Lectures on the Sutra | Lotus Sutra | Sokagakkai.html | Ikeda | Makiguchi | Nichiren
- Josei Toda
- Josei Toda (1900-1958) was an educator, publisher and entrepreneur who, as second president of the Soka Gakkai, revived the Sokagakkai Nichiren Buddhist organization after World War II and "restore" Nichiren Shoshu, building it into a dynamic, popular movement and building up the head Temple Taisekiji and the prestige of Nichiren Shoshu in the process. See nst.html and temple.html
Toda sought to become a teacher. Arriving in Tokyo from the northern Island of Hokkaido in his early twenties, Toda found a teaching post at the school where Tsunesaburo Makiguchi was principal. Impressed by Makiguchi's educational ideals, he soon became his prot�g�. See makiguchi.html
In 1928 he followed Makiguchi in his decision to practice Nichiren Buddhism, which is based on the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin as advanced by the Fuji School. He said later that at first he had a shallow practice, doing shakubuku (propagation) and practicing for the sake of making lots of money. He made several businesses very sucessful, all of which went bankrupt later, when he was imprisoned. The two later co-founded the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, forerunner of the Soka Gakkai to embody Makiguchi's ideas of Value creation or 'Soka.'
Makiguchi increasingly saw the relevence of the "The Rissho Ankoku Ron" to the situation in Japan. He eventually came to remonstrate with the Government and by implication with the priesthood of Nichiren Shoshu, which during the war had bent over backwards to show it's devotion to the war effort led by the Nichiren Shoshu theologean Ogasawara and other Nichiren Buddhists influenced by the ideas of Chigaku Tanaka. In June of 1943 the entire leadership of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai was ordered to obey the Government and the High Priest. Makiguchi refused to do so, citing the 26 Admonitions and his understanding of the principle of "fujefuse." He was ordered barred from the Head Temple as a result.
Years later a memo was translated purporting to be from Toda's office and dated June 25 1943, advocating that the membership obey the orders of the High Priest and comply with the law. As a result of their refusal, the entire leadership of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai was arrested in July 1943 including Toda, Makiguchi, and one other person. If that memo is not an obvious forgery, it was never sent and was repudiated by Toda later, because he suffered in Jail for two years as result of not sending out anything like that memo. You can safely surmise he never wrote such a thing because something like that memo was exactly the price that his jailors wanted from him for his release. The unofficial story I've heard is that the memo was written by his jailors. It looks like something they'd write. All those arrested later -- except the three -- later recanted their practice of Nichiren Buddhism and their beliefs. The price for loyalty can be awful, the price for cowardice is worse. See History and conviction of the Sokagakkai essay for more details and ogasawara.html for more discussion of Ogasawara and his role in these things.
In prison, Toda devoted himself to the practice and study of Nichiren Buddhism, gaining a profound grasp of its principles. According to later accounts, he had two transcendent moments while chanting the Daimoku and meditating on the meaning of the Lotus Sutra. A set of Juzu beads made from milk-bottle caps is preserved as a memorial to this effort to this day in some community centers. His efforts brought him to a clear realization that Buddhahood is a potential inherent in all life, and deepened his confidence that all people could manifest this enlightened life condition through practicing Nichiren's teachings.
President Ikeda writes:
"On New Years day, 1944, he began to alternatively chant Daimoku and read the Lotus Sutra. In the beginning of March, he was reading the first chapter, Tokugyo-Hon, of the Sutra of Infinite meaning, the introductory sutra to the Lotus Sutra, when he came to a twelve-line verse consisting of 34 negative descriptions of the Buddha, he suddently had a revolutionary insight
--That the Buddha is life itself--This was his first experience of enlightenment
Spring went by, then summer, and autumn was turning into winter. In the freezing cell, emaciated and weak, my master was a bag of skin and bones, but he continued his intensive contemplation. One day, in mid November, he was going over a passage in the fifteenth chapter, Yujutsu [emerging from the earth]:
"...All these Bodhisattvas, hearing the voice of Shakyamuni Buddha Preaching, sprang forth from below. Each one of these Bodhisattvas was teh commander of a great host, leading a retinue as numerous as the sands of sixty thousand Ganges; moreover, others led retinues as numerous as the sands of fifty thousand, forty thousand, thirty thousand..."Before he realized it he was floating in the air. He found himself among a multitude, his palms joined together, praying to the magnificent Dai-Gohonzon. He clearly witnessed the solemn ceremony in which revealed the eternity of life, and he himself was a participant. In the light of the morning sun streaming through the window into the small wretched cell, he sat stupified with the utmost joy, oblivious of the hot tears rolling down his cheeks.
"I am definately a Bodhisattva of the Earth!"
Perhaps no words would have sufficed to express the profound and intense joy he felt with his entire being. He had awakened to his mission as a Bodhisattva of the Earth.
"Now I know the objective of my life,"he thought resolutely to himself.
"I will never forget this day. I will dedicate my life to propagating the Supreme Law."
...November 18, 1944,...Mr. Makiguchi died at the same time that Mr. Toda awakened to his lifelong mission. The master's death, was his disciples birth, and the oneness of mentor and disciple (Shitei Funi) manifested itself as oneness of birth and death. It may have been a coincidence, or it may have been an inevitability. Whatever the case, this was the starting point for the Soka Gakkai's news destiny. The organization had cast off it's transcient aspect and revealed it's true identity.ft1
Ikeda was building up the role of Toda and Makiguchi's mentor/disciple relationship in order to justify his own relationship with them as their "direct disciple" and "true successor, but he also was talking about the deep personal relationship they had had, and the tremendous value that such relationships can have in our Buddhist Practice. Toda spent much of the rest of his life seeking to repay the debt of gratitude he felt towards his mentor, towards Nichirenism, and towards the Dai-Gohonzon which to Fuji School believers embodies the spirit of the "eternal Buddha" or Mystic Law that "permeates all life."
On his release from prison at the end of World War II, Toda began to reconstruct the collapsed Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, only now renaming it from the "Value Creation Education Society" to the Soka Gakkai. or "Value Creation Society." This dropping of the term "education" reflected an expanded vision for this organization.
He saw how people in post war Japan were thirsting for True Religion, and he also saw how Nichiren's teachings could provide an alternative to the misery the people of Japan, and by implication the world, were experiencing. Nichiren's great treatise, "The Rissho Ankoku Ron" teaches how people suffer due to incorrect religion and he saw how the same old funeral beliefs, and funeral religions that had plagued Nichiren's time were still causing people misery, and how Nichiren Buddhism in general had also devolved into a funeral religion itself. He felt that Nichiren's teachings were relevent to modern society as much as they were for his own times -- and more importantly -- that they were relevent as taught by the Fuji School. He felt that the way Nichiren Buddhism was being presented by rival Nichiren groups such as the Reiyukai and its offspring the Rissho Koseikei, or by the established sects other than Nichiren Shoshu, was incorrect. These religions emphasized Ancestor Worship and "funeral Buddhist" practices, and he felt that was far from what Nichiren had been teaching. His experience in prison had been framed in a Nichiren Shoshu context and was centered around the Dai-Gohonzon as manifestation of the eternal principles of Buddhism.
Toda now taught that through Buddhist practice and inner-motivated change, or "human revolution", all people can change their destiny for the better. This was a deeply held opinion, and so it was highly motivating to those who heard him speak.
He started by lecturing on the Lotus Sutra, and built from there to lecture on the subjects of "Human Revolution" and other Buddhist related subjects. He gave "guidance" that provided a practical, society based, secular form of Buddhism that was ideally suited to the modern world. His message resonated powerfully among the many people suffering from poverty, illness and other challenges in the chaos of post-war Japan. Toda's unshakable confidence in the power of Nichiren's philosophy and his ability to translate the profound concepts of Buddhism into practical guidance for daily life re-ignited people's hope and courage.
In 1951 Toda learned that Ogasawara had been reinstated. Around that time, in July 10 of 1951, Josei Toda wrote his "History and Conviction of the Sokagakkai" which was essentially a recounting of his encounters with the Japanese Government and with the religious authority of his time which had been under the influence of the ideas of Chigaku Tanaka and Jimon Ogasawara. In it he basically stated the case for his belief that he and his own Mentor, Makiguchi, had been badly treated at the the hands of both authorities, and so laid down his case for his own pursuit of "justice" (really uchi iri), with those within the priesthood who'd caused him to go to jail and his mentor to die. Reading that document one gets the sense of just how determined he was to see that justice prevailed. Since he had no recourse to ordinary channels of appeal and the High Priest was unwilling to champion his cause he looked to another model for his actions.
He hatched a risky plot to call attention to the bad behavior that Ogasawara and other priests had engaged in during the war (see revenge.html for more details). He selected 47 youth division (a reference to the story of the 47 Ronin warriors who had sacrificed themselves to avenge the wrongful death of their lord), who would waylay and punish Jimon Ogasawara for his World War II behavior.
During April of 1252, during festivities for the celebration of the 700 anniversary of Nichiren first chanting the daimoku he decided to execute this plan. His leading youthful disciples including young Daisaku Ikeda found the elderly priest at the Head Temple, and he confronted him, and by one account even struck him once himself. In any case, the youth division paraded him around the head temple and nearly brought the Sokagakkai to be barred from the Head Temple.
This led to a PR mess for the Sokagakkai, which Toda resolved in 1952 by promising to Shakubuku (convert) the entire Nation. One of the leaders of the youth in that affair, and also in the effort to atone for that affair by shakubuku was Daisaku Ikeda, who later succeeded Toda becoming the "Third President" of the organization after his death. The Shakubuku efforts in the Kansai regions were so successful that they led to the motto of that region (Kyoto) being "forever Kansai." The Kyoto Region has always been an important region to Nichirenism and was the site of earlier near successes during the Muromachi period (1333-1500's). The Gakkai grew fast, and also remained a Nichiren Shoshu lay organization. Toda donated temples and helped to rebuild it.
Daisaku Ikeda writes:
"On March 1st. 1958, Mr. Toda solemnly said,
"The rest will be up to you, Daisaku. I'm counting on you."
Of course we don't know if Ikeda is recounting his actual words, but we do know that Ikeda was indeed one of Toda's true disciples and pretty much the unquestioned leader of the Youth division. Ikeda is a prolific writer, and so he is also our main source for information on Toda. Even so, what happened next was a memorialization of Mr. Toda's goal to reinvigorate Buddhism by passing the torch to the "youth" division to proselytize Japan and make his vision of Nichirenism, "Value Creation" and Kosenrufu a reality. Ikeda writes that:
Several days after this, Mr. Toda suggested,
"On March 16th, let's conduct a ceremony that will serve as a trail run --- a dress rehearsal --- for the preparation of the future of kosen-rufu."
That rally would be Toda's last rally. It was such a herculean effort, and Toda was so sick, that Ikeda and the other members had to construct a palanquin for Toda to sit in. With characteristic ferver, this was spun into part of the ceremony. Toda was transfering a "heritage" to a new generation.
"At the March 16th meeting itself, Mr. Toda made the declaration that the Soka Gakkai is the king of the religious world. Ending the event with the Chinese song Wu Chang Plain, it became the last time they were able to join Toda in song."In the Human Revolution he writes that Toda had passed the baton to the entire Youth division and that he had expressed confidence that Kosenrufu would be achieved by Nichiren Shoshu through the Sokagakkai. More recently Ikeda has revised the story to intimate that Toda had somehow "felt a sign of Nichiren Shoshu's decline in faith and wanted to remind Gakkai members to remain vigilant." And he also, more and more intimates that that baton was passed to him alone. But Toda had said no such thing. Whatever he had thought all he said was "Never slacken in your struggle against evil." He went to a grave on the Head Temple grounds confident that Kosenrufu was in good hands, having raised a number of capable youth to positions where they could carry on that legacy..
- source
- http://www.sgi-siliconvalley.org/svweb/archive/sgic/sgic98a/sgic0303.htm
Legacy
By the time of his death in 1958 Toda there were already members practicing in the USA and other nations and Toda had built an organization of nearly one million members. He had laid the foundation for the dramatic spread of Nichiren Buddhism abroad and for apparant triumph at home as well. He had done so by a combination of humility and conviction that had enabled him to steer the "land mines" that separated his, or any, "lay Buddhism" group from their goals. A man of excessive egoism would have either broken with Nichiren Shoshu or been cowed by its traditions and authority. A man of lesser stature would not have been able to lay such a strong foundation or find so many capable people to succeed him. He had supported both the priesthood of Nichiren Shoshu and the goal of a lay organization that could convert the nation. The Gakkai soon after became the largest single Religious Group in that country.
Toda is also remembered for his uncompromising stance against nuclear weapons, for his strong opinions about other Buddhist Sects (including other Nichiren Sects) and for his efforts and personal integrity. He is also known for having been strait with everybody and not put up with a lot of pretensions from either priests or lay-people. To me he is also remembered for his "lectures on the Sutra" series, which provide a window to the esoteric interpretations of Nichiren's teachings of the Sokagakkai/NST and were my first exposure to some of the deeper concepts of Buddhism.
Toda's control of both the lay organization and his publishing company was taken over by one of his Youth Division leaders, Daisaku Ikeda. Daisaku Ikeda once he took over control of the organization of Sokagakkai, formally in 1960, after his death, speedily raised the membership to nearly 10 million Japanese plus members all over the world. See ikeda.html for more.
He also left behind several children of his own and a wife who didn't die until March 6 2000. Her death was commented on in the weekly post, and was buried in Gakkai publications, because she evidently was very critical of Ikeda's handling of that organization, and expecially his taking it away from the Nichiren Shoshu "orbit" in 1990. Somehow that didn't seem right to her.4
Footnotes
Note: This information is all culled from available literature. The quotes from President Ikeda are from World Tribune publications. I have to look for the actual sources so I can quote line and page numbers.
- Quotes from Ikeda come from Publications
- History and Conviction was published in translation several places
- Material on Ogasawara comes from the "Human Revolution" and from a book called "Fire in the Lotus" by Daniel Montgomery
- Info on his wife is from an article in the Weekly Post, which doesn't like him
More information:
- SGI's biography:
- http://www.sgi.org/english/keys/toda.htm
- For more on Toda:
- http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~lotus/main/RecordA.htm
- http://www.toda.org/about_toda/toda.html
- http://www.inthelight.co.nz/spirit/gurus/toda001.htm
- History and Conviction:
- http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/Buddhism/IssuesInBuddhism/history_convict.html
- Ogasawara page:
- The Ogasawara incident
- Lectures on Sutra:
- http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/Buddhism/LotusSutra/Toda/index.html
- Further readings:
- http://www.sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/aboutsgi/histsgi.html
- For more on how NST sees itself:
- http://www.nichirenshoshu.or.jp/
- For more on how others see NST see:
- http://www.nichiren.com/History/c/c_frame.html