Philosophical Vegan Forum

Here's the thing: My in-laws belong to a Buddhist cult known as Nichiren Shoshu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Sh%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB

My wife also belongs to this cult, and I use the word cult not just because I believe all religions to be cults but because this one is more culty than most. Followers have to pray and chant to a wooden alter for 30 minutes every morning and night. I've been to the New Year's ceremony at the temple twice now, and, believe me, it's really culty. For a good hour they chant the same line - "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo", the pledge of devotion to the Lotus Sutra - over and over, monotonously. When the high priest turns to the left, the followers turn to the left; when he turns to the right, they do likewise. You get the picture.

Having read the Lotus Sutra, and the the majority of Nichiren's letters (think of him as a kind of 13th century Buddhist Mohammed, except without the violence and racism) I feel I know enough about the religion to really talk about it with my wife and her family, although of course I can't say what I really think (Nichiren was just a hack and obvious con man who took advantage of the sutras and the political turmoil of his day for his own ends). However, somewhere along the line, my mother and father-in-law have become convinced that I am going to join their temple and become a "bridge to England" some time in the future. In other words, they want me to go home and apply the chloroform to the young and feeble minded, multiply the flock. One thing I want to make clear though: this isn't my wife's doing. She isn't that serious about her religion, and she doesn't seem to care what I believe.

Still, it's tough to know how to handle the situation. My parents-in-law are really nice people, but devout. I even told them at the temple I wasn't going to join because I didn't believe in any of it, but they remain adamant that I will see the light any day now. The thing that worries me most - and this has really been on my mind - is the prospect of having a child and allowing her to be indoctrinated by these people.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here is my advice:

1. Don't have a child
2. Keep showing your in-laws that you are knowledgeable and interested in their religion. This will keep them from getting angry/disappointed even when you don't convert.
3. Don't have a child

By interest, are your in-laws vegan or vegetarian?

Doesn't look like a cult to me. Weird communal chanting and fundamentalist fervor doesn't a cult make. Although it may seem aesthetically very "culty" in the pop-culture sense.

Except for the sense of the word wherein all religions are cults, Cults proper are led by singular autocratic charismatic living authority figures who are considered infallible, and practice shunning and an inordinate degree of control over members' lives. There's a distinct cult psychology that I don't think you've really touched on in your description (e.g. the fact that their daughter was permitted to marry you and not disowned).

This is a much older religion that seems to have ecclesiastical government structure, and internal theological dispute and differences of opinion (not to imply I actually respect the religion, of course. I don't know much about it beyond a summary).

That said, I can't stand meat eating "Buddhists", the idea that people can buy good Karma and dismiss bad karma through pointless trivial ritual is as disgusting and wicked as the similar notion of vicarious redemption in most modern Christianity.

Keep showing your in-laws that you are knowledgeable and interested in their religion. This will keep them from getting angry/disappointed even when you don't convert.

Yes, that shouldn't be too hard since I really am interested. The funny thing is that I know more about it now than they do; the reason for this is that members of the temple are advised never to read the Lotus Sutra itself. I asked a priest about this once, and he said, 'Yeah, you should never read it, it's too mystical to understand. Just chant the line instead, over and over. It's the only way to enlightenment.' They don't meditate either - the whole religion is based on the followers chanting "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" again and again and again. It's very anemic. The only thing necessary to understand is that there's only one true religion, this is it, chant the chant, and you must never have anything to do with anyone else's religion.

I had a lot of questions for the priest in question (whom I met at the head temple), but got very little out of him since he didn't seem to have considered any of them. For example, when I asked, 'Why do you think your beliefs are true?' he simply didn't know how to answer me and ended up just saying, 'Well, because they made my life better.' He also had no interest in explaining the doctrines of the religion, I suspect because he himself hadn't really thought about them all that much. Nichiren Shoshu is, at base, simply about chanting the chant and avoiding other systems of belief, and that's about it.

And no, my in-laws are not vegan or vegetarian, although my wife is.

That said, I can't stand meat eating "Buddhists", the idea that people can buy good Karma and dismiss bad karma through pointless trivial ritual is as disgusting and wicked as the similar notion of vicarious redemption in most modern Christianity.

Indeed. I also asked the friendly priest what he thought of eating animals. He replied, 'It's unfortunate, but there needs to be balance in the world.' I retorted, 'There are currently 7 billion people on this planet, and we are raising and killing many more billions of animals to eat each year, and it's destroying the environment. How is that balance?' Again, he didn't have an answer. I learned later that some Buddhists believe that the animals they eat used to be pious humans who volunteered to be eaten in the next life, so eating animals is justified. So, just another case of blaming your religion for the shitty things you choose to do. Uuurgh.