January discussion meeting

The theme of our meeting on 14 Jan is ‘Peace Begins with Friendship’. The 10 Dec WT carries a speech given by President Ikeda that offers some guidance on this subject.

 

The gosho contains a number of references to good friends:

 

In the Nirvana Sutra, we read: "If a person separates himself from good friends, refuses to listen to the correct teaching, and instead embraces evil teachings, then as a result he will sink down into the Avichi hell, where the size of his body will become eighty-four thousand yojanas in total length and breadth."

 

Therefore, the best way to attain Buddhahood is to encounter a good friend. How far can our own wisdom take us? If we have even enough wisdom to distinguish hot from cold, we should seek out a good friend. But encountering a good friend is the hardest possible thing to do. For this reason, the Buddha likened it to the rarity of a one-eyed turtle finding a floating log with a hollow in it the right size to hold him, or to the difficulty of trying to lower a thread from the Brahma heaven and pass it through the eye of a needle on the earth. More-over, in this evil latter age, evil companions are more numerous than the dust particles that comprise the land, while good friends are fewer than the specks of dirt one can pile on a finger-nail.

 

The side bar on page 3 provides additional insight from President Ikeda.

Soka Care

SGI-USA Vice General Director Ian McIlraith wrote, in the 1 October World Tribune, about his perspective on SGI President Ikeda's discussion of prospects for the SGI-USA in the 21st century. President Ikeda had met with several top SGI-USA leaders on February 13th in Tokyo.

Mr. McI, deeply pondering President Ikeda's guidance and chanting abundant daimoku, came to the realization, he says, that the keys to the success of SGI-USA are daimoku and caring for the members. Or, as SGI leader Matilda Buck called it, 'Soka Care'.

But what, exactly, IS Soka Care? Some seem to think that it's visiting members at their home, doing gongyo with them, encouraging them to participate in activities, engaging them in dialog. This has been the SGI-USA mantra for years. Is it working? The slow growth of the PG area seems to indicate that it is not. The faces at kosenrufu gongyo each month are very familiar. Old friends greet old friends. Members have their favorite spot to sit. But maybe I shouldn't 'speak' for the area but, instead, look at the Bowie district. Are we growing? Not really. How come? That's the 64,000 dollar question. Our district chief isn't around much. This isn't necessarily a problem except that a crucial link with the SGI-USA heirarchy may be broken. This can't be a good thing. Maybe we're not on the receiving end of the much vaunted Soka Care.

Here are some questions that merit discussion:

1. What do the members expect from the leaders?

2. What kind of discussion meetings should we have? Can we expect members to prepare for the meeting?

3. How can we genuinely promote study?

4. How can the membership be invigorated to participate?

The Need for Philosophy

In a recent Living Buddhism interview with philosopher and author of 'Plato, not Prozac' Lou Marinoff, Mr. Marinoff explains his view.

Everybody has a philosophy of life, he says, but if you ask people what their philosophy of life is, most peolpe don't know. If they don't know what their own beliefs are, then they're blind. They're stumbling through life. The purpose of dialog, then, would be to remove the blindfold.

He says that all of us are going to experience things that are not pleasant. We know this, and yet the question remains, "What do you do with it?" Buddhism is so valuable because it teaches us to let go, to disown these harmful things. We don't have to act on our inpulses, we don't have to act on our anger. We can disown them.

But before we can disown them, we have to own them; sit and see where they come from and how to let them go, then you can disown them.

People need to have more opportunity to understrand how to deal with circumstances. Many teachings exist for handling success, but not many good teachings exist for handling failure.

Buddhism is different from other major religions by its compatibility with them all, whereas they're not compatible with each other. In Buddhism we find people who come from Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and other traditions. Buddhism is not contending against anything - it's embracing humanity.