]
REBUKING SLANDER.
6. Lay believers should be strictly prohibited from visiting
[heretical] temples and shrines. Moreover, PRIESTS SHOULD NOT VISIT
SLANDEROUS TEMPLES OR SHRINES, which are inhabited by demons, even if
only to have a look around. To do so would be a pitiful violation [of
the Daishonin's Buddhism.] This is not my own personal view; it wholly
derives from the sutras [of Shakyamuni] and the writings [of Nichiren
Daishonin].
9. Until they are well versed in the difference between the
provisional and true teachings, followers of later generations should
visit THIS TEMPLE, setting aside the debt of gratitude they owe to
their parents and teachers, and undertake various studies in order to
free themselves [from the sufferings of birth and death] and attain
the Way.
10.Unless you have a thorough understanding of and firm faith in the
teachings [of Nichiren Daishonin], you SHOULD NOT STUDY T'IEN-T'AI'S
DOCTRINES.
11. Followers of this school should ENGRAVE THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSHO
IN THEIR LIVES and thereby inherit the ultimate principles expounded
by the master. THEN, if they have any leisure time, they should
inquire into the doctrine of the T'IEN-T'AI SCHOOL.
17. DO NOT FOLLOW even the high priest IF HE GOES AGAINST THE BUDDHA'S
LAW and propounds his own views.
18. Even if a view is set forth unanimously by a conference [of
believers], the high priest should repudiate it IF IT GOES AGAINST THE
BUDDHA'S LAW.
19. BLACK ROBES SHOULD NOT BE WORN [by priests].
20. JIKITOTSU SHOULD NOT BE WORN [by priests].
21. You SHOULD NOT SIT TOGETHER WITH SLANDERERS OF THE LAW [at
religious ceremonies] for fear of suffering the same punishment as
they.
22. You MUST NOT ACCEPT OFFERINGS FROM SLANDERERS OF THE LAW.
25. My disciples should CONDUCT THEMSELVES AS HOLY PRIESTS, PATTERNING
THEIR BEHAVIOR AFTER THAT OF THE LATE MASTER. However, even if a high
priest or a priest striving for practice and understanding should
temporarily deviate from [the principle of] sexual abstinence, he may
still be allowed to remain in the priesthood [as a common priest
without rank].
So it is far, far worse for Fuji School priests to get their training
at Rissho University from the Five Senior Priests, than the slander of
an SGI youth division getting a degree from Nichiren Shu that is most
likely not in the Theology department. Both the content is different
and that special mission as a priest for Kosen Rufu is infinitely more
corrupted by that contact.
Proof of this is the following personal experience from Nikken Abe,
who makes an unmistakable admission of past guilt in the training of
priests at Rissho by Nichiren Shoshu. He makes the former errors
obvious by starting his own training school called Fuji Gakurin ...
rather late in the day,
.. (Excerpts from
.. http://www.geocities.com/smimoza/vol275.html,
the "Fake
.. [High Priest]" Newsletter:)
..
| "My view of the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu
| has been polluted with Minobu's wicked
| teachings," Nikken confessed at the opening
| ceremony for the Fuji Gakurin School (Dai-
| Nichiren, May 2000 edition).
..
.. Fuji Gakurin is the school that Nikken started to
.. belatedly replace Rissho University as the source of
.. priest trainees for Nichiren Shoshu. Apparently, he only
.. took this action after people started talking about the
.. 26 Admonitions publicly (Living Buddhism article by
.. Daisaku Ikeda in 1998). The sad fact is, that Nichiren
.. Shoshu has violated all 26, most by the letter of the
.. admonition, but all 26 by their intent.
..
.. In relatively short order after being rebuked in 1998,
.. Nikken officially opened the Fuji Gakurin School on
.. April 10th, 2000. Many attended and heard his
.. statements: Nichijun Fujimoto, Nichiyu Yoshida, Nitto
.. (Juken) Ohmura, Nichijo (Gikan) Hayase, Nissho (Shinei)
.. Yagi, Chief of the Overseas Department Kotoku Obayashi,
.. Chief of the Public Relations Department Kogaku Akimoto
.. and Vice Chief of the Study Department Kosho Mizushima.
("Fuji Gakurin" must mean "afterthought" in the Nikkenese dialect.)
Nissho (Shinei) Yagi had to be at the opening of Fuji Gakurin, because
he is the President of the School, as we will see later ...
.. Nikken went on to state that "he had been contaminated
.. by Minobu's teachings"...
..
| "I once attended the University run by
| Nichiren-shu. The hardest thing for me in my
| campus life was that the teacher said many
| false things about the teachings and history
| of Nichiren Daishonin. I had always thought
| that I should refute these false ideas.
| However, I cannot say that that was my true
| intention, because I was only a student."
|.
| "When we constantly hear false things, we will
| be caught up in false ways of thinking, or I
| can say, we will be trapped in it. As I recall
| my early days, false ideas did exist in my
| view of Nichiren Buddhism, especially
| regarding the legitimate teachings of
| Nichiren-shoshu. At that time, I was not able
| to straighten out my thoughts sufficiently
| from the viewpoint of faith, action, study....
| If I were young now, I could study with you,
| young fellows, in these classes, taught by
| these engaged teachers."
..
.. But his distorted views from Rissho were not left there
.. at the University.
..
.. We are reminded of Nikken's words on October 8th, 1985,
.. when he attended the completion ceremony of Komyoji
.. Temple, Hachioji City, Tokyo. Kotoku Hirayama, the chief
.. priest of the temple, asked Nikken, "What is the biggest
.. obstacle you had in your practice?" Nikken answered, "It
.. is that I could not truly believe in the Gohonzon. I
.. cannot believe truly now. I have to really try."
..
.. Also, we are reminded of Nikken's statement that
.. "Daigohonzon is a fake" from the Kawabe memo. This
.. statement seems to be influenced by the author of "view
.. of wood honzon is false", Minobu priest Bentetsu
.. Yasunaga, who is an associate professor at Minobu's
.. Rissho University and chief priest of Zenshoji Temple.
..
.. In recent years, the exchange of Minobu
.. priests and Nikken sect priests has become
.. more frequent. Monks of the Nikken sect make
.. pilgrimages to temples of Minobu sect with
.. Hokkeko members, or they invite Minobu monks
.. to Taisekiji. General chief of the Hokkeko
.. federation, Kisoji Yanagisawa, made a
.. pilgrimage to Kuonji Temple, the general head
.. temple of the Minobu sect. We [the Fake
.. Newsletter] have mentioned this issue before,
.. and even "Emyo," one of organ papers of Nikken
.. sect, could not argue against this. Taisekiji
.. priests Kaido Seki, Jikei Maekawa, Kosho
.. Mizushima, Sonfuku Ochiai, Gishu Funabashi,
.. all made visits to Minobu's temples
.. themselves. They later made excuses during
.. lectures at their temples or in their temple
.. newsletters, saying, "We went and saw the
.. temple but did not chant."...etc.
These arguments and experiences from the afflicted should be enough
for anyone, but of course, reason never prevails with some.
More from Jon Petry,
| Of even greater amusement however are two other events.
| Shortly after the split between the SGI and the NST in the
| early 1990's the SGI approached the Nichiren Shu with an
| offer. They would affiliate as a lay organization within
| the Nichiren Shu and pay for all overseas missionary work,
| of course with them running it. The Nichiren Shu, having
| seen what the SGI had been doing to the NST, politely and
| firmly declined the offer. The second incident occurred when
| the SGI approached the Nichiren Shu and offered a million US
| dollars for a Nichiren authored Mandala. This offer was also
| rejected.
Your amusement at the distress of the SGI caused by the criminal fraud
of Nikken and crew in hijacking the high priest position of Nichiren
Shoshu ... is telling. Gloating over anyone's suffering is the
property of the devilish function. How much worse is it to gloat over
the suffering of the sangha of the votaries of the Lotus Sutra who are
followers of Nikko Shonin, when that suffering is clearly caused by an
injustice involving criminality of priests and the complicity of high
crimes of officials of the Japanese government? Certainly, this kind
of gloating is not a good cause for someone to make.
Finally, your "incidents" are presented without substantiation, Jon
Petry.
Presenting the "Who, What, When and Where" for these "incidents" would
provide a basis for fact-checking and refuting your erroneous
allegations. As they are constituted above, they are little more than
slurs and innuendo with no factual basis whatsoever. I think the "Who"
will be the key starting point.
================================================================
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Myth 3: The SGI loves democracy
Once again, the Fallacy of Interrogation. See the discussion above.
More from Jon Petry,
| SGI Fact 3: In fact the SGI while making lip service about
| democracy has been adamant about stamping out any attempts
| by its membership to adopt democratic principles in its own
| governance. Leaders within the SGI are appointed by the
| higher ups and serve at their pleasure with no
| accountability to the rank and file. In fact when SGI
| members became aware on the web that in the Nichiren Shu,
| the lay organizations did have elected leaders, the SGI
| through proxies such as the Rubys and other made posts
| belittling that fact.
It's amazing to me that people always confuse Democracy with the
direct election of leaders, which may or may not be Democratic. For
instance, if everyone is not allowed to register or to have access to
voting once having been registered, it is not a Democracy. The direct
election of leaders is a specific implementation of political will, as
is the representative election of leaders or the parliamentary system
(party rules). You can have a direct election with only one party, is
that Democracy?
Buddhist Democracy is actually manifested by a discussion meeting in
the SGI. This is because in front of the Gohonzon, we are as the
Buddha states in the Expedient Means chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra,
"Hoping to make all persons / equal to me, without any distinction
between us." However leaders are chosen, and no way really works
perfectly, cannot undermine the view of the Lotus Sutra, which will
always prevail.
Think of it this way, the worst leader of the Sangha in history was
Nikken Abe, and yet he did us the greatest favor in history by
excommunicating us from the monstrosity of Nichiren Shoshu as it
spiraled downwards into hellishness. No matter how you dislike your
SGI leader, can they be worse, or do better for us, than Nikken did?
[In the extreme case, logic is easily founded or confounded.]
The delusion in Nichiren Shu is that their elected leaders actually
run something, since they are like cattle to the priesthood, who rule
like the Brahmin caste of priests in every other Japanese Buddhist
School. Lamentably so.
More from Jon Petry,
| Similarly the SGI has refused to allow any rank and file
| movement towards actual financial accountability, keeping
| its finances a closely held secret. Members have no
| knowledge of what happens to their money once it is donated
| nor are they allowed a say in how it is to spent. This is
| vastly different from say NONA, the Nichiren Shu lay
| organization in the USA, which regularly provides
| information to its members as to what funds have been taken
| in and how they have been spent, including a say at the
| local level as to how they should be spent.
What follows is "In My Humble Opinion", or IMHO. In other words I
don't have a legitimate stand that is objectively supported by
defensible Logic and Reason.
Most members in the SGI-USA who have been around for a while, know
that we are not as of yet solvent (or at least that was true at the
turn of the century, and I don't think it has changed). It is the
Japanese members who largely pay our way, for which my gratitude is
unbounded, and for which reason it is important to really step up on
yearly Zaimu.
I don't think more visibility improves the picture of how our money is
spent, when it's not all our money initially. Once we actually do
support our own movement fully, more accountability might be in order.
Note that the people who scream for accountability and transparency
are not necessarily those who give more in the way of offerings, they
are more like those who tend to be political and feel neglected or out
of power, and need to grasp power through auditing the books. This is
not very productive.
The truth is that nowadays nonprofits have certain reporting
requirements to the government (since Jim Bakker, et al), and once
those are met, everything else is optional. IMHO, of course. I have
spent enough time working for fortune five hundred companies to know
that nobody gets finance right as they grow bigger. Nobody.
================================================================
Finally from Jon Petry,
| These are but a few of the issues that have been exposed
| here on ARBN over the years and caused the SGI no small
| amount of trouble. They are inconvenient truths that Chas
| and others like him would just as soon see burried, never to
| see the light of day. So Chas avoids them through his spam.
Apparently wrong on all counts, since I have inconvenienced myself to
ravage your every untruth.
-Chas.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Jon Petry rebuts the Chas. reply,
> Makiguchi's Pacifism Confirmed, and Putative Scholar Brian Victoria's
> Inaccurate Cherry-Picking Research Exposed, for Jon Petry -
> >From Jon Petry,
> | Chas is truly a special case. [snip the rest]
> Everyone is a special case. Your opinion of who I am and why I speak
> are your opinions, as are yours of the impact of ARBN. Slandering the
> Sangha is not a good cause.
And yet Chas in his own little way has worked hard to slander people
who have done him no harm. Spewing [his word] forth Soka Gakkai
agitprop left and right, making wild accusations unconfirmed by any
reliable source of information. However when Chas' motives for doing
so are questioned he screams like a stuck pig and runs back to his
handlers like a good little droid to come up with further slander and
half truths. This has been the hall mark of Soka Gakkai agitprop
since the 1950's.
> More from Jon Petry,
> | SGI Myth 1: The SGI is the only Buddhist group who stood up
> | to the Japanese government during WWII and was pacifist.
> Notice how, without presenting any proof, a statement is pre-
> identified as a myth. This is also, the Fallacy of Interrogation.
> More from Jon Petry,
> | SGI Fact 1: The SGI as it is formed now did not exist prior
> | to WWII. However its founders, Makiguchi and Toda were not
> | pacifists, in fact they were far from it.
> Notice how you (Jon Petry) state an untruth about the SGI, and then
> immediately reverse yourself.
I didn't and you were kind enough to conform it for me. Soka Kyoiku
Gakkai was an organization whose stated goals were educational reform
whilte the Soka gakkai as it presently exists has strayed far from the
original goal and now presents itself as a religious organization.
> How could Makiguchi, who died during the war ... be a founder of a
> group that did not exist until after the war? This logical fallacy has
> no name and is frankly pathetic. You don't even believe your own
> rhetorical excesses.
Sophistry is not a substitute for legitimate argument.
> As far as the names Soka Kyoiku Gakkai [education emphasis], Soka
> Gakkai [broad education and culture emphasis], SGI [international
> emphasis], they really are all the same provisional organization, born
> in 1930 and going through stages of growth, much like a person does.
> Like little Nicky, becomes Nick, Jr., and then Nicholas the lawyer.
see what I mean.
> Apparently, you (Jon Petry) have appointed yourself the arbiter of
> what names should go with what things. Are you really suggesting that
> our organization should run their candidate names for the sangha by
> you for approval? Get real.
more sophistry and some personal attack thrown in for good measure.
> More from Jon Petry,
> | There are speeches in existence in which they affirm their
> | loyalty to the Japanese government and the war.
snip of more sophistry and personal attack
> I will pre-fetch your response. The putative scholar Brian Victoria's
> articles about Mr. Makiguchi have been debunked, as he takes
> statements out of context wildly. (Another Zen priest on a rampage
> against the Lotus Sutra and its votaries.) Victoria is neither
> researcher nor scholar, in any sense that I would respect. [I have
> planned to write a toxic zen story about him, once I get some other
> more crucial things out of the way.]
I will have more to say about this post later but i did want to
comment on this little tidbit. Chas who has no academic credentials I
am aware of, as if he has such he has not shared them with the group,
has chosen to belittle and slander Dr. Victoria who is a scholar and a
respected one at that. Dr. Victoria has written various articles in
peer reviewed journals as well as books on Buddhism including some
highly critical of the role played by Buddhist organization in Japan
prior to and during World War Two. This includes information highly
critical of his own sect of Zen Buddhism which is the primary subject
of one book. Dr. Victoria has presented papers at conferences on the
subject, including the American Academy of Religions some 10+ years
ago in which he participated in panel discussions on Japanese Buddhism
with Dr. Stone and Dr. Habito among others. I was present at one such
panel discussion on pacifism and Japanese Buddhists in which he
discussed his findings and had a question from the audience from a Ms.
Virginia Strauss [?] who was then the head of the Boston based SGI run
group. She asked about the supposed pacifism of the Soka Gakkai and
Dr. Victoria explained his understanding of the situation. Ms.
Strauss suggested that she would be happy to present him with some
information he was unaware of and he told her he would welcome such an
effort. However instead of this, we have seen an attack by tame SGI
pseudo-scholars in non-peer reviewed publications twisting his words
and excoriating the man.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Chas. rebuts Jon Petry's rebuttal,
| And yet Chas in his own little way has worked hard to
| slander people who have done him no harm. [Snip]
Your characterizations are ludicrous and over-the-top. And how would
you know what harm has been done to whom? You spend a lot of time in
this email screaming in the mirror (projecting your anxieties over
your own out-of-control behavior). Take your own advice.
Look. I'm sure that it dismays you that your icon has made grievous
mistakes and is going to take a fall because of them. Furthermore,
some of this has been brought on by your own raising of the issue
endlessly, which caused me to deal with it, which I will pursue
straight through to the end, without fail.
It's like this: Shitei Funi, mentor and disciple are two (in
appearance) but not two (in essence), are from the same source. This
is why they stand together or fall together. Your attachment to Brian
Victoria and his mistakes, is going to figure prominently in the
speedy revelation of those errors.
____ Uncovering A Fraud ____________________________
There are famous frauds in the literature, such as those in science
(like Piltdown Man and the recent Korean Stem Cell line fiasco) which
involve falsifying evidence to support a desired result, producing a
distorted view of the historical or developmental sequence. In the
physical sciences and in paleontology, anthropology, archeology and
historiography, there are myriad examples of fraud, which always
include 2 elements: anachronism (something is misplaced, out of time
sequence) and falsification (from bad translation to outright forgery
of experimental evidence, historical documents or artifacts).
The most famous fraud of the middle ages was a forged document known
as the Donation of Constantine, which falsely ratified the gift of the
Western Roman Empire (Europe) from Emperor Constantine to Pope
Sylvester and the Catholic Church. According to the document, after
the intentional partitioning, Constantine kept the Eastern Empire
(Byzantium, including Asia Minor: Greece, Palestine, Egypt, etc.) for
himself to rule out of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey).
From "Western Civilization: A Brief History" 5th Ed., by Martin Perry,
p. 178,
.. The humanist emphasis on historical scholarship yielded a
.. method of critical inquiry that could help to undermine
.. traditional loyalties and institutions. Medieval thinkers
.. generally did not relate a text to its times but accepted it
.. uncritically as an authoritative work of wisdom. In
.. contrast, Renaissance humanists approached ancient
.. civilization with a critical attitude; they studied texts in
.. a historical context and examined them for authenticity and
.. accuracy. The work of Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407-1457) provides
.. the clearest example of this trend. Educated as a
.. classicist, Valla trained the guns of critical scholarship
.. on the papacy in his most famous work, Declamation
.. Concerning the False Decretals of Constantine. The papal
.. claim to temporal authority rested on a document that
.. purported to verify the socalled Donation of Constantine,
.. through which the Emperor Constantine, when he moved the
.. capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in the fourth
.. century, had given the pope dominion over the entire Western
.. Empire. But Valla proved that the document was based on an
.. eighth-century forgery because the language at certain
.. points was unknown in Constantine's time and did not come
.. into use until much later.
Valla noted that this purported document of the 4th century used
language that could not have existed until the 8th century, when he
presumed it was created as a forgery. The 8th century was a time when
church disputes with monarchs, such as Charlemagne, over control of
the Holy Roman Empire were an issue.
This kind of anachronism is called a prochronism and presents an
impossibility that would require time travel, such as the digital
wristwatches that you see on the arms of revolutionary war soldiers in
movies. The other kind, a parachronism, is possible but remarkable,
like seeing a vintage 1920's car on the street driving around.
The Donation of Constantine was a prochronism, and an impossibility.
Remarkably, the Vatican banned Valla's "False Decretals"(1440), and it
was not until the beginning of the 17th century that the Vatican
finally agreed that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery, since
it had become useless in disputes with monarchs at that point.
From the Introduction to "Lorenzo Valla, Discourse on the Forgery of
the Alleged Donation of Constantine", English translation by
Christopher B. Coleman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922).
<http://history.hanover.edu/texts/vallaintro.html>:
.. The Donation of Constantine (Constitutum Constantini),
.. written probably not long after the middle of the eighth
.. century, became widely known through its incorporation in
.. the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals (about 847-853). Parts of it
.. were included in most of the medieval collections of canon
.. law; Anselm's, Deusdedit's, and Gratian's great work (the
.. Decretum, or Concordia discordantium canonum). It purports
.. to reproduce a legal document in which the Emperor
.. Constantine the Great, reciting his baptism and the cure of
.. his leprosy at the hands of Sylvester, Bishop of Rome 314
.. -336, confirmed the privilege of that pontiff as head of all
.. the clergy and supreme over the other four patriarchates;
.. conferred upon him extensive imperial property in various
.. parts of the world, especially the imperial Lateran palace,
.. and the imperial diadem and tiara, and other imperial
.. insignia; granted the Roman clergy the rank of the highest
.. Roman orders and their privileges; gave Sylvester and his
.. successors freedom in consecrating men for certain orders of
.. the clergy; it tells how he, Constantine, recognized the
.. superior dignity of the Pope by holding the bridle of his
.. horse; grants Sylvester Rome, all of Italy, and the western
.. provinces, to remain forever under the control of the Roman
.. See; and states his own determination to retire to Byzantium
.. in order that the presence of an earthly emperor may not
.. embarrass ecclesiastical authority. This remarkable document
.. was almost universally accepted as genuine from the ninth to
.. the fifteenth century.
..
.. The question of the position of the bishop of Rome in the
.. Christian Church lacks but a few generations of being as old
.. as Christianity itself. His relation to secular governments
.. became an acute problem as soon as the imperial government
.. broke down in Italy, and has remained so to the present
.. moment. For centuries the Papacy was the strongest
.. institution in western Europe. While its control at any one
.. time rested principally on the power it actually possessed
.. and on the ability of its representatives, legal theories
.. and historical documents played a not inconsiderable part in
.. its rise and decline. Of these documents the Donation of
.. Constantine was perhaps the most spectacular, even though it
.. was not the most important. It was cited by no less than ten
.. Popes of whom we know, to mention no lesser writers, in
.. contentions for the recognition of papal control, and
.. contributed not a little to the prestige of the Papacy. On
.. the other hand, when its spuriousness became known, the
.. reaction against it, as in Luther's case, contributed
.. powerfully to the revolt from Rome. Its century-long
.. influence entitles it to a respect difficult for any one who
.. now reads it to feel. And Valla's discussion of it contains
.. many interesting reflections on the secular power of the
.. Papacy, perhaps the most interesting expression in this
.. connection of fifteenth century Italian humanism.
..
.. Among the achievements of modern historical criticism
.. Valla's work was a conspicuous pioneer. Its quality and its
.. importance have often been exaggerated, and as often
.. underestimated. It is some satisfaction to make it more
.. generally available in the original text and translation, so
.. that the reader may judge for himself. A critical appraisal
.. would have to take into account that Nicholas Cusanus some
.. seven years earlier in his De concordantia catholica covered
.. part of the same ground even better than Valla did, and
.. anticipated some of his arguments. But Valla's treatise is
.. more exhaustive) is in more finished and effective literary
.. form, and in effect established for the world generally the
.. proof of the falsity of the Donation. Moreover, for the
.. first time, he used effectively the method of studying the
.. usage of words in the variations of their meaning and
.. application, and other devices of internal criticism which
.. are the tools of historical criticism to-day. So, while
.. Valla's little book may seem slight beside later
.. masterpieces of investigation and beside systematic
.. treatises in larger fields, it is none the less a landmark
.. in the rise of a new science. I speak from personal
.. experience in adding that it is still useful in college
.. classes in promoting respect for, and development in,
.. critical scholarship.
..
.. As to Valla himself the words of Erasmus will bear
.. repetition; "Valla, a man who with so much energy, zeal and
.. labor, refuted the stupidities of the barbarians, saved
.. half-buried letters from extinction, restored Italy to her
.. ancient splendor of eloquence, and forced even the learned
.. to express themselves henceforth with more
.. circumspection."[2] The Italian Renaissance is much extolled
.. among us, - and so little known. A short time ago diligent
.. search revealed no copy of Valla's works in the United
.. States, and many of the larger libraries had none of his
.. separate writings. The same is doubtless true in the case of
.. other great names in the Renaissance. Meanwhile, there are
.. those whose profession it is to teach European history and
.. who are utterly unacquainted with medieval and later Latin.
..
.. The best life of Valla is that by Girolamo Mancini.[3] There
.. is no satisfactory account of him in English.
..
.. Valla wrote his Discourse on the Forgery of the alleged
.. Donation of Constantine (Declamatio de falso credita et
.. ementita donatione Constantini, also referred to as
.. Libellus, and Oratio) in 1440, when he was secretary to
.. Alfonso, king of Aragon, Sicily, and Naples. It may well be
.. considered as part of the campaign which that king was
.. conducting against Pope Eugenius IV in furtherance of his
.. claims to Italian territories.
Christopher Coleman goes on to summarize the vast assortment of
prochronisms that Valla noted in his banned disproof. It hardly seems
likely that those placing his work on the list of prohibited books
misunderstood the work, or the injustice that they were perpetrating
one more time.
Note that it was a "Humanist" that uncovered this fraud and whose work
was suppressed by the Holy See, the religious authorities of his time.
Note also that this fraud led to Luther and the Protestant
Reformation.
It is no less important in this case that a fraud be unmasked. The
anachronistic view that Makiguchi's earlier loyal support of the
government (in the pre-1935 context of the an existing dispute between
the constitutional monarchists of the Diet and the emperor-is-a-god
factions of the Military) indicated a support of Imperial Way Buddhism
and the war effort at a later time is what is called a prochronism,
and that is an impossibility.
Those who nobly supported the constitutional monarchy until they were
crushed by Imperial State Zen are the noble heroes here and now,
because that pacifist constitutional monarchy currently exists in
Japan. I put forth the causal view that it exists now (in spite of
Junichiro Koizumi's moves towards militarism), primarily because of
the undying organized resistance of Makiguchi and Toda, the only
Buddhists who fought to the bitter end without fail. They won in the
end, because they were not defeated, and their view of government
literally prevailed as a result.
.... How could Makiguchi, who died during the war ... be a
.... founder of a group that did not exist until after the war?
.... This logical fallacy has no name and is frankly pathetic.
.... You don't even believe your own rhetorical excesses.
| Sophistry is not a substitute for legitimate argument.
Sophistry [Oxford] is the use or practice of specious reasoning as an
art or dialectic exercise. I am neither artist nor exercising. My
reasoning is sincere.
When you say Makiguchi had nothing to do with the Soka Gakkai or the
SGI, and then in the same breath include both he and Toda as founders
of the selfsame organization, this is more than a malaprop, it is
evidence of cognitive dissonance with your first statement. Your
dismissal of that observation IS sophistry, however, because it cannot
be sincere.
.... As far as the names Soka Kyoiku Gakkai [education emphasis],
.... Soka Gakkai [broad education and culture emphasis], SGI
.... [international emphasis], they really are all the same
.... provisional organization, born in 1930 and going through
.... stages of growth, much like a person does. Like little
.... Nicky, becomes Nick, Jr., and then Nicholas the lawyer.
| see what I mean.
I see that you apparently refuse to allow our organization to grow and
expand and pursue our mission of Kosen Rufu. And you arrogantly and
irrationally place yourself in the position of naming authority, like
some kind of dictator. I categorically reject your attempt at
controlling that issue. Give up on it. No one in their right mind
would submit to your authority. Get real and stop taking the rejection
of your supreme rule as a personal affront.
.... Apparently, you (Jon Petry) have appointed yourself the
.... arbiter of what names should go with what things. Are you
.... really suggesting that our organization should run their
.... candidate names for the sangha by you for approval? Get
.... real.
| more sophistry and some personal attack thrown in for good
| measure.
Like I said, placing limits on your absolute power and your control
over all things is not an insult ... even though you may, in your own
mind, perceive of this as an attack on your authority. It is a
rejection of the control of the devilish function, whose minion you
apparently are, and whose complaints you reflect as the advocate for
that function of evil.
| snip of more sophistry and personal attack
Once again, your view is Tenji-ma's, and I reject those complaints
categorically. Rejecting the control and authority of the devilish
function over the threefold world is the mission of a bodhisattva.
.... I will pre-fetch your response. The putative scholar Brian
.... Victoria's articles about Mr. Makiguchi have been debunked,
.... as he takes statements out of context wildly. (Another Zen
.... priest on a rampage against the Lotus Sutra and its
.... votaries.) Victoria is neither researcher nor scholar, in
.... any sense that I would respect. [I have planned to write a
.... toxic zen story about him, once I get some other more
.... crucial things out of the way.]
| I will have more to say about this post later but i did want
| to comment on this little tidbit. Chas who has no academic
| credentials I am aware of, as if he has such he has not
| shared them with the group, has chosen to belittle and
| slander Dr. Victoria who is a scholar and a respected one at
| that. Dr. Victoria has written various articles in peer
| reviewed journals as well as books on Buddhism including
| some highly critical of the role played by Buddhist
| organization in Japan prior to and during World War Two.
| This includes information highly critical of his own sect of
| Zen Buddhism which is the primary subject of one book. Dr.
| Victoria has presented papers at conferences on the subject,
| including the American Academy of Religions some 10+ years
| ago in which he participated in panel discussions on
| Japanese Buddhism with Dr. Stone and Dr. Habito among
| others. I was present at one such panel discussion on
| pacifism and Japanese Buddhists in which he discussed his
| findings and had a question from the audience from a Ms.
| Virginia Strauss [?] who was then the head of the Boston
| based SGI run group. She asked about the supposed pacifism
| of the Soka Gakkai and Dr. Victoria explained his
| understanding of the situation. Ms. Strauss suggested that
| she would be happy to present him with some information he
| was unaware of and he told her he would welcome such an
| effort. However instead of this, we have seen an attack by
| tame SGI pseudo-scholars in non-peer reviewed publications
| twisting his words and excoriating the man.
[ Was the phenomenon of screaming in the mirror ever morely poignantly
presented than in that last sentence fragment? ]
From what you say, Brian Victoria knew as he was publishing the first
edition of "Zen At War" that there were problems with his thesis in
chapter six (no organized resistance against Imperial State Zen after
1942). He knew that the problems were isolated to the existence of
Makiguchi and Toda, as heads of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai organization,
who after their arrest, resisted to the end and in Toda's case,
survived. He knew that his paper-thin explanation in Note 8 that they
were arrested for refusing the Shinto Talisman and not for pacifism,
would not hold. And this was because of his very own thesis in the
second half of his book that the strategy of the militarists to force
total support of the war upon the people through Imperial Way Buddhism
under the Shinto Talisman ... indicated his sheer intellectual
dishonesty through extremely compartmentalized thinking. It required
cognitive dissonance between the two halves of the book.
Instead of expending the effort to straighten out his work late in the
publication cycle, Victoria decided to straighten out the facts by
cherry picking the research and distorting it, while ignoring the
preponderance of the data regarding the career of Makiguchi, in
finding that indeed and lo, Makiguchi was not really a pacifist. This
is a fraud, clear and simple.
Worse, it is besmirching the reputation of a great man (greater than
you apparently know) for the simple purpose of Victoria's own arrogant
convenience. It is the classical Greek crime of hubris.
From "Like a Worm i' the Bud? A Heterology of Classical Greek
Slavery", by Paul Cartledge, in
Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 40, No. 2. (Oct., 1993), p 174, <http://
links.jstor.org/sici?
sici=0017-3835%28199310%292%3A40%3A2%3C163%3ALAWITB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M>:
.. Hubris has entered our own language and dictionaries with a
.. peculiarly theological association: 'overweening pride
.. towards the gods' (C.O.D.). But as S.R.E. Fisher has
.. demonstrated time and again, hubris meant fundamentally
.. transgressive violence, and in particular the sort of
.. violence that transgressed the sharp boundary drawn in
.. Athenian ideology between free and slave, or citizen and
.. non-citizen. As Fisher has also pointed out, in ancient
.. discussions of the aims and effects of social actions inside
.. Greek communities, central importance was attributed to the
.. concepts of status, of honour and shame. So here with the
.. public action against hubris: for what this charge in effect
.. alleged was that the defendant had committed the public
.. crime of treating a citizen (who was by definition 'free'
.. - psychologically, legally, and politically) as if he were a
.. slave. As such, the graphi hubreos was 'the title of the
.. most serious crime in the area of offences against the
.. person'.
To be quick and to the point, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is not your slave,
Brian Victoria. Make or preserve your career or reputation (or selfish
convenience) on the back of some other unfortunate victim.
Let's talk about peer review. Peer review on academic journals is
mostly skin deep, and only a test of the appearance of the work. One's
reliable history is the major factor in acceptance for publication.
So, for scientific journals, no one re-runs your experiments before
your data and conclusions are published, because there isn't time or
frankly, enough energy. If someone subjects your data set to a
statistical test which might reveal a skew due to dropping off some
part of the data set, or other foolish fabrication, that's over and
above the call of typical reviewer duty.
What does occur when a fraud is detected afterwards, is an article
retraction by the journal to "correct the literature".
There is a fine discussion of this in the NPR Science Friday program
about peer review in journals during the breaking case of the Korean
Stem Cell fraud in 2005. (At the time of the show, the full truth was
not yet known.) It is located here:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5058361>
By the way, the non-peer-reviewed online journal (Global Buddhism)
that Koichi Miyata published in is the very same non-peer-reviewed
online journal that Brian Victoria did his evil in, initially.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
As far as my anonymity and my credentials are concerned, they are also
anonymous. No comment.
But you are right, as I review the literature through the JSTOR
library system, a literature search on "Makiguchi Victoria" only
produces Victoria's erroneous article. This is anathema.
____ Call For Articles _____________________________
<Sound Effect http://ava7.com/sounds/animals/lion-3.wav>
Henceforth, I am openly calling for articles in peer-reviewed
publications (optimally showing up in JSTOR), regarding this matter.
(There are benefits, career and otherwise, to academics both youthful
and aged, who expose a fraud as profound and over-reaching as this
one.)
All aspects of Victoria's fraud should be investigated and publicly
refuted.
New translations of his putative "translation" work in all of his
articles and books should be compared with his work and his now-
questionable conclusions, which should be examined very closely.
Clearly there is great ignorance, at least in the English-reading-
West, of the political debate surrounding the Meiji Constitution
between the Tatsukichi Minobe faction in the Diet (Constitutional
Monarchists) and the Militarists (Absolute Monarchists), before 1935.
I believe this needs exposition in depth with a special treatment of
the errors of Victoria. Ignorance is the breeding ground for distorted
views that lead to conclusions and bad publications in the literature,
requiring retractions by journals. This sorry state of affairs should
be remedied.
The optimal result would be a multi-volume modern history of religious
influences on Japanese political and social life. From the Shogunate's
end to Meiji and the struggles between the Diet and the Militarists
who prevailed in 1935, the march to world war, defeat and destruction,
MacArthur, return to constitutional monarchy and the changes since
then. Cover the same ground that Victoria covers on Imperial Way
Buddhism, Imperial State Zen, but without the distortions providing
cover for his Zen beliefs by gratuitously understating the resistance
of others to the war effort.
____ Healing a Wound _______________________________
It took most of a millenium to finally unmask the falsehood that was
the Donation of Constantine. During that time, darkness ruled European
life under a false legacy of the possession of nations by arrogant
religious authorities.
Were no one to intervene in this, it could take that long or longer to
remove the stain of a powerful academic like Victoria from the
reputation of any man, even one so wonderful as Mr. Makiguchi. This
evil cannot be allowed to persist.
In a public meeting between President Ikeda and Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate Betty Williams, on November 6th, 2006: "Buddhism teaches that
anger can have both positive and negative aspects. I appreciate the
true value of your actions in that context - anger at great evil is
great good. Cowardice is never right."
Tatsukichi Minobe's pre-1935 view, which predominated in the Diet of a
time before the Rape of Nanking, of a constitutional monarchy ruled by
the people's representatives survives today, precisely because of
Makiguchi's sacrifice and Toda's determination to never yield.
The path not taken at first, was the true path taken by these heroic
men, standing alone.
That is the causal view of the political transformation of Japan,
according to the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin. It only takes one
person to transform a nation and to change history.
-Chas.
_________________________________________
Reading from "Reply to the Mother of Ueno", Writings of Nichiren
Daishonin, p. 1073-1074 ...
'However, those who declare that the Lotus Sutra is superior to all
the other sutras are justified in doing so. In fact, they will enjoy
great benefits. This is because their declaration accords with what
the sutra itself says.'
'Prefacing the Lotus Sutra is a work called the Immeasurable
Meanings Sutra. It is like the vanguard of generals who go before the
procession of a great king to quell disturbances. This Immeasurable
Meanings Sutra states, "In these more than forty years, I have not yet
revealed the truth." These words are like the great bows that the
generals carry to drive away the king's enemies with arrows, or the
swords with which they cut those enemies down. They are like a royal
proclamation, sharp as a sword, directed to the members of the Flower
Garland school who read only the Flower Garland Sutra, the priests of
the Precepts school with their Agama sutras, the Nembutsu believers
with their Meditation Sutra, and the True Word teachers with their
Mahavairochana Sutra, chastising them for failing to follow the Lotus
Sutra and bringing them to submission. They are like Yoshiie attacking
Sadato, or Yoritomo destroying the forces of Kiyomori. These words of
the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, "In these more than forty
years . . . ," are the sword and rope of the wisdom king Immovable, or
the bow and arrows of the wisdom king Craving-Filled.'
'When the late Nanjo Goro made his way across the mountains of
death and the river of three crossings, the soldiers who escorted him
and repulsed the mountain bandits of earthly desires and the pirates
of past offenses and allowed him to proceed safely to the pure land of
Eagle Peak were these words of the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, "In
these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth." '
'The "Expedient Means" chapter in the first volume of the Lotus
Sutra states, "The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines
and now must reveal the truth." It also says, "Honestly discarding
expedient means, I will preach only the unsurpassed way." In the fifth
volume we read, "Only the bright jewel that is in his
topknot . . . ," [Lotus Sutra Chapter 14] "This one jewel exists only
on the top of the king's head," and "the way that powerful ruler did
when he took the bright jewel he had guarded for so long and finally
gave it away." '
'The import of these passages is this: The great collection of
scriptures has been brought to this country of Japan, numbering 7,399
volumes, and each one of these various scriptures is a follower and
retainer of the Lotus Sutra. To illustrate, the men and women in this
country number 4,994,828, but all are subjects of one man, the ruler
of the country.'
'As for the significance of these various scriptures, let me give
an analogy that even an uncomprehending woman can understand
immediately. Suppose that one is building a great pagoda. In addition
to the lumber to be used in the pagoda itself, one gathers together a
large quantity of small timbers and uses them to build a scaffolding
ten or twenty feet in height. After one has done this, one uses the
original lumber to construct the pagoda. And when the pagoda is
completed, one then removes the scaffolding and discards it, leaving
the pagoda in place.'
'Now the scaffolding represents the various other sutras, and the
great pagoda, the Lotus Sutra. When the Buddha preached the other
sutras, he was in effect erecting a scaffolding in preparation for the
preaching of the Lotus Sutra.'
'In the same manner as the sutra describes when it says, "honestly
discarding expedient means," persons who put their faith in the Lotus
Sutra should first cast aside and fling away the Namu Amida Butsu
invocation based on the Amida and other sutras, the teachings of the
True Word school based on the Mahavairochana and other sutras, and the
two hundred and fifty precepts of the Precepts school based on the
Agama sutras, and other teachings, and then they should embrace the
Lotus Sutra alone. When one is preparing to build a great pagoda, the
scaffolding is of great importance. But once the pagoda is completed,
then the scaffolding is removed and thrown away. This is the meaning
of the passage about "honestly discarding expedient means." '
'Though the scaffolding is necessary to complete the pagoda, no one
would ever dream of discarding the pagoda and worshiping the
scaffolding. And yet the people who seek the way in the world today
spend their whole lives reciting Namu Amida Butsu only, and never once
chant Nam-myoho-rengekyo. They are like persons who discard the pagoda
and worship the scaffolding. They are examples of the secular saying,
"seemingly wise, but actually foolish." '
'The late Shichiro Goro did not take after other people in Japan
today. Though still a youth, he followed in the footsteps of his
sagacious father. And at an early age, having not yet turned twenty,
he began chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and thus he became a Buddha.
This is what the sutra means when it says, "Then not a one will fail
to attain Buddhahood." [Lotus Sutra Chapter 2] I hope that, if you,
his loving mother, are thinking with longing about your son, you will
chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and pray to be reborn in the same place as
the late Shichiro Goro and your husband, the late Nanjo.'
|
