Before: In bringing up the topic of religion, the question of identity is often alongside it; religion (or lack thereof) is integral to most people's identities. Japan's Nichiren school of Buddhism is a cultivated and peculiar community that retains an equally peculiar identity that formed eight centuries ago. Unlike most other schools of Buddhism, this school seems very out of place from an outsider's perspective. Nichiren is a militant school of Buddhism; Nichiren is an exclusive, single-minded, and sectarian school of Buddhism; Nichiren Buddhism is borderline eschatological in its interpretation of the Latter Day of the Law. The experiences of the early Nichiren school (as well as the text of the Lotus Sutra itself) have shaped the identity that sprouted around the sect. This same cultivated identity has remained and developed further within the school and its offspring since the lifetime of Nichiren Daishonin himself. This has stuck around to the modern day with the educational reform organization turned religious school known as Soka Gakkai, the Society for the Creation of Value. Soka Gakkai draws on these experiences of early Nichiren as well as its own experiences during its early years. Nichiren Buddhism’s early identity is informed by a textual analysis and interpretation of the Lotus Sutra as well as the experiences of persecution (real, imagined, as well as prophesied), and a self-induced exclusivity; these experiences are echoed in the organization, lives, and interpretations that make up modern day Nichiren’s identity.
After: In bringing up the topic of religion, the question of identity is often alongside it; religion (or lack thereof) is integral to most people's identities. Japan's Nichiren school of Buddhism is a cultivated and peculiar community that retains an equally peculiar identity that formed eight centuries ago. Unlike most other schools of Buddhism, this school seems very out of place from an outsider's perspective. Nichiren is a militant school of Buddhism; Nichiren is an exclusive, single-minded, and sectarian school of Buddhism; Nichiren Buddhism is borderline eschatological in its interpretation of the Latter Day of the Law. The early Nichiren school and its experiences -- as well as Nichiren Daishonin's interpretations of the Lotus Sutra -- have shaped the school's development and the cultivation of its identity. This identity that cropped up around the lay and monastic followers of Nichiren Daishonin have continued to be cultivated through the centuries. This has stuck around to the modern day with the educational reform organization turned religious school known as Soka Gakkai, the Society for the Creation of Value. Soka Gakkai draws on these experiences of early Nichiren as well as its own experiences during its early years. Nichiren Buddhism’s early identity is informed by a textual analysis and interpretation of the Lotus Sutra as well as the experiences of persecution (real, imagined, as well as prophesied), and a self-induced exclusivity; these experiences are echoed in the organization, lives, and interpretations that make up modern day Nichiren’s identity.
I feel like the earlier parts of the paragraph benefit from changes but I feel pretty solid in regards to the later parts of the paragraph, myself.