Troubles In The Temples: Chapter 2 - One NST Temple Down, Five To Go, Northward Ho for Shujo +^

[Disbasing Zen Stories]

Troubles In The Temples: Chapter 2 - One NST Temple Down, Five To Go, Northward Ho for Shujo +

The latest news from NST is that the priest from the Washington D.C. NST Myosenji Temple on 310 University Blvd., Silver Spring, Maryland, named Shojo Sakabe, had to close down the D.C. temple and flee with his belongings up North on I-95 to the Myosetsuji Temple in Flushing, N.Y., to what was a very cool welcome: for a failed chief priest who lost his temple, after having it burned down once already!

Temples in Japan, like the bars that the businessmen used to spend their evenings in, are now associated with some of the most famous super-spreader events in Tokyo. The same public health observations apply in the United States. Chanting and singing in crowds are the worst public activities to engage in, in the midst of a pandemic spread by aerosols that linger contagion in the air for hours in closed spaces.

This is why the SGI will remain shut down for the duration of the pandemic waves. For the SGI and its busy weeks of Zoom meetings, this is not a hindrance, since we are mostly a volunteer organization having low overhead with tiny group of paid staff, and with most centers being leased.

The various temples, on the other hand, survive on funeral Buddhist offerings and those from weddings, and other gatherings, and from monthly Gokuyo offerings by attendees to priest lectures, and especially Tozan pilgrimage fees, kickbacks and other cash flowing from prayers for the sick and the dead, into the coffers of the head temples in Japan, such as Taisekiji for NST.

Adding to those financial pressures, the money for temple offerings is much harder to come by from the worried dantos - the temple members, who grip their precious pennies more tightly, the more grasping and desperate that the priests become for money to sustain their geishas and gambling.

And no one is hopping on a jet to Japan for Tozan, or even into the car for a temple cleanup activity: at least no one who cares for their life. So, the temples are rapidly falling into disrepair.

Head funeral Buddhist temples like Taisekiji, in the manner of the chief vampires that they are, will suck the life out of the subsidiary temples around the world, and their hunger will increase the subsidiary temples sucking the life out of the danto members. When a temple's members go dry, that temple's closure and subsequent sale will feed the appetite of the head temple, until all the smaller and then finally, the temples in the large global metros are consumed. At the end of the cycle, the head temples will implode into bankruptcy, like a black hole feeding on stellar masses.

This is my prediction of the order of closing for the Nichiren Shoshu Temples in the United States:

1. Myosenji Temple, Washington D.C. Area, Shojo Sakabe (closed, pricey real estate)
2. Myoshinji Temple, San Francisco Area, Shogu Kimura (high expenses and land value)
3. Honseiji Temple, Hawaii, Shoka Kimura (expenses very high, also the selling price)
4. Myohoji Temple, Los Angeles Area, Taishin Takano (terrible hot spot, and high land value)
5. Myogyoji Temple, Chicago Area, Shingyo Kamichi (West Chicago, not worth as much)
6. Myosetsuji Temple, New York Area, Shinga Takikawa (Flushing? It's not exactly Manhattan)

President Trump is seemingly relentless in perpetuating the waves of this pandemic. The energy behind that is driven by this determination by the Buddhas in the Ten Directions, to see slanderous temples closed. Seems obvious to me.

-Chas.
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On Thursday, August 20, 2020 at 10:58:28 PM UTC, Noel wrote:
>
> It is essential for us to study the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism, enabling us to understand the reasons to continue practicing. We can resolve doubts, overcome laziness, and strengthen our practice through study, so that when we face obstacles and want to stop, we will be able to bolster our faith.*
>
> At Myosenji Temple, our Chief Priest conducts a monthly Basics Study class to teach new Buddhists (and refresh/remind other Buddhists) about their daily practice and about Buddhism. Our next Basics Study class is Sunday, August 23rd. Myosenji Buddhists may attend via our Live Stream. Please be sure to have your book, Nichiren Shoshu Basics of Practice book.
>
> *p.54, Nichiren Shoshu Basics of Practice
>
> The post Buddhist Practice & Study first appeared on Myosenji Buddhist Temple.

If there is a Zoom meeting it will be hosted from Myosetsuji in Flushing, NY, because that is where your Myosenji chief priest Shujo is holed up.

Myosenji temple at Washington D.C. is shut down.

Note that Myosenji temple is the closest to President Trump, who is actually, surprisingly, and quite unintentionally, having a medicinal effect.

It's sort of like injecting bleach, so I guess the President was oddly right about that: cauterizing then bleaching is kind of like moxibustion, first Myosetsuji burned and now has been pandemically bleached away.

"Our present tribulations are like moxibustion; at the time, it is painful, but because it has beneficial aftereffects, the pain is not really pain." [from "On Persecutions Befalling the Sage," WND I, p. 998.]

Pretty soon the other temples will follow in order, because you can Zoom disseminate distorting rhetoric from anywhere to drain what little blood is left in the bank accounts of the diminished flock.

Your Gokuyo will no longer be supporting your local temples, it's all getting funneled back to Japan for Nichinyo at Taisekiji, as the foreign temples begin to be rolled up, one by one.

Go ahead and drive by your local temple and you'll see what I mean.

President Trump is unstoppable, and he is quite inexplicably blind to the waves of pandemic he is creating.

-Chas.
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On Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 12:19:13 AM UTC, Noel wrote:
> Many Soka Gakkai Kaikan's in Japan are being destroyed so they can rebuild new ones because they want votes from general contractors etc so that they will vote for Komeito the Gakkai's political party. All about money, they couldn't care less about Buddhism. As long as Komeito holds the balance of power they wont be investigated and sent to jail for corruption that has occurred over many decades!
>
> Noel

What a pile of crap that is. We jettison older and smaller center buildings for newer ones when appropriate, not like the centuries old temples that have ultra-expensive repairs in progress eternally by specialist builders.

And the Soka Gakkai has been completely separated from New Komeito for 50 years now.

-Chas.
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On Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 10:22:57 PM UTC, Noel wrote:
>
> They said that 50 years ago but they didn't mean a word they said. Komeito candidates come to Soka Gakkai meetings to encourage members to ask their friends and their families to vote for them. This has been a common practice since Komeito set up shop and still happens today.
>
> This practice is against the Law because Religion and Politics are meant to be separate. The Soka Gakkai use their centers for election activity. Since Abe Government (Jimento) with Soka Gakkai (Komeito) work together the government turns the blind eye to the Gakkai dirty work
>
> Soka Gakkai members are being pushed to vote Jimento (Shinto) in prefectures where there are no Komeito candidates. And are also being pushed to buy Komeito Newspapers
>
> Thousands of Soka Gakkai members have been excommunicated for speaking against Komeito's policies.
>
> Where is the proof of what you say about complete separation or are these are just more empty words as usual !
>
> Noel

You are so profoundly ignorant of the law. It is completely legal to talk about politics and campaign in a religious setting, in any country where there are constitutional rules regarding making laws restricting the freedom of religion.

It just shows how little you know about the law, religion or politics.

And that is just a sideshow regarding what is going on in the temples. They are all going bust precisely because funeral Buddhist priests waste money so profligately: on geishas, gambling, expensive alcohol, nice homes and plush vacations. Well, now there are no wallets in the seats at the temples, and no wallets doing Tozan pilgrimage. That huge sucking sound you hear, that is like a vacuum cleaner with nothing to suck on, is an unsustainable trend, it always results in one of two things: a burned-out vacuum, or an unplugged vacuum. Pull the plug!

-Chas.
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On Friday, August 28, 2020 at 12:02:07 AM UTC, Noel wrote:
>
> Jeepers creepers, what haven't you got against NST ?

Remember Marlon Brando in "The Wild One", leaning up against the handlebar of his motorcycle? The distressed villager against the backdrop of his gang ripping up the town asks, "What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" to which he responds, "What do you got?"

It's like that.

-Chas.
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LS Chap. 16 .....

All harbor thoughts of yearning
and in their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become truly faithful,
honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha
not hesitating even if it costs them their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction,
but that because of the power of an expedient means
at times I appear to be extinct, at other times not,
and that if there are living beings in other lands
who are reverent and sincere in their wish to believe,
then among them too
I will preach the unsurpassed Law.