The answer is “no” since SGI is Nichiren Buddhism. I’m looking at institutions and teachers that are combining different Buddhist traditions. I have little to no interest in Nichiren or Buddhism derived from him.

The question is whether they serially took part in things (like I and other have, though at a greater depth) or if those three wound up blending the practice between the two different traditions.

It is hard to find people that admit to blending traditions (or hybridizing) very loudly.

Jayarava, thanks! Do you know if there are any institutionally active groups, as opposed to individuals, in California or the Western US? Am I wrong in thinking that the FWBO is drawing from multiple traditions for its teachings?

Actually, come to think of it, can you recommend any foundational texts published by the FWBO that discuss their approach?

If you need some introductions to the FWBO I’d be happy to help. I know one or two people in California, but also a few around Montana and New England, one in New Mexico.

Best Wishes
Jayarava

Paul

So many people when I was in my 20s were saying they were Buddhist but what they meant by that was so transparently a kind of dodge. So they were using Buddhism to preserve something about themselves, using it to avoid letting go of self. Very interesting and always to me ironic in its internal contradiction.

Then again, I’ve also noted that there’s a kind of wave structure around cultural adoption, where the outer wave, an expanding concentric circle of influence, can be easily identified as appropriated or exotified; but that this outer wave conceals an inner core, also expanding, of actual adoption and appreciation. A corollary to this, for me, is that by not seeing or worse fighting the concentric, outer wave of appropriation as having value actually impedes the expansion of the core of adoption. I’ve thought that the way to go from the outer wave to the inner wave is to keep pointing inward, so those on the outside might notice there’s something more, a second wave; but, fighting the outer wave only forces people away too soon to see the inner or entrenches them into the outer wave and unwilling to recognize the inner wave.

Anyhow, in addition to the more formal adoption of Buddhism within Western Culture, it seems like there’s also a chance to look at the method and form of that adoption, including the appropriative use; and the way that appropriate fits in with the overall process of adoption.

But, maybe that’s more for a dissertation in sociology.