According to comments posted by Mark Rogow on Fraught With Peril and on the Former SGI Member Forum the moderators of FWP have suspended Rogow's blog. Rogow is well known online as a vocal supporter of Kempon Hokke, and a critic of every other Nichiren sect.
Can anyone confirm this or elaborate on the details? Oh, and can anyone confirm that the person posting as "shamon" on FWP is in fact Reverend Tsuchiya of Kempon Hokke, as was suggested in a previous thread?
22 comments
Yes, as of Janunary 2, 2012, Mark Rogow is no longer a blogger at fwp. I think that very day he set up his own blog elsewhere that is not hosted by people he considers slanderers and heretics.Shamon is indeed Rev. Tsuchiya. This is a shame because he has since said things about the late Greg Dilly that are untrue and extremely inappropriate on the Kempon Hokke BBS. No, I will not repeat them and only mention them to make it clear that what he is saying is untrue and also totally lacking in human decency. I am very very very glad that such a person is not a Nichiren Shu priest and that therefore he is not a representative of any lineage that I am a part of. I wonder if the Kempon Hokke in Japan is aware of the things he has been writing and how he has been representing himself. Aside from him it is my understanding that Kempon Hokke and Nichiren Shu are good neighbors in Japan and both schools are represented in a pan-Nichiren council of traditional schools called the Nichiren Shonin Disciples Association. I think it is time now for everyone to move on and let go of grudges and rancor. Mark and those who claim to represent Kempon Hokke now have their own online forum that is not supported by SGI members where they do not have to associate with people like me and they can carry on their refutations and repudations as they please. So that works out for them. FWP will continue to be a pan-Nichiren Buddhist site for those who wish to discuss Nichiren Buddhism in a civil, reasonable, sane, and wholesome way. So that works out for FWP. For my part, I hope to continue posting commentary on the Kaimoku-sho and the rest of Nichiren's five (or even ten) major writings and also more posts on the faith, study, and practice of Buddhism. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,Ryuei
Thanks for the info, Rev. Ryuei. I was really shocked by some of the stuff "shamon" was posting, and I couldn't believe that a Nichiren priest would say that kind of stuff in public. (For those of you who missed it, he was speaking ill of the dead and basically taunting the dead person's friends and loved ones. Weird.)It's funny that I, of all people, am shocked. I've heard stuff just as bad or worse from the leaders of my old sect. And I have a bit of a fresh mouth myself, in case you hadn't noticed. But then, I don't have the title "Reverend" in front of my name.I'm glad to hear that Rev. Tsuchiya is not representative of Kempon Hokke in general. But to me, he is representative of Kempon Hokke, as is Mark Rogow and his fellow Internet hokke-jihadists. All I know about Kempon Hokke, I have learned from their example. Not a good example.
Hi there. Happy New Year. Welcome to the darkly nutty world of Nichiren Buddhism.Love the creepy remark by Rogow: "The Kempon Hokke Blog has been shut down.... We will open somewhere else free from the odor of rotting carcases."Holy what? Can we get smell-o-vision on our blog, too? Or is Rogow saying that he'll find a magical place and a bunch of bloggers who are untouched by or immune to death? Good luck with that.This is one of those times when outsiders looking in -- and even many of us insiders looking in -- wonder if there's something fundamentally screwy about Nichiren and his teachings. Because it always comes to this. It always comes down to age-old grudges, insulting the dead, claiming the mantle of Nichiren, and pissing on everyone else. The SGI does it, Nichiren Shoshu does it, Kempon Hokke does it -- even former members of those groups do it. Maybe all organized Nichiren groups do it in some way. Some are more extreme than others.Here's a website that spins Nichiren in the worst possible ways. They're taking Nichiren literally -- like Nichiren fundamentalists do -- and coming to a conclusion opposite from the fundamentalists.See the connection? If you take Nichiren literally, and fail to appreciate the context of Nichiren's time, and refuse to adjust accordingly to our current place and time (with religious freedom and pluralism) you end up distorting Nichiren and his teachings into a very ugly thing. You make it ugly -- whether you praise Nichiren or curse him.Personally, I'm glad Rogow was booted from FWP. He has long been banned from this blog. How is that fair, you may ask -- isn't that a chilling of free speech? First off, no one is abridging anyone's right to speak. Rogow has already started a new blog here. No one's trying to silence him.For me, the issue is creating a sustainable, sustaining Nichiren community online. Everyone who has something to say about faith, practice, or study should be welcome in the community. Online, I would guess that for every person who posts comments, there are 30 lurkers who read but never post.How do you foster an environment where people want to read regularly and sometimes post? I don't know the answer. But I do know that if you let one commenter harangue, insult, and bully other commenters without adding anything thoughtful to the debate, you're going to ruin your online community. You're going to attract people who just want to insult others, and people who want to see the train wreck.I'm all for giving people leeway, especially when the debate heats up and things get personal. But if a commenter demonstrates time and time again that he (or she) has no respect for the views of other participants, adios. Go find another forum.We all need to take responsibility for the kind of Nichiren community we're creating in the English language, online and in our offline lives. That requires us to say "yes" and "no" to things, not just passively let the loudest, most strident voices dictate everything.
Did I miss something? Did I?
If nothing else he was entertaining.I would lurk around his FWP page often - strictly for entertainment purposes only. Having had 2 flings and one serious marriage with Nichiren Buddhism (Gakkai style), and ultimately deciding the practice is not for me, reading Mark Rogow was always a crystal clear reminder of why I chose to embrace different Buddhist teachings.Of course it's not true of every Nichiren practioner, from every Nichiren tradition, but as for the one I found myself in, there was a tiny bit of Mark Rogow in everyone there. The only reason we are even discussing his departure from FWP, is because his notoriety came from his complete and utter ridiculousness. We knew it and he knew it. But you always knew exactly where you stood with him.The scariest thing I've encountered was having practiced with people who were just like Mark Rogow but didn't know it. Their soft voices would grow loud and their friendly faces would twist into furrowed-browed anger if you even posed the possibility of them being unreasonable at best or dangerously foolish at worst. Years ago when I first discovered Buddhajones.com I was so excited I told all my Nichiren friends about my amazing find - they told me the urban legend about the "real Buddha Jones" and I was made to feel they were prepared to beat me down (world peace style, of course) if I continued to read it. LOL! Seriously.With events like that being part of my Nichiren experience, what I enjoy most about both Buddhajones.com and FWP is that they make room for all that Buddhism is. Thank you.It's enlightening (in the truest meaning of the word) to go to the Buddhajones.com Buddhists Classics section and read the teachings of Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trungpa, Thich Nhat Hanh and others - then to go over to the Daily Feeds section and have Shambala, Sun and even CNN only a mouse click away, without feeling like some secretly understood though rarely spoken Nichiren commandment had been broken...you know the one: "Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before The Gohonzon!"So I wish Mark well.I appreciate how he made me hungry to genuinely study Buddhism.I learn something from everyone I encounter - sometimes it's simply a lesson about what not to do.Namaste'
Hi Rouge,The thing is that FWP is not intended to present Nichiren Buddhism as a train wreck or macabre side show. I am sorry that FWP is no longer so entertaining to the "been there, done that" crowd now that we have changed the line up.Tell me, have I and other Nichiren Shu people been totally unsuccessful in attempting to show that Nichiren Buddhism is not just for fanatics, dogmatists, the narrow-minded, and self-righteous? I am not saying that I personally am all that wonderful. I have my less than stellar moments (I know that I am intolerant of fundamentalism), but does Nichiren Shu really come off that bad? Or is it that, after all, Nichiren Buddhism must necessarily actually be dogmatic, fundamentalist, and nasty if we are true to Nichiren's example and those of us who aren't that way are simply trying to trick people and just haven't shown our true colors yet, or we are not really Nichiren Buddhists but maybe Zen Buddhists in Lotus Sutra drag)? For my part, I do believe Nichiren Shu is properly reading the gosho and Lotus Sutra and that a fair and objective reading of the gosho (esp. authenticated works) will show that Nichiren was much more civil, reasonable, compassionate, and universally concerned than anyone (esp. those who haven't read him or only read him out of context) gives him credit for. That includes many of his self-proclaimed followers. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,Ryuei
Ryuei, it sounds as if your sectarian pride is wounded. Nichiren Shu wins the beauty contest of the Nichiren sects. Why should that be impressive, though, since all the rivals are known primarily for their ugliness?
Well, yeah. The bar is pretty low isn't it? Is my sectarian pride wounded? Well, I don't think I would quite put it that way. I haven't thought of myself much in sectarian terms since winter of 2005 (for various reasons I won't go into here). Let me put it this way - in 2005 I pretty much internally renounced sectarianism. Anyway, what I feel is kind of a sadness or disappointment that the well has been so poisoned that people are no longer really willing to give Nichiren Buddhism a fresh look, and that the good people I have met in Nichiren Shu are painted with the same broad brush as the other groups. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,Ryuei
Brooke, your comment reminds of things people have said to me about the "old" buddhajones site versus the current buddhajones site. They say, "Oh, the old site was so much better," or "funnier" or "more interesting," or whatever. Somehow, people remember it as being a place for free speech.That cracks me up. If it was "better" in any way, it's because I was a tyrannical editor. I rejected lots of submissions. I asked people to rewrite their submissions. I made heavy edits on a lot of submissions. (Brooke and mroaks, you can attest to this.) I was a gatekeeper. A lot of my time went into reviewing material before it was actually posted on the site. I think we pushed new posts at the glacial rate of once a month.The current incarnation allows people to publish immediately without having to go through an editorial process. I think that's great. But it also means that things can be published impulsively, and anyone can post anything. People are still grappling with the implications of this. Maybe we take it for granted, but instant publishing is a big, big change.Anyway, my point is that there's more opportunity for free speech -- online, in the Nichiren community, and in general -- than ever before. What's increasingly important -- and almost totally neglected -- is the need for intelligent filtering and thoughtful presentation of this new flood of free speech.
FWP in its entirety is anything but a train wreck!Auntie says, you win the beauty contest - I haven't seen the whole pageant, but Ryuei you may be the winner among the Nichiren contestants. FWP in general and your page in particular gave me valuable logic and theory at a time when my "leaders" were telling me all I need to do was to chant, shakabuku and pretty much sit down and shut up. Please don't feel FWP is no longer entertaining, now that the train wreck has left the station. Marks' page was my go to page to witness the sideshow but Buddhism is not meant to be mere entertainment. Really, how long can you watch a sideshow before you eventually want a ticket to the main event?Nancy's - Diary of a Chapter Leader, kept me trying to continue my practice much longer than I would have with out it. I could relate to the experiences she described in her posts. Having once been crowned "district leader" myself (lol those titles still tickle me, "Yes I'm district leader of the shakabuku corporation"...hehee), reading her gave me a sense of comfort in learning, ok it not just me!Joe's - Daily Slander, would make me laugh out loud. My mother used to always say, "The truest things are said in a joke." Love, love, love his snarkyness and I mean snarkyness in the most flattering way - it's what brought the Joe Isuzu character to life and it's why people liked it.He made me think about things in completely different ways. And he too, was treated like everyone else is treated by unless they drink the kool-aid and put on the sneakers. His choices to stay barefoot and thirsty, keep me lurking around his FWP page too.Robin, the Chris' and you too Ryuei - go way over my head most times and when I would really read the posts I was ever appreciative that I had. They would make me put my beads down and go find books not found in my "bookstore" all written by one author. Talk about Faith, Practice and Study!You guys make study happen, for real.Byrd - I didn't get to read her for very long. I began sneaking in only months before she died. But I liked her, maybe even most of all. Even though I knew her only via keyboard, I wept, upon the news of her passing. All in all FWP and Buddhajones.com are treasures that we will continue to read.Especially those of us who are the "Frankenstein Monsters" of faith in general, with an arm sewn on from the Gakkai and another arm from Nichiren Shu and a leg attached from Christianity and another borrowed from Judaism, kicking two left feet from Catholicism while scared to walk past the mosque when the Jehovah's Witnesses are on the corner...wishing we could whistle the Scarecrow's "if I only had a brain" but we can't because our head hasn't been attached yet... Ok, now my inner Rogow is showing!
I am 100% sure that Rev. Tsuchiya is representative of Kempon Hokke. Very much so.
I have 0 doubt that he is a fully ordained priest of the Kempon Hokke Shu. I also have no doubt that he is presenting a strict and fundamentalist interpretation of their doctrines. However, is his conduct necessarily typical of the other Kempon Hokke priests or members (for better or worse)? The thing is that each of us who is ordained in a lineage, whether we like it or not, represents our lineage in what we do and say. This means we are responsible not just to ourselves but to our lineages for what we do and say. So yes, he is representing his lineage. But is he really representative of it in the sense of being a typical example. It is that which I have my doubts about not having met any other Kempon Hokke priests online or offline. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,Ryuei
I have never met Rev. Tsuchiya. I have corresponded with him a number of times. I did, back in the 90's, have the pleasure and privilege of meeting Rev. Kubota from Kempon Hokke. What an incredible man. True compassion in action.I can't compare the two, having only met one. Rev. Tsuchiya has always been polite and professional anytime I've written him, and he's always been eager to answer my question.Don't get him started on SGI, though LOL I find he goes from Jekyll to Hyde quickly. Sounds like some others, eh? :) I'm more country...they're more rock and roll :) I believe in shakubuku, but I believe there's a right and wrong way to do it.I suppose, yes, he is representing the KH lineage. If he's the only one people have exposure to, then he's the standard that will be used to judge the lineage. It's no different when I, as a Quality Engineer, go to one of my company's supplier's facility. My conduct is a direct reflection upon my company, and people will judge my employer based upon my demeanor and actions. A priest would be no different.I believe Rev. Tsuchiya is Nyudo...he does not live in a temple, and he has a regular job. Not that it matters...Namu Myoho Renge KyoFred
If, "FWP is not intended to present Nichiren Buddhism as a train wreck or macabre side show" then why it is Fraught with Peril? What is the peril? Nichiren's Buddhism? The bloggers? Why is FWP the Frankenstein's monster of Nichiren Buddhism? It sounds pretty scary to me . . .
Mark is OK, if someone has a disagreement, from my own experience, he's always been happy to discuss. Apart from Ryuei on FWP now, who posts a lot of informative stuff, no one else really posts that much about Nichiren Buddhism.BTW, how do I change my password here?
Also, Mark is always straight about what he wants to say. I've seen others who claim to be 'compassionate' and 'tolerant' make snide remarks about people who disagree with them.
I've known Mark for many years and you will always know where you stand with him. I can't say that about too many people. We may disagree about a number of things, but he is a good friend and will always tell you straight up.
Sign in. Under menu, click on Steve Milburn's page. Click the profile tab. Click Email & Password. Make the changes you want.
Thanks, Nine Lives. Found it!
We can't ask Greg now, but my impression is that one of many reasons is that life itself is perilous - it is dukkha (the first noble truth) - and that Nichiren Buddhism is about facing that squarely and dealing with it forthrightly. Secondarily, I think it was a joke, that trying to bring so many disparate groups together was obviously a perilous undertaking. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,Ryuei
I Miss Byrd.Mark R may be entertaining to some, but Byrd was enlightening!