A- “A similar sentiment can be heard in the following statement: ‘I’ve been practicing this Buddhism for over 30 years. It’s actually been longer than many priests. What can I learn from [priests]?’ It is true, of course, that many members of the Hokkeko have been practicing Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism for a longer period of time than many priests, but it is also true that absolutely none of these members have been direct disciples of the Honorable Retired High Priest Nikken Shonin or 68th High Priest Nichinyo Shonin, thus receiving the Living Essence of the Dai-Gohonzon from our True Master. This is the key difference between the priesthood and laity of Nichiren Shoshu, a difference which lies at the very core of correct faith and practice.” Lecture by Yuzui Murata, Chief Priest of Myosenji Temple, Nov 14, 2010

B- “Shakyamuni Buddha who attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from one another.  To chant Myoho-renge-kyo with this realization is to inherit the ultimate Law of life and death.”  “Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life” (WND-1, 216).

2- Can we attain enlightenment without going on Tozan?

A- “Tozan itself is not the only way to attain enlightenment. We are able to attain enlightenment with pure faith in the Dai-Gohonzon.” Daido Nakamoto, Myosetsuji News, Dec 1, 2010, page 1.

B- “Without our desire to visit Taisekiji to see the Dai-Gohonzon we can not share the life condition of the Buddha or in other words, we will not be able to attain Buddhahood.” Daido Nakamoto, Myosetsuji News, Feb. 1, 2011, page 1.

3- What is the correct attitude to take with SGI members?

A.  Sept 1, 2010 Myosetsuji News: “We must keep active SGI members away from our sacred Nichiren Shoshu temple and its correct object of worship. The same is true for our local meetings.” Daido Nakamoto, p. 1.

B. Sept 12, 2010 Myosenji Temple Oko Lecture: “We must strongly try to re-shakubuku all members of the SGI!” Chief Priest Yuzui Murata.

4-  What is the correct course of action to take towards icchantika, “people of incorrigible disbelief”?

A. High Priest Nichinyo: Try to save them. “[According to the Lotus Sutra) all living beings, including those of the two vehicles, icchantika, the determinate people, as well as women and evil men were given the possibility of attaining enlightenment." Myosetsuji News, Feb. 1, 2011.

B. Daido Nakamoto: Shun them. "Looking back for the past 20 years and considering all the negative things SGI has done to Nichiren Shoshu, it becomes clear that SGI and their members can not [sic] be trusted. Due to Daisaku Ikeda’s influence, they have become modern day icchantikas or people of incorrigible disbelief. They have totally lost their true mind.” Myosetsuji News, Sept 1, 2010, p. 1.

All indications are that Rev. Nakamoto’s reassigned is a major demotion.  Once the Chief Secretary of the Head Temple’s Overseas Bureau, Nakamoto, 59, is being sent to a small temple, perhaps the most remote temple from the Head Temple. He’s being replaced by Rev. Shinga Takigawa, 43, who has been the chief priest at a temple in Singapore.  Ironically, web postings indicate that Rev. Nakamoto once got caught in an indiscretion in Singapore and it was the same Rev. Takigawa who was there to clean things up.

Jikaiji is located in Makurazaki City.  Usually new priests, freshly minted at Taisekiji’s seminary, are sent to this temple for their first assignment.  He will replace Ryodai Kawase, 32, who will be reassigned to the Head Temple.  ”In terms of Japanese culture,” one commentator notes, “this is like a CEO replacing a receptionist with the latter being asked to hang out in the Human Resources office.”

Makurazaki City is an isolated fishing port in Southern Japan. It is nicknamed ”Typhoon Ginza,” the first place the typhoons strike each summer when they reach the main islands of Japan.  Located at the last stop of the southern-most JR train line, the city has a population of about 25,000 people,  .3% of Nakamoto’s current New York City home.  Currently Nakamoto’s territory of Northeastern United States, Southeastern Canada and the Caribbean has a population of 38,000,000.  His new city’s population is .06% of this total.

Makurazaki City, founded in 1949, is renowned for its overbearing rotten fish odor.  It is the main site for Japanese katsuobushi processing plants, which produce the chief flavoring ingredient—dried fish flakes—found in miso soup. The fish are caught offshore and brought to Makurazaki for skinning and boning.  They are hot smoked in factories for up to two weeks and for an additional six weeks the fillets are alternately infected with Aspergillus mold and sun-dried.

Makurazaki is in the same prefecture as Mt. Shinmoedake, the volcano that is erupting and causing concerns about evacuation and air traffic delays.

According to the Japanese blog, the reason for Nakamoto being sent back to Japan is said to be “a woman problem.” In 2004, it came to light that Nakamoto, had an affair with a female Hokkeko member in Singapore during his trip there.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 22 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 57 posts. There were 17 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was August 17th with 45 views. The most popular post that day was Open Letter to a Temple Friend.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were nonstny.homestead.com, genuinedialogue.org, buddhajones.com, search.conduit.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for yuzui murata, daido nakamoto, david kasahara, ray petty, and david kasahara sgi.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Open Letter to a Temple Friend May 2008

Interview with David Kasahara, Excepts December 2008
1 comment

Archive: Buddhist Priest Claims Islam is Slanderous Religion August 2010

Gosho and Guidance Quotes: Why the SGI Eternally Fights Injustice May 2008

Archive: Response to Rev. Nakamoto’s Lecture on Letter to Niike August 2010

Summary

On November 14, 2010 Rev. Yuzui Murata, Chief Priest of the Myosenji Nichiren Shoshu Temple, gave a sermon containing 21 serious errors about Buddhism.  Some of his statements are all too familiar outrageous claims: his members are only the followers of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, the heritage of the Law travels as a “Living Essence” from high priest to high priest, the deification of Nichiren and the Dai-Gohonzon, and his claim that one of the Three Treasures of Buddhism is the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood.

However he now makes several new and quite disturbing assertions:

• In introduces a new term, “Fuzoku,” which means the passing of the teachings from the “True Master” to the disciples.
• He claims that the “Living Essence” flows within the lives of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood itself.

He claims that the benefits of faith are dependent on his congregants’ relationship with him as the chief priest.  Further, he starts to construct an argument that places the priesthood to Nichiren on the same level:  “To apply the guidance and instruction we receive from the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin and from the priesthood of Nichiren Shoshu…”

Detailed Responses to Yuzui Murata’s 21 Errors

1-    “Realize your mission as a stalwart follower of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.” Mr. Murata continues to address his congregants as “followers of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.”   The consistency of his message leaves no doubt that he delegates his congregants to the status of “followers” of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth rather than the actual Bodhisattvas of the Earth.

This contention flies in the face of Nichiren’s assertion: “Were they not Bodhisattvas of the Earth, they could not chant the daimoku’” (WND-1, 385).  In contrast, the three presidents of the SGI steadfastly encourage us to wake up to our mission as the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.  One facet of President Toda’s awakening in prison was his deeply personal realization that he was a Bodhisattva of the Earth. President Ikeda has stated: “We have now entered an age when our gathering of Bodhisattvas of the Earth is attracting praise far and wide.  The time has come when people everywhere are earnestly seeking the egalitarian and humanistic ‘Buddhism of the people’ of Nichiren Daishonin.  Based on the mentor-disciple spirit of Soka, let us now show the world the real ‘power of the people’ that is the hallmark of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth” [Lecture on the Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life, p. 108].

2-    “The Living Essence.” Mr. Murata continues to claim that there is a “Living Essence” which is transmitted from high priest to high priest.  This form of mystical transmission has absolutely no basis in Nichiren’s writings. Nichiren states clearly: “Be resolved to summon forth the great power of faith . . . Never seek any other way to inherit the ultimate Law” (WND-1, p. 218). In another writing he explicitly describes Nam-myoho-renge-kyo “the heart and core” of the Lotus Sutra (WND, p. 541),  the only essence of faith.

3-    Mr. Murata identifies kosen-rufu as “the worldwide spread of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.” Nichiren Shoshu priests have neither the skills nor compassion to lead a worldwide movement of Buddhism.  President Ikeda stresses that kosen-rufu is ultimately a movement of peace, culture, education, and dialogue.  Clearly a group of approximately 1000 men with cloistered and medieval perspectives, a singular cultural focus, and a besotted history have no capacity to appeal to people of integrity, leading thinkers, women, artists, and the rich brocade of the world’s multicultural fabric.

4-            Mr. Murata speaks about “High Priests who have strictly maintained the correctness of the Daishonin’s teachings.” In quite shocking detail The Untold History of the Fuji School (www.sokaspirit.org/resource/downloads) documents otherwise.   Each century in the 700-year history of the Nichiren Shoshu sect has witnessed numerous transgressions and inconsistencies committed by high priests:

• 14^th century: land disputes and questionable successions led to a decline in the Fuji School (the historical name of the Nichiren Shoshu sect) which was only resolved by the appointment of 9^th high priest Nichiu.  He was labeled as a restorer of the Fuji School in recognition of his success in resolving these issues and staunching the school’s  decline.
• 15^th, 16^th centuries: the appointment of children high priests and the introduction of the mistaken notion of the infallibility of high priests.
• 17^th century: the appointment of high priests from heretical Nichiren sects, the enshrinement of statues of Shakyamuni as objects of worship, collusion with the government’s parish system, and the recitation of all 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra in gongyo. Nichikan, the 26^th high priest, is also known as a restorer of Nichiren Buddhism because of his determined efforts to re-establish the orthodox teachings of Nichiren.
• 18^th century: the failure of high priests to protect lay members who faced governmental persecution as a result of their propagation activities.
• 19^th century: the failure of high priests to protect lay members who conducted propagation activities and the priesthood’s renounciation of clerical celibacy.
• 20^th century: the association with heretical Nichiren schools, the impeachment of a high priest, questionable successions, sexual misconduct (67^th high priest Nikken was the illegitimate child of 60^th high priest Nichikai), the support for the Japanese war efforts in World War II, the enshrinement of Shinto talisman at head temple, the slander of the disrupting of unity of believers with the excommunication of the SGI, the destruction of the Sho-Hondo, and the introduction of ideology antithetical to Nichiren’s teachings.

5-            Mr. Murata introduces the term “Fuzoku” which incorrectly ascribes the heritage of the Law to some form of ritualistic transfer between high priests and ignores the very core of the Lotus Sutra: the entrustment of the spread of Buddhism to Bodhisattva Superior Practices and the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.  The Gosho “The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life” is very clearly teaches the essential spirit of the transmission of the heritage of the Law of life:

• “Shakyamuni Buddha who attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from one another.  To chant Myoho-renge-kyo with this realization is to inherit the ultimate Law of life and death” (WND-1, 216).
• “The heritage of the Lotus Sutra flows within the lives of those who never forsake it in any lifetime whatsoever” (WND-1, 217).
• “All disciples and lay supporters of Nichiren should chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with the spirit of many in body but one in mind, transcending all differences among themselves to become as inseparable as fish and the water in which they swim.  This spiritual bond is the basis for the universal transmission of the ultimate Law of life and death.  Herein lies the true goal of Nichiren’s propagation” [WND-1, p. 217].

6-    Mr. Murata grossly misapplies and misinterprets the Gosho quote, “Nikko hereby entrusts the Dai-Gohonzon…to Nikko” (Provisions Bequeathed by Nikko Shonin, Gosho, p. 1883).  Nichiren does not imply any secret transmission or “Golden Utterance” in this passage.  He solely directs Nikko Shonin to assume administrative responsibilities for Taisekiji.  This certainly requires a high level of responsibility and faith; as illustrated in Point 4, some priests entrusted with this role were worthy of the responsibility and others were negligent.

It appears that Nichiren Shoshu rests its entire legitimacy on this single passage of Nichiren.  If the future of the entire school depended on this writing, why didn’t Nikko Shonin include it in his list of the ten most important writings of Nichiren?

1. Mr. Murata states: “It is only because of Fuzoku that we are able to meet the True Law of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo during this present lifetime…. it is also the reason we are now able to receive the full merit of the Dai-Gohonzon of the Three Great Secret Laws by establishing and then maintaining a strong connection to Its Living Essence, which has been purely inherited by the successive High Priests of Nichiren Shoshu.” This trivializes the profound ties of mentor and disciple which correctly explain why we have now appeared to practice Buddhism as described in The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life:

• “My followers are now able to accept and uphold the Lotus Sutra because of the strong ties they formed with it in their past existence.  They are certain to obtain the fruit of Buddhahood in the future” (WND-1, 217).
• “It must be ties of karma from the distant past that have destined you to become my disciple at a time like this.  Shakyamuni and Many Treasures certainly realized this truth.  The sutra’s statement, ‘Those persons who had heard the Law / dwelled here and there in various Buddha land, / constantly reborn in company with their teachers’ (LS, 140), cannot be false in any way” (WND-1, 217).

8-    Mr. Murata continues to mystify Buddhism.  For example, he consistently attempts to deify Nichiren and the Dai-Gohonzon by capitalizing pronouns that refer to them.  For example, he uses “Its” to refer to the Dai-Gohonzon and the “True Intention” when describing Nichiren’s intent.  In the same manner, he capitalizes high priests (“the successive High Priests”) and himself (“the Chief Priest”). This explicit attempt at deification runs counter to Nichiren’s statement:

“In the Latter Day of the Law, no treasure tower exists other than the figures of the men and women who embrace the Lotus Sutra. It follows, therefore, that whether eminent or humble, high or low, those who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo are themselves the treasure tower, and, likewise, are themselves the Thus Come One Many Treasures. No treasure tower exists other than Myoho-renge-kyo. The daimoku of the Lotus Sutra is the treasure tower, and the treasure tower is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (WND-1, 299).

9-    Mr. Murata shockingly endows the priesthood with an exalted status and connection to the Mystic Law (“Living Essence…which is flowing within the lives of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood”).  How can an entity such as a priesthood have such a special standing? This is a truly egregious statement that runs counter to the humanistic fiber of Nichiren Buddhism as well as the democratic impulse described by great heroes of history:

• Walt Whitman: “The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.”
• Mohandas Gandhi: “Let no one say that he is a follower of Gandhi. It is enough that I should be my own follower. I know what an inadequate follower I am of myself, for I cannot live up to the convictions I stand for. You are no followers but fellow students, fellow pilgrims, fellow seekers, fellow workers.”
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

10- Mr. Murata’s descriptions of the professional lives of lay people, “Selling vacuum cleaners or running an automobile dealership,” rings of condescension and contempt.

11-“To respond to this type of sentiment is one of the reasons I have been examining a sentence from the Gosho… ‘You must immediately renounce your erroneous belief and take faith in the supreme teaching of the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra.’” Here Mr. Murata is utilizing the Rissho Ankoku Ron to address a hypothetical member who questions the relevance of the Chief Priest’s comments.  Nichiren wrote this Gosho with the absolute intent of identifying and destroying the roots of fundamental darkness that imprison society and destroy the land.  To invoke the Rissho Ankoku Ron at a person who questions Mr. Murata’s ability to relate to the daily lives of lay people is an act of unforgivable priestly authoritarianism and a form of spiritual terrorism.

12-Mr. Murata states, “The true mission of a Nichiren Shoshu priest is to receive and thoroughly understand the True Intention of Nichiren Daishonin by undergoing rigorous and diligent training as a direct disciple of the High Priest.” It runs counter to the teachings of Buddhism to claim that there is a secret path to the purpose of Nichiren’s advent. Shakyamuni’s vow in the Lotus Sutra is “At the start I took a vow, / hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us” (LS, 36). There is no mystery—Nichiren summarizes his purpose quite clearly:

• “I vowed to summon up a powerful and unconquerable desire for the salvation of all beings and never to falter in my efforts” (WND-1, 240).
• “I will be the pillar of Japan.  I will be the eyes of Japan.  I will be the great ship of Japan.  This is my vow, and I will never forsake it!” (WND-1, 280-81).
• Towards his disciples his true intention was solely for their great happiness and victory: “Be resolved to summon forth the great power of faith, and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with the prayer that your faith will be steadfast and correct at the moment of death. Never seek any other way to inherit the ultimate Law of life and death, and manifest it in your life. Only then will you realize that earthly desires are enlightenment, and that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. Even embracing the Lotus Sutra would be useless without the heritage of faith” (WND-1, 218).

13- Mr. Murata’s statement, “To apply the guidance and instruction we receive from the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin and from the priesthood of Nichiren Shoshu,” equates the words and spirit of Nichiren to those of the priesthood.  This is a self-serving assertion of the greatest imaginable arrogance and delusion.

14- [Question from a hypothetical member]: “I’ve been practicing this Buddhism for over 30 years.  It’s actually been longer than many priests.  What can I learn from them?”  [Mr. Murata’s response]: Absolutely none of [such] members have been direct disciples of the Honorable Retired High Priest Nikken Shonin or 68^th High Priest Nichinyo Shonin, thus receiving the Living Essence of the Dai-Gohonzon from our True Master.” Mr. Murata’s claims he has a special and higher relationship to the Dai-Gohonzon because he has studied with one or two high priests defies the spirit and instructions of Nichiren.

In reality, a person earns the status of teacher not because of a role or position, but because of his/her accomplishments in validating the Law by opening a path for people to overcome the sufferings of birth and death.   This encapsulates the difference between Mr. Murata’s “True Master” who claims the authority of teacher solely because of his robe and a mentor who overcomes persecution and emerges victorious in order to teach disciples how to do the same.

A snapshot of this mentor and disciple relationship can be seen in this interchange between Nichiren and his disciple Sairenbo: “You have followed Nichiren, however, and met with suffering as a result. It pains me deeply to think of your anguish. Gold can be neither burned by fire nor corroded or swept away by water, but iron is vulnerable to both. A worthy person is like gold, a fool like iron. You are like pure gold because you embrace the ‘gold’ of the Lotus Sutra” (WND-1, 217). Nichiren, on the basis of his victory, encourages his disciple to emerge victorious.

This type of mentor-disciple relationship, lying at the very core of Buddhism, was restored by the SGI’s three mentors.  President Ikeda states, “It is the first three presidents of the Soka Gakkai who have revived in the present age an active and engaged mentor-disciple spirit—the essence of Nichiren Buddhism.  It would be no exaggeration to say that were it not for the appearance of the Soka Gakkai, the spirit of mentor and disciple of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Buddhism would have all but disappeared” (Lecture, 90).

15-Mr. Murata states, “By coming to chant to the Temple Gohonzon…” which insinuates that one Gohonzon has more power than another.  Second SGI President Josei Toda stated, “Our existence as ordinary common mortals is the secret and mystic expedient; the truth is that we are Buddhas.  The Gohonzon is also enshrined in our hearts.  In other words, the core of Nichiren Buddhism lies in the conviction that the Gohonzon enshrined in our Buddhist altar is identical to our own lives.”  All Gohonzon have this significance; there is no distinction on the basis of size or location.

16- “Three Treasures of Nichiren Shoshu—the Buddha, the Law and the priesthood” is Mr. Murata’s tool to convince his congregants that the priesthood has a category of prominence equivalent to Nichiren and the Law, thereby elevating himself and other priests to the status of a religious object of veneration, and excluding believers who are not professional clergy from this sanctified plane.

In Buddhism in general, the three treasures (often referred to as “The Three Jewels”) are defined as the Buddha, the Dharma (the Law or teachings the Buddha expounds), and the Sangha (the Buddhist Order or community believers, i.e., those who spread the Buddha’s teachings). Traditionally the three treasures of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism have been defined as follows:

(1) the treasure of the Buddha is Nichiren Daishonin;

(2) the treasure of the Dharma, or the Law, is the Dai-Gohonzon bestowed upon all humanity; and

(3) the treasure of Sangha, or community of believers, is Nikko Shonin because he correctly preserved, propagated, and transmitted the Daishonin’s Buddhism.

This interpretation was affirmed by Nichikan, the 26th high priest, in his work titled On the Observances of this School: “The treasure of the Buddha of time without beginning is none other than the founder, the Daishonin. The treasure of the Law of time without beginning accords with the great object of devotion of the essential teaching, and the treasure of the priest of time without beginning, accords with the founder of this temple, [Nikko Shonin]” (Six Volume Writings of Nichikan, p. 225).

The Japanese term for the third treasure (“so”) refers to the gathering of people who, regardless of their position as clergy or laity, practice Buddhism in accord with the Law by transmitting and spreading it to all people.  Nichiren Shoshu insists on the most narrow of all its possible translations, “the priesthood,” without any consideration of the term’s broader roots and implications.[1]

17- “There is no ‘easy way’ to eradicate our negative karma, there is no ‘easy way’ to purify or cleanse our lives of the negative influences from the fundamental darkness which we brought into this current lifetime.” In the Gosho On Attaining Buddhahood in this Lifetime, Nichiren stresses that “unless one perceives the nature of one’s life, one’s practice will become an endless, painful austerity” (WND-1, 4).  Mr. Murata implies that the process of changing karma is just such an endless, painful, austerity.

Nichiren’s Buddhism is a hope-filled teaching, however.  Mr. Murata’s theories contradict Nichiren’s writings which embrace the simultaneous nature of cause and effect and the presence of Buddhahood in all conditions of life:

• “The seven disasters will instantly vanish, and the seven blessings will instantly appear” (On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land, WND-1, 6).
• “He attained enlightenment at the age of thirty and, at that time, instantly banished the three categories of illusion and brought to an end the vast night of ignorance” (Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man, WND-1, 107).
• “The dragon king’s daughter, though as a woman subject to the five obstacles and thought to be incapable of attaining Buddhahood, was able instantly to achieve the Buddha way” (Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man, WND-1, 108).
• “If one experiences extreme hardship in this life [because of the Lotus Sutra], the sufferings of hell will vanish instantly” (Lessening One’s Karmic Retribution, WND-1, 199).
• “The precept refers here to the rule of conduct that one should observe to attain Buddhahood instantly. It means, simply, to embrace the Mystic Law” (Reply to Sairen-bo, WND-1, 314).
• “Bound as we common mortals are by earthly desires, we can instantly attain the same virtues as Shakyamuni Buddha, for we receive all the benefits that he accumulated…. so can an ordinary person become a Buddha instantly” (Letter to the Sage Nichimyo, WND-1, 323-24).
• “Then, if we chant until the very moment of death, Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions will come to us instantly, exactly as they promised during the ceremony at Eagle Peak” (On Practicing the Buddha’s Teachings, WND-1, 395).
• “Those who visit this place can instantly expiate the offenses they have accumulated since the infinite past and transform their evils deriving from the three types of action into the three virtues” (The Person and the Law, WND-1, 1097).

Although problems do not change instantaneously, through faith we can immediately “change karma into mission” and fully savor the struggles of life and death.

18- “Follow the guidance of your current Chief Priest…to receive the full merit of your faith and practice.  This is an extremely important point.” Obviously, nothing in Nichiren Daishonin’s writings alludes to seeking the guidance of a chief priest as a means to gain the merit of faith and practice.

19-“The place where that person dwells shall be the land of eternally tranquil light.” Finally, Mr. Murata associates a passage from Nichiren’s writings with its correct meaning; however, in so doing he contradicts all his prior points.  As indicated in this passage, the place where a person dwells becomes the land of eternally tranquil light based on the power of that person’s faith and practice.  Neither the intercession of priests nor priestly rituals are needed.

20- “The true purpose of our faith and practice of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is to transform the Tree Paths of earthly desires, negative karma and suffering into the Three Virtues.” Unfortunately, Mr. Murata gives no clues in his sermon as to how this is accomplished.  This leaves listeners to think that some mystical process is at work.

No mysticism is involved, however; problems motivate us to practice and from courageous faith we emerge victorious. In “What It Means to Hear the Buddha Vehicle for the First Time” (WND-2, 743) Nichiren describes the theory of changing poison into medicine. Commenting on this writing, President Ikeda points out that this view of causality opens the possibility of good coming out of evil, “When we believe from the depths of our hearts that earthly desires are enlightenment and the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana, birth and death are no longer a source of suffering.  We are then able to truly ‘hear the Lotus Sutra’” (Lecture, p. 135):

“It is precisely because we have sufferings that we can earnestly chant to the Gohonzon.  The determination to seriously confront our sufferings causes the fundamental power inherent in our lives to emerge that more strongly.  At the moment we chant, our sufferings—our earthly desires—have already become causes for enlightenment…It is the power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—the Mystic Law of the simultaneity of cause and effect—that makes this possible” (p. 133).

21- “Because negative influences have been implanted in our lives due to our past association with erroneous belief systems, it is crucial that we take the time to reflect on the true state of our faith and practice of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism” is a call from Mr. Murata that invokes fear, guilt, and dependency.  It is also, quite frankly, a wimpy interpretation of Buddhism.

This approach is not Nichiren’s spirit! “I, Nichiren, am alone, without a single ally” (WND-1, 81). Nichiren stood proudly alone with no trace of self-doubt.  Instead of invoking fear, Mr. Murata should ask his congregants to practice with the same lion’s roar as Nichiren in Sado:

“Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbor doubts in our hearts, we will as a matter of course attain Buddhahood. Do not have doubts simply because heaven does not lend you protection. Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life. This is what I have taught my disciples morning and evening, and yet they begin to harbor doubts and abandon their faith.  Foolish men are likely to forget the promises they have made when the crucial moment comes” (WND-1, 283).

High Priest Nichinyo’s New Years Message to his followers exhorts them to recruit new people  to  NST. Unbelievably,  however,  throughout  his  message  he  never  wishes   for  the  health  and  happiness  of  his  members  and  their  families  for  the  new  year!

“It is clear that the Daisaku Ikeda Sokagakkai International has defiled the very heart of the True Buddha Nichiren Daishonin and has slanderously desecrated the actions of the successive High Priests of Nichiren Shoshu, who have courageously maintained the purity of the Daishonin’s Buddhism. This is why we must strongly re-shakubuku every member of the SGI, because this is the only way they will be able to erase the effects of their unparalleled slander! As courageous followers of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, it is our responsibility to do shakubuku, shakubuku and shakubuku.”

In response to his statement, several leaders of the SGI-USA’s Mid-Atlantic Zone, which encompasses the area where Myosenji Temple is located, mailed a formal letter of protest to Mr. Murata:

“Since you have issued this firm call to re-shakubuku all SGI members, we request a dialogue with you to provide an opportunity for us all to awaken to the truth of Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings.

“In your lecture you also quoted High Priest Nichinyo Shonin: ‘Pointing out the erroneous ideas and slanderous thoughts of others, based on sincere consideration for them, and admonishing them to correct their understanding is like a parent’s compassionate action toward a child.’  We are confident that you will follow this guidance of the High Priest by responding to our request to dialogue with you.”

Mr. Murata has not responded to Mid-Atlantic Zone’s request for a meeting.  Undeniably his silence is hypocritical and cowardly.

Furthermore, he disregards the Buddhist reliance on dialogue to reveal the truth and discard the erroneous.  The eternal model of this process was demonstrated by Nichiren in “Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land.”

The three SGI-USA zones that have geographical proximity to Myosenji are determined to hold Mr. Murata accountable for actions that run counter to the word and spirit of Nichiren Buddhism.

The sequence of events started with a sermon on July 11th by Yuzui Murata, the chief priest of the Myosenji Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist temple of Rockville.  Murata claimed that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are “truly erroneous and misleading religions [that] are responsible for so many of the sufferings and uncertainties which seem to be multiplying in this country and around the world.”  Murata, whose own permanent building was deemed “unfit for occupancy” after a fire this past October, recommended that more people join his temple “so they, too, can fundamentally cleanse from their lives the erroneous belief systems which are continuing to keep them imprisoned within their own private hell.”

Four days later Rockville was the center of the earthquake which sent tremors into Washington, D.C.

The universe continued to punish Montgomery County with an unrelenting two-week heat wave that culminated in the July 25th storm. Loss of life, destruction, and the specter of the interrupted Boy Scouts of America Grand Centennial Parade where, as The Washington Post reported, scouts ran through the wind and rain with kerchiefs and caps flying, did not deter humans from continuing to commit acts of religious intolerance.  On July 25th a vandal defaced B’nai Shalom Synagogue in Olney with anti-Semitic graffiti.  The vandal even painted Nazi symbols on two houses, only one of which was owned by a Jewish family.

County officials, not hearing the concerns of higher powers, took only tepid responses to promote religious tolerance. The county relented to a suit by a Christian group that claimed violations to their free speech rights and County Executive Isiah Leggett continued to endorse plans to construct an enlarged Global Mission Church–largely built on neighboring Frederick County–despite opposition from environmentalists. Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the County Executive was “supportive of the good work of the church and supports the ability of faith communities to stretch out where they can.” Another county board, however, refused to sanction the destruction of a 1903 house to construct a parking lot that would make it possible for the 500 members of The Episcopal Church of the Ascension to access their church.  To confuse matters more, a county judge closed the Chabad Israeli Center, housed in the home of Rabbi Shlomo Beitsh.  The rabbi was cited for permitting 12 people to worship there.

Inviting more sanctions from the heavens, Montgomery County approved the rental of its Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center Auditorium on August 8th to the good Reverend Murata so he could speak about “The Fourteen Slanders.”

Perhaps Yuzui Murata, referring to his congregants in his July 11^th sermon, had it right.  “We are not the mindless and powerless puppets these erroneous religions would have us believe.”

And so the story ends with widespread power outages that struck again on November 16^th.

This attitude, of course, has nothing to do with Buddhism.  Shakyamuni showed the example of a Buddhist, going anywhere to give comfort, hope, and encouragement to people of all circumstances regardless of severity.

Needless to say, I won’t be weighing one’s person fortune and comparing it to another person’s.  That is a judgmental matter.  Nor will I apply metric analysis: the obstacles to benefits ratio per hundred sincerely practicing SGI members compared to that of sincerely practicing NST members.  I can’t envision any researcher undertaking such a comparison because terms simply couldn’t be defined properly: What’s an obstacle? What’s a benefit? What’s “sincerely practicing”?

Fortune must also be examined beyond the superficial present snapshot and should be seen from the perspective of the Buddha’s eye which transcends past, present, and future.  Furthermore, it must be noted that people who practice the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin invariably experience obstacles.  Would anyone say that Nichiren lacked fortune because he was exiled twice?

This stance is clearly evident in the letters Nichiren wrote to his followers.  Lady Nichimyo lost her husband; Nanjo Tokimitsu lost his father and brother.  Shijo Kingo and the Ikegami brothers experienced their greatest hardships after 20 years of sincere practice.  In each of these cases Nichiren never casted judgment but, instead, gave the warmest of encouragement so they could each fight through the obstacles and win in the end.

It seems, however, that NST is firmly fixated on the concept of fortune as the crux of Buddhist practice.  NST.org explains, “Buddhism explains that even though we are in the middle of karmic retribution, we can determine our future
fortune by our own volition.”  Why the emphasis on fortune?

Although hardly a precise science, a deconstruction of the frequency words are used in the Gosho can give some indication of the importance Nichiren attached to certain concepts.  A noun and adverb tally finds the words “fortune/fortunate” 100 times in the Gosho.  This is certainly a formidable presence.  However the pair “strength/strong” appears 101 times. Nichiren certainly regards the concept of strength as seriously as that of fortune.

The word “heart” appears 238 times, “mind” 322 times,  “faith” 528 times,” and “spirit” 51 times.  Altogether, these concepts regarding an individual’s condition of life at a given moment occur 1139 times.  This is, obviously, much more of Nichiren’s concern than the elusive concept of fortune.

Perhaps even more relevant is the very notion of “bodhisattva” which denotes a person who willingly shares in the sufferings of people to find a path forward.  From the perspective of this analysis, the bodhisattva imperative is to plunge into the contradictions and limits of the human experience to demonstrate the core contention of the Lotus Sutra that any human being can attain enlightenment at any moment despite any circumstance.

This is in strong contrast to faith as perceived by NST.  The website of Taikekiji states, “Nichiren Daishonin expounds in His teachings the One True Way to attain absolute and unwavering good fortune whereby all the people are able to fundamentally overcome the basic universal sufferings of being born, of old age, sickness and death as well as doubts and disillusionments which plague mankind, causing hardship and sorrow in life which no one can escape.”

This statement is self-contradictory.  How is it possible “to fundamentally overcome the basic universal sufferings” if a people regard going through them as a lack of fortune?  It is the viewpoint of the SGI that people can overcome these sufferings by willingly and proudly engaging in them and emerging victorious.  Underlying each and every one of these strugglea is the power of prayer.

SGI President Ikeda has stated: “Prayer to the Gohonzon, chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, is not abstract or theoretical.  It is a burning inner flame to be victorious.  If that flame of resolve blazes in our heart, the instant we chant, we have already won.  It is, as the Daishonin declares, like ‘a lantern lighting up a place that has been dark for a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years’ (WND-I, 923).  This is the practice of human revolution that is accessible to all” (May 15, 2009, World Tribune, p. 5).

From this perspective people who courageously fight against overwhelming odds and determine to change every poison into elixir are living the most fortunate lives of all.  This is certainly an accurate portrayal of the SGI members I know.

Ostensibly the priests and lay members of Nichiren Shoshu Temple share the same roots as the members of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI).  Even though both even share similar liturgies, their differences in underlying outlooks could not be starker.  This is clearly illustrated, for example, in their approaches to Islam.  The SGI has been seeking for many years to engage in constructive dialogue with members of the Islamic faith, evidenced by the publication of Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue by the Iranian scholar Majid Tehranian and Daisaku Ikeda (2003).  In contrast, high ranking priests of Nichiren Shoshu have condemned Islam.

Reverend Jisei Nagasaka, chief priest of the New York Nichiren Shoshu Temple, has published on the Internet several of his sermons in which he made comments about the demise of Buddhism in India.  Although he removed his posts on July 3, 2003, he has subsequently issued no apologies for his statements.

In his comments he stated,

Armies of Islam invaded India in the year 1000, and in 1203 destroyed Bikhuramasila (sic), the major Buddhist center in India for intellectual and religious study.  The invading Muslims killed all of the monks and nuns, effectively wiping out Buddhism in India (Nagasaka, True Meaning).

These are not isolated comments.  Rev. Nagasaka has repeatedly made and published disparaging comments about Islam and its role in the fall of Buddhism in India.  Similar  thoughts can be found in a sermon entitled “Illness of Mankind” in which he states, “Now is the time that the Daishonin’s Buddhism is able to save the people of Islam” and “all slanderous religions, including Islam, will be defeated by True Buddhism” (www.nstny.org/illnessofmankind).  He made similar remarks in a speech “Blind Faith and Correct Faith” (www.nstny.org/blindcorrect519) and in an address commemorating the one-year anniversary of September 11. After he received inquiries about the latter, the original was replaced with a sanitized version that is currently on the New York Temple website (www.nstny.org).

It is my contention that Rev. Nagasaka’s comments reveal disturbing patterns of thought including:

• A weak grasp of historical and cultural processes;
• A weak understanding and disregard of the lives and struggles of common people;
• A predilection towards monasticism and “priestism”;
• An incomplete and immature notion of what constitutes “superior” and “inferior” religious practices;
• A bias that is antithetical to the multicultural perspectives so necessary to secure a peaceful world in the 21^st Century.

I have many personal objections to Rev. Nagasaka’s remarks.  His usage of terms such as  “the armies of Islam” and “all slanderous religions, including Islam, will be defeated by True Buddhism” (Nagasaka, Illness) was very problematic to me as an educator. Such expressions can be best described as “trigger words” in today’s lexicon—the association of Islam with aggressive militancy.  From my training as an educator I have learned that a prime rule of multicultural education and human relations is to avoid such generalities about ethnic groups. Therefore, I wanted to know:

• What historical basis is there to “the armies of Islam” in the history of India?
• Should Islam be properly characterized by references to militancy?

I was also struck by his association of the fall of Buddhism in India with the massacre of the monks and nuns of Bikhuramasila (Vikramasila is the spelling used by scholars).  I questioned:

• Why was Rev. Nagasaka identifying himself so strongly with the fall of Indian Buddhism when forms of Buddhism in India at that time had lost much of their connections to the Buddha’s teachings?
• Why was Rev. Nagasaka so concerned about the massacre of clergy?  Was this a comment designed to invoke sympathy for all Buddhist clergy including Nichiren Shoshu priests?

I began to entertain additional questions about the propagation of major religions and what phenomena undergird their rise and fall.  Rev. Nagasaka states: “the invading Muslims killed all the monks and nuns, effectively wiping out Buddhism in India” (Nagasaka, True Meaning)  This led me to ask:

• If Rev. Nagasaka is correct and Buddhism fell due to the actions of “the armies of Islam,” what can account for the survival of Hinduism during the same timeframe?  In contrast to the decline of Buddhism, why were Hindus able to co-exist and even prosper under Muslim rule?  I believe these questions have major implications for modern Buddhists who want to co-exist and prosper in a multicultural and religious world.
• What accounted for the propagation of Islam so far from its point of origin?  Can a religion spread so far merely by the point of the sword? As people actively propagating Buddhism, I wondered what we can learn from the successful worldwide propagation of Islam?
• What factors can account for the decline of Buddhism in India given that the land is the historic home of the Buddha and the origin of its worldwide propagation?  What can be learned from the decline of Indian Buddhism that can be used to prolong the vitality of the Buddhist movement today?

Towards finding answers to these questions I confined my research to the decline of Buddhism and Islamic expansion in eastern India, now referred to as Bengal. Shakyamuni Buddha lived most of his life in sections bordering on northwestern Bengal. Vikramasila was also located in this section.

I emerged from my study full of wonder.  Once again, in a corner of time and history previously distant to me, I discovered the pageant of the human spirit:

• the readiness of the human spirit to be awakened;
• the galvanizing importance of an idea that emerges at a crucial time;
• the wisdom of the people;
• the significance of leadership;
• the necessity of basing religion on the daily lives of people;
• the importance of community in human endeavors.

The Decline of Buddhism in India

According to Eaton (1993), Buddhism had spread in India between the third century BC and the eighth century AD due to its

egalitarian and universalist ethic [which] permitted Buddhists to expand over great distances and establish wide, horizontal networks of trade among ethnically diverse people.  This ethic also suited Buddhism to large, cross-cultural political systems, or empires. (9)

Initially this contrasted widely to the “hierarchical vision of Brahmanism, with its pretensions to social exclusion and ritual purity” (Eaton, 9).

However, not long after Asoka’s (ca. 273-236 BC) establishment of Buddhism as an imperial cult, it began to lose much of its vitality.  Rev. Nagasaka looks at this phenomenon as a function of the passing of time:

As the Former and Middle Days of Shakyamuni’s Buddhism drew to a close, so reverence for his teachings also faded in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as in many areas of Southeast Asia.  The Buddhist deities departed from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Buddhist statues’ eyes were closed, the lands were possessed by demons and devils, and the seven disasters descended upon these former Buddhist kingdoms, which were invaded, and are still ruled to day by adherents of Islam (Nagasaka, 2001).

Rev. Nagasaka’s association with the expansion of Islam to “demons and devils” and the “seven disasters” is problematic.  More troubling is his passive stance which discounts any analysis of Buddhist responsibility to its own demise.  As a monastically based teaching, Buddhism lost its connections to indigenous populations in Eastern India and was patronized mainly by traders and administrators.  In contrast, Brahman priests began to settle among Bengal’s indigenous people from the fifth century AD on.  In particular, they shared their knowledge of agriculture, the calendar, and meteorology with the people.  This was particularly important to a society that was moving from primitive agriculture to wet rice production.

This decline of Buddhism was an uneven process as Buddhist influence continued to spread to other parts of the world.  The Pala Empire (ca. 760-1161) patronized Buddhism and under its rule a market economy centered on the production of textiles began to form. Under the Chandras dynasty (ca. 825-1035) Buddhist ideas spread to other parts of southeast Asia through the Chandras who were eminent in trade along the Indian Ocean.  Again, Buddhism seemed to prosper amidst vital people who were actively engaged in daily life.

In contrast, Buddhist institutions in Bengal declined in both number and importance.  One reason for this was the tendency of Buddhist monks to leave the conducting of life-cycle rites to Brahman priests!  As a result, “Buddhist monastic establishments, so central for the religion’s institutional survival, became disconnected from the laity and fatally dependent on court patronage for their support” (Eaton, 13).

Without significant lay support, the decline of Buddhism in India was inevitable once court patronage dissipated.  Even the physical structures of monasteries led to Buddhism’s decline.  According to Muslim historians of the time, the Buddhist monasteries perched on the northern India plains looked like fortresses to invading armies and were targeted as such (Skilton, 145).

By simplistically associating “armies of Islam had destroyed Indian Buddhism” (Nagasaka, Illness), Rev. Nagasaka seems to hide a clear lesson about the dangers of Buddhist “priestism”—Buddhism centered on the practice by, for and of priests.  As evidenced by the history of Buddhism in India, monastic or priest-driven Buddhism has the tendency to become detached from the vigorous life of lay people.  Buddhism in India spread when it blended into the lives of lay people such as merchants and administrators.  In contrast, separated from the currents of daily life, priests became unable to gauge the complexities and nuances of living.

Why did Hinduism survive and prosper under Muslim rule in India whereas Buddhism died?  Hinduism had popular support and a priesthood connected to the life of lay people.  Buddhism did not.  It was the loss of the spirit of the Buddha to plunge into the lives of the people that destroyed Indian Buddhism—not the spread of Islam.

The Rise of Islam in India

Alack of nuanced thinking can certainly be seen in Rev. Nagasaka’s historical treatment of the expansion of Islam; the process was in reality quite complex.  For example, Rev. Nagasaka leaves unanswered the explanation of which groups of Muslims invaded India. Islam is a complex teaching with many schools and conflicting ideologies.  What were the precise understandings of Islam held by the invading armies? What motivated their conquests?

Certainly, the complexion of Islam had evolved considerably by the time Muhammad Bakhtiyar invaded northwestern India in the early 13^th century.  Caliphs, seated in Baghdad and perceived as the successors of the Prophet Muhammad, had ruled a centralized and Arab-based Islamic state from 750 AD  Increasingly dependent upon Turks and Persians for their military, the role of Baghdad as the center of political and spiritual leadership had already diminished in favor of these new groups.  In fact, soon after Bakhtiyar’s invasion of Bengal, Mongol armies in 1258 invaded Baghdad and killed the reigning caliph.

Rev. Nagasaka’s argument that the invaders of India were motivated by their religious passions is highly simplistic. Before the conquests of India, Persian jurists had already created a de facto separation of church and state.  The Persian outlook was secular in nature with religion playing a symbolic role, a “unified theory of society’s moral, political, and economic basis—a worldview at once integrated, symmetrical, and closed….it is royal justice, not the Deity, that binds together the entire structure” (Eaton, 30).   Thus, although Muslim, the waves of India’s Turkish, Persian, and Afghani invaders were more concerned about political power and wealth than religious conversion.

Much of the moral impetus for the Islamic expansion was sparked by Sufis, or Muslim holy men, who could be characterized more closely as charismatic rather than clerical leaders.  Their tradition was largely secular, derived from Turkish traditions of shamans, holy men with magical powers, and alps, heroic warrior-adventurers in Turkish lore.

The more contemporary evidence of Sufis on Bengal’s political frontier portrays men who had entered the delta not as holy warriors but as pious mystics or freebooting settlers operating under the authority of charismatic leaders.  No contemporary source endows them with the ideology of holy war; nor is there contemporary evidence that they slew non-Muslims or destroyed non-Muslim monuments (Eaton, 77).

Furthermore,

The idea of Islam as a closed system with definite and rigid boundaries is itself largely a product of nineteenth- and twentieth-century reform movements, whereas for rural Bengalis of the premodern period, the line separating “non-Islam” from “Islam” appears rather to have been porous, tenuous, and shifting.  Indeed, such boundaries seem hardly to have been present at all (Eaton, 273).

Rev. Nagasaka’s theory that Buddhism was destroyed at the point of the Muslim sword is therefore seriously flawed.  More problematic is Rev. Nagasaka’s belief that mass religious conversion can occur anywhere and anytime at the point of the sword. Easton asks, “How did rulers in such circumstances remain in effective control without resorting to the indefinite and prohibitively costly use of coercive force?” (Eaton, 23). Harvey has looked at both European and Muslim explanations of conversion to Islam in South Asia and asks whether a society can ever change its religious identity only because it has a sword at its neck (Harvey, 78).

What type of force does it take to change a human heart?  It appears that Rev. Nagasaka has a limited conception of the depths of the human heart.  Only with this narrow understanding can he so overestimate the power of force over the human heart and so underestimate the resilience of the human spirit to resist forced conversion.

Learning from the Islamic Expansion

For a period of over five centuries, Muslim leaders ruled Bengal as they ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent.  Quite curiously, however, out of all the interior provinces of India, only in western Punjab and eastern Bengal (the areas that are now respectively Pakistan and Bangladesh) did the majority of the indigenous population adopt the Islamic faith.

These were the areas that were on the fringes of Indo-Muslim rule. Muslim soldiers and administrators were predominantly located in garrison settlements in or near pre-existing urban centers along the upper Gangetic Plain. Ironically, these areas historically proved to be the most resistant to Islamic conversion.

Rev. Nagasaka’s theory that Buddhism died at the point of the Islamic sword is embarrassingly not based on historical fact.  The mass Islamization of Bengalis, largely rural people, did not occur until the end of the 16^th century, under the Mughals, the last of many conquering Moslem regimes.  Again, against Rev. Nagasaka’s logic, the Islamization occurred under a regime historically interested in promoting agricultural productivity as the backbone of its economic policy and with almost no interest in the propagation of Islam.

Bratcher cites a claim in Rev. Nagasaka’s temple handbook that, “Islam is a false religion and…only Nichiren Shoshu is a true religion” (Myosetsuji Temple).  He claims that teachings such as Islam “are false teachings which not only contradict natural science, but also coolly ignore cause and effect.” Rev. Nagasaka is not alone among Nichiren Shoshu priests in publicly making insensitive and generalized condemnations of Islam.  Rev. Shoshin Kawabe of the Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Chicago claims that Indian Buddhism fell into ruin due to “the aggressive spread of Islam” through the actions of the “armies of Islam” (Kawabe).  Elmore quotes Rev. Kosho Mizushima, the Vice Chief of the Nichiren Shoshu Study Department, at the 1997 Summer Course at Taisekiji, referring to Allah as “a heartless and uncharitable god” and “a mere figment of the imagination.”  Mizushima further describes Islam as an “arrogant faith that lacks compassion” and stated that the loss of many lives in the Mid-East is a “direct manifestation of the tragic harm that is brought about by Islam.”

If Rev. Nagasaka’s claims about Islam are true, what can account for its worldwide propagation?  How did it gain the enthusiastic adherence of over a billion people?  How was it able to surmount countless cultural barriers and languages?  How was it able to withstand the pressures of the centuries in what can be described as a competitive worldwide market of religious ideas?  Such success belies labels such as “false religion.” Far from accepting Rev. Nagasaka’s rejection of Islam, Buddhists should study and learn from the process through which Islam was able to energize the hearts, intellect, and loyalties of so many people.  Much can be learned from a study of the specific expansion of Islam in Bengal.  This trend began with Bakhtiyar’s invasion but accelerated with the onset of Mughal rule and continued well into the 20^th century.

The population of Bengal had become quite unique before the start of mass Islamization. Mughal rule meant a consistent integration of Bengal with northern India for the first time in its history.  As a result, numerous immigrants followed the heels of the Mughals.  They consisted of northern soldiers, merchants, clerks and artisans who serviced the Mughal military.  This new population became grafted onto previous Muslim ruling classes that had become assimilated into Bengali culture, descendents of people who over the centuries had emigrated into Bengal to escape the waves of Turk, Persian and Afghani invaders, as well as indigenous populations (Eaton, 167).   The entire Bengali delta had become a part of a “world system,” largely inspired by Islamic ethos of the Indian Ocean commercial network, that was “an arena for the circulation of shared texts an values sustained by Sufis, pilgrims, merchants, adventurers, scholars, and soldiers” (Eaton, 306).

Contrary to the “point of sword” theory espoused by Rev. Nagasaka, the process of Islamization was facilitated by tolerant rather than rigid thinking.  Mughal officials did not hold up Islam as a state religion.  Religious conversions did not merit gifts or other forms of acknowledgement.  To the contrary there was an official policy of disdain towards the conversion of Bengalis to Islam.  A Portuguese friar who traveled through Bengal in 1640 relates a telling example.  He witnessed the near execution of a Moslem by a Mughal official for killing and eating a peacock in a Hindu village.  The Mughal official berated him, “How then didst thou dare in a Hindu district to kill a living thing?” (Eaton, 181).  Mughal concern was to augment the wealth of the empire and social justice was a more effective tool than religious bigotry.

Indeed, the entire Islamization process occurred during a period of tremendous economic expansion and stability.  Slightly before the Mughal conquest, the Ganges River had become silted up and had changed its course to merge with the Padma River.  Not only did the river’s annual flooding improve cultivation in eastern Bengal, but the river’s new course allowed direct transportation to North India, providing an expanding market for Bengali textiles, foodstuffs, and new cash crops such as cotton and silk.  Maritime and overland trade made Bengal an important part of the world economy in particular with its fine textiles sought after by the Mughal imperial court as well as in Europe and all of Asia.  A true economic boon took place through these events.  This was a healthy rather than inflationary boon; the rise of money supply was offset by gains in production and population growth.

The boon was partially due to the actions of heroic religious pioneers who worked side-by-side with indigenous people to clear the jungles and establish farmlands. The process of clearing a plot of such land was extremely arduous work, taking three to four years before regular crops could be planted.  It entailed battles with tigers, snakes and infestations, the construction of embankments along streams to keep salt water away, the clearing of the forests, the digging of tanks for water supplies, the construction of huts, and the planting of temporary crops to keep the jungle from re-encroaching.

The land reclamation process was a partnership of the Mughal government that granted large tracts to urban Hindus who financed the operation and sublet smaller plots to entrepreneurs with both the charisma, commitment and organizational ability to rally indigenous labor forces with the stipulation that they would encourage the development of religious practice among the people.  Grants went to Muslims, Hindus and even a documented Christian settlement.  Muslims, however, increasingly received the lionshare of grants, perhaps due to a greater propensity for this type of work.  As part of their mission, the Muslim entrepreneurs led the reclamation process, taught local people the technique of rice cultivation, set up small mosques, and taught the fundamentals of Islam.  In return from its initial divestiture of wilderness, the government received new revenue sources, loyal elites, and an extended sphere of an organized and population. The importance of the religious figures who led the grassroots process of reclamation can be measured by their incorporation into literary and folk traditions.  “Islam gradually became associated with economic development and agricultural productivity….Islam became locally understood as a civilization-building ideology, a religion of the plow” (Eaton, 308).

The establishment of mosques had an enormous role in the Islamization of Bengal.  Mosques have traditionally been a cornerstone of Islamic civilization.  On the one hand they represent the commonality of the umma, the worldwide fellowship of Muslim believers.  On the other hand, they are the center of communal worship and prayer.  Quite ironically, located in and around garrison cities, the most significant mosques built over the course of 600 years of Muslim rule in India were in the areas in which the least amount of Islamic conversion took hold.  In contrast, eastern Bengal, the site of the most intensive Islamization, witnessed the appearance the small bamboo and thatch mosques associated with the land reclamation led by Muslim holy men.  Land reclamation necessarily followed the course of rivers and creeks while at the same time seeking out high patches of land to avoid the dangers of flooding.  As a result, the development of villages was hampered and mosques became the center of communal life.

Mosques were the sites where the Qur’an was read.  Religious authority in Islam does not flow from particular priests, elders, shamans or ritualists but “from a medium that is ultimately immortal and unchallengeable—written scripture” (Eaton, 291).  Hence Islam is identified by it practitioners as the “religion of the Book.”  The world civilization created by Islam was based on the Qur’an and the many volumes of Islamic Law.  In eastern Bengal as well, even the humblest of mosques patronized Qur’an readers.  The introduction in the 15^th century of papermaking technology in Bengal further promoted popular association of the written word with religious authority (Eaton, 293).

The match between Islam and the expanding frontier was fortuitous.  Eaton states that “Islam creatively evolved into an ideology of ‘world construction’…serving not only to legitimize but to structure the very socioeconomic changes taking place on the frontier” (267).  One source of its success was its creative ability to encounter, interact, enrich, and grow from the mythology and religious thought of premodern Bengal.  This process was a gradual one.  The study of folklore reveals that indigenous populations at first just added Islamic beliefs into the pantheon of their religious universe.  With time they associated and then used Islamic vocabulary and concepts instead of their own while maintaining much of their own basic cosmology.  Finally Islamic practice displaced native ones.  The indigenous people of eastern Bengal, upon encountering Islam, did not see it as a self-contained “culture-box” that had to be fully accepted or rejected; conversion was through “seepage” rather than a sudden mass conversion (Eaton, 309-310).  It was truly a case of cultural dialogue.

In summary Eaton argues:

Religious systems are created, cultural artifacts, and not timeless structures lying beyond human societies.  As such they are continuously reinterpreted and readapted to particular sociocultural environments.  Yet even while this happens, religious traditions transform those environments in creative ways.  Herein lies, perhaps, the secret of the successful world religions, for when they are not flexible or adaptable, they tend to ossify into hollow shells, and survive only in museums or forgotten texts….In the “success stories” of world religions, and the story of Islam in Bengal is surely among these, the norms of religion and the realities of local sociocultural systems ultimately accommodate one another.  Although theorists, theologians, or reformers may resist this point, it seems nonetheless to be intuitively grasped by common folk (314-315).

There is much here for our consideration.  Rev. Nagasaka states, “If we shakubuku Muslims in this country and convince them to chant daimoku, they can then return to their native lands, whether it be to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia, and shakubuku their fellow countrymen”  (Nagasaka, Latter 2001). The history of Islamic expansion in Bengal suggests quite a different approach to propagation.  It occurred within an ethnic cauldron best described of a rich mixture of diverse people. It was facilitated by liberal tolerance for other religions rather than rigid exclusionist thinking.  It was supported by a vibrant economy based on an expanding frontier and new technologies.  It was highly dependent on grassroots leaders who worked side-by-side with common people to tame the wilderness.  Mosques, in particular small and humble ones, were the center of community.  Valuing the written word of scripture rather than the viewpoint of individual priests was an essential.  Finally, Islam possesses the wisdom, flexibility, and strength to engage in and sustain cultural dialogue with indigenous people and enrich fundamental religious beliefs with native insight.

Nichiren Buddhists recognize that propagation is a key to the establishment of world peace.  Propagation entails sharing the benefits of practice with others.  It also entails much broader responsibilities.  Nichiren Buddhists have the responsibility of actively participating in the wide range of our diverse democracy.  Rather than adopting exclusionist and arrogant stances towards other faiths, we need to engage in meaningful dialogues to find commonalties.  We have a responsibility to enrich and energize our economy, our intellectual heritage, and our political system.  We must become attractive people working side-by-side with colleagues, friends, and family members to conquer whatever wildernesses and jungles we face: whether that of war, anti-intellectualism, poverty, discord, disease, and racism and other “isms.”   Rather than grand shrines and temples, our movement should be community-based and centered in homes and neighborhoods.  We should rely on the word, spirit, and example of our founder and recoil from those who claim exclusive rights to reinterpret Nichiren’s doctrine.  Finally, we affirm the right of creativity, the right to find metaphors that open understanding to Nichiren Buddhism.  Concepts introduced by the successive presidents of the Soka Gakkai such as “value creation,” “the Buddha is life,” “human revolution,” and “the path of mentor-disciple” have launched a new global wave of propagation, one of which we should be rightly proud.

References

Eaton, R.M. (1993).  The Rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier: 1204-1760. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Hardy, P. (1979).  “Modern European and Muslim Explanations of Conversion to Islam in South Asia: A Preliminary Survey of the Literature.” In Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979).

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