O budismo leigo da Soka Gakkai no Brasil : da revolução humana a utopia mundial

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2001

RESUMO

This dissertation analyzes the lay Buddhist movement Sôka Gakkai and its transplantation to Brazil. This movement wasfounded in the 1930s in Japan by a primary school teacher, Tsunesaburô Makiguchi (1871-1944), initially as a study group connected with Nichiren Shôshú ("Orthodox Sect of Nichiren Buddhism "). Excommunicated by this sect in 1991, Gakkai maintains its doctrinal base in Nichiren s Buddhism (1222-1282) while emphasizing its modern and pragmatic facet by actively attempting to solve humanity s problems through the conversion of the largest possible number of people to its teachings and education for peace. This variant of Mahayana Buddhism, which teaches a sui generis and heterodox doctrine if compared to Buddhist tradition, arrived in Brazil at the end of the 1950s diffused by Japanese immigrants. ln 1960, its president Daisaku lkeda went to São Paulo to establish the first chapter of the organization overseas. Since its arrival in Brazil, Soka Gakkai has been expanding its membership throughout Brazil. Currently, out of its approximately 104.000 members, 90 percent are Brazilian of non-Japanese origin. Due to its hybridity and mutantformat, Soka Gakkai carries the structures and practices of a religious institution while displaying the dynamic of a Non-Government Organization. As a result, its analysis and representation were radically altered from time to time. According to the moment scholarly studies were carried on, one can describe it as a movement of fanatic Buddhists, of revolutionaries in the area of education, of religious fundamentalists, or even of a pacifist vanguard Taking into consideration the extensive scholarly studies on this Buddhist organization, a different methodologicalframework has been applied in this dissertation. Although Gakkai incorporates messianic and millennial elements, it is argued here, it does not constitute either a typical messianic or a millennial movement. Such fact has made the author coin the concept of "complex of world renewal", which embraces primarily messianism, millennialism, and utopia. Martin Baumann s model of religious transplantation was used as a theoretical support for the analysis of the Associação Brasil Soka lnternational Gakkai (BSGI) s case study. ln order to explain the successful diffusion of BSGL it was ojJered as a "multifactor" explanation, in which extrinsic and intrinsic factors are interdependent and complementary. Thefirst conclusion is that Soka Gakkai lnternational (SGI) s basic model has been reproduction in Brazil. There is a structural organization with divisions and departments that separate adherents by sex, age and/or professional interest; there are rituais centered in prayers (daimoku) before the sacred object (f!ohonzon); there is a primacy of "discussion meetings" (zadankai) as a privileged locus to attract new members; there is also a growing invigoration of lkeda s leadership, who is internally regarded as the current "spiritual master" and a pacifist leader of humanity; etc. lt also verified, whithin BSGL a process of "softening" some of Nichiren Buddhism s tenets and a strategy of dual speech, internally emphasizing its practice and its religious mission while externallyfocusing on its secular or "secularized religious" performance. The rhetoric of such Buddhist organization is also centered in the cultivation of a sense of mission amongst its members. On the one hand, Brazil is seen in the organization as "the spring of kôsen-rufu" (world dijfusion of the Nichiren Buddhism), which would impel SGI to regard the Brazilian branch as an inspiring model. On the other hand, while BSGI s focus was still the Japanese-Brazilian community, the Japanese immigration was reinterpreted, and the immigrants were regarded as "the Bodhisattvas of the Earth" who had gone overseas fItosave" Brazil. As the focus of the movement moved to the society at large, BSGI s members, disregarding their ethnic or social origin, would be responsible for improving the country as they should collectively assume the function of "models" for the world kôsen-rufu

ASSUNTO(S)

budismo - japão religião budismo

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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