in convo recently a person mentioned they have a friend , a Japanese friend who is studying to be a Buddhist minister in England....
I found it odd that a Japanese person would be studying to be one in Emgland....and the use of the word minister instead of priest.....

Could i assume this is a Gakki priest to be

no,

Soka Gakkai don't have priests.

A Minister need not necessarily be an ordained priest here in the UK.

Are you talking Buddhism, or Christianity, specifically?



From here:

more precising , there is no formal ordained sangha structure winthin org, although as usual do assoicate and work with those scholars and priests that independent from shoshu, and general Buddhism circle.

Fede , there is also no minister system in the structure here.

ASN

Hello, Dr. Who -

Your acquaintance's friend is much more likely to be a non-Nichiren type of minister, unless he is either working with the Nipponzan Myohoji at Milton Keynes, or with Rev. Tsukamoto at the Nichiren Shu temple in London. I have not heard that Rev. Tsukamoto has any Japanese shami at this time, but don't know for sure. I have no clue about what is going on with the Nipponzan Myohoji folks.

There's a small number of Nipponzan Myohoji monastics in Willen Park. MK.

I'm trying to see if i can narrow the field of which sect this Japanese guy is studying to be a priest/minister....lol....through this site....

he has a girlfriend....does that help...so he is not a monk....

so i can totally rule out gakki/nichiren shu?

i was so hoping he was ..i will eventually meet them via friends and am looking forward to close intimate discussion on buddhism.....

Anyway on a side note...since this girl has embraced Buddhism my contact tells me she has totally changed...a lot of her negative aspects have vanished....

it just so sounds Nichiren sect to me....i could be projecting though....

DW -

I wouldn't rule out Nichiren Shu until someone has had direct contact with Rev. Tsukamoto. I only said that I haven't heard of his having a Japanese shami - doesn't mean that this is a true statement.

Nichiren Shu shami are not monastic except during training retreats or by choice.

This person could just as likely be studying Zen, Pureland, Tendai or even Shingon..........

I can't speak for the rest, but as Soka Gakkai is a wholly lay organisation...



You could be. I have a non Buddhist friend who seems to go up and down like a yo-yo with negativity (or depression as he call it, who am I to judge?) and when I told him that chanting would definitely help he told me that he knows another Buddhist (non Nichiren) who told him the self same thing.

I'll let ya'all know when i find out.....i feel like i'm cramming for an exam....*winks*

Got it mostly wrong.....met her...wonderful lady...she is nichiren shu...her friend is actually a Nichiren shu priest teaching in England.....disregard any thing i said...specially girlfriend....


...but i did manage to narrow it down before i met her with help from here...well my guess factor anyway, just wrong info from start...LOL

her sensei I believe is this person who used to work in Toronto below is engyo's words from above.....:
Tsukamoto at the Nichiren Shu temple in London

Glad that's all sorted then.

Actually--SGI does have a priests' division. They even opened a temple in Singapore staffed by a Gakkai priest.

Hi, Myoama -

Welcome to E-Sangha and to the Nichiren Forum! Looking forward to your input here.

Is there more information available about this issue? I am assuming that the priest in question is one of the Refrom group which broke with Nichiren Shoshu, but that may be incorrect.

Can you tell us whether this is going to be an ongoing cycle (will there be more SGI priests trained), and what that involves? I would be very interested in knowing something about the curriculum they will train in, and the qualifications for taking such vows.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

Hi Engyo,
yes, the minister/priest at SGI Singapore is from the Reform group that broke away from Nichiren Shoshu and affiliated with SGI. I cannot remember his name but there is a book available in Japan i remember reading at Kinokuniya in Osaka that is written by him.
There is also a Nichiren Shoshu priest and two Nichiren Shu priests attached in Singapore.
Gassho

I think you could find from this book: in the chapter of The Soka Gakkai in Southeast Asia , on 'reformed' Nichiren priest

Global Citizens: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World
By David W. Machacek, Bryan R. Wilson
Contributor David W. Machacek, Bryan R. Wilson
Published by Oxford University Press, 2000
ISBN 0199240396, 9780199240395

Global Citizens : The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World

ASN