Ah yes, another rant about the Daigohonzon...

It's sorta like "paying your dues" for me. Gotta do it. Don't want to, but it just has to be done. alas...

Let's rewind back to 1990. High Priest Nikken excommunicated us. How cool is that? My father tried to organize a union in the 60's for Hartford Insurance Company and was fired. He sued, and won, but more importantly he gained real subculture status for himself. Of course he died at age 55 from his first heart attack. I always thought it was ninjas hired by Hartford. Others think it was life-long alcoholism and smoking. Idiots! Whadda they know. But I'm digressing...

I always thought that being excommunicated was sort of like that. How many people can say they've been personally excommunicated by a real high priest? It was cool alright, real cool.

A few years later I was slugging it out on alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren trying to defend the Daigohonzon against - yeah, you guessed it - my buddy Bruce Maltz. If this had been a street fight, I would have been bleeding, crying, black-eyed lying in the gutter. He creamed me good, real good.

He sent me back to the gosho only to find that indeed there was no historical or documentary basis for the thing. Years later I ended that particular journey when I read Daniel Montgomery's "Fire in the Lotus".

Now I don't want to rehash what others have documented so well, go see Rev. Ryuei's dead link page if you havn't gone the course on the subject of the DaiG...

What I'm left with, as the years have sped by, is a feeling of amazment that I ever could have believed in such a thing. Assuming Montgomery is correct in his analysis of the Fuji school and what they propose the DaiG is, SGI never really grasped the power Taisekiji hoped to gain by inventing such a thing. The Daigohonzon was not merely, as we all so sincerely believed, "enscribed for all mankind" rather it was an embodiment of the actual life of Nichiren himself. Not a symbol, not an object, it was Nichiren, and only they had him. After all, only the Pope has God. It makes sense . Kinda like Jesus in a jar...

It was difficult to free myself from my addiction to the DaiG. I had always enjoyed the feeling of belonging to the best team. Americans are like that. Winning is everything, losing is nothing. Nichiren Shoshu was the best, and they had the best guy (Nikko) and the best thing. Those were wonderful days of bad and good, right and wrong, black and white. If only all life were so simple. Even now high-ranking SGI leaders subscribe to the "step down" modified theory that while the Daigohonzon isn't all that, it nonetheless remains the "template" for the "correct" Gohonzon. This, in my interpretation, is like kicking one's heroin habit in exchange for methadone. The addiction remains.

The reality is that all life is not so simple. Most of us joined SGI and began chanting to the Gohonzon because it was so damn cool. Chant - stuff happens. Ok, not always comfortable stuff, but to chant to the Gohonzon and actually see results. What's cooler than that?

Nichiren was a wise man, perhaps enlightened - whatever that means - but certainly he knew what he was doing. It's easy to read about Tatsunokuchi and how Nichiren almost lost his head 750 years ago, but imagine facing the barrel of an MP5 submachine gun at the hands of a Government Agent who is about to shoot you based only on what you believe and preach. Facing this situation with conviction and faith that somehow justice will be done, one way or another, that's just inconceivable.

Nichiren's teachings themselves are not rocket science. Believe in the Lotus Sutra and chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with your whole heart. Nichiren's Buddhism in itself held everything for future generations way into the unimaginable future. Even the written Gohonzon was only an adjunct, in itself not vital for the transmission of Nichiren's true teachings.

Nichiren also had no need for a single diciple. He had chosen six. Whether or not they would do what he wanted them to do after his death was not for him to know. He had six diciples, as Shakyamuni had had, and that was it. In this same light there certainly was no purpose for an ordination platform, as other sects founders had established. Why build something he knew would crumble eventually as had happened with Dengyo's establishment of Tendai Buddhism? Universal truths, principles, those stick around.

What a blunder, what a terrible mistake it would have been to leave behind a single tangible relic to be fought over, possessed, stolen and misunderstood. The Daigohonzon has even survived being burned and completely destroyed. What kind of fool would illuminate the true teaching of all Buddhas and then have it centered around a single piece of carved wood?

Enough beating around the bush. Here's what I really think. We, as followers of the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, gain nothing, have NEVER gained anything from our belief in the Daigohonzon. We never had greater faith in Nam Myoho Renge Kyo by believing that Nikko Shonin was the only true diciple and the rest betrayed him (regardless of how much truth may lie in that slant on history). I believe our addiction to the notion that we are the best tribe has only distracted us from experiencing deep and lasting faith in the Gohonzon and Nichiren as individual human beings. This could be said to be true of any addiction. Addiction, by it's definition, only numbs, it doesn't awaken.

In the end we all have to face the fact that history, doctrine, theology can all be manipulated to prove one's point. We all are guilty of seeking the truth only to prove biased beliefs we already have. Temple members find ways to legitimize following the "Buddha Pope" and anti-Gakkai groups find ways to invalidate SGI. Most SGI members I practice with just happily plod along their own path, or the path of the Gakkai collective. In the end we'll all have to live with the path we choose. I'm not advocating "can't we all just get along?" as I find the conflict quite great fun and while I am an SGI member I'm also a Ninja and believe that the natural laws and functions of the universe always prevail. Anyone choosing a path for the sole intent of proving another path wrong will be disappointed later down the road. This has already happened to one major player in the anti-SGI movement. I won't mention his name, as it's already been mentioned.

This is how life is, and it remains so regardless of what we believe, or refuse to believe. My greatest fear is that the powers-that-be in SGI truly think members will just up and go away if they think their team isn't No.1 in the Buddha marketing game. The SGI is an inevitable function of the true law of the universe. Despite it's shortcomings it will continue and develope. At the same time there will be those that leave, and those who will someday come back. Despite what we as SGI members wish and pray for, there will be those who cannot, for a myriad of different reasons, practice in the SGI.

All the "best team" marketing cannot change this. It's time for us all to stand up alone, together, without our addicitions.

Rev. Greg Dilley, Shidoshi