Editing Soka Gakkai (section)

==Practices==
The practice of Soka Gakkai members is directed to "oneself and others".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dobbelaere |first1=Karel |title=Soka Gakkai |date=1998 |publisher=Signature Books |isbn=1-56085-153-8 |page=27}}</ref>

===Chanting===
The words [[Nam-myoho-renge-kyo]] (also called ''Daimoku'') is the main practice of the organization, which is claimed to express the true nature of life through [[cause and effect]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dobbelaere|first1=Karel|title=The Soka Gakkai|date=1998|publisher=Signature Books|isbn=978-1-56085-153-0|pages=20–26}}</ref> Soka Gakkai members believe that chanting releases the power of the universal life force inherent in life.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Susume|first1=Shimazono|editor1-last=Yoshinori|editor1-first=Takeuchi|title="The Soka Gakkai and the Modern Reformation of Buddhism" in Buddhist Spirituality|page=437}}</ref>  For some members, chanting for material benefits is a first step toward realizing the ultimate goal of [[Buddhahood]].

The believers of the organization chant these words reputed to change their lives, including the natural environments in which they live.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dobbelaere|first1=Karel|title=The Soka Gakkai|page=26}}</ref> Accordingly, the intended goal is to produce an internal change that serves as the motivator for external social change. Furthermore, the organization teaches that chanting cannot be divorced from action.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ikeda|first1=Daisaku|title=Change Starts From Prayer|journal=Living Buddhism|date=September 2014|volume=18|issue=9|pages=56–57}}</ref>

===Gohonzon===

The ''Gohonzon'' Soka Gakkai members enshrine in their homes and centers is a transcription by the 26th High Priest Nichikan Shonin.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seagar|first1=Richard|title=Buddhism in America|date=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-10868-3|page=131}}</ref> The central main [[syllabary]] of characters reads ''Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo'' ([[Kanji]]: 南 無 妙 法 蓮 華 經). The lower portion reads "[[Nichiren|Nichi-Ren]]" ([[Kanji]]: 日 蓮).  On the corners are the names of the [[Four Heavenly Kings]] from Buddhist cosmology, and the remaining characters are names of Buddhist deities reputed to represent the various conditions of life.<ref>{{cite book |editor=J. Gordon Melton |editor2= Martin Baumann |title=Religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices|isbn=978-1-59884-203-6|page=2658|year=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref>

The organization teaches that in contrast to worshipping the [[Buddha]] or [[Dharma]] as [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphized]] personifications, Nichiren deliberately made a calligraphic mandala, rather than Buddhist statues as the central object of devotion.<ref>{{Citation |last=Morino |first=Ted |year=2001 |title=World Tribune |publisher=World Tribune Press |location=Santa Monica |page=2 }}</ref>  American author, Richard Seager explains the following:

{{Blockquote| "...In total, it is not a sacred image in the traditional sense but an abstract representation of a universal essence or principle.<ref>{{Citation |last=Seager |first=Richard |year=2006 |title=Encountering the Dharma |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |page=33 }}</ref>
[[Nichiren]] wrote: "I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink, so believe in the Gohonzon with your whole heart."<ref>{{Citation |last=Nichiren |year=1999|title=The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin |publisher=SGI-USA Study Department |location=Santa Monica |page=412 }}</ref> He further stated: "Never seek this Gohonzon outside yourself. The Gohonzon exists only within the mortal flesh of us ordinary people who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo."<ref>{{Citation |last=Nichiren |year=1999|title=The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin |publisher=SGI-USA Study Department |location=Santa Monica |page=832 }}</ref>|}}

The Soka Gakkai often uses Nichiren's metaphor of a mirror to explain its faith in the Gohonzon.  The Gohonzon "reflects life's innate enlightened nature and cause it to permeate every aspect of member's lives". Members chant to the Gohonzon "to reveal the power of their own enlightened wisdom and vow to put it to use for the good of themselves and others".<ref>{{Citation |last=SGI-USA Study Department|year=2013|title=An Introduction to Buddhism |publisher=World Tribune Press |location=Santa Monica |page=32 }}</ref> The organization teaches that a member is considered to be practicing the [[Lotus Sutra]] when chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to the Gohonzon.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ikeda|first1=Daisaku|title=The Significance of the Expedient Means and Life Span Chapters|journal=Living Buddhism|date=September 2014|volume=18|issue=9|pages=52–53}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Upholding Faith In The Lotus Sutra|url=http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/73|website=Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism Library|access-date=2014-11-03|quote=This Gohonzon is the essence of the Lotus Sutra and the eye of all the scriptures.}}</ref>

===Faith, practice, and study===
The primary practice of the Soka Gakkai, like that of most Nichiren sects, is chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is the title of the Lotus Sutra, and simultaneously considered the Buddha nature inherent in life<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seager|first1=Richard|title=Encountering the Dharma|date=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24577-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag/page/17 17]|quote="They could, in Anasekei's words, 'restore a primeval connection with the eternal Buddha'"|url=https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag}}</ref> and the ultimate reality of existence.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melton and Baumann|title=Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices|date=2010|isbn=978-1-59884-203-6|page=2658|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |edition= 2nd|quote=By chanting the title of the Lotus Sutra, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo one forms a connection with the ultimate reality that pervades the universe}}</ref> The supplemental practice is the daily recitation of parts of the 2nd and 16th chapters of the Lotus Sutra. Unlike other Nichiren sects, the Soka Gakkai stresses that practice for enlightenment entails actual "engagement in the realities of daily life", while including the happiness of others in one's own practice.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shimazono|first1=Susumu|editor1-first=Yoshinori|editor1-last=Takeuchi|chapter=Soka Gakkai and the Modern Reformation of Buddhism |title=Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern world i|date=1999|publisher=Crossroad Publishing|isbn=978-0-8245-1595-9|page=451}}</ref>

Believers claim that the Lotus Sutra contains principles or teachings that are not readily apparent. Furthermore, the Soka Gakkai claims that Nichiren revealed these teachings as The "Three Great Secret Laws" namely the following:.<ref>{{Citation |last=Murata |first=Kiyoaki |year=1969 |title=Japan's New Buddhism |publisher=Weatherhill, Inc. |location=New York |page=51 }}</ref>
# The "Object of Devotion" ([[Gohonzon]] mandala) used and designated by the Soka Gakkai
# The incantation (of [[Nam-myoho-renge-kyo]]) by united Soka Gakkai believers
# The sanctuary or place where Buddhism is practiced.<ref>{{Citation |last=Seager |first=Richard |year=2006 |title=Encountering the Dharma |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |pages=32–33 }}</ref>

Soka Gakkai practices Nichiren Buddhism as it has been expounded by its three founding presidents, and so also studies their speeches and writings, especially those of third President Daisaku Ikeda. His novelized histories of the movement, ''The Human Revolution'' (and its sequel ''The New Human Revolution'') have been said to have "canonical status" as it "functions as a source of inspiration and guidance for members".<ref name=canon>{{cite book|title=Canonization and decanonization: papers presented to the international conference of the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), held at Leiden 9–10 January 1997|year=1998|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-11246-9|pages=283–287|first=C.|last=Cornille|chapter=Canon formation in new religious movements: the case of the Japanese New Religions|editor-last=van der Kooij|editor-first=A.}}</ref> Study meetings are held monthly. "The tenor of the meetings is one of open discussion rather than didactic teaching..." Discussions on Nichiren's teachings are welcomed, "dictatorial edicts on moral behavior are not."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fowler |first=Jeaneane and Merv |year=2009|title=Chanting in the Hillsides |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |location=Great Britain |page=155}}</ref>

The Soka Gakkai practice also includes activities beyond the ritualistic, such as meetings, social engagement, and improving one's circumstances; these also have significance as religious activities in the Soka Gakkai.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Strand|first1=Clark|title=Waking the Buddha|date=2014|publisher=Middleway Press|isbn=978-0-9779245-6-1|pages=58–59|quote=Middleway Press is a division of SGI-USA}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dobbelaere|first1=Karel|title=Soka Gakkai|page=59}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=McLaughlin|first1=Levi|title=Faith and Practice: Bringing Religion, Music and Beethoven to Life in Soka Gakkai|journal=Social Science Japan Journal|date=2003|volume=6|issue=2|pages=6–7|doi=10.1093/ssjj/6.2.161}}</ref>

===Discussion meetings===
{{Main|Zadankai}}

Gakkai meetings have been called "formal liturgies" in that their format – "chanting, relatos (experiences), teachings, inspiring entertainment" – is identical from place to place.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seagar|first1=Richard|title=Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, The Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism|date=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24577-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag/page/201 201]|url=https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag}}</ref> Discussion meetings are among the most important activities of the Soka Gakkai.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McLaughlin|first1=Levi|author-link1=Soka Gakkai in Japan|title=Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions|date=2012|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-23436-9|page=272}}</ref>

At discussion meetings, participants are encouraged to take responsibility "for their own lives and for wider social and global concerns".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fowler|first1=Jeanne and Merv|title=Chanting In The Hillsides|date=2009|publisher=Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-84519-258-7|page=85}}</ref> The format is an example of how the Soka Gakkai is able to "dispense with much of the apparatus of conventional church organization".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Bryan|chapter=The British Movement and Its Members|editor1-last=Machacek and Wilson|title=Global Citizens|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924039-5|page=358|quote=Liberated from ecclesiastical restraints, Soka Gakkai is enabled to present itself as a much more informed, relaxed and spontaneous worshipping fellowship. In a period when democratic, popular styles have displaced or largely discredited hierarchic structures, the typical meetings of Soka Gakkai reflect the style and form increasingly favored by the public at large.}}</ref>

===Proselytizing===
The Soka Gakkai's expansion methods have been seen as controversial, as it employed a Buddhist method called ''[[shakubuku]]'', a term employed by Nichiren, translated as "break and subdue (attachments to inferior teachings)."<ref>{{cite book|last1=McLaughlin|first1=Levi|author-link1=Soka Gakkai in Japan|title=Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions|date=2012|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-23436-9|page=277}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Prohl|editor-first=Inken|editor2-last=Nelson|editor2-first=John|last=McLaughlin |first=Levi|chapter=Soka Gakkai in Japan|title=Handbook of contemporary Japanese religions|date=2012|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-23435-2|page=272}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gRoyAQAAQBAJ&q=nichiren+extant|title=Sins and Sinners: Perspectives from Asian Religions|page=133 |date=2012-08-17|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-23200-6|language=en}}</ref>

The reason for propagation, as explained by Josei Toda, is "not to make the Soka Gakkai larger but for you to become happier&nbsp;... There are many people in the world who are suffering from poverty and disease. The only way to make them really happy is to shakubuku them."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seagar|first1=Richard|title=Buddhism In America|date=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-15973-9|page=96}}</ref>

In 1970 Ikeda prescribed a more moderate approach, "urging its members to adopt an attitude of openness to others"; the method Soka Gakkai prefers since then is called ''shoju''– "dialogue or conversation designed to persuade people rather than convert them", though this is often referred to still as "shakubuku spirit".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seagar|first1=Richard Hughes|title=Encountering the Dharma|date=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24577-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag/page/97 97,169–170]|url=https://archive.org/details/encounteringdhar0000seag}}</ref>