Soka Gakkai International

• What many did not know is that for the past 50 years Turner had practiced Soka Gakkai International Nichiren Buddhism.
• As a scholar of Buddhism in South Asia and in the U.S., I have closely studied the career of African American artists who practice Buddhism.
• Tina Turner, in particular, sought to teach Buddhism through her writings and later through her records.

Turner’s early religious life

• Her family was Baptist and worshipped at both Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church and Spring Hill Baptist Church.
• As I found while doing research for my forthcoming book, “Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner,” Turner’s religious influences extended beyond the forms of Afro-Protestant institutional religion.
• In her memoir “Happiness Becomes You,” Turner describes the deep, mystical connection that her grandmother had to nature, which suggests that her grandmother was immersed in the more mystical strands of Black Southern religious culture.

Introduction to Buddhism

• Turner was introduced to the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism in 1973.
• Nichiren Buddhism is based on the teachings of Nichiren, a Buddhist monk who lived during the 13th century in Japan.

How Nichiren Buddhism was popularized

• As these members spoke primarily Japanese and were geographically spread out, they initially had limited success in their efforts to propagate Nichiren Buddhism in the U.S. That changed in 1960 when, under the leadership of the third Soka Gakkai president, Daisaku Ikeda, an American branch of the organization was formally established.
• With his guidance, they spread the basic Nichiren Buddhist practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo before an inscribed scroll called the Gohonzon.
• It is the SGI Nichiren Buddhist understanding of personal empowerment and human revolution that seems to have initially attracted Tina Turner.

A resurgence powered by SGI Nichiren Buddhism

• After her divorce, Turner struggled as a solo artist before her well-known career resurgence with 1984’s “Private Dancer” album.
• Her practice would be chronicled in two autobiographies: the first, “I, Tina,” published in 1986; and a second, “My Love Story,” published in 2018.

• Ikeda, an ardent proponent of nuclear weapons abolition since the 1960s, sees the G7 Summit in Hiroshima as a chance to build on the unwavering activism of the hibakusha -- survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings -- and their determination that the tragic impacts of nuclear weapons never be experienced again.
• He stresses that representatives of civil society, such as physicians and educators who protect people's lives and futures, should join such negotiations as observers.
• This is the third time in the past year that Ikeda, a veteran advocate for nuclear weapons abolition, has called for No First Use policies.
• For over 40 years, Ikeda has authored proposals and statements offering concrete approaches to resolving the complex issues facing humanity.

• TOKYO, Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --At the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) has promoted youth participation and reforestation and amplified the call for climate justice expressed by faith leaders.
• Soka Gakkai members around the world are taking action, convinced that even in the face of the insurmountable odds presented by the climate crisis, every individual's contribution can lead to positive change.
• The Soka Gakkai is a global community-based Buddhist organization promoting peace, culture and education with 12 million members around the world.
• The SGI is an NGO in consultative status with the UN ECOSOC since 1983.

• Today the risk that nuclear weapons will be used is at its highest level since the Cold War.
• Ikeda urges: "We must remember that it was never the purpose of the NPT to establish continuing nuclear threat and confrontation as the inevitable fate of humankind."
• On August 4, during the NPT Review Conference, the SGI will hold a side event promoting No First Use together with other like-minded organizations.
• Every year since 1983, Ikeda has authored peace proposals offering concrete approaches to resolving the complex global issues facing humanity, centering on the need to abolish nuclear weapons.