Word: soka
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...Little known outside Japan, the New Komeito is an offshoot of the country's largest lay Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai. In the elections, the New Komeito was the only party other than the DPJ to pick up more seats, increasing its bloc from 31 to 34. But the New Komeito's influence radiates far wider than those numbers indicate. As most smaller parties drift into irrelevance or disband completely, the New Komeito, as a member of the LDP's ruling coalition, is cementing its role as kingmaker...
...given an interview to a journalist. A serious man in a business suit, he explains how the movement was started by his grandfather in 1957, when he and his acolytes splintered from the centuries-old Nichiren sect of Buddhism. Kenshokai differs from other Nichiren sects?especially the politically powerful Soka Gakkai?in that its practitioners see it as destined to become the national religion of Japan. "We still believe that," says Katsue Asai...
Willis hopes to popularize the personal. In the U.S., she contends, Buddhism remains a religion of white elites. The few practicing African Americans tend to belong to Soka Gakkai International, a school of the religion that emphasizes simple chanting, usually for prosperity. Willis prefers a more rigorous dharma and is developing meditations for Buddhist centers that focus on race. Her teachings have not yet reached the masses, but, as she is quick to point out, "I'm not a proselytizer." She is, however, a philosopher with a bold agenda. "People tell you for centuries that you're just a cattle...
...dialogue with an extremely strict sitting meditation practice, often enforced with whacks from a ceremonial wand. As a tool toward faster enlightenment, Zen's Rinzai school had its students wrestle conundrums, or koans, such as the famous query "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The late-blooming Soka Gakkai practice, favored by Tina Turner, is also nominally a Japanese Mahayana offshoot, although rather atypical in its teaching that the repetition of a four-word phrase, translatable as "Devotion to the mystic law of the Lotus Sutra [scripture]," can gain adherents happiness and material amenities in this world...
...READ WITH INTEREST IAN BURUMA'S article, "Lost Without a Faith,'' about how the Japanese are looking for new gods [Cover, April 3]. Buruma has keen insight into the Japanese mentality. I don't agree, however, with his opinion that Soka Gakkai members worship Daisaku Ikeda, honorary president of the group, as a monarch. The Soka Gakkai is a grass-roots Buddhist organization whose goal is the establishment of world peace. Since it stands on the side of the common people, it has always been criticized and persecuted by the authorities. Its first president, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, a renowned educator, died...