An article in the L.A. Times mostly talks about what he likes to do in L.A., including chanting:
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje isn't shy about touting his latest film project, "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," opening citywide today......I'm a Soka Gakkai Buddhist, and we have some places in the Los Angeles area, like Santa Monica and Venice, and that's where you might find me on a Sunday. We chant for hours and reach a transcendental state. That really kicks off my day. Then I'd probably get on a bike and spend the rest of the afternoon at Marina del Rey, or Santa Monica and Venice. I'll do the whole course with my headphones on.
I really do appreciate the honesty of people who identify as "Soka Gakkai Buddhists" rather than Nichiren Buddhists. There is a difference.
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I suppose so, but in their tendency to deify Daisaku Ikeda (whether they cop to it or not in their defining him as "mentor") and their tangential approach that often seems to skirt the caution of Nichiren that, "You must never seek any of Shakyamuni's teachings or the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the universe outside yourself," I am not sure the Soka Gakkai earns the right, by practice or belief, to call itself Buddhist (see previous discussion). However, that is for those wiser than I to decide.
It definitely appears that SGI is becoming a source of Buddhism rather than an administrative organization that supports the practice of Nichiren Buddhism. But this may not be the whole story.I have to think that this may be partly due to the ignorance of media reporters who always seek to make headlines out of simple conversations. It seems that a lot of "celebrity" buddhists jump right into abbreviating their conversations - thus they speak of "SGI Buddhism" - realizing that saying that "they practice the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin under the guidance of the organization known as Soka Gakkai International" - may get blank stares because there's few reporters that would get that phrase right!!!!It reminds me of the now famous Tina Turner interview with Larry King where he asks her if she is chanting words or sounds?? Tina, smiling at his obvious ignorance of foreign languages like Japanese or Chinese, just says that they are sounds... obviously she knew the reality of what she was chanting. To me this story illustrates that we no longer can rely on media to report the truth - only their opinion or limited understanding of it.