Download conclusion - Virginia Review of Asian Studies

CONCLUSION
THE SOKA GAKKAI AS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY
The previous chapters on SGI compose a picture of a very complex
organization. Any movement that can attract two to three million followers in
addition to the eight to ten million members in Japan must be doing something
right. Part of the success must be the very nature of Nichiren Buddhism, but there
must be more. The Soka Gakkai derives its theology from Nichiren Shoshu, a
very obscure Buddhist sect in Japan with a small following. Most of the success
in numbers, therefore, must be due to the Soka Gakkai organization itself or a
combination of organization and message.
Throughout the different chapters examined here, one finds comments that
the form of Nichiren Buddhism adhered to by Soka Gakkai does indeed have
great appeal to many adherents. I was told over and over that it is a traditional
form of Buddhism with a modern twist. Devout faith, practice and study can lead
to joy and fulfillment here and now—no need to wait for another lifetime.
Nothing is preordained. We have karma and whether we are successful in life
depends on the state of our karma. This Buddhism encourages the faithful
follower to work hard to mold his karma for the better, noting that each person is
not only responsible for his or her own welfare, but also shares the responsibility
to care for the well-being of others.
123
124
This idea of self-empowerment is very appealing to younger educated
Chinese in Southeast Asia and Australia. Practitioners say that the selfempowerment is a critical difference from their prior sects where monks played a
key role and where they were told that they had little control over their karmas
and / or that some degree of enlightenment could not come here and now. The
idea that one is responsible for one’s fate means that both one’s successes and
failures are one’s personal responsibility. Being fully responsible for one’s own
fate his its risks, but also its rewards. But young educated Chinese in Hong Kong
and SE Asia are ready and willing to take these risks and have the Soka Gakkai
very much behind them.
The fact that the Soka Gakkai is a Buddhist movement is also very
important to many Asian members. Their families come from Buddhist societies,
but many of them had moved away from more traditional forms of Buddhism
when they left their traditional villagers to larger cities like Kuala Lumpur or
Singapore and received modern educations. They engaged Soka Gakkai not only
for its empowerment aspects, but also for its ties to traditional Buddhism. They
had found a more modern yet very traditional form of Buddhism.
The Japanese connection seems to play a very minor role in the attraction
of Soka Gakkai. For example, Soka Gakkai claims several hundred thousand SGI
members in Korea and a conversation with a leading political scientist in Seoul in
March 2009 confirmed that SGI does have a major presence in South Korea. This
scholar, quite conservative by nature, shook his head and wondered out loud why
so many younger Koreans would join a Japanese-based group after all the
suffering Japan imposed on Korea during World War II. But a chance
conversation with a young male Korean SGI member visiting Japan a few years
ago revealed that the fact that SGI has Japanese roots mattered little to him. “It is
the Buddhism itself which is important and relevant to my life. Although I enjoy
visiting Japan and have SGI friends here, the fact that SGI itself is Japanese is
really no concern to me. I am truly and deeply interested in Buddhism, but
traditional Buddhism in my country is practically dead. But Nichiren Daishonin’s
125
Buddhism is very much alive. For the very first time in my life I can practice
Buddhism with true sincerity.”
The Soka Gakkai message, however, is more than just about Buddhism.
The Soka Gakkai portrays itself as a peace movement and President Ikeda sends
out well developed peace proposals every year. Members are told that their efforts
in living like Buddhists and spreading their Buddhist message to others is in fact
helping to promote world peace. Whether or not this is pure propaganda on the
part of Soka Gakkai leaders is really not an issue. What is important is that many
members actually feel that their work and practice inside Soka Gakkai is a step
forward to true and lasting world peace.
Social factors are very important as we discovered in Australia. Very few
of the Australian members actually live now where they grew up. Whether they
are recent immigrants from SE Asia or domestic immigrants from another
Australian city, SGI provides them with a readymade network of friends. Its often
lonely and difficult to migrate from a country where your family is Chinese to an
Anglo-European land like Australia on your own. You will quite naturally go to a
place where there are others your own age and who speak your native tongue. It is
a place to make friends, find partners, and to have a good time.
Another important factor is that each SGI country chapter is autonomous
and is led by locals. Why this is important is also clearly evident in China. In
prewar China foreign missionaries ran the church and the schools. They often did
a lot of good, but most Chinese regarded Christianity as an alien religion with
little relevance in their own lives. But when I visited China on a Fulbright
research grant in 2006, I saw many smaller churches springing up all over China.
I asked one of my former Chinese students, a devout Christian living in Beijing,
why Christianity was growing so rapidly in China. She replied, “Because it’s a
native church. There are no foreigners or foreign connections in our congregation.
Now Christianity has found its own native base.”
What my student said about Christianity in China is also true for the Soka
Gakkai. SGI chapters have a truly local flavor. The teachings and practices are
126
almost identical to those in Tokyo as are the organizational structures, but the
languages used and the leaders and members are all local. There is no real effort
by Tokyo to provide direct leadership. It is the common faith and a deep
reverence for Ikeda Daisaku that really ties them all together.
The nature of the membership is also important. There is of course
constant turnover in membership, although I only rarely got a chance to talk to
estranged or former members. But Soka Gakkai has chosen a very conservative
path. When I researched another NRM, Aum Shinrikyo, and its drive to get
members in Russia in the early 1990s, I was astounded to find that they claimed
up to 50,000 members in less than a year, but when Aum Shinrikyo collapsed in
1995, Russian membership evaporated very quickly to only a few dozen hard core
members. Aum had not bothered to put down real roots and many young Russians
joined out of curiosity. SGI does not go out on large recruiting drives and devotes
a lot of time and attention to existing members with the result that many of them
do stay. The number of SGI members in Australia, New Zealand and Canada may
be small, but SGI has built firm and secure roots in these countries.
SGI has also taken the trouble in many areas to ingratiate itself not only
with the local communities, but also with local and national governments. When
the Singaporean government needs large numbers of performers for its national
independence parades, the SSA provides a large caste of marchers and performers
at its own expense. When Malaysia hosted the Commonwealth games, the local
SGI provided many performers for the opening ceremony. These ties with both
community and government are very important for the survival of SGI
Thus, for a religious movement to find a home in another country or
culture, it must attract local leaders and give them considerable autonomy. The
conduct of all affairs must be in the local language. The religion must have some
relevance to the lives of its potential practitioners as well as a universal message.
Social factors are also important—can members also have fun, make friends and
develop a social life? And acceptance by local communities and government can
play an important role as well.
127
SGI is still a small movement in virtually every country where Nichiren
Buddhism has taken root. There is every indication that these roots are solid and
that SGI is here to stay. Growth will take place, slowly but surely as more and
more people, one by one, find relevance in SGI’s message. The Soka Gakkai has
truly emerged as a yet small but growing global community.