Nichiren "Buddhism", the Lotus Sutra, and SGI: The Homeopathy of Buddhism

All the Nichiren schools, including the New Religion Soka Gakkai/SGI/the Ikeda cult, are to genuine Buddhism as homeopathy is to genuine medicine.

Homeopathy: the treatment of disease by minute doses of natural substances that in a healthy person would produce symptoms of disease.

So by giving a person a little more poison when that person has been poisoned, that person can be cured! Yeah, that sounds logical!!

People's minds have been so twisted and corrupted by their fears and cravings that they'll believe absolutely anything, including "You can chant for whatever you want - and get it, through magic!" and "This practice works!" And the charlatans and conmen of the world take full advantage of their gullibility and defencelessness.

In REAL Buddhism, Buddhism qua Buddhism, the basic premise across all schools is the Four Noble Truths, which state quite clearly that "Attachments cause suffering." (That's Noble Truth #2.) So, given that attachments cause suffering, and people want to be relieved of their suffering, MORE attachments is the LAST thing we should want to give such a person!

But that's what the Soka Gakkai/SGI/Ikeda cult does. I can't really speak for the rest of the Nichiren schools due to my lack of familiarity, but since they're all based on that bullshit Lotus Sutra, everything I'm saying here counts for them as well. So you've got vulnerable individuals, who are vulnerable to abuse due to the depth of their suffering and their desire to find relief from their suffering, and the Soka Gakkai basically tells them, "Here - add this attachment to chanting to all the other attachments that are causing you suffering, and you'll feel better!" No, you won't. You will gain an endorphin addiction, but your "feeling better" is the euphoria gained by a temporary relief from the suffering that remains your baseline reality! In the Nichiren model of the "Ten Worlds", there is one called "Heaven" or "Rapture" that occurs when the sufferings of the lower 5 worlds are relieved, however temporarily. Those lower 5 worlds are "Hell", "Hunger", "Animality", "Anger", and "Humanity". Even the calmest condition of being human is considered a "lower world" because the slightest outside interference can still plunge the individual into the "Hell" of suffering. And "Heaven" or "Rapture" is considered one of the 6 "lower worlds" in which this dynamic of being dependent upon one's environment for one's "life condition" is still in play!

The Buddha was very clear: Attachment causes suffering. There are no "good" attachments or "bad" attachments; they're ALL bad. Because they ALL cause suffering. The path the Buddha elucidated was to eradicate that suffering by ridding oneself of attachments and delusions, wrong ideas about oneself and how one interacts with one's environment. Only then could a person live in peace.

As long as the Buddha's teachings are able to help people to remove attachments, they can be accepted as "truths." After all extremes and attachments are banished from the mind, the so-called truths are no longer needed and hence are not "truths" any more. One should be "empty" of all truths and lean on nothing. Source

Anything that suggests a lifetime commitment is asking you to devote yourself to a lifetime of suffering.

Make no mistake about it enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. Its seeing through the facade of pretense. Its the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. Source

Any group that portrays "enlightenment" in terms of "happiness" is manipulating you into accepting a lifetime of suffering. Everyone can see that "happiness" is completely subjective, and is typically only recognized by comparison to "unhappiness". Being in a calm and peaceful state doesn't sound very whizz-bang exciting, but it beats having to be in a near-constant state of suffering in order to experience euphoria every once in a while! Euphoria isn't so great in the long run.

Buddhism is an earnest struggle to win. This is what the Daishonin teaches. A Buddhist must not be defeated. I hope you will maintain an alert and winning spirit in your work and daily life, taking courageous action and showing triumphant actual proof time and time again. - Ikeda (Faith Into Action, page 3.)

Winning gives birth to hostility. Losing, one lies down in pain. The calmed lie down with ease, having set winning and losing aside. - The Buddha, Dhammapada 15.201

Which sounds more Buddhist? Source

See, all those concepts - "winning" "triumph" "defeat" - are the language of attachments. They are the small and competitive ego talking, and that will drive you reliably to self-destruction. But Ikeda's got a real competitive jones:

It is fun to win. There is glory in it. There is pride. And it gives us confidence. When people lose, they are gloomy and depressed. They complain. They are sad and pitiful. That is why we must win. Happiness lies in winning. Buddhism, too, is a struggle to emerge victorious. - SGI PRESIDENT IKEDA'S DAILY GUIDANCE, Monday, August 1st, 2005

More attachment language: "fun", "glory", "pride", "confidence", "win/lose", "gloomy", "depressed", "complain", "sad", "pitiful", "happiness", "struggle", "victorious". The objective is to elevate oneself above others, you see, rather than simply accepting life and reality as they are. Can you think of any other "Buddhist" leaders who keep an enemies list and who seek revenge the way Ikeda does?

"They made me apologize - that's utterly outrageous. Mark my words - in 10 years time, all those people will apologize to me!" - Ikeda

Nobody apologized to Ikeda, BTW O_O