Taking into account the nature of the country is the fourth
of the five guides of propagation according to Nichiren Shonin.
This means that one must consider the culture and values of the
country in which one is going to teach, and above all one must
consider to what extent Buddhism has or has not already become a
part of the country. The "Teaching, Capacity, Time and
Country" states, "there are countries wholly devoted to
Hinayana teachings, countries wholly devoted to Mahayana
teachings, and countries in which both Hinayana and Mahayana are
pursued." (P. 50) One must also consider what kind of
Buddhism has appeared in the country and in what manner it has
been taught. This involves the proper order of teaching the
Dharma which is the fifth of the five guides. Regarding the
importance of understanding how Buddhism has already been taught
in any given country, "Teaching, Capacity, Time, and
Country" says, "Therefore, one must first learn what
kind of Buddhist doctrines have already spread in a particular
country before attempting to propagate Buddhism there." (P.
50)
In the case of the United States of America, these guidelines can
not be applied easily because the U.S.A. is such a large country
that there are different regions which must be taken into
account. The population of the country is also extremely diverse
and can be divided by race, ethnicity, religion, and
socioeconomic class. While Buddhism makes up an extremely small
religious minority (only .5% according to the American Religious
Identification Survey) in the United States, it too is divided
along lines of national origin, ethnicity, education, class, and
even by sectarian affiliation within Buddhism. This means that
there is no one monolithic national culture or identity in the
United States but rather a diversity of cultures. There is also
no one form of Buddhism in the United States, but rather a
plurality of different forms of Buddhism which have only recently
begun to interact, but for the most part they keep to themselves.
This makes applying Nichiren's guidelines to the U.S.A. extremely
problematic.
To begin with, the United States is an overwhelmingly Christian
country. In addition, for a first world democracy it is also a
very church-going country. Judeo-Christian values are very much a
part of the mainstream culture, even when they are observed more
in the breach than in the observance. It must be kept in mind,
however, that this Judeo-Christian culture is not monolithic
either. There are Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians of a
variety of nationalities, Protestants of many denominations,
Mormons, different forms of Judaism, and an emergent Muslim
population; and cutting across denominational lines there are
liberals, conservatives, fundamentalists, evangelicals,
pentacostals, and many other subgroups which often but do not
always overlap. It would be very hazardous to make too many
generalizations based on this bewildering variety. However, a few
general observations can be made. The Biblical religions do
uphold the ideals of love, compassion, and divine mercy balanced
by a call for justice and righteousness. The Biblical religions
have a system of morals and ethics which have formed the basis of
law and culture in the Western world. Finally, the Biblical
religions have a worldview that encompasses not only the present
life, but also the afterlife and in fact the ultimate conclusion
of the world drama and it's fulfillment in a new creation. While
Buddhism has encountered various forms of indigenous earth-based
religions like Shinto or Bon, or mystical philosophies like
Taoism, or humanistic religions like Confucianism, it has never
before encountered anything like the Biblical religions since the
days when Buddhism competed with the "divinely
revealed" religion of the Vedas. Even then, the
Vedic religion of ancient India was not anywhere near as
exclusive or apocalyptic as Judeo-Christianity or Islam. Looking
back, it might be said that Buddhism in Asia was able to meet
certain needs that were not being met by the other religions
which it encountered. One might even say that the balance
eventually struck in China between Buddhism, Confucianism, and
Taoism or in Japan between Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto
were possible because the average person did not see those
religions as self-sufficient, and instead viewed them as
complementary. The Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions, however, do
believe that they are self-sufficient in matters of faith and
morals, and that their worldviews are not only complete in terms
of explaining and giving meaning to this life but also in
articulating what people have to hope (or fear) in the afterlife.
The average adherent of Biblical religions do not believe that
Buddhism can fulfill any unmet needs, do not believe that it
would be complementary, and do not believe it's worldview is
compatible with theirs. So the balance struck between Buddhism
and other Asian religions can not so easily be struck here, and
the existential needs which Buddhism was able to meet in Asia
that other Asian religions could not meet are answered by
different sources within Western culture - currently either from
within the Biblical religions themselves or by Western philosophy
and psychology. This makes propagating Buddhism in the United
States much more difficult and challenging.
This is one of the reasons why Buddhism has been in the United
States for so long, and yet not until the last few decades has it
begun to spread outside the small ethnic enclaves within which it
had confined itself. The first Buddhist temple was built in San
Francisco in 1853 by Chinese Buddhists living and working in
America. It would not be until the late 1960's, however, when
non-Chinese Americans would begin to get involved in Chinese
Buddhist temples. The first Jodo Shinshu temple was started in
San Francisco in 1899, but even today the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist
Churches of America is still predominantly a Japanese-American
institution. Mainstream America first became aware of Buddhism
during the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 when
the Sri Lankan layman Anagarika Dharmapala, Rinzai priest Shaku
Soyen, and other Buddhist representatives presented the Buddha
Dharma there. Shaku Soen's disciple D. T. Suzuki would eventually
become a prominent spokesman of Zen to the American
intelligentsia, most notably the Beat poets, but it would not be
until the 1960's that significant numbers of Americans would
actually take up the practice of Zen. Henry David Thoreau (or
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody according to some) translated the
"Parable of the Herbs" chapter of the Lotus Sutra
for an 1844 edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's magazine The
Dial; but it would not be until the 1960's when
non-Japanese-Americans would take up the practice of Daimoku
chanting due to the missionary efforts of Soka Gakkai members.
In one form or another, Buddhism has been a part of the American
landscape since the mid-19th century. The watershed period of
American Buddhism however was the 1960's. There were two reasons
for this. The 1965 changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1952 opened the doors to Asian immigration. This enabled a new
wave of Asian Buddhists as well as Asian Buddhist clergy and
teachers to come into the U.S. The second reason was the
counterculture movement and especially the hippie sub-culture
which it gave rise to. The youth counterculture was actively
seeking alternatives to what they saw as a hypocritical and
repressive Judeo-Christian heritage and the conformist and
materialistic consumer society. Asian spiritualities like
Hinduism and Buddhism seemed to promise a fresh and more
authentic alternative. In addition, widespread experimentation
with drugs like LSD inspired many to seek out Asian meditative
practices in order to find a more organic and stable way of
achieving and sustaining the kinds of mystical states they
believed they had glimpsed by taking psychadelic drugs. This
large group of youthful seekers and the greater access to
Buddhism provided by new levels of Asian immigration combined to
produce a boom in American Buddhism during the 60's and 70's. It
was during this period that most of the American practice and
meditation centers were established, in addition to the many new
temples build by and for the growing numbers of Asian Buddhists
immigrating to the U.S.
Now it is the dawn of the 21st century, and estimates of the
number of Buddhists in America ranges from just over one million
to as high as four million; well over a thousand Buddhists
temples and practice centers have been established; and most
bookstores have large sections devoted to Buddhism. As Buddhism
has become more established on the American scene, three distinct
groups have been identified by Jan Nattier, teacher of Buddhist
studies at Indiana University. The first group are the
"Elite Buddhists" who are comprised of those Americans
who have actively sought out Buddhism. The second group are the
"Evangelical Buddhists" who are comprised of groups
from Asia who actively seek out converts from the general
population. Finally, there are the "Ethnic Buddhists"
who practice Buddhism because it is a part of their ethnic
heritage. While no model is perfect, I believe that Jan Nattier's
threefold typology is a useful tool for understanding the
diversity and complexity of Buddhism in America.
The Ethnic Buddhists consist of an estimated 2.2 - 3.2 million
immigrants from Asian countries who have established Buddhists
temples (or churches) to meet the social, cultural and religious
needs of their many diverse communities. This group includes the
older Chinese and Japanese communities which go back to the 19th
century, and the new waves of immigration from Korea, Vietnam,
other Buddhist countries in SE Asia, as well as fresh waves of
immigrants from China. This group includes both professional and
working class immigrants, those who are barely literate and those
who hold advanced degrees. The old-guard ethnic Buddhists, like
the Buddhist Churches of America (Jodo Shinshu), have become more
like Christian churches in many ways. The use of the word
"church" is not the only change. Hymns, sermons, and
English language services have all become standard in the BCA in
order to accommodate the third and fourth generation
Japanese-American members. Temples established by the Chinese,
Korean, Vietnamese, and other Asian immigrants tend to be more
traditional, and few have English services. The practice of these
temples also tend to be devotional in nature. Among East Asian
Buddhists from Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, the practice of
Pure Land Buddhism is ubiquitous. Amitabha Buddha and
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva are particularly revered as saviors
and the recitation of their names, the Pure Land Sutras,
and the "Observer of the Cries of the World" chapter of
the Lotus Sutra are common. Some of the more highly
educated and dedicated practitioners, both lay and monastic, may
also practice Zen meditation. Some may also study Hua-yen or
T'ien-t'ai teachings. The major exceptions to this would be those
from Theravadin countries who do not engage in Mahayana
practices, the exclusively Pure Land BCA, and the comparatively
tiny groups of Asian-Americans who are members of the traditional
schools of Nichiren Buddhism. For the most part, these ethnic
temples and churches exist for the sake of their client
communities and do not attempt to reach out to the larger
American population. They also tend to keep to their own
communities and do not interact with each other or with the
Evangelical or Elite Buddhists.
In the case of the Japanese temples and churches, the experience
of being interned during WWII has made them especially wary of
reaching out to the larger population. There are exceptions to
this, but even in those temples or churches which do attract
members from outside their own group there is often a tension
between the needs of the core ethnic membership and the converts
who often fit the profile of Elite Buddhists. The example of
Shunryu Suzuki is instructive in this regard. Suzuki Roshi became
the resident priest of the Soto Zen temple Sokoji in San
Francisco in 1959. As the resident minister of Sokoji it was his
primary responsibility to serve the needs of its
Japanese-American members. Suzuki Roshi, however, had another
purpose. It had been his longtime wish to teach Zen Buddhism to
mainstream America, and so he opened the doors of the temple to
non-Japanese Americans who wanted to actually practice Zen
meditation and not just read about it. Suzuki Roshi's experiment
led to the highly successful San Francisco Zen Center and its
complex of related centers, the world-class vegetarian restaurant
Greens, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm, and
the classic book of American Zen, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind,
which has sold almost a million copies. In the process, however,
Suzuki Roshi was forced to leave Sokoji Temple because the
Japanese-American members did not want to share their temple with
the "hippies and beatniks" that Suzuki Roshi was
attracting. Today, the San Francisco Zen Center is at the hub of
a thriving Zen community. Sokoji, however, barely has enough
members left to make holding weekly services worthwhile. The
older generation of Japanese-Americans has passed away, and the
younger generations have either moved away, or have left Japanese
Buddhism behind in their assimilation to the mainstream culture.
While the new immigrant Buddhist communities have not had to face
this problem, the story of San Francisco Zen Center and Sokoji
highlight the problems which all the Ethnic Buddhists will
someday have to face. Either they must find a way to reconcile
the needs of their founding members with the needs of the
mainstream culture, or they will eventually face their own
extinction as the older generation passes away and the younger
generations assimilate. To survive, the Ethnic Buddhist temples
and churches must either rely on fresh waves of immigration,
which is what sustains many of the Chinese temples, or they must
reach out to the mainstream community. But the transition is
difficult, and it is not easy to reconcile the ethnic Buddhism of
faith, devotion, and traditional culture with the contemplative
and often highly intellectual Buddhism which new converts are
most likely to be searching for.
The Evangelical Buddhists are those groups who have come from
Asia and actively sought to convert Americans of all ethnic,
sociological, and educational backgrounds. The primary and most
successful example of this group is the Soka Gakkai. Though the
Soka Gakkai estimates its membership in the US as 300,000,
Phillip Hammond and David Machacek from the University of
California at Santa Barbara estimated their membership at closer
to 35,000 in the late 90's. Even this more realistic estimate
makes the Soka Gakkai the largest, most widespread, and most
successful single Buddhist organization in the United States.
Furthermore, it is also the Buddhist group with the most diverse
membership. Unlike the Ethnic (who are Asian immigrants) or Elite
Buddhists (who are almost all Euro-Americans), the Soka Gakkai
has a membership that is much more reflective of American
diversity. According to Hammond and Machacek: "The current
membership reflects an impressive level of racial diversity.
SGI-USA members are more diverse, in fact, than the American
population according to the 1990 Census." (Hammond &
Machecek, p. 43) According to their survey, SGI-USA's membership
is 42% white, 15% black, 23% Asian, Pacific Islander, 6% Latino,
and 15% mixed race. This is compared to the general population of
the USA according to the 1990 Census which is 78% white, 12%
black, 1% Asian, Pacific Islander, 9% Latino, and only .1% mixed.
(Ibid, p. 44) In other ways, the membership of the Soka Gakkai in
the US is more like the Elite Buddhists in that most of them are
in the middle or upper-middle class and their levels of education
tend to be higher than that of the general population in the US.
Also, like the Elite Buddhists, the membership of the Soka Gakkai
is largely composed of the so-called Baby Boomer generation. The
Baby Boomers were the products of the prosperous years following
WWII, and as a generation had more educational and career
opportunities open to them than in any previous generation. They
were also the generation that had to confront the struggle for
Civil Rights and the Vietnam War, and they were the generation
which gave rise to the counterculture of the 60's and 70's that
first began to explore the consciousness expanding possibilities
of psychadelic drugs and Eastern mysticism.
The Soka Gakkai however is very different from the Elite
Buddhists who we will cover next. Unlike the Elite Buddhists, the
main practice and in fact only directly religious practice of the
Soka Gakkai is chanting. Like all Nichiren Buddhists, the Soka
Gakkai chant the Odaimoku as their main practice and the Hoben
and Juryo chapters of the Lotus Sutra as their
supporting practice. 62% of them chant twice a day in performing
morning and evening gongyo, and almost all of them chant at least
once a day. Members of the Soka Gakkai do not practice meditation
at all, or at least they do not as part of their practice of
Nichiren Buddhism. Furthermore, they often chant for material
goals. "In Soka Gakkai, chanting for specific, conspicuous
benefits is not perceived as contradictory to the ostensible goal
of personal enlightenment or improving one's karma. Instead,
one's external, material circumstances are viewed as an effect of
one's inner, spiritual condition. It comes as no surprise,
therefore, that when asked about the goals and benefits of
chanting, conspicuous benefits, such as acquiring a new home, a
car, success in one's career, or good health, are mentioned
frequently. In fact, Soka Gakkai members are encouraged to think
of such benefits as "proof" that the practice works -
proof that not only serves to encourage continued practice but
also to encourage others to try chanting." (Ibid, p. 68)
Hammond and Machecek go on to say, "Note that such
inconspicuous goals as spiritual enlightenment, better karma, and
world peace make only a minor appearance as goals for which
members chant...Respondents were nearly five times more likely to
mention spiritual enlightenment and faith as results they had
experienced than they were to say that they had chanted for these
goals." (Ibid, pp. 70-71) These two factors, chanting rather
than meditation as the primary practice, and the focus on
material goals rather than spiritual enlightenment, make the
members of Soka Gakkai radically different from the Elite
Buddhists who practice meditation as their primary or only
practice and whose goals are either spiritual or therapeutic and
almost never material in orientation.
The Elite Buddhists form the third and most visible group of
Buddhists in the USA. By one estimate, their numbers in the
mid-90's were 800,000 but they could easily be more than a
million now that the 21st century has dawned. These are the
middle class, upper-middle class, and celebrity patrons of Zen
Buddhism, Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, and the Theravadin derived
Vipassana meditation practices. Books for, by and about Elite
Buddhism make up the thousands of titles which line Buddhist
sections of major American bookstores. Despite the greater
numbers and longer history of the Ethnic Buddhists, and despite
the success of the Soka Gakkai, it is the Elite Buddhists who
receive the attention of the media, the publishing houses, and
the patronage and endorsement of Hollywood and American Academia.
So who are these Elite Buddhists? For his book, The New
Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition,
James William Coleman conducted a survey of members of several
Zen, Tibetan, Vipassana, and non-denominational Buddhist groups
and came up with the following profile: "Far from the
broadly based mass movement that most of its founders would
probably have preferred, the new Buddhism has its strongest
appeal to a relatively small slice of the public, but it is
nonetheless a slice that is likely to wield a disproportionate
influence on the evolution of Western culture in the years ahead.
Ethnically, the members of these Buddhist groups are
overwhelmingly white - a matter that has been of considerable
concern to Buddhist leaders. Members also tend to be from middle
and especially the upper-middle class. But while their income is
significantly higher than the national average, the educational
level of American Buddhists is right off the charts, and it
appears that these Buddhists may well be the most highly educated
religious group in the West today. Just as Buddhists are far more
highly educated than the average Westerner, they are far more
liberal and far more likely to support environmental, antiwar,
and human rights causes." (Coleman, p. 20) The high
percentage of advanced education among the Elite Buddhists in
comparison with the Evangelical Buddhists or the general
population is especially dramatic. According to the Hammond and
Machecek survey, in 1997, 17% of Soka Gakkai members in the US
had advanced degrees in comparison with 9% of the general
population according to the General Social Survey of 1996.
(Hammonds & Machecek, p. 53) According to James William
Coleman's survey of American Buddhists in the Zen, Tibetan, and
Vipassana traditions conducted during the mid-90's, 51% had
advanced degrees. (Coleman, p. 193) This huge statistical gap is
very significant, and shows why there is such a huge difference
between the views and needs of the Elite Buddhist community and
those belonging to the other two groups, not to mention a huge
gulf between the views of the Elite Buddhists and the general
population of the United States.
The Elite Buddhists who are attracted to Zen meditation, Tibetan
Vajrayana practice, and Vipassana practice are not looking for a
simple religion of faith and devotion, nor are they looking for
material success, or a new social circle. Most of them are trying
to get away from religions based on faith and devotion such as
Christianity or Judaism. Many are disillusioned with the consumer
culture and the drive for material success and are looking for a
more spiritual way of life. Finally, the Elite Buddhists are
already part of either the mainstream culture or the
counterculture, and Buddhism is not something that many of their
friends or family or involved in. So for the Elite, Buddhism is
something they often look for out of personal rather than social
interest. Here is Coleman's report on why Elite Buddists seek out
Buddhism: "I asked my respondents, who were located through
their attendance at Buddhist groups, to state their level of
agreement or disagreement with three relevant statements: ‘I
became interested in Buddhism because of a desire for spiritual
fulfillment'; ‘I became interested in Buddhism in order to
help me deal with personal problems'; and ‘I became
interested in Buddhism because I was attracted by the people I
met who were involved with it.' Well over half the respondents
strongly agreed with the first statement and 22 percent with the
second, but less than 12 percent strongly agreed with the
third." (p. 198) Coleman also reports: "When I asked my
respondents, ‘How did you first become involved in
Buddhism?' only 25 percent said it was because of their friends,
while 47 percent said it was from books, lectures, or
classes." (Ibid, p. 199) So unlike the Ethnic Buddhists, the
Elite Buddhists are not looking to fulfill social or cultural
needs nor are they brought in through personal connections which
is often the case with the Evangelical Buddhists. And unlike the
other two groups, the primary draw of Buddhism for the Elite
Buddhists is the promise of spiritual enlightenment. In fact, the
Elite Buddhists often betray a condescending or dismissive
attitude towards the other two groups because their motivation
for identifying themselves as Buddhists are not as pure and
spiritual as the Elite Buddhists imagine their own motives are.
Another major difference between the Elite Buddhists and the
Ethnic and Evangelical Buddhists is in the realm of practice.
Whether it is shikantaza, or koans, or Vajrayana visualization
practices, or mindfulness of the breath, Elite Buddhists almost
exclusively practice some form of silent sitting meditation. In
his book Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism
in America, Charles Prebish sums up the situation as
follows: "There is no disagreement among researchers that
Asian immigrant Buddhist communities and American convert
communities engage in significantly different expressions of
Buddhist practice. The general consensus is that American
converts gravitate toward the various meditation traditions of
Japanese or Korean Zen, Vajrayana, and vipassana, while Asian
immigrants maintain practices coincident with ritual activity or
Pure Land observance, depending on the nature of the parent
tradition of their community, and usually encompassing the
Theravada, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese Buddhist traditions.
With the exception of those American converts who have taken up
the practices of Soka Gakkai, there is an almost completely
exclusive focus upon meditative practices. More than a few
observers of the American Buddhist tradition have remarked that
American converts treat Buddhism as if it were a ‘onefold
path,' focusing on meditation and little, if anything, else. In a
very real sense, meditation continues to be seen in America as an
all-pervasive activity, offering a complete spectrum of solutions
to life's ills - from getting high without the risk of drugs to
finding a way to cultivate peace." (Prebish, p. 63)
Now that we have roughly surveyed the major groups of Buddhists
in America, we can ask where does the Nichiren Shu fit into this
picture? For most of its history in the United States, the
Nichiren Shu was definately what has been described as an Ethnic
form of Buddhism with little or no appeal to the general
population, nor were any efforts made to reach out beyond the
Japanese-American community. Given the prejudice, racism, fear,
and actual oppression directed at the Asian, and particularly
Japanese, communities during most of the 20th century in the US,
this reticence is understandable. Lingering bitterness and
suspicion towards mainstream Euro or white Americans by older
Japanese-Americans who were put in concentration camps by that
same group during WWII has also created an atmosphere where
converts to Nichiren Shu are not always welcomed, though there
are exceptions to this. Unfortunately, as with the Buddhist
Churches of America or Sokoji temple in San Francisco, the older
generations of Japanese-Americans are passing on while the
younger generations are moving away or leaving the temples behind
as they assimilate, and no new waves of Japanese immigration are
replacing their numbers. This leaves the Japanese temples that
have not been able to attract the Elite or Evangelical types of
Buddhism in a precarious position. Within the last decade the
Nichiren Shu temples have begun to open their doors to those not
of Japanese ancestry and real efforts have been made to reach out
through publication efforts and open houses for the local
communities held at Nichiren Shu temples. At the moment, however,
most of those who join the Nichiren Shu are those who have left
the Soka Gakkai due to their disillusionment with its
authoritarian management style (in spite of Soka Gakkai's
pro-democracy charter) and its continuing polemical and legal
campaign against its former patron the Nichiren Shoshu (in spite
of Soka Gakkai's official charter which promotes tolerance and
freedom of religion). Nichiren Shu has still remained invisible
to the mainstream population of the United States as it has no
charismatic spokespeople or popular books on the market, as do
the Zen, Tibetan, and Vipassana groups who have attracted the
attention and admiration of mainstream America, and particularly
the intelligentsia who are actually willing to seek out and
practice Buddhism.
As the statistics indicate, aside from Asian-American immigrants,
the vast majority of those who are open to practicing Buddhism
are highly educated middle and upper-middle class religious
seekers. Aside from those actively recruited by the Soka Gakkai
during their "shakubuku" campaigns, these are the very
people who are not attracted to the kind of faith-based,
devotional religion represented by the Nichiren Shu. This group
of religious seekers is looking for something more than just a
once a week Sunday service religion based on ritual practice, for
that is exactly the kind of religion that they rejected when they
left the fold of mainstream Judeo-Christianity. Unfortunately,
this is exactly the kind of religion that the Nichiren Shu in
America has become in serving the needs of the Japanese-American
community, which has long sought to better fit into the
mainstream of American life. Instead, these seekers are looking
for traditions with highly sophisticated ways of dealing with
emotions and mental states, and for contemplative practices that
do not require any metaphysical beliefs and which can help to
bring about a direct experience of awakening or at least
transformation in one's daily life.
This creates a kind of catch-22 situation for the Nichiren Shu in
America. If it wishes to remain true to the teachings of Nichiren
Shonin, then it must continue to emphasize exclusive faith in the
Lotus Sutra and the practice of Odaimoku - even at the
expense of alienating those Americans who are attracted to
Buddhism. If, on the other hand, Nichiren Shu in America begins
to emphasize meditation, the subtleties of the T'ien-t'ai
philosophy of Chih-i and Miao-lo, and the more open and
ecumenical interpretations of the One Vehicle and T'ien-t'ai
Buddhism, then it will hold more appeal to those Americans who
are willing to experiment with Buddhism but at the cost of
reverting to a more T'ien-t'ai model of teaching and practice as
opposed to Nichiren's more focused faith-based model. The
contemplative and more ecumenical shoju form of Nichiren Buddhism
emphasized by Nichiki Udana might provide a useful model, but
even then the question has been raised as to what extent Nichiki
Udana compromised the true intentions of Nichiren Shonin.
Another solution would be to switch to the Evangelical approach
which the Soka Gakkai used so successfully during the 60's, 70's,
and 80's. The problem there is that even the Soka Gakkai has
ceased to aggressively promote itself though street-corner
evangelizing and "shakubuku" campaigns. During the 60's
and 70's this form of propagation was very effective because it
was a time when many Americans were more willing to experiment
and not as wary of religious cults as they are now. Now that the
counterculture movement has ended, not so many are willing to go
along with strangers to a Buddhist meeting. In addition, part of
the appeal of the Soka Gakkai is its emphasis on chanting for
material success and its centralized management which allows for
greater control and coordination of its efforts (albeit at the
expense of its egalitarian ideals and individual initiative). For
better or for worse, it does not seem likely that the Nichiren
Shu communities in America will adopt such an emphasis on
chanting for material success or the authoritarian centralization
of the Soka Gakkai.
All of this puts the Nichiren Shu in an awkward position in the
United States. It's practice and organization is built on the
Ethnic Buddhist model, but it's spiritual ideals are more in line
with the Elite Buddhist community, and it's only appeal to those
not of Japanese-American descent is primarily among the
Evangelical Buddhists who are disillusioned by the
authoritarianism and polemical posture of the Soka Gakkai.
Nichiren Shu is thus neither fish nor fowl and so is continually
overlooked by those who are the movers and shakers of American
Buddhism (celebrities, book and magazine publishers, and
academics) and by the majority of those who are seeking a
Buddhist community to practice with. Beyond this, there is the
problem of convincing Americans that the true practice of
Buddhism involves chanting in Sino-Japanese, which sounds
extremely ethnocentric. In order to find a solution, the Nichiren
Shu in America will have to look to the other criteria of
Nichiren's five guidelines, the teaching, the capacity, and the
time, and reevaluate the way it will present and teach the Lotus
Sutra and the Three Great Hidden Dharmas in the United States if
it ever hopes to have a broader appeal and succeed in the mandate
of the Lotus Sutra to accomplish "kosen rufu."
Sources
Chadwick, David. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen
Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.
Coleman, James William. The New Buddhism: The Western
Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001
Hammond, Phillip and Machacek, David. Soka Gakkai in America:
Accomodation and Conversion. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999.
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