Having just read your letter posted in the Buddhism Library, I must say with all my heart, shame on you. I do not have the time nor inclination to disect each point of your intellectual dishonesty, but I will take the most glaring error of omission that you make. You state:
>It also appears that the doctrine of the Daishonin's identity as the True Buddha may be the next to go. In the World Tribune of April 18, 1994 at p. 2, it is suggested that:
"Unwisely, the Daishonin was all but deified . . ."<
Fortunately, I have a copy of that issue of the World Tribune and the whole text of the article belies the intent you poorly present out of context. That quote is taken from a letter which appears in a column "Opinions...What do you think about the Temple Issue?" The member, Patricia Perron, makes a long comment as follows...
"Read the Gosho, and become convinced: never was the Daishonin's fluid philosophy, product of this special power to reflect, meant to be ensnared in dogma, as it has become; never was this brilliant jubiliant celebration of the mind ever meant to be enslaved in a hierarchial social system, and yet in absence of a greater, then unknown metaphor, that is exactly what happened. The Daishonin said that the key to our happiness lies between our eyebrows: the frontal lobe. No one knew what the implications of that claim meant, and so antiquity inevitably prevailed.
Unwisely, the Daishonin was all but deified, his philosophy unwittingly preserved conservatively. His assessment of the grassroots movement at Atsuhara shows his intent to bequeath Buddhism as a springboard to our happiness, to be imaginatively and courageously applied wherever humans long to live in dignity. Buddhaood, claimed the Daishonin, is as inherent in us as salt in our veins. What could this possibly refer to if not our minds."
Where do you get off making your unbaked claim that the SGI is de-emphsazing or attempting to ignore the fact that Nichiren Daishonin is the one True Buddha? If you truly read SGI publications, you cannot help but learn that the SGI makes it a point that Nichiren Daishonin is the True Buddha. What you also miss is Nichiren's teaching that everyone has the potential for Buddhahood. The only thing stopping them from realizing their inherent Buddha nature is their delusion of themselves as simply human and that they must seek salvation/enlightenment outside themselves or through some intermediary. One of SGI's primary problems with the Nikken Sect is their insistence that Buddhahodd may only be reached through the High Priest, through Nikken. This is simply false in the face of all Nichiren's teachings.
I really feel you are purposefully duplicitous in your misrepresentation of a member's opinion, not only in the intent and content of her letter, but that she speaks for the entire Gakkai. Ms Perron's intent is to show that the Priest in their intended role as protectors of the Daishonin's Teachings have instead subverted them by replacing the admonition for each member to be responsible for achieving their own Buddhahood with relying solely on the Priesthood and the High Priest for the road to enlightenment. Instead the Daishonin has been 'all but deified' by the Priesthood, obscuring the fact that the Buddha and any Buddha is only human, but without delusions. Additionally she points out that in preserving the Daishonin's Teachings, the Priesthood has cast them in stone in opposition of the principle of the Guides of Propagation, in particular The Correct Understanding of the Country. Nichiren's dynamic Buddhism must be adapted to the correct time and place, dependent on the people's capacity. The conservative approach of the Priesthood defeats the cause of Kosen Rufu and hinders the spread of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to all people.
