Waking the Buddha

Waking the Buddha by Clark Strand, spiritual writer and former Zen Buddhist monk, is a story about a very old religion taking a surprising, interesting and perhaps revolutionary new turn. The book is essentially an historical account of the rise of the Nichiren Buddhist lay group Soka Gakkai, known as the "Value Creation Society." Although founded by Nichiren in the 13th Century, the Soka Gakkai (SG) group has its origins in the 20th century with one Tsunesaburo Makiguchi who was imprisoned by the Japanese authorities during the Second World War for "thought crimes" ostensibly towards his own culture and people!

Josei Toda was also imprisoned at this time, later becoming legendary for his post-war energy in spreading the SG message. This message, which Josei Toda called a Human Revolution was simply that Buddhism was "life," meaning the daily life that "belonged to humanity." It involved people getting together in dialogue to solve day-to-day problems, independent of institutionalised bureaucracy, ritual, or priestly hierarchies. Makiguchi attacked the problems stemming from Japan falling out of step with human life and human values, by developing a system of "value creating pedagogy." He asked essentially what it means to be human: whether it means to be "only" a member of a religion, nation or thought-crime-free tribe, or rather a "post-tribal" member of the human species. The SG has grown to be active in 192 countries as SG International (SGI), a movement characterised by "no dress code, no priests or monks, and no identifiable architectural style. It has preserved the substance of religious life and let the appearance of religion fall away."

This approach erases the "split between religion and life" that still exists in many modern minds, and highlights the difference between the old and new (SGI) paradigms. Is authentic Buddhism only for the priests or the monks? Many branches privilege monasticism, meditative practice, retreats or "spiritual vacations" over engagement in daily life and dialogue between adherents. In focusing on this split, Josei Toda was to help bring about a shift in consciousness and invite all human beings to participate in a new religious paradigm, almost, one might argue, beyond Buddhism. He called for the abolition of all nuclear weapons, not just to address Japanese fears, but to address the fears of all humanity. In 1958, his successor, Daisaku Ikeda, the third prominent member of SG discussed by Strand, was to impress and soften the stance of Chinese and Russian cold war powers by showing the problem was "plain and easy to understand" dealing simply with the common fears of humanity that could hardly be alleviated by intransigent national defence policy makers. [Many westerners have shared and still share these same fears].

As SG grew, and its reformers self-empowerment image spread, it outstripped the traditional Nichiren priestly establishment in size and popularity. The resulting backlash was that, in 1991, the entire SG membership was excommunicated. As one observer put it, the flea divorced the dog. SG was becoming what Time magazine was to call "an international people-to-people crusade against war"— a human revolution. Toda could be forceful. He advised his successor Ikeda "to fight adamantly against any evil that takes root within the priesthood," and in a decidedly non-Buddhist stance even went so far as to call for the death penalty for anyone using nuclear weapons.

The message was clear and popular: "Buddhism exists for the sake of ordinary human beings." Meditation may be good for your relaxation and well-being but, as our author (Strand) and others have recently asked, does it get you energised, "fired up" or have the power to waken you — to transform lives? Does it engage adherents and help address or solve the world's problems? Good question! Consider also the difference between many western approaches to Buddhism as a path individual spiritual growth and the more typical Asian paradigm of collective engagement with mentors and other community members.

To put it bluntly, the current baby boomer generation of western Buddhists could pass away leaving no lasting movement— whereas SGI seems destined to flourish as a truly authentic new religious reformation, engaging humans at a fundamental and inclusive level. It represents a paradigm that while appearing to have shed many of the visible trappings of traditional religion, in fact represents a fundamental integration of religious sensibility with daily life. This life-affirming movement, therefore, stands in rather stark symbolic contrast to traditional Japanese Shinto, sometimes called "Funeral Buddhism," ostensibly less concerned with the here than the hereafter! They say charity begins at home and so do many, if not most, innovative religious movements. SGI has adopted the "home-based discussion group model" aiming to make peace in this world, not the next.

Surely it is because religious movements too often become institutionalised, ritualised and ossified in traditional ruts that they lose their appeal and membership, regressing and retreating into tribalism and rigid, ritualistic, if not thought-policing mentalities. It is often "home-based" or home church movements that re-awaken the religious or spiritual spark latent if not already illumined in any one of us. In failing to conform to traditional religious models (consider how "non-conformist" Quakers shed ritual and priestly hierarchy in favor of egalitarian and inclusive discussion) individuals may in fact be following the calling of the heart to engage with one another as human beings, and reform the institutions established by previous, but now outdated thought paradigms. Life is dynamic and to "conform" to its currents of thought and feeling is also to be constantly ready to "reform" and find ways to be more authentically human. SGI may have declined to conform with many traditional Buddhist ways but in doing so it has helped reform, revitalise and bring new life to this venerable tradition.