Wednesday, 20 March 2019

History Of The Soka Gakkai SGI Buddhist Center

By Barbara Anderson


Buddhism is a practice that dates back several hundred centuries. As such, there are several Buddhist centers and organizations. One such organization, the Soka Gakkai International SGI Buddhist Center, founded at the World Peace Conference in 1975 has been helping local SGI groups and members since its inception.

The U. S. Headquarters of SGI is located Chicago, Illinois. The organization started as an intentional peace movement which had hoped to take the world by storm. By choosing Guam as the place for the meeting, the area's ties to World War II and the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the group hoped to stress the need for world peace.

The initial expansion of the SGI on a world wide scale began shortly after the second World War. The expansion is in large part due to the many Soka Gakki members whom married U. S. Service members, then moved out of Japan. For, during that time, there were a number of servicemen whom married and had children with women in Guam and Viet Nam.

The SGI has also received some great honors. For example, a stamp was produced for the 25th anniversary of the organization with a stamp in 2000. When available, the first stamp was released on October 2nd in conjunction with President Ikeda's journey overseas in 1960.

In 2015, the Peace Research Institute Director reported that SGI was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination was later confirmed by a local Nobel Peace Laureate. While this is the case, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet received the award. Whereas, the SGI-USA was one of the groups organizing for the first annual Buddhist conference to be held at the White House.

Italy's SGI location has officially been recognized by the Italian government as of 2015. In addition, the government also acknowledged the organization as an official religion which allows all local organizations to operate on a tax-free basis. As such, all donations provided to the organization are tax deductible from personal income taxes when and where applicable.

SGI is comprised of an international network of affiliated organizations and groups. In 2011, studies showed that the group had over one hundred ninety active organizations with 12 million members. While headquarters for two of these organizations are located in Tokyo, each operates on an independent basis. Still, all local SGI locations are eligible to receive funding from SGI headquarters if and when the organization receives public or private grant money.

Each SGI organization operates on an autonomous basis with all business and other affairs presented in the local language. In addition, many of the national organizations are often coordinated by different groups such as men and women's groups. In most cases, each organization participates in fund raising to raise operating funds for that specific location. Although, the SGI headquarters in Tokyo has obtained grants from which funds were shared with national groups.




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