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I am hopeful that everyone reading this letter has been doing well since you last
heard from me: experiencing increase in each of the values of Goodness, Beauty
and Gain.
Life contains the capacity, like flames that reach toward heaven, to
transform suffering and pain into the energy needed for value-creation,
into light that illuminates darkness. Like the wind traversing vast spaces
unhindered, life has the power to uproot and overturn all obstacles and
difficulties. Like clear flowing water, it can wash away all stains and
impurities. And finally life, like the great earth that sustains plants and
vegetation, impartially protects all people with its compassionate,
nurturing force.
Something Missing
But in these alternating thoughts there is something missing: me. In both cases I
am being a passive observer; either an optimistic, positive, “I'm-ok, Daisaku's-ok”
kind of passive observer, or a pessimistic, negative, doom-and-gloom kind of
observer (“I have been chanting and associating myself with the SGI for 24 years;
I think I know that some of what we say is just overblown idealism and
cheerleading and SGI-speak, and I wish that this guy Ikeda would tell it straight
…”. Whichever point of view I took, I was on the outside of any process by
which I am becoming the same as Daisaku Ikeda.
Reading the Lotus Sutra and the Gosho and talking with those who truly study
with a thirst to understand, have helped me through the worst times over the
years. Reading the World Tribune this last 3 or 4 months has been a revelation.
But then, the last 3 or 4 months have been in the context of some of the greatest
confrontation of my comfort-zone I've ever experienced, followed by, by far, the
greatest benefits I have ever experienced.
Ikeda Clones?
I have never read that Daisaku Ikeda has said “the only path for all persons to
attain the fearless state of life is through ascending from leadership position to
higher leadership position in the Soka Gakkai”. I don't think Daisaku Ikeda
believes this and I don't think Daisaku Ikeda says things he doesn't believe. His
path to attain the boundless state of life has been to use the incomprehensibly
daunting task of developing the Soka Gakkai/SGI organization to the worldwide
membership and human diversity that it comprises now. That doesn't mean that
everyone who is a successor, who inherits the achievement of completely victory
from him, has the same path. “You have your mission, and I have mine”.
Daisaku Ikeda says: 'Buddhism teaches that the “mind is like a skilled painter”
(WND 1, p226). Like a great painter, one's mind or heart has the unfettered ability
to create any kind of life imaginable.' [Pres. Ikeda's Essay in June 12 2009 World
Tribune]
There may be some who think that “cloning” or “replicating” the biographical
history of some SGI leader that they admire, is the way to attain happiness. This is
probably an erroneous way of looking at things. All of us have to be ourselves. The
attainment of a certain level of leadership position, or absence of such an
attainment, is not an indicator of one's strength of faith, of one's improved life-
condition, of one's character or strength or stature. Likewise, we sometimes get or
used to get, the feeling that there's a “standardized list of tests” that we are
being evaluated by in the local SGI organization, don't we? It goes like this: “Are
you attending activities at the Community Center regularly, so that “we” (such-
and-such leaders) see you there?” “Are you going to your District meetings every
month?” “Are you subscribed to the SGI-USA publications?” “Are you making
financial contributions (pledged and/or Special May Campaign)?” Well, I have
something to say about this. This is bunk. If there are people who are leaders in
our area who really apply this “system” to evaluating the “faith” of members, they
need to correct themselves. This is a shortcut, it is top-down organizational
thinking, it is not Buddhism but more properly Bureaucratism.
Having people looking out for us and wanting to see us make the most of the
opportunities that the SGI organization can provide for us — opportunities to make
profoundly powerful causes to develop our lives in various aspects — is a
wonderful bit of good fortune. On the other hand, persecuting ourselves in our
own minds over “failing” at “tests” like these — or actually having leaders who
are taking this cheap shortcut instead of really seeing each of us as the valuable,
respectworthy human beings with missions, that we all are — this is misfortune,
and we need to use the practice of Buddhist faith to change that misfortune. If it
is in our own minds, due to some “natural tendency” to believe badly about
ourselves, we can change it. If it is coming from others, in reality, we can change
it. In fact in the either case it is our stern responsibility to change it, if we aspire at
all to be the kind of people Daisaku Ikeda believes we can be: because having
such people taking “faith shortcuts” around us affects not just one of us but many
of us; and having an inability to see the respectworthy reality of own lives is sad
and unnecessary.
I wish you all a happy Independence Day and the most interesting and productive
month of July.
Regards,
Soren Andersen
SGI-USA General Member, Men's Division
Delaware Park District
Buffalo South Chapter
Buffalo-Rochester Area
Upstate New York Region
Northeastern Zone
East Territory