Nicheren Buddhism and the New Religions
It was suggested above that some of the Japanese new religions have been greatly influenced by Buddhism and particularly by the Nicheren tradition. Nicheren (1222-82), a Japanese monk of the Tendai sect, founded a distinctly Japanese tradition of Buddhism based on the Sutra of the Lotus of the Good Law, in Japanese Hokkekyo.
This scripture was regarded by Nicheren as the final and supreme embodiment of Buddhist truth. Moreover, he not only initiated the worship of the Lotus Sutra, having himself devoted a strong faith in its supernatural powers, but also believed himself to be the Bodhisattva prophesied for the last days. The formula of worship, known as the ‘sacred name’ or Daimoku invocation, consists in the chanting of ‘Nam-myoho- renge-kyo’ (I take refuge in the glorious Lotus Sutra). This invocation, believed to have been inscribed by Nicheren on the sacred mandala or scroll known as the Gohonzon and housed in the main temple of the Soka Gakkai movement at Taiseki-ji, near Mount Fuji, is held to be the law of life and for all living beings the principal means of attaining enlightenment. Nicheren Buddhism, defined as the Buddhism of True Cause, is seen as transcending the Buddhism of Gautama Buddha, the Buddhism of True Effect, and the Lotus Sutra. Among the important elements of the Lotus Sutra stressed by Nicheren were a this-worldly concept of salvation, the religious equality of all social classes, the possibility for all to achieve the state of Buddhahood and the duty to evangelise and convert others to the Buddhist Way.Nicheren was also concerned with the welfare of society as a whole and believed that true religion and proper worship were necessary conditions for its peace and happiness. He held that since the state did not honour true Buddhism, national disasters would befall Japan by way of divine judgement, and his prophecy was believed to have been fulfilled with the Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 and again in 1281.
Nicheren’s prophetic powers and the veneration and respect he showed for the ancestors greatly enhanced his authority and led many to believe that he alone could save Japan from religious malaise and political domination. His teachings, which he spread with determination and even aggression for over thirty years, were characterised by a tendency to identify religion with national life, an intolerance of other people’s beliefs and an apocalyptic mysticism based on Mahayana Buddhism. After the death of Nicheren a split occurred among his disciples and this resulted in the emergence of different Nicheren traditions roughly divided into Nicheren-Shoshu (Shoshu means true religion) and Nicheren-Shu (Shu means religion).The Nicheren Shoshu Tradition and Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society)
One of Nicheren’s disciples, Nikko, acquired a considerable following and what he taught was later given shape and coherence by Nikkan (1665-1726). According to these teachings Nicheren is the eternal Buddha and Gautama Buddha is assigned the significance and role of a precursor. While the latter’s teachings are said to be incomplete, the substance of what he taught is contained, it is maintained, in the Lotus Sutra, and in the invocation or Daimoku.
Soka Gakkai is the largest of the new religions belonging to the Nicheren Shoshu tradition and of the new movements in Japan as a whole. The movement was started in the 1930s by Tsuneburo Makiguchi (1871-1934), a teacher from Hokkaido in north Japan, who developed a theory of education based on Nicheren’s teachings that emphasised that what was of value and profitable was paramount. Makiguchi, who was imprisoned during the war along with his assistant Josei Toda (1900-58), died in gaol. The latter after his release began the rebuilding of the movement, previously called Soka Kyoiku Gakkai and now known simply as Soka Gakkai.
The methods used by Toda to recruit more members, in particular the ‘break and subdue’, or shakubuku approach to ‘false believers’ proposed by Nicheren, brought strong criticism of the movement.
Toda and his assistants literally pressed their beliefs upon people and the movement grew from several hundred at most in 1945 to around three- quarters of a million families in 1958. The majority of these recruits came from the working and lower middle classes and under Toda’s successor Daiseku Ikeda (b. 1928) the movement increased its influence in Japanese politics under the umbrella of the Komeito, Clean Government Party, the third largest political party in Japan today. At the same time the shakubuku approach to evangelisation was moderated and this gave the movement a better image.Soka Gakkai is a lay organisation. However, it has links with the priests of Nicheren Shoshu who since they are the guardians of the original Gohonzon are in a position to provide the movement with its spiritual legitimacy. Members of the movement are committed to chanting twice daily before a shrine which contains a replica of the Gohonzon, the invocation, Daimoku, and two chapters of the Lotus Sutra. Chanting, or Gongyo, it is believed, can alter karma, the law of cause and effect, and also, as many members testify, bring great benefits of an emotional, psychological and material kind for individuals in the present. There are also discussion groups, zadakandai, which usually take place in members’ homes and it is on these occasions that followers recount the benefits they have received from chanting and the difficulties of an emotional, spiritual, psychological or material kind that they may be experiencing. Soka Gakkai seeks to bring religion down on to the factory floor or kitchen table, so to speak, and is very much a world-affirming religion. Members also undertake missionary work. This is the message they preach: religion and daily life are inseparable in the sense that the former, if true and practised regularly and correctly, unfailingly improves and enhances the latter. Moreover, those who can afford it make the ‘pilgrimage’ to Taiseki-ji, the Kaidan or place of dedication and instruction and the sacred place of Nicheren Buddhism.
All the positions of responsibility and leadership are filled by lay people. Lay leaders not only play a very important administrative role but also provide direction and counselling on personal matters. In terms of its organisation the movement is divided vertically into local, district, regional, national andinternationalsections, and horizontally into a number of different groupings; for example, there is a section for young men, another for young women and another for children. But this horizontal grouping is not always maintained, especially in those areas where the membership is small.
Soka Gakkai, like other Japanese new religions, places great emphasis on art, music, dance, gymnastics, festivals, parades and education. It has its own university, a number of other educational institutions and an art museum. Furthermore, one of its major preoccupations, especially in recent times, has been with world peace, stressing that the safety and survival of the planet depends on the dissemination and application to daily life of true beliefs and practices.
The present estimated size of membership of this movement is ten million families and although the vast majority of these are in Japan it has been making steady progress in North and South America and Europe.
The Nicheren-Shu Tradition
Among the new religions that may be said to belong broadly to the Nicheren-Shu tradition are Reiyukai, the Association of Friends of the Spirit, founded in 1925 by Kubota Kakutaro (1892-1944) and Kimi Kotani (1901—71), and Risshokoseikai, the Establishment of Righteousness and Friendly Intercourse, begun in 1938 by two former members of Reiyukai, Naganuma Myoko (1889-1957) and Niwano Nikiyo (b. 1906).
Many of the Reiyukai teachings, being based as they are on the Lotus Sutra, are almost identical to those of Nicheren Buddhism discussed above. Initially, however, it placed even greater emphasis on ancestor worship which, as we have seen, it regarded as central to its belief in the family as the centre of human life.
Moreover, Eke Mahikari it believes that suffering and evil are the result of neglect of the ancestors to whom, along with all other Buddhas and spirits of the universe, we are indissolubly connected.Further, it believes that spiritual power is contained in the mandalas, those scrolls produced by its own founder and by Nicheren and which provide graphic illustrations of teachings. Through reading these scrolls believers can obtain direct access to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, that is those enlightened ones who delay entry to Nirvana in order to help suffering humanity. Moreover, it is believed that by reading the Lotus Sutra members can acquire merit for the ancestors. It was this movement that introduced the Hoza system, a method of group counselling which provided adherents with the opportunity to discuss in open forum, so to speak, their personal difficulties and problems. This system was adopted, as we shall see, by Risshokoseikai. It is also deeply committed to social and welfare programmes, including work for the physically handicapped and the Red Cross. The membership of Reiyukai is estimated at over two and a half million, some three thousand of whom are teachers. The Shaka temple in Tokyo is its holy centre and, as we have seen, its special object of worship and source of inspiration is the Lotus Sutra.
Risshokoseikai, it has already been pointed out, split off from Reiyukai in 1938 and made its own the Hoza group system which the latter had initiated. While in Reiyukai the believer acquires merit principally by chanting the Daimoku formula given above, in Risshokoseikai the stress is placed on personal development which must begin with the self. It is through self-transformation that the world will be transformed, also a central tenet of the self-religions discussed elsewhere in this volume (see pp. 925-31).
The concept of the Bodhisattva, defined above, is also central to Risshokoseikai teaching and practice, as is ancestor worship. The principal aim of group counselling and other practices is the fostering of the bodhisattva spirit which enables individuals to triumph over the law of karma and break through the cycle ofsamsara or rebirth.
However, following Nicheren, and similar to the other Japanese new movements influenced by his teaching on the intimate relationship between religion and society, Risshokoseikai believes in an indissoluble link between the religious and social and political spheres. Religious development is not seen as a purely private and personal affair with no bearing on the wider society, for, as we have already indicated, religion is believed to have important social and political consequences and to be the foundation of individual and collective peace, stability and prosperity. This explains the movement’s involvement in world peace, among other things, through its agency the World Conference of Religion and Peace. Also central to its belief and practice is the Nicheren mandala and the Lotus Sutra.This movement’s sacred centre or headquarters is the Great Hall in Tokyo and since its reorganisation after the Second World War it has made steady progress. According to a recent estimate there are as many as five million members, making it one of the largest of the new religions in Japan.