Experiences

Erika M. Nelson

Hi, my name is Erika M. Nelson. I have spent much of my life navigating between worlds. Thus it is only natural that I have spent so much of my life exploring the Orpheus myth. Orpheus was after all the mythological figure able to bridge both upper and lower worlds and travel safely to the underworld and back, thanks to a great extent to his poetry and song. The challenge lay in bringing others with him!

Samuel Cohn

My name is Samuel Cohn, and I am a Professor of Sociology at Texas A and M University. I have been practicing this Buddhism for eighteen years. Before I converted to Buddhism, I had been a tolerably successful sociologist, having written two books, one of which won a prize from the American Sociological Association. Those books were about conflict and the division of spoils between weak and strong; they generally involved the problems of people in England and France.

Kunihiro Uryu

March 12, 2006, was the turning point in my Buddhist practice. On that day, I had the chance to speak with a senior in faith who was visiting Philadelphia from New York.

I felt at the time that I did not need guidance, so I spent our session expressing my frustrations and complaints about the SGI and leaders within the organization.

To my surprise, this leader gave me the sharpest response: He encouraged me to see my own fundamental negativity and challenge it. He then shared with me his own struggles to gain a sense of appreciation for SGI President Ikeda and the SGI.

Lisbeth Gant-Britton

When I was an elementary school student in Chicago, I was constantly haunted by my parents’ divorce. I was nine at the time of their breakup. Even though we lived with my warm-hearted grandparents, one of my clearest recollections is feeling abandoned and completely vulnerable. To cover my pain, I became a bookworm. I would go to the library and lose myself in books. Fortunately in school, one of my teachers became like a second mother. She encouraged me to develop myself through study.