April 2003:

For a long time, SGI leaders have relied on the "party faithful" to explain and defend the policies and activities of the organization. I know, because I used to be in such a position. Instead of a leader (or staffer) putting pen to paper to make a case, I was often asked to do it, and I was usually happy to give it my best shot.

Over the past couple of years, however, SGI-USA has issued memos and other public statements of policy that I find indefensible. Similarly, I find the World Tribune indefensible. It's a moribund waste of paper, time and effort for everyone involved, and the plug should be pulled. Put the WT resources into making the (greatly improved) Living Buddhism magazine even better. But I digress....

I'm a member of SGI-USA but that doesn't mean I agree entirely with all of the organization's activities and doctrines. I'll remain in the SGI as long as total agreement (or consensus) is not a requirement for membership.

In my view, the membership is losing confidence in the leadership, and that is an understatement. The only way for the leaders to regain confidence is to do their own 'splaining and defending, write their own articles, participate in real public dialogue on the issues. In other words, the leaders need to show themselves to be real people who are sincerely practicing Nichiren Buddhism to the best of their ability, rather than hired guns who will defend SGI-ism at all costs, even at the cost of Nichiren's teachings.

*

May 2003:

Soka for sale? Maybe.

The Malibu Surfside News dead link reports that the environmental groups that fought and won against the Soka University Master Plan hope "the current economy and Soka’s internal conditions might create circumstances that would prompt the university ownership, Soka Gakkai, to consider selling the 214-acre King Gillette Ranch on which it now operates a language school and outreach program to the federal government."

Outreach program to the federal government?! I must've missed the article in the World Tribune that 'splained all that.

The "King Gillette Ranch" is the campus of SULA (Soka University Los Angeles) near Calabasas, which is north-ish of LA -- not to be confused with SUA, the Soka U. campus south of LA in Aliso Viejo. SULA is a beautiful place. Its long, tree-lined driveway appeared in the movie Gone With the Wind. Later, the place was owned by The Church Universal and Triumphant headed by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

No doubt, the Ranch is a gem...but I wonder if the millions of dollars spent to buy it and fight its long legal battles might have been better spent, um, maybe, propagating the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin.

*

June 2003:

Thanks for all the letters. Answers to frequently asked questions...

Yes, I am a member of SGI-USA. Yes, I'm angry with SGI, but I'm not anti-SGI. I'm anti-what-SGI-USA-has-become: a shrinking organization concerned with its own aggrandizement more than teaching, practicing and exploring Nichiren Buddhism in America. No, I don't think that chanting to a statue is the same as chanting to the Gohonzon. No, I am not a temple member. I am disgusted by the High Priest's corruption -- I just heard about another wonderful priest leaving Nichiren Shoshu, heartbroken over the temple's corruption. I don't want to be heartbroken over SGI's failures or feel that I have no moral choice but to leave, as so many members have. I'd rather fight for a different outcome in my own snarky, pissy, verbal way. This site is my contribution to kosen-rufu in America, some way, somehow. You're looking at my zaimu. (I love how vaguely dirty that sounds!) This site is dependent on the articles and information that you guys send in. If you don't like what you see here, send in things that you would like to see.

*

Claims that Makiguchi supported war can be found in an article by Brian Victoria in the Journal of Global Buddhism:
www.globalbuddhism.org/2/victoria011.pdf dead link

A refutation of these claims can be found here:
http://www.globalbuddhism.org/3/miyata021.pdf dead link

More on Makiguchi from the Institute of Oriental Philosophy:
http://www.iop.or.jp/0010s/start0010s.htm

*

SGI-USA still declines to disclose where and how member contributions are spent. Some people shrug and say, "Well, people who work for SGI-USA don't make very much." (True enough. When I worked there, I didn't make much.) But how do we even know who works for the SGI?

Who is SGI paying, and for what? Lobbyists, lawyers, private investigators...who? Why? How does this help people practice Buddhism?

When I bring up the issue of financial disclosure with leaders, they basically tell me how poor SGI-USA is and how the org is financially dependent on Japan, now in a tenth year of recession.

One might begin to wonder how a poor, humble organization like SGI can afford a $300 million endowment for a small university down in Aliso Viejo, as well as so much expensive real estate in the Los Angeles area. One might be tempted to go to the LA County Tax Assessor's web site and look up the assessed value of some of SGI's properties, such as...

The LA Friendship Center dead link -- $3,600,000

The World Culture Center dead link -- $7,700,000

The Santa Monica Community Center dead link -- $4,300,000

Soka University, Los Angeles in Calabasas dead link -- $14,000,000

Plus, this other little bit of SULA dead link -- $5,700,000

The Malibu Training Center dead link -- $1,400,000

That's more than $36 million...just to name a few SGI properties...and that's just the tax man's valuation, not a market appraisal.

Poor, poor SGI! No wonder we can't afford small community centers in smaller towns across the US.

*

The Malibu Training Center -- 27712 PACIFIC COAST HWY, Malibu, CA 90265 -- was listed for sale in June 2003 for $21 million.

*

OK, you knew this was coming. I've been waiting for the commemorative contribution campaign to end so I can speak my mind about SGI-USA's finances.

The org's top brass held a poorly attended rally (not enough people to fill the auditorium) to kick off the "giving season" (which seems to get longer each year) at the WCC in Santa Monica. They made a frenzied now-or-never appeal to round up contributions. In other words, it was clear from the beginning that they were sweating bullets.

Of course, the leadership will deny that the org is in any kind of financial trouble. No doubt, we'll hear that this was the best year ever for contributions, with record-breaking growth in dollar amounts and swarms of new people joining SGI every two seconds. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

First, I think it does a disservice to Nichiren Buddhism to claim that benefit can be reaped by writing a check to the SGI. The org likes to say that supporting the org is the same as supporting Nichiren himself. Perhaps if the org spent more time focused on Nichiren instead of Ikeda, this claim would have some credibility. (P.S. Those who revere Ikeda as the "newest, truest Buddha of the modern age," have clearly parted ways with the teachings of Nichiren.)

I have given thousands of dollars to the SGI over the years, and my mystic good fortune has grown immensely. I haven't given the org any money in a long time, and I feel that my fortune has grown ever more sublime. Why? Because fortune results from sincere practice to the Gohonzon, and has very little to do with bank balances.

How exactly is it a "good cause" to blindly fork over money to an organization that provides no accounting, no public accountability, no clear proof that the funds are used to support the dharma and the sangha? The SGI's answer: Shut up and trust us. Sorry, but the org is enticing people to participate in a very bad cause -- namely, blind followership -- by telling them that fortune results from giving money to SGI with no questions asked.

Second -- and I say this as someone who hopes that Nichiren Buddhism has a very real and vibrant future in this country -- utter financial ruin would be the best thing that could ever befall our organization.

That statement won't make me very popular with those whose paychecks, self-esteem and status as Buddhists depend on the continuity of SGI's current structure. But I'm already unpopular with those people.

We talk a good game in SGI about a "bottom up," democratic organization, but the whole structure is really top-down; the power is centralized in Japan with a smaller center in LA that's tasked with "pumping the lifeblood of kosen-rufu" to the rest of us out here in the American boonies.

Now, imagine: Take away the centralization. Take away the money and everything it buys: staff, real estate, "organ" publications, memos, directives. What would happen?

People wouldn't all of a sudden abandon Buddhist practice -- well, maybe a few leaders would. I mean, the members would still be here, but all of the "top-down" mechanisms would have no way to function. Instead, all power and influence would radically shift to the local level and to people's living rooms. Instead of seeing kosen-rufu as something that must be coordinated from a command center, we'd have to see it as something that emerges from people chanting, acting and interacting based on local, grassroots initiative.

This, I believe, is how kosen-rufu must and will unfold in America regardless of what the SGI does or doesn't do. So let's cut to the chase, cut the overhead, keep our money in our local pockets for our local communities where we have full local accountability instead of putting our pennies into the enormous SGI-USA mystery slush fund.

I could go on and on about this, and I may in a future article, but for now, consider the possibility that organizational bankruptcy could be a blessing in disguise.

Of course, a real financial meltdown will probably never happen in SGI-USA; the top dogs will pawn the jewelry to keep the show going. But the more I think about it, the more I think: The Revolution will not be well financed!

*

July 2003:

Apparently, SGI's corporate finances are a touchy subject. I've gotten lots of responses -- some taking me to task, some urging me to keep sniffing around for more info -- and most of my correspondents would like to remain anonymous, which is fine with me. I will, however, share with you the gist of what I've been told.

One person urged me to stop referring to SGI-USA as "the organization" or "org," and instead call it "the corporation" or "corp," to more accurately reflect the truth. True, SGI-USA is a registered nonprofit religious corporation.

Hawaii and some other states list SGI-USA as a "foreign nonprofit corporation" which underscores a crucial truth: SGI-USA is not an American organization created by and for people in the US. Rather, it's a Japanese franchise.

[Shirley wrote in to say that "foreign corp." can mean simply that it's an out-of-state corp. I'll bet she's right. SGI-USA may not in fact be Japanese, but I still say that in truth it is.]

Anyway, I got a kick out of that Hawaii listing. The roster of corporate officers held some surprises. Some of the "attack dog" members who are trying to make the argument that Soka University is totally separate from SGI-USA should note that Soka Prez Danny Habuki is also an officer of The Corp.

Plus, the history of corporate name changes reminded me of the famous Nicholson/Dunaway scene in Chinatown: "We're Soka Gakkai." (Slap.) "We're Nichiren Shoshu." (Slap.) "We're Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai!"

Incestuous implications and all.

*

Jan Tyler's article on why members should care about organizational finances stated that $300 million was poured into Soka University of America. One correspondent demanded that I correct the figure, lest people get the wrong idea. Soka University of America does not have assets totaling $300. Their assets total closer to $740 million, as reported by GuideStar.org, the national database of US charitable organizations.

I regret the error.

What's the running total of SGI money in the US now? Is anyone keeping track? I think we crossed the billion-dollar threshold just based on the paltry records I can find online. So maybe I should further correct Jan's article: SGI-USA is not a multi-million-dollar religious corporation. It's a billion-dollar religious corporation.

I regret the error.

*

While you're searching the GuideStar.org site -- which has the IRS 990 forms for Soka U. and more -- check out Soka Gakkai's Boston Research Center, which has assets of more than $1.2 million. If you sign in for GuideStar Plus (it's free), you can have a looksee at BRC's 990 forms and its charitable activities -- such as the "publication of a book on the life of Daisaku Ikeda," an expense of $194,175 listed during fiscal year 2002. Who knew? One form shows that BRC received a gift from SGI-USA in the amount of $235,027 in 1998, and got $749,626 from SGI in Japan that same year.

The 990s also list salary and board-member info. Danny Habuki must be the hardest working man in Soka bizness.

A search using the word "Nichiren" will bring up scads of nonprofit listings on GuideStar. For additional fun, you can look up The Nichiren Buddhist Order of North America and The Nichiren Buddhist International Center -- neither is part of SGI.

The only info you'll get about SGI-USA is:

SOKA GAKKAI INTERNATIONAL-USA
606 WILSHIRE BLVD
SANTA MONICA, CA 90401
EIN: 95-2265667
This organization is not required to file an annual return with the IRS because it is a church. It is a 501(c)(03) public charity.

Or as they say down at the Plaza: Shut up and trust us.

*

One reader was kind enough to point out that in the June 20 issue of the World Tribune Danny Nagashima stressed that no SGI-USA funds were used to buy or build the Florida Nature and Culture Center. Instead, Danny said, "The FNCC was a gift from the Soka Gakkai out of President Ikeda's deep consideration for us."

When I worked at the WT, I was told to use the locution about "President Ikeda's deep consideration" instead of saying "a gift from President Ikeda." Saying "gift from President Ikeda" in print might give the impression that President Ikeda is enormously wealthy. Because he is.

But getting back to FNCC. The WT reported that during seven years of operation more than 30,000 members have attended FNCC conferences. OK, 30,000 times the per-person conference fee dead link of $375 equals $11,250,000. Wow. At the rate of $1.6 million per year, it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Is $1.6 million per year just enough to cover operations and upkeep of FNCC...or is there some gravy...or is the place losing money? Without financial disclosure, I guess we'll have to believe whatever The Corp chooses to tell us (or not.)

*

Say, does SGI-USA own or operate businesses that have nothing to do with Buddhism? Do they have sweetheart business arrangements with some most-favored SGI members? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Because of the corporation's financial secrecy, I can't possibly know the answers to these questions. There are, however, some interesting facts.

SGI-USA's property known as "the warehouse," where members build parade floats and performance scenery and the like, is located at 8821 Aviation Blvd. in Inglewood, California, near LAX. According to tax records, this property has a front dead link and a rear dead link.

A company called PCE International is located at 8811 Aviation Blvd., an address which is not listed in property tax records. According to their web site, PCE dead link is a warehouse/distribution company with some interest in portable telecom towers and ham radio. So is PCE located in part of SGI's 8821 "warehouse" property?

Stay with me.

PCE's web site also features links to a company called iShining.com dead link, "the gateway to your comfortable life." iShining sells odd products such as Under-Ease, dead link "underwear for protection against bad human gas (malodorous flatus)." I'm not making this up.

Internet "whois" records list iShining's administrative contact as PCE International and Stanley Kasai. (SGI member? I don't know.) And iShining's address is also listed as 8811 Aviation Blvd.

So is SGI-USA somehow involved in the sale of flatulence abatement apparel? Aside from the address, is there any real link to SGI-USA?

PCE's corporate filing dead link with the California Secretary of State lists David C. Kadin as the company's agent. And of course we recognize that name -- he's the SGI-USA leader dead link and attorney who represented the late David Aoyama dead linkand family.

Maybe SGI-USA needs to have financial disclosure if only to show that The Corp has no link to businesses like iShining and PCE. Until then -- no matter how powerful the carbon filter in iShining's underwear -- something smells funny.

I mean, not that there's anything wrong with any of this.

*

August 2003:

Lately I've sounded like John McEnroe, saying "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" in response to news of SGI-USA goings on.

The whole Nikken-in-New-York thing: Emergency chanting sessions were held in NYC earlier this summer to somehow keep Nikken, the High Priest of Nichiren Shoshu, out of the city, gum up his visit, and reveal him to be the false Buddhist that many in SGI say he is. SGI members reported that the chanting campaign was a complete success, noting that Nikken stayed in the U.S. for only a couple of days.

Where do I begin? First, aren't there more important things about which we could be having "emergency" chanting sessions? Second, if Nichiren Shoshu were to wage a similar campaign against a visit by SGI President Ikeda, SGI would be screaming bloody religious intolerance.

Around the same time, we were, in fact, screaming bloody religious intolerance...

We played gloating Gallant to Nichiren Shoshu's Goofus: Apparently, the web site for the New York-area Nichiren Shoshu temple included some comments critiquing the teachings of Islam, including the statement, "Islam is a false religion and only Nichiren Shoshu is a true religion." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took offense and staged a protest. Johnny-on-the-spot SGI fired off Memorandum ORG-022 to let SGI members and the media know that we, too, condemn Nichiren Shoshu's intolerance.

We failed to mention, however, SGI's frequent assertion that SGI is the only true Nichiren religion and all others are false, especially Nichiren Shoshu.

What's more, we were possibly so thrilled to fan the flames of Nichiren Shoshu's bad PR that we overlooked the nasty dispute between some US conservatives and CAIR. Daniel Pipes and others have raised questions about CAIR's ties to terrorism -- read more here -- and Pipes has come under fire from US liberals for being anti-Islam. In other words, it's a big, ugly fight, and I don't think it's prudent for SGI-USA to jump into bed with one side or the other. Too late now.

*

Sometimes it's hard to tell which way the eight winds are blowing at SGI Plaza, and sometimes the little things mean a lot. Remember my complaint that the "Embattled Buddhists" documentary about SGI was being promoted by SGI as an "independent production," despite the fact that many SGI members worked on the film? I took issue not with the film but with what I perceived to be a misrepresentation of the film's source and slant.

(You can watch the film dead link on SGI-USA's web site.)

In July, SGI sent out Memorandum PRD-008 announcing that the documentary would be re-broadcast, along with an info flyer about the film. Nowhere in these materials is the film said to be an "independent production." Hallelujah! (See, isn't it unseemly when people gloat?)

Little fibs damage the credibility of the org and, by association, the teachings of Nichiren, I feel. Maybe the leadership agrees.

*

Speaking of little fibs, where's the proof to back up Bill Aiken's statement to Congress dead link that SGI-USA represents 300,000 Nichiren Buddhists in the US? World Tribune subscription rates hover around 20,000. Even if we generously assert that only one in ten members subscribes, we're still under 300,000. On what does SGI-USA base this membership number?

*

Members have distributed "underground guidance" and lecture notes among their friends for as long as I have been around SGI, going on 14 years. That's how I heard about Mr. Tsuji's guidance -- which, in part, inspired Charles Atkins' book Modern Buddhist Healing -- and Dr. Obo's speech on Ocean Culture Buddhism.

Many members have long sensed that the official organizational publications don't tell the whole story, or that the articles and opinions (I use the term loosely) are heavily censored, massaged and spun. It is well known, for instance, that speeches delivered by President Ikeda in the US are not quoted accurately in the official publications. Members are convinced that there's a real story that they're not being told, or an insight into Buddhist practice that they're forbidden to hear because the SGI-USA has not approved it.

The widespread distribution of "underground guidance" -- as well as the growing readership of this web site and online message boards -- points to a failure of the SGI-USA publications to engage members in an authentic way. The org's insistence on controlling information and its pompous belief that it alone determines what qualifies as Nichiren Buddhism make the org's official statements, well, so very tempting to ignore.

That being said, I will give the org the last word on this matter by reprinting Memorandum ORG-024. But proceed with extreme caution: you're reading it here, not in the World Tribune.

*

September 2003:

SGI President Ikeda was not excommunicated. That's right. An official SGI spokesperson recently claimed that Ikeda merely "left" Nichiren Shoshu.

Funny, I thought the bitter, internecine religious war between Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai came to a head when Ikeda was forced out.

Alas, Chris Risom (not to be confused with Cris Roman) -- who holds the title "director of community affairs, SGI-USA Buddhist Association, Denver region" -- now assures the good people of Denver that the excommunication is a "discredited allegation."

Huh?

In late August, a Denver newspaper ran an article that mentioned Soka University and SGI. The article, in Westword, stated:

But for all its emphasis on peaceful co-existence, Soka Gakkai has been extremely controversial, with a PBS documentary and scores of articles reporting on everything from leaders' disputes over prostitute bills to allegations of members destroying rival temples. Critics of the seventy-year-old lay organization of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist priesthood charge that it's a cult that focuses only on Ikeda rather than the traditional teachings of Nichiren Buddhists. Even the priests of Ikeda's own sect aren't particularly fond of the fellow, having excommunicated him in 1991. [bold added]

SGI-USA responded in a letter to the editor, published Sept. 4:

Your characterization of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in the August 21 Off Limits dead link was extremely one-sided and offensive to the Nichiren Buddhists living in the Denver area. You aired some very old and discredited allegations with no apparent effort to present a balanced or truthful picture.

For the record, there are no known allegations of Soka Gakkai leaders having a dispute over prostitute bills. Second, Mr. Ikeda left Nichiren Shoshu, along with 12 million members of the Soka Gakkai International -- roughly 95 percent of the Nichiren Shoshu membership. This split was inevitable, given the outgoing and engaged style of Soka Gakkai versus the more insular and doctrinaire manner of the Nichiren Shoshu leadership. [bold added]

It is unfortunate that your reporter did not take the time to learn more about the group he was defaming. He/she would have learned that the SGI-USA is the largest and most diverse Buddhist association in the U.S., and that we seek to help people -- through Buddhist practice -- to cultivate the virtues of responsibility, wisdom and compassion in their daily lives. Locally, the SGI-USA/Denver and its over 3,000 members have been civicly active and contributive to the Denver metro community for over 33 years.

Chris Risom, director of community affairs
SGI-USA Buddhist Association, Denver region

There you have it, folks. For the record, Mr. Ikeda wasn't excommunicated; he left. Please disregard the hundreds of SGI-published assertions to the contrary.

Please go to "Confirming Our Path of Faith dead link," your Temple Issue handbook published by SGI-USA. Find the speech given by President Ikeda on Feb. 5, 1999, and cross out the line: "On Nov. 28 of the following year, 1991, Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated the Soka Gakkai. What madness!"

Also, since his "leaving" was inevitable, we can stop crying foul about "Operation C" and all of the other dirty deeds that led to the ouster-that-never-happened. Please annotate your handbook accordingly.

Madness? What madness?

(If you want to know what else I think, check out my letter to Westword, just below SGI-USA's.)

*

Recent SGI-USA fibby-fib-fibs include:

• The weaselly denial of Ikeda's excommunication. (See above.)
• Bill Aiken's fib to Congress dead link that he speaks on behalf of 300,000 Buddhists. Also: 3,000 members in the Denver area? Please.
• The "Embattled Buddhists" documentary was an independent production. (I think we've managed to zap this one.)
• SGI-USA has never given money to the Boston Research Center.
• Soka University is independent dead link, totally separate from SGI.

In his infamous speech, Tariq Hasan said:

"We must be able to discern between constructive input and disparaging criticism that can disrupt the faith of individuals and the harmonious unity of believers. As leaders, we have to be vigilant in this regard. We need to develop such wisdom to protect our organization into the future and guarantee that Nichiren Daishonins Buddhism will become a world religion."

Because I point out the aforementioned fibs, there are many SGI members who will characterize what I say as "disparaging criticism." Shoot the messenger if you must: SGI's pattern of fibbing and deception damages the SGI.

*

I've had the chance to meet with and get to know many of SGI-USA's top leaders. In my opinion, they are all good people. I've had disagreements with some of them, but they're all basically cool and decent folks as far as I'm concerned.

So why do leaders and members condone organizational fibbing? How does this really protect the organization or Buddhism? I ask you.