Schools/Traditions/Sects NOT Recognised In Our Forum

• An Eternal Now

  12 Dec 05, 01:12

  I have made a descision after much consideration and discussions with my moderators and friends to ban all Soka Gakkai International (SGI) (and other unorthodox/unrecognised traditions) links from our forum ~ Buddhism: Wisdom Bliss ~. The tradition of Soka Gakkai is not recognised as part of mainstream Buddhism and was therefore removed. A few characters that distinguish this group from mainstream Buddhism are as follows: This tradition do not recognise Shakyamuni Buddha as the original teacher, but rather Nichiren as the original, eternal teacher and the 'True Buddha'. Nichiren was the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, which later led to the founding of a lay group Soka Gakkai in 1930. Soka Gakkai was more recently split from the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood. There was an unhappy period when the Nichiren Shoshu priests even come under physical attack from the Soka Gakkai members. They tend to pray for material gains and sometimes have a tendency to promote sectarianism or insult other orthodox Buddhist sects. I shall not elaborate and will avoid discussing about this on the forum. Readers are advised to practise discretion and judge themselves in accordance to the Kalama Sutra:
  
  "Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching. Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the
  spirit of the words. Rely not on theory, but on experience.Do not believe in anything simply because you
  have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do
  not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is
  written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and
  elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is
  conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
  
  - the Buddha
  
  In addition I will post below a list of 'Buddhist' traditions that are NOT recognised in our forum. All followers of these traditions may continue to post and discuss in our forum, but are kindly asked to refrain from posting links to articles of their tradition which would otherwise be removed by our forum moderators. Most of the following unorthodox traditions cannot be found in Singapore, however to increase readerss' awareness I have decided to post ALL the unorthodox Buddhist traditions that I currently know of so that readers may avoid unreliable sources of Buddhist materials. There used to be a very informative site that contains a lot of information for each of those unorthodox traditions. Unfortunately, that website was taken down by yahoo due to complaints by one of the lawyer of a controversial lama. My friend Henry (global moderator in E-Sangha forum) who created that website thus lost all his information. There is an alternative website which contains far less information, but nevertheless a valuable read: http://www.buddhistcouncil.org/cults.htm. Below is a short passage from the website regarding Soka Gakkai:
  
  

  Soka Gakkai became a mass movement only in the 1950s when membership, under its very authoritarian and intolerant President Toda Josei, leaped from a few thousand to 750,000 from 1951-57. Evangelism, called "shakubuku"("break and subdue") was seen as a duty as well as conferring a spiritual blessing. The recruitment methods practiced by members--which allegedly included insolence, intolerance, coercion, intimidation, blackmail, and terrorism--although gaining the organization infamy with the public at large, were nevertheless extraordinarily effective.
  
  Its fanatical image has softened since the accession of Ikeda Daisaku to the presidency in 1960.
  
  The highly charismatic Ikeda has managed to tone down the organization's image while formalizing Komeito, the sect's political party and revising the religion for export. Founded in 1964, Komeito ("Clean GovernmentParty") has technically been a separate entity since 1970 when Soka Gakkai was censured for attempting to supress a book critical of the organization. As the third largest political party within Japan's conservative politcal structure Komeito has joined up with the Japan Socialist Party's right wing and the anti-Communist Democratic Socialist Party to form the central pillar of the Sha-Ko-Min opposition.
  The party's avowed aim is to establish a "Buddhist Democracy" or a "parliamentary democracy in which every individual has been awakened to the principles of Buddhism." It goes almost without saying that this awakening involves conversion to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism (or "True Buddhism") and renunciation of all other "heretical Buddhisms" as well as every other religion on the planet.

  This topic will be stickied temporarily.
  
  The List of Unorthodox Traditions and affiliated teachers NOT Recognised in ~ Buddhism: Wisdom Bliss ~ forum (taken mostly from http://web.archive.org/web/20030307195744/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/4886/cults.htm):
  
  The Aro gTér
  
  Aum Shinri Kyo (The Supreme Truth, Aum Sect)
  
  Black Sect Tantric Buddhism & Yun Lin Temple
  
  Baegwha Doryang (Baegwha Buddha & Anna Buddha Blessed by the Enlightened Light)
  
  Benjamin Creme
  
  Celtic Buddhism
  
  Chin Ching Fu (Mahasanti Monastery Institute Of Buddhist Studies)
  
  Ching Hai Wu Shang Shi (Qing Hai Wu Shang Shi)
  
  Cyril Henry Hoskins (Cyril Henry Hopkin, Cyril Henry Hoskin) (Lobsang Rampa)
  
  Daisaku Ikeda (Soka Gakkai)
  
  Dark Zen
  
  Ee Kwang Tao (Tian Tao Movement)
  
  est: Erhard Seminars Training (also known as Landmark)
  
  Falun Dafa (Falungong)
  
  Forshang Buddhism (Fo Sheng Zhong)
  
  Fo Sheng Zhong
  
  Frederick Lenz - Zen Master Rama
  
  Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO)
  
  His Eminence Prince Ratu Agung Sri Acarya Vajra Kumara Pandji Pandita Pandji Sakti
  
  I-Kuan Tao (I-Kwan Tao) (Tian Tao Movement)
  
  Karma Tharchin (Mahasanti Monastery Institute Of Buddhist Studies)
  
  Ven. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (New Kadam Tradition)
  
  Kofuku-no-Kagaku (The Institue for Research in Human Happiness) (Ryuho Okawa)
  
  Lama Gangchen
  
  Lama Ponya Yeshe (Kentucky)
  
  Lobsang Rampa (Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, Dr. T Lobsang Rampa)
  
  Lu Sheng Yen (Padmakumara, Grandmaster Lu, Lian Sheng Huo Fo) (True Buddha School)
  
  Li Hong Zhi (Falungong)
  
  Mahamongkut Meditation Centre
  
  Mahasanti Monastery Institute Of Buddhist Studies
  
  New Kadam Tradition (Kadampa Buddhism)
  
  Northern Kentucky Tibetan Group
  
  Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
  
  Qing Hai Wu Shang Shi (Suma Ching Hai, Thanh Hai, Ching Hai Wu Shang Shi)
  
  Ryuho Okawa
  
  Shakya Aryanatta (Dark Zen)
  
  Soka Gakkai (Value-creating Association)
  
  The Theosophical Society
  
  Tian Tao Movement (I Kuan Tao)
  
  Tibetan Vajrayana Gelugpa Buddhist Society (The Chinese Gelugpa Society)
  
  Traktung Rinpoche (Ngala Traktung Yeshe Dorje Rang-rig Jagyur Rinpoche) (The Aro gTér)
  
  Tulku Buddha Maitreya
  
  Zhen Fo Zhong (True Buddha School)
  
• sinweiy

  12 Dec 05, 09:35

  found this from sgi glossary...4 standard (Shi Yi Fa).
  According to the Nirvana Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra, the four standards are:
  
  (1) to rely on the Law and not upon persons;
  (2) to rely on the meaning of the teaching and not upon the words;
  (3) to rely on wisdom and not upon discriminative thinking; and
  (4) to rely on sutras that are complete and final and not upon those that are not complete and final.
  
  we are offen taught of Shi Yi Fa as well. however, i think it's not an excuse for our understanding as our interpretation, wisdom and ignorance can still go astray. Buddha say don't believe oneself until one reach arahat state.
  And HIS very last word was, Let the Dharma and the Vinaya be our teacher.
  
  for me i still prefer the below sutta, rely on a simple result as guide:
  
  AN VIII.53
  Gotami Sutta
  To Gotami
  Translated from the Pali by
  Thanissaro Bhikkhu
  
  I have heard that at one time the Blessed One was staying at Vesali, in the Peaked Roof Hall in the Great Forest.
  
  Then Mahapajapati Gotami went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side. As she was standing there she said to him: "It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief such that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One, I might dwell alone, secluded, heedful, ardent, & resolute."
  
  "Gotami, the qualities of which you may know, 'These qualities lead to passion, not to dispassion; to being fettered, not to being unfettered; to accumulating, not to shedding; to self-aggrandizement, not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to entanglement, not to seclusion; to laziness, not to aroused persistence; to being burdensome, not to being unburdensome': You may definitely hold, 'This is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher's instruction.'
  
  "As for the qualities of which you may know, 'These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome': You may definitely hold, 'This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher's instruction.'"
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, Mahapajapati Gotami delighted at his words.
  
  http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/anguttara/an08-053.html
  
  /\