Download or read book Encountering the Dharma written by Richard Hughes Seager and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006-03-16 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging, deeply personal book, illuminating the search for meaning in today’s world, offers a rare insider’s look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan’s most influential and controversial religious movements, and one that is experiencing explosive growth around the world. Unique for its multiethnic make-up, Gakkai Buddhists can be found in more than 100 countries from Japan to Brazil to the United States and Germany. In Encountering the Dharma, Richard Seager, an American professor of religion trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, travels to Japan in search of the spirit of the Soka Gakkai. This book tells of his journey toward understanding in a compelling narrative woven out of his observations, reflections, and interviews, including several rare one-on-one meetings with Soka Gakkai president Daisaku Ikeda. Along the way, Seager also explores broad-ranging controversies arising from the Soka Gakkai’s efforts to rebuild post-war Japan, its struggles with an ancient priesthood, and its motives for propagating Buddhism around the world. One turning point in his understanding comes as Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai strike an authentically Buddhist response to the events of September 11, 2001.
Download or read book The Hope Filled Teachings of Nichiren Daishonin written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2019-11-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daisaku Ikeda, president of the worldwide Soka Gakkai International, elucidates the importance of studying Nichiren's writings as the foundation of Nichiren Buddhism as practiced by the Soka Gakkai International. His lectures bring Nichiren's immense wisdom, compassion, and courage into focus for the present age. In reading and studying these lectures, we learn how to apply in daily life Nichiren's profound philosophy for inner transformation and victory for both ourselves and others. The Hope-Filled Teachings of Nichiren will empower you to find hope and develop the strength and wisdom to bring forth your inherent potential.
Download or read book Waking the Buddha written by Clark Strand and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there more to Buddhism than sitting in silent meditation? Is modern Buddhism relevant to the problems of daily life? Does it empower individuals to transform their lives? Or has Buddhism become too detached, so still and quiet that the Buddha has fallen asleep? Waking the Buddha tells the story of the Soka Gakkai International, the largest, most dynamic Buddhist movement in the world today—and one that is waking up and shaking up Buddhism so it can truly work in ordinary people’s lives. Drawing on his long personal experience as a Buddhist teacher, journalist, and editor, Clark Strand offers broad insight into how and why the Soka Gakkai, with its commitment to social justice and its egalitarian approach, has become a role model, not only for other schools of Buddhism, but for other religions as well. Readers will be inspired by the struggles and triumphs of the Soka Gakkai’s three founding presidents—individuals who staked their lives on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the extraordinary power of those teachings to help people become happy.
Download or read book Global Citizens written by David W. Machacek and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement provides an historical overview of the importance of the movement as an educational reform society and its development into a sect of Nichiren Buddhism.
Download or read book The History and Theology of Soka Gakkai written by Daniel Alfred Metraux and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soka Gakkai, with 10 million members, is seen as a critically important force in Japan and remains the biggest of Japan's new religions. Here, the author outlines the eschatological worldview of the Soka Gakkai and gives an analysis of its American branch. The text gives a picture of Soka Gakkai as a rather mature' or mellow religion grown older, both in membership and in institutional character. The religion is seen to have given up the rather aggressive proselytizing style and confrontational politics that made it notorious in Japan and among Soka Gokkai] bashers' in the West.
Download or read book Buddhism written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the events immediately following the dark days after the death of Shakyamuni and continuing over a period of 1,000 years, this dynamic tome covers a vast and complex series of events and developments in the history of Buddhism. Through a thorough examination of its early development in India, a new light is cast on little-known aspects of Buddhist history and its relevance to the understanding of Buddhism today. Topics include the formation of the Buddhist canon, the cultural exchange between the East and West, and the spirit of the Lotus Sutra.
Download or read book For Our Wonderful New Members written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I intend to write as if we were seated together in a shady grove cooled by gentle breezes, engaging in a relaxed conversation.” So saying, Daisaku Ikeda invites us to explore with him five core principles of Nichiren Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai movement, so that we may find true happiness ourselves, help others do the same, and bring about a more peaceful world.
Download or read book The Way of Youth written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daisaku Ikeda, who offers spiritual leadership to 12 million Soka Gakkai Buddhists throughout the world, responds to the complicated issues facing American young people in a straightforward question-and-answer format. He addresses topics that include building individual character, the purpose of hard work and perseverance, family and relationships, tolerance, and preservation of the environment. Written from a Buddhist perspective, this collection of answers to life's questions offers timeless wisdom to people of all faiths.
Download or read book Soka Gakkai s Human Revolution written by Levi McLaughlin and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2018-12-31 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soka Gakkai is Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization: It claims more than 8 million Japanese households and close to 2 million members in 192 countries and territories. The religion is best known for its affiliated political party, Komeito (the Clean Government Party), which comprises part of the ruling coalition in Japan’s National Diet, and it exerts considerable influence in education, media, finance, and other key areas. Levi McLaughlin’s comprehensive account of Soka Gakkai draws on nearly two decades of archival research and non-member fieldwork to account for its institutional development beyond Buddhism and suggest how we should understand the activities and dispositions of its adherents. McLaughlin explores the group’s Nichiren Buddhist origins and turns to insights from religion, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies to characterize Soka Gakkai as mimetic of the nation-state. Ethnographic vignettes combine with historical evidence to demonstrate ways Soka Gakkai’s twin Buddhist and modern humanist legacies inform the organization’s mimesis of the modern Japan in which the group took shape. To make this argument, McLaughlin analyzes Gakkai sources heretofore untreated in English-language scholarship; provides a close reading of the serial novel The Human Revolution, which serves the Gakkai as both history and de facto scripture; identifies ways episodes from members’ lives form new chapters in its growing canon; and contributes to discussions of religion and gender as he chronicles the lives of members who simultaneously reaffirm generational transmission of Gakkai devotion as they pose challenges for the organization’s future. Readers looking for analyses of the nation-state and strategies for understanding New Religions and modern Buddhism will find Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution to be an especially thought-provoking study that offers widely applicable theoretical models.
Download or read book The Opening of the Eyes written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing questions such as What constitutes a meaningful life? and What is true happiness?, this guide to Nichiren Buddhism presents the spiritual practice as a teaching of hope that can answer these and other important questions of modern life. Buddhist teacher Daisaku Ikeda offers insights into The Opening of the Eyes, a longer treatise written by Nichiren that calls for individuals to base themselves on a spirit of compassion and to fight for the happiness of others, regardless of the circumstances. Ikeda’s simple and straightforward commentary brings this integral writing to life for a contemporary readership. Through the text and the accompanying commentary, readers will not will discover a philosophy of inner transformation that will help them find deep and lasting happiness for themselves and for others.
Download or read book The Lotus and the Maple Leaf written by Daniel Alfred Metraux and published by Lanham, Md. : University Press of America. This book was released on 1996 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement in Japan has revived Buddhism in the lives of millions of Japanese, changed the course of Japanese government, brought creative new ideas to the field of education, and has impacted the worlds of art and culture. This movement is now gaining popularity in Canada. Why are so many Canadians now joining this movement? What is the appeal beyond the Canadian-Asian Community and how has this Buddhist sect managed to assimilate itself in a Christian society? This book seeks to answer those questions and more. It chronicles the rise of this branch of Japanese Buddhism in Canada and it studies the relationship between the parent group in Tokyo and its Canadian branch.
Download or read book The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism written by Sōka Gakkai and published by 聖教新聞社. This book was released on 2002-11 with total page 1008 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 約2700語を収録した創価学会版「英文仏教辞典」。
Download or read book The Soka Gakkai Revolution written by Daniel Alfred Metraux and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soka Gakkai Revolution has revived Buddhism in the lives of millions of Japanese, changed the course of Japanese government, brought creative new ideas to the field of education, and impacted the worlds of culture and art. Metraux has written a comprehensive work on this integral actor in Japanese society and politics that analyzes the Soka Gakkai's rise to political power, its participation in the Hosokawa coalition cabinet, its highly publicized split from Nichiren Shoshu, and its plans to transform Japanese society. Also included is a secondary study of the Soka Gakkai movement in the United States. Contents: The Soka Gakkai Revolution: Blueprint for a New Society; The Soka Gakkai: History and Doctrines; The Soka Gakkai and Politics; The Dispute between the Soka Gakkai and the Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood; The Soka Gakkai's Revolutionary Approach to Education; The Soka Gakkai Abroad; Ikeda Daisaku: Religious Savior or Diabolical Dictator? The Significance of the Soka Gakkai.
Download or read book The Brilliant Path of Worldwide Kosen rufu written by Soka Gakkai and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2021-05-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with stories of people achieving their human revolution,surmounting obstacles, and fulfilling their vow to create peaceand happiness in the world, Daisaku Ikeda's The New Human Revolution recounts the true history of the Soka Gakkai's worldwide movement for peace. Its thirty volumes will allow generation after generation to learn,to be inspired, and to continue the story into the future.This study guide, which covers the first ten volumes, offers highlights, key passages, historic photos, andother material to enhance your own study of this essential work.
Download or read book You Were Born to Win written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young people are the hope of the future. Their passion and power can usher in an age of hope and respect for all people. Over many years, Daisaku Ikeda--president of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist association and spiritual leader for millions--has often shared with youth the lessons of life and faith that he himself has learned.The universal messages in You Were Born to Win will inspire youth of all ages and all faiths to find fulfillment and happiness and lead a life of purpose.
Download or read book On Health and Long Life written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Always concerned about the most basic problems confrontinghumanity, SGI President Ikeda here once again exploresthe four universal sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, anddeath. In conversation with doctors and nurses, the SGIleader skillfully weaves Buddhist insights with the practicalknowledge and personal experiences of his dialoguepartners.??What can we learn from our illnesses???How is the patient's attitude crucial to healing???How do parents affect their children's health???How much are our lives determined by our genes? Whatare constructive ways to approach aging???What are keys for effective health care???What roles do faith and SGI activities play in a long andfulfilling life?The answers to these and other questions in On Health andLong Life provide valuable perspectives to caring for themost valuable of treasures: our lives themselves.
Download or read book On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime written by Daisaku Ikeda and published by Middleway Press. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What constitutes a meaningful life? What is true happiness? Nichiren Buddhism, based on the Lotus Sutra, is a teaching of hope that provides answers to these and other important questions for modern life. Ranked among the most important works in Mahayana Buddhism, Nichiren's 13th-century writings were revolutionary. In On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Nichiren turned prevailing Buddhist thought on its head. Attaining Buddhahood, or enlightenment, he argues, does not require embarking on some inconceivably long journey toward becoming some resplendent godlike Buddha, but rather it means accomplishing a transformation in the depths of one's being and revealing one's ultimate potential within. And Nichiren dedicated his life—braving all manner of persecution—to giving people a practical means for doing so. Daisaku Ikeda's simple and straightforward commentary brings alive this important writing for the modern world. Thoughtful people of all faiths will resonate with his compassionate insights on the universal teaching of happiness that is Nichiren Buddhism.
