SGI USA CHARLOTTE

Discussion Meetings

Small group meetings are the foundation of the peace movement of SGI USA. They are found in local areas and held in people’s homes. They are the home base for every single member to be actively involved in practicing faith, human revolution and building a peaceful community, The causes made by engaging in the challenge of dialogue based on a profound philosophy and encouraging one another through various struggles to become happy may seem a painstakingly slow way to create peace. However, without the group discussion, people would only have the opportunity to listen to theory and perhaps not be supported through applying it in their lives. A young man once told first Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi that he thought it would be better to hold large-scale lectures than discussion meetings. “No, it wouldn’t,” Mr Makiguchi replied without hesitation. “Dialogue is the only way to communicate with another about life’s problems. At a lecture, listeners inevitably feel uninvolved. Even the Daishonin’s treatise On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land was written in the form of a dialogue, you know.” (SGI NL 6713)

The spirit of the group discussion meeting is dialogue based on an aspect or aspects of Buddhist philosophy, taken from, whenever possible, SGI-USA’s weekly publication, The World Tribune, and how to enact the philosophy to create value from life’s struggles.