Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese priest, and there are several schools of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan and around the world. From 1969 to 1984 I was a member of one of them, Nichiren Shoshu and its lay organization, Soka Gakkai International (SGI). I left SGI in 1984, although I’ve continued my Nichiren practice on my own. In 1991 there was an ugly schism between Nichiren Shoshu and SGI, and they are now independent of one another.
The following three essays were first posted online on a now defunct Nichiren Buddhist website, BuddhaJones.com. I wrote them in the hope of encouraging a more tolerant, less dogmatic approach to Buddhism within the SGI organization. But a measure of my failure to encourage tolerance within SGI can be seen in the fact that not long after my essays were posted, Buddha Jones was shut down after threats and intimidation from SGI.
Flower Power: Power to the People through the Sermon on the Lotus
David Wigginton 