The Independent Reassessment Group (IRG) was, a group of concerned and committed SGI-USA members (past and present). It never was an officially positively sanctioned SGI- USA group. The people who formed it wanted to reform the Gakkai, and that is all they wanted to do. They never were intending to form another group. Never were intending to be "disloyal" nor anything but what would be called in the Anglo-American Tradition a "Loyal Opposition." They did want to see the SGI-USA reform

For more see this link (if it works):

http:\\www.daimoku.com

Founders

The IRG was a small group of correspondents founded in Southern California in the late 1990's by people frustrated with earlier efforts to create reforms and changes within SGI. The early leaders of this effort included Bill Anker, Lauri Chandler, Don Ross, John Nicks, Andy Hanlen and a few other people that they knew locally. These people decided to try to pursue reform using the internet as a basis after seeing their local efforts rebuffed. The internet allowed people to compare notes, see commonalities, and try to figure out a way to stick together in the face of official and unofficial ostracism and criticism. At this point only a few of the original participants are left with the SGI USA. Others, who were "behind the scenes" at the beginning are still continuing their efforts behind the scenes. I still consider myself an "honorary member" of IRG-Central.

For more on it's own view of itself visit:

http://www.daimoku.com/history.html".

IRG and Reform

The Reform movement grew out of the IRG movement, but did not involve all the same people. Some of the people passed from the membership list or "watchlist" of IRG to the reform movement. And I did sign off on their declaration. But I was not a mover and shaker of the "reform group." I felt that such a challenge was a waste of effort. It became a way-station on the way to "taiten" (quitting) or becoming "Indy" for most of those who joined it.

For more on the history of the Reform effort visit:

My Reform Page:reform.html

To contact IRG Central:

mailto:[email protected]

What was the IRG?

The group was never a formal organization. The closest it came to being a formal organization was through it's webpage at http://www.daimoku.com and it's discussion group at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/irgdaimoku. It's original agenda was to write three letters to the SGI leadership, critiquing the leadership with the idea of providing input on how to make the organization a better place for the members. The members of IRG agreed on some general principles, and disagreed on others, and so there was never any real intent to consciously "rebel" against the organization so much as to prod it a little to make changes most of us thought that at least most of the leaders wanted to change. These were common sense proposals, and you would have thought they'd have been implemented long ago.

For more on this visit:

http://daimoku.com/history.html

Three Issues

The issues of the "IRG" were summarized into three categories:

The "Organizational Issue"

The Appearance Issue

The Temple Issue

Three Papers in Brief.

Andy wrote the paper on the Organizational Issue with input from others, including myself, and the organization critiqued the results even as we wrote it, agreeing that some of the issues made sense, and tabling them all. Then we worked on the "Temple Issue" Paper. I helped with that one. I knew it would be controversial, so I documented everything and tried to put it in terms of "process" rather than intent. The SGI had been pursuing it's conflict with Nichiren Shoshu in ways that were sometimes dishonest and reflected an unnecessary escalation of hostility from what was needed to simply "refute" Nichiren Shoshu teachings and logically present its own case. But this paper was not received the same way as the organizational paper. Indeed it became a wedge that was used to divide members who otherwise are all for reform. After the temple issue paper came out, such a storm started, that many of the original members of IRG and those who participated in the discussion boards, simply gave up on SGI and walked, becoming "independents. We started working on the Appearance issue and we got through several drafts, but by then we no longer had the same relationship with the Gakkai. Leaders who had been supportive or at least friendly before, began to question our motives, membership, sincerity, practice. Indeed the situation blew up. And well the appearance issue paper never got finished. I wrote a draft, and I'll share it here, but we never got far enough to publish it. I guess my draft is as close as we would ever get. I put a copy at this page appearance.html To read the whole story scroll down this page.

The Third Paper that was never written

The whole thing was about the appearance issue. Unfortunately it seems our assumptions may have been wrong, our efforts resulted in little progress and instead simply engendered some very real efforts to paint "IRG" as an enemy worse than the "terrible Nikken Sect" with which the Gakkai was unofficially at war with. Some of the members escallated their efforts to an actual "reform movement", some of them did so and then went on to secede from the Gakkai, and some of them, like myself, have simply kind of emotionally withdrawn a bit from the effort and decided to let things take their own course. The discussion group continues at irgdaimoku, none of us feel that the leadership is really cooperating with it's efforts at this point. And there are a number of reasons for that.

For Andy's version of things see this page:

http://www.buddhajones.com/Articles/SGI/AndyHanlen.html

Since the above is gone try:

http://www.fraughtwithperil.com/blogs/andyhanlen/

Indeed one of the principle architects of the undermining of IRG efforts tells her version of the story at these pages:

http://www.buddhajones.com/Articles/SGI/KathyRuby.html

and: http://www.gakkaionline.net/KRuby/essays.html.

For more on these issues follow the above and below links and read the rest of this webpage.

References and pages

This page:

Genesis of IRG and my participation with it

Controversy in IRG and on irgdaimoku

How being opposed to war can create war

Justice Chronicle and fall out.

Justice Chronicle "postings" from irgdaimoku

Like a Civil War

A life of it's own

Memo PLN-030

Issues of Truthfulness and honesty

Examples

Hope for Change

Other pages:

The Reform page

IRG Website

Irgdaimoku Website and Discussion pages

Irgosho study pages (nothing directly to do with organizational issues)

Contacts:

Contact irg_central

Contact me

back to index

A Little History of the Reform Issue: Promises made

The key impetus behind "IRG" were the "mirror guidances" that President Ikeda gave to our country in during a visit in 1990. These seemed to be advocating things congruent with Western notions of Democracy. In 1990 President Ikeda had made a series of "mirror guidances" which seemed to people living in this country to be guidances advocating that SGI reform it's USA organization. Those guidances led us to believe that our previously unabashedly authoritarian organization was open to change.

Temple Issue: Priests and Mayhem

In retrospect it doesn't seem so strange, but around the same time as Ikeda gave us those wonderful "mirror guidances", a great war of words was about to erupt between the Priests of the formal organization and the Sokagakkai Lay organization. broke out between the priests of Nichiren Shoshu and the Sokagakkai exposing a vast gulf of differences between the two organizations. By the late 90's many folks in the USA started to express their concerns about the direction that SGI leadership was taking in it's singleminded pursuit of "defeating the evil Nikken Sect", about the slowness with which these seemingly promised reforms were implemented, and about other issues that cropped up as a result of the developing animosity between the two formerly united groups and the way that some members went about pursuing the dispute. For more on these issues see SGI issues page and the other pages with hyperlinks buried in this paragraph.

Lake County, Town Halls, and Other "Pioneers of Reform"

What was on the mind of the IRG reformers, were various previous efforts at Reform. Principally a "Town Hall meeting" that had ocurred in 1992, and the early rebellion known as the "Lake County District" rebellion, which also had begun in the early 90's. The town hall meetings had been , that had been led by Carmen Thielmann and her friends. There had been other movements of Nichiren Buddhists who were disatisfied with SGI leadership as well, but these had mostly been unfocused, and almost all of them had led to their members either becoming part of another religion or going "taiten" (quitting faith). What has been happening in the 90's is new because those involved know about each other, are not docile, and many of them are not quiting their practice.For more on this see the "Reform" page

In any case the person who tried to dialogue with her and bring her back to the way of thinking of the Gakkai was a junior leader named Don Ross (his home page is at www.lotussutra.net). Rather than converting her to his way of thinking, she made him realize there were serious problems with what was then referred to as the Temple Issue. He was a leading developer of the effort to reform the Gakkai until he got interested in the roots of Nichiren teachings and decided that people should be able to get original reproductions of one or more of Nichiren's 120 Gohonzon and dropped out of the reform group realizing his actions would henceforth be too controversial.

The result of these conflicts was that people began practicing either as independence, or joining the loose umbrella Sangha known as "Nichiren Shu" or other previously non-existent groups such as HBS, Kempon Hokke, or others. Independent Reassessment was designed to reassess the Gakkai with the idea of figuring out how to stem those losses and maybe even bring people back to the Gakkai. The were leaders and members had a shared sense that SGI was heading off in the wrong direction in three ways. For more on the history of the IRG visit: the IRG history page at: http://www.daimoku.com/history.html.

The Organizational Issues

Independent Reassessment suggested that the SGI-USA organization should develop genuine independence of Japan and forms of representation and organization that reflect the country in which we live in. President Ikeda has already given us guidances on this, and you can read them at: http://www.gakkaionline.net/ST390/. Even so, currently the organization is run in a hierarchical fashion from Japan. For more on this issue follow this link to: sgissue.html

. For the "mission statement" and letter of intent you can visit: http://www.daimoku.com/mission.html. For the paper submitted by IRG titled: "Democratization" at: www.daimoku.com/democrat.html or my "mirror copy" of it at democrat.html.

Overtime it became obvious that the central organization, backed by stalwarts who felt that the hierarchy could do no wrong, wasn't really serious about "top down efforts" or any such thing. For them SGI was a business and any idea that it could be different from that would threaten their business. Efforts at "reform" were taken as "personally" as the Temple Issue had been. For them ideas like "democracy" and soka (value creation) had a different meaning than for me. For examples of this read About the Houston Saga or other stories.

Appearance Issues

We believe that the organization presents appearances that undermine the truths of the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism by the behavior of leaders who misunderstand or mis-present the teaching of mentor/disciple or who behave badly, rudely, or inappropriately. I've written some essays on the meaning of "mentor/disciple" and you can follow this link for more on this subject: mentor.html. For more on the appearance Issue, you can read my draft of what I was hoping would turn into an "appearance Issue Paper" before I dropped out of IRG-Central. We Identified the critical appearance issues as:

1. Financial Accountability
2. Organizational Structure
3. Exclusivism/Fundamentalism
4. Emphasis on Personal Loyalty to Ikeda

Unfortunately since we wrote the paper, these issues not only were not resolved, but have shown themselves to be even more wormy than we thought they were when we started. During the existence of the IRG group we saw people come and go. Mostly go. And what drove them was one or more of the above issues.

Most of what was in the drafts of the appearance Issue paper ended up in the draft of a "declaration" created by a new group called "SGI Reform Group." This group is a bit expanded from the IRG Central mission and also a bit more proactive. Even so I've turned my copy of one of the drafts into a webpage: appearance.html

The Temple Issue

Andy believes that the "war" with Nichiren Shoshu is mistaken, I believe that is is being persued incorrectly and far to "personally" and that we need to concentrate on better understanding Nichiren's teachings, work on our own organization, and downgrade the "evils" of our former affiliations. We have a basic consensus that the SGI should not be acting as if it were at war with Nichiren Shoshu alone and that it is a mistake to think that one group is the locus of all evil. For more on the Temple Issue follow this link to temple.html. For the paper written by IRG on the subject follow this link:

http://daimoku.com/IRG-TIpaper.html I had a hand in writing that paper, though it was mainly Andy's baby.

My own take on Temple Issues

Genesis of IRG and my participation with it

I corresponded with these people via a private group named zadankai and argued with Andy and sometimes defended him. I'd been interested in these three issues as well and I eventually came to join their group when they were attacked as just being regional malcontents and wannabees from California. I was able to sign my name to the first paper (the "Organizational Issue" paper and made contributions to it. The second paper on the "Temple Issue" I actually contributed heavilly to because I've been deeply involved in it, trying to do Shakubuku as Buddhism teaches and refute incorrect teachings. The third paper is still in the works as of this date. I contributed a draft, Andy and others worked on it, but it seems to have been "lost in committee". I left formal participation in IRG when I realized that I didn't have the time or means to physically meet with the other IRG members and that the group had been mischaracterized to the point that no one seemed to be listening to it's message anymore.

Controversy in IRG and on irgdaimoku

During the Genesis of the IRG central committee, we were already in heavy debates with other members. The main topic of disagreement was over the Temple Issue and some of the things that are part of the Appearance issue. Most members were all for reforming the Gakkai and many were far more radical about this than any of the people who came to form "IRG"(indeed I like what some of them are doing such as "Victorious America" at http://www.victoriousamerica.com/). However, there are two issues members disagree with heatedly. One is on the "mentorship" of President Ikeda, the other was over the "temple issue." These arguments led to some members becoming quite angry to the point where some of them came to see people who thought they were incorrect about seeing President Ikeda as a living Buddha and the Nichiren Shoshu as a worst enemy than Hitler (such as the "IRG" group), as a greater threat than Nichiren Shoshu. I've written on the subject of "enemies within" in my essay on the three powerful enemies, and if we were indeed doing things that could destroy the Gakkai such an appellation might be appropriate. Unfortunately this idea construct has led some people to actively oppose our efforts, who one would think would be supporting them, and has given levers of attack to those who would naturally be non-supportive of our efforts.

How being opposed to war can create war

The very existence of an "independent reassessment group" led to controversy. Don Ross, had battled hard during an earlier period to overcome "HIV" infection and had won his way to a healthy life, largely through his practice of Buddhism and the encouragement of other members. He had done so despite being ostracized by none less than Sam Kudamatsu, who was the area leader at the time and asked him to stay away from meetings out of fear that somehow he might "infect them." During this time he became more and more impressed by an independent notion of reproducing Nichiren's own Gohonzon, "The prayer Gohonzon". When he started doing this he soon began to realize that he was not going to be able to do so within the SGI. So he declared himself independent and resigned from IRG central though as a webmaster and "techie" he continued to help out with technical issues and to moderate the discussion group, for a time. As an independent he could give out Gohonzon unrestricted. This drew fire and was one of the Genesis's of the later "PLN-30" message. His association with IRG is also why the message of "Independent Reassessment" tended to get lost in the superstitious hoopla over "authorized versus unauthorized" Gohonzon.

Justice Chronicle and fall out.

At the end of last summer I had to take a break from the internet. I needed to do my own reassessment of my participation in the "Temple Wars" and other internet discussion. While I was gone the irgdaimoku group broke into a cat fight between a member of SGI and a member of the Temple, and that led to both of them being "moderated" from the list. The member from the Gakkai felt she had been treated unfairly and wrote her experiences for the "Justice Chronicle" and in the process libeled the IRG group as well as the irgdaimoku. Some of the issues are detailed in the following postings:

1. Text of Kathy's experience in Justice Chronicle #63:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/7815
2. Lisa Jones made this post in defense of Kathy Ruby
3. Diane Conti posted this response, that contained her message traffic on the situation

4. Diane Conti, was living in Turkey and leading a local group of members who were receiving zero support from SGI in Europe. She completed her teaching assignment there and moved back to Florida in the USA only to find that she couldn't stomach the attitude among the members in her Florida area. As a result of these things she couldn't stomach, She later left the SGI too.
5. "Chanter Kyo's posts regarding the IRG". Her interraction with the SGI due to Kathy's letter eventually led to her being ostracized by the SGI and even leaving it herself.
6. Andy's 1st reply:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/10037
7. Andy's second reply:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/10036
8. Andy's third reply:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/10035"
9. Don Ross was already a Boat Rocker. The upshot of this (and the PLN-30 decision detailed next is that he too left the SGI.
10. His decision to formally resign from SGI, led to him being treated rudely the next time he tried to attend a meeting: message 11052

Like a Civil War

The worst thing about this is that I think of all the participants as friends, and have known the author of the Justice Chronicle article longer than many of the others. Her misguided attempt to defend the SGI by attacking "IRG" has caused more disunity than IRG ever could. The IRGdaimoku forum has often been a place for complaints, gossip, and even heated argument, but It was never as she characterized it -- at least not when I was participating. Thanks to her article and the PLN-30 memo there is more disinformation about the IRG than information, but at least there is interest.

Lately things have gotten so bad, that I'm going to have to create a new webpage on the subject called civil.html detailing how Gakkai Leaders have turned on long time members, sometimes due to communications errors and sometimes due to cupidity. This is all a function of the Three Powerful Enemies

A life of it's own

Worse, the "disinformation" seems to have a life of it's own. Recently, Jim Celer, putting together a website to refute the NST material that attacks the SGI using complaints originating on the IRG discussion group (The "SGI EYE" website), repeated some of these allegations and made some mistatements of his own. He insists that people involved with IRG are somehow unreasonable and that we are responsible for the distortions and misrepresentations done by those people. He is right that the Hokkeko/Danto members who post to ARBN are intentionally misrepresenting and distorting the Gakkai and what is happening. He is wrong if he thinks that simply "denying" their allegations will solve any problems. He seems to feel that somehow it is wrong to publicly discuss issues and that somehow one is supposed to continue with private channels even after decades of such channels have had little effect. He says "but the IRG will accept no reason for not implementing their agenda", implying what? He also says that what the NST is talking about is merely from Kathy Ruby's Justice Chronicle article. I guess he never read PLN-30. The fact is that SGI-Corporate did put out a kind of lame "crackdown" on IRG, though they didn't go so far as to muzzle us or to excommunicate us. I'm a little surprised at all of this, though I shouldn't be, when people feel they are at war, then anyone who is not behind that war is seen as a traitor. Jim also misrepresents what happened with Buster Williams site when he made some intemperate public comments about NST in which he talked about destroying the "evil Nikken Sect." Jim should have words with Mr. Williams about using such language publicly (maybe in private) as this is what gave hay to NST members (who love evidence that the Gakkai hates them as justification for their hate of the Gakkai). Buster Williams is a great Jazz musician and a wonderful man, but those remarks ended an otherwise positive meeting on a negative tone and drove away some new members from the Gakkai. See this link for the message that led to e-mails and complaints to Buster Williams: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/7750.

Memo PLN-030

One of the fallouts from the acrimony of the Temple issue. Even though members gave experiences through IRG that retracted some of her opinions or clarified them her allegations were allowed to stand. Unfortunately, there never was any sort of apology. Indeed in their official reply to our latest communications with them, the SGI Central rehashed these allegations as if they were true. For the memo itself (with some HTML added but otherwise intact) see this link: OfficialPG.html. For my comments on their memo see this link: m43001reply.html

. My main objection is that the authors of this memo didn't do their homework. They repeated lies as if they were facts and allegations as if they were proven. It is as if they are afraid of a few loyal members who happen to want the SGI to implement it's own words and guidances. If they want to create an enemy and label us as an enemy then they are hardly creating the causes for an ultimate "victory against violence." I am no one's enemy and I'm not about to "fight" anyone. Rather I have to respect their Buddha Nature because I know that they too will become Buddhas eventually. This is the example of "Bodhisattva Never Despise." I have simply grown up and want to see SGI grow up too

Issues of Truthfulness and honesty

One allegation that rings with me is the allegation about "unverifiable quotes." It has been impossible sometimes to get source materials for proving things one way or another. Much of this is that people are reluctant to admit to a position when they know that it contradicts the official stance of SGI, common sense, or the writings of their mentor. For that reason it is almost impossible to get anyone to talk "on the record" or "in writing" about anything that is "embarrassing" to the organization. For example we never did get a "true text" of what President Ikeda said in the 35th leaders meeting that sparked the split with the priests and that is just one small and petty example. Many members will talk about their personal beliefs but not directly or publicly. For some people these issues are white black issues where people are acting "evil" and the lines have to be clearly drawn. That Nikken could be right about some things and wrong about others, and President Ikeda the same, doesn't seem to sit comfortably with them. So you see comments like "Nikken is possessed by the devil of the sixth heaven" as if they had some literal validity and were not simply metaphors for the evil system and resulting evil moments that led to the current acrimony. Because much of this "faith" is not entirely rational (and often rejects, explicitly, rational thinking) few are willing to debate these subjects openly. At the same time some leaders believe that anything they say publicly that reflects personal feelings can and will be used against them and so they won't comment publicly except in meetings.

I've had leaders get angry at me because I thought that they had said something on the record in an e-mail and they wanted it "off the record." I have also seen them get angry when something they said in public turned out to be embarrassing. It is understandable but they really simply need to remember they are leaders and they are responsible for making sure that they are correct.

Worse than the people who make errors (which are after all understandable) are the incidents like the above mentioned Justice Chronicle Flap. When people spread lies (some of them with full knowledge that they are lies!) there is no excuse. We had an incident in which a leader told members that people participating in the IRG were "Danto" members. When informed that we weren't that, he didn't seem to care that he had told a whopper to a member. If this is protecting the members it's no wonder the membership keeps fluctuating. I nearly quit when I found out I'd been "protected" that way. This lie was inexcuseable, and it's not the first time that people who have told lies have been protected in the name of protecting the members.

For more on this incident you can visit: the post to irgdaimoku where Andy revealed the message traffic at this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/11661

I and members of the IRG committee have heard many things that we don't put out publicly simply because they can't be verified. Even when they can be verified we try to respect the privacy of our sources. When we do make a breach of "protocol" it's not because we can't verify what we heard, but because the sources are insisting on privacy. When people hear at a meeting that implementing President Ikeda's guidance for a "bottom up" organization is like letting the "inmates run the asylum" that may be a public comment, but the author doesn't want to be embarrassed by being pointed to. People do change, and let's hope the voice that made that statement will learn to respect the members of SGI-USA.

But it doesn't matter, because the members of SGI are growing up and we simply won't tolerate misbehavior, or arrogant and overbearing behavior, from anyone anymore. This is our SGI or it isn't what it says it is. That is what my participatin in IRG is really all about. I don't plan on acting arrogant and overbearing in the process!

Examples

Examples of Correspondences that show some of the difficulties that members are encountering with various leaders.
1. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/11661
2. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/10928
3. Letter traffic with Frank Nakabayashi:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/11661
4. Andy's letter about Frank's comments:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/12076
5. My letter to Frank Nakabayashi:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/11656

Hope for Change

I quit formal participation in irg_central after the acrimony in the group began to get out of hand. But I still feel that the original purpose of the group is important and can be accomplished. The important question is whether or not a "loyal opposition" can be tolerated within a Buddhist Sangha, or whether genuine and valid differences of opinion necessarilly have to lead to permanent rifts between Buddhists. By changing the framework of the discussion from "who is wrong" to "what is wrong" and "what is true" one can get past the personal stuff (politics) that is a necessary part of any organization and legitimize people having differences of opinion. Paradoxically this is a source of unity. "Itai Doshin" is translated as "Many bodies One mind" but it is better thought of as "Many bodies one heart" because if everyone thinks the same, then an organization may completely fall off of a cliff if it's leader makes a mistake. The purpose of disagreement is to get people to see things "better." To see the chasms or signs of chasms on the road ahead. The Gosho "Repaying Debts of Gratitude" teaches:

But if one intends to repay these great debts of gratitude, he can hope to do so only if he studies and masters the Buddhist teachings, becoming a person of wisdom. If he does not, he will be like a man who attempts to lead a company of the blind over bridges and across rivers when he himself has sightless eyes. Can a ship steered by someone who cannot even tell the direction of the wind ever carry the traveling merchants to the mountains where treasure lies?

To me this passage indicates that we all need to open our eyes together. The Gosho "On Flowers and Seeds says:"

You should always talk with one another and surmount the sufferings of life and death to attain the pure land of Eagle Peak, where you may agree to speak in one mind.

To me this indicates the need for dialogue even more among disciples of Nichiren than between us and people who don't follow the Lotus Sutra teachings. To me this indicates that anger, spite, hatred, or any other ill feelings, even if directed against people's genuine errors in understanding the Buddhist Dharma, are themselves Onshitsu (sounds like what it is -- backbiting and slander). It is appropriate that we render valid critiques to one another, but none of us is perfect enough ourselves to render judgement on the "dharma slanders" of our fellow Buddhists. At any rate I go into this more in my own essay on the The Three Powerful Enemies.

I am most encouraged by the courageous efforts of the pioneers of Buddhism, who have often not sought nor received much appreciation for their efforts. It is due to them that incorrect notions of whom should be part of and leading the "Sangha" (community) of believers have been shattered. Thanks to Women such as the late Margaret Bonarek, and their mentors in the Japanese "War Bride" pioneers of this school, women, gays, people of all ethnic groups and backgrounds, have been brought to practice the title of the Lotus Sutra and have received the benefit of chanting Daimoku (Nam myoho Renge Kyo) to the Gohonzon. Within this effort I have learned of many people both in SGI and outside of it, whose courage and tenacity has brought changes up until now. For instance this post to the irgdaimoku group should be encouraging to all of us:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irgdaimoku/message/12333

Reform SGI

Things have continued to evolve. Since the above. Some people decided to create a new group "Reform SGI" to do what we in the irg-central were unwilling to do -- take direct action. They created a new discussion group SGI-USA_Reform and circulated a petition, see reform.html. I decided to sign their petition though I'm not a mover or a shaker in that movement. They received a fairly quick response to their efforts. Margie Hall writes in PLN-018:

Well that is an improvement over PLN-30 See reform.html

Unfortunately it was rapidly followed by PLN 18 and then a Hatchet job done by Tariq Hassan. For more on this visit reform.html. Or you can read "Buddhajones" (Lisa Jones) opinions on it at this location: http://www.buddhajones.com/Articles/ReformOpinion.html. My comments on her article are at: reply To Buddhajones.html.

NSA again

Finally, this year, SGI supported additional writings from Tariq Hassan, and other letters, that made it clear that they were not interested in reform, and were determined to slander anyone who was associated with all these issues. Specifically, who didn't support the newspeak version of "Soka Spirit" as forever fighting Nichiren Shoshu, or who weren't enthusiastic about the hero worshiping directed towards President Ikeda. Some of the Reform leaders determined that further efforts to reform SGI from within would be a waste of time. They discussed a name for their group, and I suggested they use the name "Nichiren Society of America" which would be a double entendre that would both be a dig at the original NSA name for our organization and also a reminder that we once had been unified around Nichiren's teachings. I thought they were going to do this as a sort of "anti-soka spirit" group, but that was not to be. A number of people whom I've long respected simply left the Gakkai for this nebulous association. To my sadness (but not really surprise), that included Andy Hanlen. His resignation letter is here: andyletter.html.

Epilogue -- Independent Reassessment forever.

With Andy's departure the world didn't end. Nor did the respectful drive of SGI members and ex members to get the organization to change, end. There were other people who were pushing similar ends, quietly. And Lisa Jones, created a website called 'BuddhaJones' that has taken up the role of "loyal opposition" as well as providing a "link" to help people who chant Nichiren's Daimoku and practice Nichiren Buddhism maintain a modicum of unity among themselves regardless of whether they stay or go. I maintain a "Gosho group" for studying the Gosho. see:

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So not all is lost. Except that SGI provided an organization that made it easier to practice and that provided ready made comradery and real joy. I refuse to leave it. Recently we discussed these issues and generated a wonderful dialogue, see this reference message 22041 at the "IRGdaimoku" group

Recently events continue to prove that the "Corporate types" that dominate SGI-World can't run SGI-USA very well. An incident at Soka University demonstrates this. A professor there has filed suit claiming discrimination. The entire problem would have been avoided if SGI-USA respected its USA-American Host culture and made a real effort to live as a good citizen of this country. Had they listened to John Nicks, Andy Hanlen, and all the numerous other pioneers of this Buddhism who sought to advise them, the lawsuit could have been avoided. What a shame. For more on this see http://www.buddhajones.com/SU/SUA1.html

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