One compelling teaching of Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of the Nichiren Buddhist tradition, is that each person is responsible for contributing to world peace and justice. He believed that the daily practice of chanting was an essential form of committing to compassionate action, and could generate benefits for society. Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin is the first American woman and the first of African-Japanese descent to attain full ordination as a Nichiren priest.

Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin is a bishop for the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America, and she is the principal teacher of Myoken-ji Temple in Houston, where she actively supports Buddhist practice for people who are incarcerated in Texas prisons.