If you're new to Nichiren Buddhism or SGI-USA, shield your eyes! This section of BuddhaJones is not meant for you. Go now...or continue if you must, warned.

Without getting legalistic, let me take great pains to say that SGI-USA is, in my opinion, the best place to practice and study Nichiren Buddhism in America -- and, by the way, this site is in no way sanctioned by SGI. The current leader of SGI, Daisaku Ikeda, is, as far as I know, a meritorious man.

However...

I am one of the many SGI-USA members who expresses my love and allegiance by being sort of a pain in the ass. I believe that dissent and disagreement are creative forces: vital unity arises in the push and pull of opposing energies; unity based on beige sameness, consensus or mute, unquestioning followership is, essentially, dead.

So. This inch of cyberspace, Soka Underground, is reserved for those who have affection for SGI-USA -- those who know from experience its strengths and weaknesses, its glory and shame -- and have something to say about it.

The quote in the header of this section, "Religion is a defense against having a religious experience," is borrowed from Carl Jung by way of Joseph Campbell. I'm not totally sure what it means, and I've been puzzling over it like a koan. When I first heard it, I was reminded of the SGI chestnut: "Don't let the organization get in the way of your Buddhist practice."

Many of us in SGI tend to conflate the religious organization with the religion itself; the SGI is not the Gohonzon, obviously, but there is an undeniable relationship between the two. Critiquing the organization has the potential to distract us from the purpose of faith, but it also makes us examine where we have invested our faith, and on what our faith is based.

We have all seen people who are obsessed with proclaiming SGI's virtues or faults, or obsessed with denouncing its enemies or friends, and thus seem to miss the whole point of Buddhism. I posted that quote from Jung to serve as a reminder, a caution, and, perversely, as something I want to prove or disprove.

In some sense, the teacher, the teachings and the practitioners are meant to be conflated; they represent the three treasures of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, all of which are integral to Buddhist practice, and all ultimately inseparable.

SGI-USA is my most immediate sangha, or community of practitioners, and I choose to participate in it fully and intelligently. To me, that means participation not just on my own terms, and not just on the terms of others in the sangha, but some blend of both wherein the result is dynamism and continuous growth rather than static compromise.

I gotta be me. You gotta be you. Surely our faith is powerful enough to accommodate and harmonize us all.

In the Winter 2002 issue of BuddhaDharma magazine, Thich Nhat Hanh writes about the practice of sangha:

"A sangha is a community of friends practicing the dharma together in order to bring about and to maintain awareness. The essence of a sangha is awareness, understanding, acceptance, harmony and love. When you do not see these in a community, it is not a true sangha, and you should have the courage to say so. But when you find these elements are present in a community, you know that you have the happiness and fortune of being in a real sangha."

In my view, SGI-USA is a sangha and is not a sangha. Countless people in SGI-USA have been kind to me, helped me practice, contradicted me in the most compassionate way and loved me. Love and friendship are the heart of SGI-USA, no question.

At the same time, I'm not feeling a whole lot of love from "official" SGI-USA sources. Tariq Hasan's infamous speech comes to mind. Also, the Soka Spirit movement demonstrates as much awareness and acceptance as a wrecking ball. And leadership-via-memo hasn't fostered much understanding. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't want to know what I'm talking about.

At the end of 2002, I learned that some leaders at SGI Plaza were apoplectic over an item that appeared on this site: the Punching Puppets of Peace -- which I think is hilarious -- and which summarizes the perception that many members in the US have about the Temple Issue after a dozen years of one-note propaganda. But by putting this on my web site, I became, in the eyes of some at SGI Plaza, the enemy.

While I was thinking about this -- about why our organization is such a defensive paranoid humorless afraid-to-pick-up-the-phone-and-talk-to-me-directly non-sangha at the "official" level -- I received an e-mail from fellow member Julian Semilian.

With his article, An Inquiry into SGI-USA Official-Artificial, Julian inspired the whole idea of Soka Underground. He explores what I've been feeling but have been unable to articulate (probably because I have been complicit in it myself), namely the phenomenon of "Official-Artificial," a specific sort of dialect, or coded tongue.

I was inspired by Julian's existence as much as his article; he reminded me that SGI-USA has many talented, insightful, courageous members whose views or manner of expression do not accord with the party line. They're outside the official SGI limelight, creating value and shaking things up in subtle, wonderful ways; they're the Soka Underground.

If you're reading this, you're probably the Soka Underground as well. Even if you're somewhat appalled by the notion, you're still Soka Underground. Top leader? SGI Plaza employee? Former SGI-er? If you love the Gohonzon and the organization, but aren't blind to the shortcomings of the latter, yeah, you're underground. Definitely.

I am suspicious of stated agendas, policies and pronouncements, steeped as they are in Official-Artificial, so I'll try to avoid presenting any. Soka Underground is not an "organized reform movement;" it's a place for people to share thoughts, rebut opinions and basically be real regarding SGI-USA, Buddhism, and the indefinable intersection of the two.

I don't know how this will evolve, or what good it will do, but I feel that something like this must happen.

Things could get interesting.