I've been watching from the cheap seats as Kempon Hokke zealots have clusterbombed Rev. Ryuei of Nichiren Shu over on Fraught With Peril, a multi-sectarian blogging platform for Nichiren Buddhists.
What started the war? A simple question about whether Nichiren Buddhists can have Christmas trees!
Attacks on that thread apparently prompted Ryuei to respond that some people have no business blogging on FWP. He followed up with a post clarifying his intent as a FWP blogger.
As you might imagine, Kempon Hokke zealots smell blood and have piled on Ryuei in the comments section of his blog and over here on Mark Rogow's little slice of the universe.
These are the slow days of the blogging season, when most people are busy with family, friends -- and yes -- cooking and decorating for non-Buddhist holidays. So it's unusual to see such a fiery eruption of bile at this time of year. But Kempon Hokke stalwarts seem to sense with predatory precision that this is the time to stab the soft underbelly of the Nichiren community for maximum wounding.
Even a Kempon Hokke priest is involved in the commenting.
Rev. Tsuchiya, who runs a user-unfriendly bulletin board, writes on Ryuei's blog: "Nichiren-shu's priests distort Nichiren's doctrine and the Lotus Sutra."
Everyone knows that those are fightin' words -- coming from a priest, no less.
Is this the beginning or a new Nichiren War between Kempon Hokke and Nichiren Shu? Or is it just the continuation of seemingly perpetual discord between and among Nichiren sects?
Time will tell. Peace on earth and good will to all humankind, folks.
12 comments
When Greg Dilley invited me to write on FWP he told me that the whole idea he had was indeed The Frankenstein Monster of Nichiren Buddhism: a piece of everything from everywhere, every sect. He admitted, however, that there was an endemic problem with certain sects and that within those sects are individuals who take extremes to the extreme. Greg also had an endearing sense of humor and wit, which was as sharp and as fast as his swordsmanship, he being a master. In dealing with Greg, one could find themselves laughing in a pool of their own blood, and he had at times "fired" bloggers off the blog His passing was indeed sudden and the burden of FWP fell upon his wife Nancy, along with their finances, business, children, and dealings with SGI. I met Rev. Ryuei at Greg's memorial, which Nancy asked me to MC in an effort to keep it, for all intents and purposes, light. He is a sweet, calm, and pleasant man who had reservations about coming to speak at the memorial because it was mostly SGI at the event and he and his wife had been treated with the same distain as what is currently being seen over at FWP from other sects. But there is a certain insouciant attitude that comes with blogging and even if it's your own personal site, one can alienate others, self enabled to become a complete dick. I'm guilty too as I don't suffer sycophants and have a tendency to document why I believe they are openly. Nancy has since issued an edict basically saying "cut it out or else". We'll see how that works out with those having an agenda that disregards everyone else's.
I don't know about a new war - it's just so much of the same old same old. It just leaves me with the impression that Holiday Gifts will be of the thoughtless kind. It seems so many are wedded to their terminal views that they can't get out of the house and buy with a little heart.So they just trawl the net for a sufficiency of gift and pass it off as well meaning and sincerely intended.I'm wondering if anyone has been attempting to patent the Hyper-link as a gift? If they ever succeeded in that the world would just be such a poorer place! They do provide them so freely already. P^) Paucity of mind is made manifest is so many ways - but is most evident in the paucity of spirit that is handed out so freely!
I don't see anything wrong with namecalling and heated discussion. Nichiren called people plenty of names in his day, and even the Lotus Sutra speaks dismissively of the people who walked out of the Buddha's assembly.I mean, some notions are fatuous and insulting. For example, the belief that men are somehow inherently more Buddhalike than women. People are well within the bounds of thoughtful discourse to use strong language and rhetorical devices (Swiftian irony and exaggeration, anyone?) to expose and dismantle beliefs and ideas that are totally f*cking stupid. I do see something wrong with slinging personal insults just for the sake of hurting others. It's the difference between saying, "Your argument is totally f*cking stupid" and "You are totally f*cking stupid." Granted, a lot of people have ego-attachment to their own opinions, and can't see the difference between a personal insult and criticism of an idea or belief. But whose problem is that?I do see everything wrong with making threats of violence -- including "divine violence," such as saying that a person will suffer tortures in hell because of the beliefs he or she expresses. I mean, that's just wack. Making statements like that disqualifies your entire argument from serious consideration, IMO.I think there should be more critical thinking and expressions of criticism in the Nichiren community. I didn't read all the comments on Fraught With Peril because the device I'm using makes it painful to read black text on a brown background. From what I did read, I think the attacks by Kempon Hokke are -- you guessed it -- totally f*cking stupid because there's no critical content to them. There's no thoughtful criticism at all. It's just personal insults and threats of "divine violence" directed a Ryuei and all Nichiren Shu practitioners.
Nichiren warned of intense suffering for people who did not embrace the Lotus Sutra.Does that invalidate everything he taught about Buddhism?You have to look at the way he used insults and predictions of suffering in the context of the rhetoric of his time.Nichiren wasn't a teacher of nicey-niceness. What does that mean for present day followers of Nichiren? This is the question we need to be asking.Harsh words from Nichiren in his letter The 14 Slanders:
I feel like Mark Rogow now for posting those quotes. Still, you cannot deny that this was Nichiren's rhetoric. This is what the Kempon Hokke are invoking on FWP.Question: What does this type of language mean to present-day Nichiren practitioners? Is this the kind of thing we should be saying to each other?OakBloodThreeNo offense but your operative phrases are "if","I think",and "risk". And each time I re-read what you've written the result is a recipe for an abuse that comes with many names.
Isn't it interesting? I don't know if I would even call Kempon Hokke "fundamentalists." They sound more like Nichiren separatists, wanting to make a private island where all inhabitants agree with a narrow conception of Nichiren Buddhism.Mroaks, I think that they are trying to emulate Nichiren by emulating his rhetoric. This is a common thread in all religions. Followers try to emulate religious founders and teachers. We see this when people ask, "What would Jesus do?" We see it in the Soka version of "oneness of mentor and disciple." Many believe that the way to embrace teachings and make them their own is to copycat the teacher. People have made entire religious movements out of copycatting.I would argue that the deeper truths of all religions have nothing to do with copycatting or emulation. Religions actually urge us to be more fully ourselves, more fully individual, and to have faith and courage in the absolute uniqueness of our life and mission on this globe.Emulation is a superficial practice -- even if one is emulating Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. Specific bodhisattvas are wonderful inspirations, but we are called to be Bodhisattva Fill-In-The-Blank-with-Your-Unique-Mission-and-Method-Here.If we merely ape and parrot our teachers, what have we really learned? What have we really contributed?
auntie ,Yes yes yes...What you've written reminded me of something and I had to go look it up.A very dear friend and Nichiren Buddhist for over forty years wrote a book about her life as a globe trotting dancer. One short span of sentences in a immense volume, encapsulates, for me anyway, that emulation issue. She was writing about her ideal dancer, Margot Fonteyn:"...I gazed at perfection and wanted to be just like her. My adoration must have showed because finally Dale gently warned me, 'When Margot ducks her head a little forward as she goes into an attitude it looks charming, but when you do it, it's just a mannerism." She continues..."When you try to copy a great artist all you end up with are their idiosyncrasies; it's impossible to copy their greatness."
Of course it's led to abuse many times in human history. For those people who feel a need for "one true way", when given the choice between one teacher who confidently claims to know that true way and another teacher who tells them they're wrong, that there are many ways and incidentally, mine is one of them, who do they most often follow?And yes, expedient always carries the risk that the "white lie" will be discovered and the "liar" will be disbelieved thereafter.