The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Solomon S 427

ing the formula Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (“Hail the marvelous teaching of the LOTUS SUTRA ”), called the Daimoku, and recitation of the Lotus Sutra. Toda also emphasized benefits, like healing and prosper ity, from chanting here and now. He encouraged aggressive recruiting practices, and also popular cultural activities. Soka Gakkai was criticized for its aggressive tactics, but grew very rapidly during the 1950s. After Toda’s death in 1958, Soka Gakkai mel lowed a bit, but remains both powerful and con troversial. A related political party was founded, and in the 1970s the movement built a vast new temple at the foot of Mount Fuji. Beginning in the 1960s, the movement also spread successfully to the United States and other countries outside Japan. In the 1990s a bitter dispute between the lay leadership of Soka Gakkai and the priests of the religious organization led to a split between Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu. Soka Gakkai is now a vigorous, independent international organi zation. It promotes a colorful, streamlined, well organized form of Buddhism, which its followers say is the Buddhism of the future. Solomon (10th century B . C . E .) a son of D AVID and king of Israel and Judah; revered in C HRISTIANITY and I SLAM as well as J UDAISM The B IBLE tells of Solomon’s reign in 1 Kings 1–11 and 2 Chronicles 1–9. Solomon was the son of David and his wife Bathsheba, whose first husband David had killed. After winning the struggles to succeed his father, Solomon ruled over an extensive empire in rela tive peace. He is remembered for his building program. The most important of his buildings was the Tem ple in J ERUSALEM . This was the first Temple to be built on the site. Its plan, which the Bible describes in detail, followed Phoenician models. Solomon is also famous for his wisdom. One famous story tells how he decided which of two competing women was really a baby’s mother. He ordered the baby to be cut in half. One woman pleaded with the king to let the baby live and

as a lingam. The lingam rests in a yoni or basin, which catches libations. Originally the lingam and yoni depicted the human sexual organs in stylized form. Polished egg-shaped stones, such as stones from the Narmada River, are particularly popular as lingams. There are several different subgroups of Saivas. The Pasupatas, now extinct, took their name from the cattle that they associated with the god. Saiva Siddhanta is especially popular in the far south of India. It insists that the theology of Siva is the ulti mate truth ( siddhanta ). Another southern move ment, Vira-Saivism (heroic Saivism), emphasizes social reform. It is also called Lingayat (lingam wearing), because its adherents wear lingams on necklaces. Kashmir in the far north was also home to several distinct subgroups of Saivism. The most important Saiva text may be the Svetasvatara U PANISHAD . It identifies Siva with all reality. Saivas also have distinctive collections of mythology and RITUAL (P URANAS and Agamas). According to tradition the great Indian thinker S ANKARA was a Saiva. So were the great Kashmiri philosophers Abhinavagupta and Srikantha, who formulated a special form of V EDANTA philosophy. The major Saiva festival is Sivaratri ( see H INDU FESTIVALS ). During this festival worshippers bathe the decorated lingam. Soka Gakkai Considered the largest of the “new religions” of Japan, claiming some 16 million members. Soka Gakkai (“Value-creation Society”) began as a lay organization of the N ICHIREN Shoshu denomination of B UDDHISM . It was founded by Makiguchi Tsunesaburo in 1937 as an educational society emphasizing the importance of human benefit as well as abstract truth in education. But Makiguchi was also a devout Nichiren Buddhist, and saw the relation between his educational phi losophy and Nichiren’s emphasis on benefits from religious practice here and now. He died in prison during the war because of his refusal to participate in S HINTO worship. But the movement was revived in postwar Japan by Toda Josei, who reorganized it on religious lines. Practice consists chiefly of chant