Buddhist Group's Chanting Attracts Devotees, Critics

PORTLAND - A controversial Japanese sect that tells members chanting will bring them anything they want is drawing converts and donations in the United States.

The Soka Gakkai, with a reported $18 billion in assets, is the lay organization of the 800-year-old Nichiren Shoshu faction of Buddhism. Founded in Japan in 1930, the group boasts 12 million members in 115 countries, including 500,000 in the United States.

"People chant to improve their careers, get new houses. People have chanted for new cars, healthy children, compatible spouses and all of these things they chant for, they get. It's been documented," said Perry Gruber of Portland, a Marine who joined six years ago.

Sue Weston of Portland said she was considering suicide before a friend introduced her to Soka Gakkai.

"I owed it to myself to leave no stone unturned, and so I decided I would try chanting for 100 days," Weston said.

She said she had suffered acute depression for 12 years. "Within two weeks of chanting the doctor said I didn't need antidepressants any more," she said.

"I chanted for a successful marriage, a better job and to finish school. I got all of them," said Weston, 47, who is special-events coordinator for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Others, however, say Soka Gakkai ruined their lives.

"Within the first three months I became severely ill, I lost my job and my apartment," said Stephanie Sheppard, 45, of Los Angeles. "I became severely depressed. I was emaciated. I weighed 90 pounds. I had sleeping problems and eating disorders . . . My parents disowned me. I lost my career and became very isolated. It destroyed my life."

The actress joined the sect in New York City in 1976.

"At the time, I didn't realize what physiologically and psychologically was happening to me, but now I do," Sheppard said.

During chanting sessions, "I was clearly in a self-hypnotic trance practically the entire evening, so I was particularly vulnerable and I sucked it in like a wet sponge," she said.

Sheppard believes her life deteriorated because of the stress the group put on her to chant, recruit and attend meetings.

"It took me a long time to get the courage to tell these people to go to hell," she said. She now works with the Los Angeles Women's Commission task force on ritual abuse, which educates people on cults.

Cynthia S. Kisser, executive director of Cult Awareness Network, a national non-profit educational organization based in Chicago, termed the Soka Gakkai a "destructive cult."

"The routine message I get is that they become dependent on their chanting when they need rent money or a new car, then when it doesn't work, they're pressured to believe that they didn't chant hard enough or sincerely enough," Kisser said. "The chanting has been used as a thought-stopping technique, and what I mean by that is any time you engage in long hours of chanting, it can affect your critical thinking."

Soka Gakkai members strongly dispute such criticism.

"Nichiren Shoshu is not a cult in any way, shape or form. A cult is based around an individual as opposed to a teaching or law. It's usually something that's fairly recent as a philosophy and it tries to separate people from their families. It is none of these things," said Peter A. Krainock of Portland, a Soka Gakkai member for 22 years.

Soka Gakkai, which literally means "value-creating society," professes to be dedicated to peace, education and culture. It also backs the second-largest opposition party in Japan, the Komeito or Clean Government Party.

Members are encouraged to recite parts of the Lotus Sutra, an ancient Buddhist scripture, twice a day and chant as much as possible. They attend meetings as often as five nights a week.

At a recent meeting in Portland, more than 100 devotees sat in an incense-filled room.

Kneeling before the gohonzon, a scroll with Chinese characters that describes the highest life condition, the "territory chief" set the cadence of the rapid chanting by striking brass bells.

Worshippers chanted with their palms together, or fingering strings of wooden beads that represent human desires.

The sect arrived in the United States with Japanese brides after World War II, but wasn't officially organized until 1960. Then the group grew dramatically with aggressive recruiting.

The group's founder, Nichiren Daishonin, taught that chanting was the best means to enlightenment.

Jennifer Frykman of Los Angeles said she became dependent on the chant and afraid to stop.

"I chanted for boyfriends, drugs and new bicycles," said Frykman, 37, a Soka Gakkai member for 17 years. She said she got what she chanted for, but in retrospect, it wasn't because of chanting.

"I heard a lot of admonitions to continue practicing, because if I quit bad things would happen to me," said Frykman, an art student.

She believes Soka Gakkai has a fairy-tale appeal.

"I think the appeal is for somebody who is altruistic and wants to make a change. Many people join thinking this is a way to work for peace bloodlessly. Our lives were controlled by what we thought was creating world peace," she said.