Reader letters to BuddhaJones.com. Letters are separated by blank lines or bold headings.

Sax Appeal

I am told that you promote using the saxophone instead of the bell during gongyo. Where is this on your web page? Can you really use something other than a bell?
William

Dear William: We don't promote any particular thing during gongyo except to recite the sutra, chant daimoku and offer prayers of your choosing. It's your practice, after all. There are people who say that it's their practice, however, and that you must do it their way. (That's OK, if that's what you want.) Here's a link to a perspective on Buddhist formalities unavailable. And here -- in honor of the people who referred you to this website -- is a Flash ditty unavailable produced by the Saxist Sangha of West Washington Park.

Official Position

What are the official views of SGI? I think i may join but i need to know where you stand on gays, death penalty, vegetarian lifestyle, abortion, Christianity, Tibet, Zen, and pets.
Maria

Dear Maria: That's tough to answer. While the SGI may have official views on the topics you mentioned, I'm not sure what they are. Generally, no "organizational" stance negates or supersedes the views of individual SGI members, who are free to hold all kinds of different, contradictory positions. Regarding pets, I'm going to guess that the official position is: Allowed. You can find out more about the Soka Gakkai at sgi-usa.org.
LJ

Realistic Position

While I do not appreciate all of the "humor" on your website, I appreciate that you try to give balance. When people talk about the SGI I find that they either have a highly negative view or an overly positive view. Neither view is realistic, in my humble opinion. Seems that most SGI-ers are very idealistic types, which can be fabulous. But idealism can sometimes prevent you from seeing things as they really are and therefore, working with things as they are. If you are too idealistic, you're in a world of illusion. The same is true if you are too pessimistic or if you denigrate a fine (but real and therefore not perfect) organization like SGI. A little praise, a little criticism -- it's all good. We can stay realistic if we don't get wrapped up in extreme partisanship, either way.
metta-
Jeff

Negativity Spambots?

Whew I am glad I found your internet anger unavailablearticle. I have been reading the Nichiren message boards and was totally negged out. I am convinced that people who post everyday on message boards are not people at all. They are in fact negativity spambots that generate the same five messages over and over changing a word here or there. Top five Negativity Spambot phrases:
That's not Buddhism.
You are wrong.
You are distorting the teachings.
I am insecure about myself and therefore must mock/attack/accuse you (implied).
My Gohonzon is better than yours.
D.w.p.

Victory Over Violence?

Hey I wanted to let Ben know that he is not the only SGI member who is feeling this way unavailable. I think there are alot of members feeling this way. I also think that there are a lot of members who won't say it out loud for fear of being ostracized by thier fellow members. I think that this is a very sad state that severely says something about the SGI that needs to be addressed.

I mean, isn't the SGI supposed to be an organization of individuals who all have thier own individual minds? That being the case, then, to expect everyone to see things in the same way is to take our individuality out of the organization. If we do that then we will become a cult and not the wonderful organization we are that is based on humanity.

I know that Nicherin Daishonin told Shijo Kingo, who was a Samurai warrior, that it was his job to protect his lord and all of his lands. So even Nicherin Daishonin himself knew that violence was necessary at times but that, as humans, it should be the last resort. He also told Shijo Kingo "to regard service to your lord as service to the lotus sutra." So I am having a very difficult time understanding how it is that conquering the evil that is attacking all of humaity is wrong.

To allow the Taliban to continue is to put the brakes on Kosen-Rufu. I also do not understand why people do not understand that it is the Taliban's and Osama bin Laden's karma which they created to get the effect of having the whole world against them. How fortunate for them that they are being able to lessen that karma in a time when the United States didn't automatically just nuke the whole place and turn it into a glass bottom boat to the world. The United States is also acting as a protector to them by keeping them from furthering their negative causes.

Thanks for listening and thanks for the wonderful Web Page.
Stacy Burr

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Well, I used to like Buddha Jones. But apparently not even this formerly-intelligent site can resist giving in to feelings of vengeance and fear. Evidently, it was OK to be non-violent when it was effecting someone else's country, but Americans are so special and worth so much more than other people that's it's all right for us to kill with impunity. How sad that so many profess faith in Buddhism, but practice it only when it doesn't go against the prevailing social climate or their baser instincts.
Amber Rollins

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I LOVED the "Dogmatic Nonviolence unavailable" piece. WOW! I e-mailed the link to all my buddies and some of my leaders. You hit the mark! It is exactly how I have been feeling. I have felt on the outside of the SGI family as of late because of my opinion and support of the military action in response to the massacre of 9/11/01. (I refuse to call it a "tragedy" as some do. A tragedy is an accidental plane crash, NOT an intentional attack to take lives)! I have not even been able to read many articles in the SGI publications because I have gotten the impression that someone else's politics are being shoved down my throat! To survive, I have been focusing solely on my Gohonzon and the Gosho........figuring that I will come out on the other side of my feelings/beliefs, or the war will end and the topics will change. It's a relief to know that I am not some evil war monger! I am a patriot. I am a Buddhist and I really do want a peaceful world, but not at ANY price. I wish you were still writing for the SGI publications.
Respectfully,
Kim Southworth

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Your dogmatic nonviolence article unavailable makes sense. I have been in and out of SGI for several years. I checked back in earlier this year and thought that SGI had changed its name to Victory Over Violence. All members were talking about some big campaign against violence. I was given a handout by a sweet, kind member and it was some sort of pledge that I would stop violence if I stopped watching violent TV shows, stopped listening whenever anyone said a violent word, stopped using any type of violent words or passive violence, which is like second-hand smoke.

In other words, I would have to give up football. I told her I was confused because I thought SGI was about promoting Buddhism, not promoting a thought-police solution to violence.

She explained that Victory Over Violence is the ultimate shakubuku [propagation of Buddhism].

I said Careful! Don't say shakubuku! Shakubuku literally means to break and subdue false beliefs! You are creating violence when you use that word!

She did not think that was amusing and i did not go to any more meetings.

Lance in NY

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Lisa Jones, I don't think you understand the purpose of the Soka Gakkai and the Gohonzon. You spout about world peace when you write for the publications and on your web site, yet you are a betrayer of the true intent of Buddhism. It is you who is twisting the teachings of Buddhism to fit your mentality of western imperialism. Unless you can recognize your own darkness you will never understand the great mission of peace. Americans are too shallow to grasp the greatness of peace and you are spoiled to think that bombs will solve all your problems. You should resign from SGI immediately.

Umi

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If this was a schoolyard brawl i would advise the United States of America to be big enough to turn and walk away. We're talking about a globalized nation though so where are we going to walk to? It is too late to be isolationists. We need to turn and fight these terrorists square on or we may not live to regret it.

Tim

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Thanks for this article unavailable. You have stated the matter more clearly than anything else I have seen about it, and I share your feelings exactly. Like you, while I can appreciate the absolutely nonviolent stance of the Dalai Lama, I believe I am incapable of following it to the extent of standing by while a civilization, and many of the human beings in it, is destroyed. Likewise, as you feel for your nephew unavailable, I feel for my own children.

The example of Gandhi is an interesting one, but we have to remember that he, like Dr. King, was acting in an essentially "civilized" society, i.e. one that would not endure or condone wholesale slaughter on a grand scale. I read an interesting "what if" story recently, that posited "what if" the Nazis had won the war. In it, Himmler was in charge of the occupation of India. Gandhi continued his nonviolent activities, now aimed at the Nazis instead of the British occupiers.

In this fiction Himmler acted as the Nazis had always acted: the protestors were gunned down without mercy, hunted down, rounded up, sent to camps and exterminated. Gandhi was shot in the back of the head, without ceremony, behind an outhouse. End of story; no more protestors.

Recently one of the networks produced a TV movie called "Uprising," about the real-life Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, men and women and children, who decided to fight the Nazis rather than be led meekly to slaughter. They knew that they were doomed anyway, but they wished to die with honor, and leave behind an example. I think the people on Flight 93 may have been of similar mind. This is more a mind that I can relate to. Call me flawed, but color me human.

The worst form of evil is ideological evil, meaning evil actions based on mistaken ideology. The terrorists who have attacked our nation are utterly convinced of the rightness, even virtue, of their actions, and their ideology supports this belief. Like the Nazis, who believed in the Nazi ideology of racial purity and supremacy, they will stop at nothing to perpetrate their evil, and do not have the ideological base to even acknowledge that it IS evil.

This is, I believe, the kind of erroneous teaching that can lead humankind to misery and doom, as pointed out by Nichiren in the Rissho Ankoku Ron, even though he had never heard of Islam or Islamists. Obviously, as Buddhists we realize that the ultimate solution to such evils is to widely spread and teach the Law, but in the meantime, I would prefer to be identified with the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, or the brave souls on Flight 93, than the slaughtered Buddhists of Tibet.

Best regards,
Andy Hanlen

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What bugs me is that people keep referring to "the incident of Sept. 11," or "the recent unpleasantness," or "the tragic event," as if some old guy wet himself and everyone is embarrassed to say so.

America was attacked. People were murdered. Let's not dance around it.

L.

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Bravo Lisa Jones! Well said. We have to live within the reality of our lives while striving to change them for the better.

JLJ

Diverse Views

Dissent is fine, but Ben Hillcrest is playing a dangerous game when he goes against the SGI position on war unavailable. Violence begets violence. How long will it take for humankind to learn this? How many more people have to die? I am not appalled by Hillcrest so much as I pity him. He is consumed by the fire of hatred that only compassion can quench. More daimoku, Ben.

J.P.

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Dear Buddha Jones:

I have been reluctant to write you a letter because all the letters on your site sound so smart. Lately some of them didn't sound so smart. So I felt maybe it would be a good time for me to say what I have to say since I won't sound so stupid by comparison.

Your site has helped me. I do not mean to single out any specific article because there are many good ones. What has helped me most is seeing that there are still many viewpoints in SGI-USA. I am one of the people who enjoy letters to the editor. I remember when the World Tribune and Seikyo T... I mean Living Buddhism used to print at least half a dozen letters in each issue. That has all come to an end and I think we are worse for it as an organization.

Thank you for reminding me what diverse, smart people practice this amazing Buddhism.

Marilyn