Welcome to all board newcomers! Congratulations on opening your eyes and getting out of the cult that is SGI.

Crazy pot smokers, abusive behavior, so-called "fortune babies", I won't restate it all here, but at various points in the thread I have described my experience with all of these things as an unfortunate "Youth!" member of what was in the 1970's, NSA.

The one fortune baby I personally knew of (I babysat the poor child) was born to a father that beat the mother so badly she had to leave the state to get away from him. Eventually the man was convicted of attempted murder, I think. Both mother and father were devoted members, and the father had a leadership position. I know that higher level leaders knew about the abuse because the mother told me she went for "guidance" numerous times. Yet, this man was allowed to retain his position. Why would untrained and unqualified people even attempt to give anybody "guidance" about such a serious situation? What's worse than the missing training is the missing compassion. This woman had two children from a prior marriage and I was afraid for all of them.

It wasn't until I was out that I learned, from this board, that SGI and Ikea both have billions of dollars in assets. Billions! Yet members are hounded to provide free labor and cash contributions too. This is what makes SGI's blasphemous likening of Ikea to Gandhi and Martin Luther King even more hypocritical and sickening. Gandhi and King never aspired to acquire wealth, and both endured considerable suffering during their respective campaigns for freedom. What has Ikea ever sacrificed? Why SGI members cannot understand this boggles the mind.

NSA/SGI is a money-grubbing false Buddhism cult that perpetrates a fraud on unsuspecting folks in cultures who know very little about Buddhism, thus they are easily conned (mostly by love-bombing) into joining up to work for Cousin Rufus. That's probably why SGI is so disliked in Japan, they can better spot false Buddhism when they see it. Disassociation from comfortable relationships can be difficult, especially when family members are still in, but whatever you think you are losing (most of the "friends" are fake anyway) is more than made up for by the freedom and personal integrity that you gain.

By the way, I mailed my gohonzon to the local community center when I got out. Everything else, except for my pilgrimage pictures and souvenirs (some were very lovely) was discarded.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2013 03:35AM by Freeheartandmind.

I will be keeping stuff like the butsudan and bell i bought at Taplow Court and some photos but all traces will be gone otherwise.Amida Buddha is now in the butsudan.Funny thing is I rejected Nichiren years back thinking' that is not real Buddhism.'

@leeduffield: congratulations.

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WaywardBuddhistWoman
@leeduffield: congratulations.

Thank you.Get properly free yourself.

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corboy
Watch out. If you schedule a time for someone to come and pick up the scroll, they may try to throw you off balance by keeping you waiting or by skipping the appointment.

(I was never in Sokka Gokkai. But have been in a situation where a guru showed up half an hour late for a scheduled talk--despite my having seen the guy standing off to one side, half an hour before his scheduled talk, peeping out, spying on the auditorium full of devotees. He was early for that talk, yet deliberately arranged to appear at the microphone half an hour late--to build up anticipation.)

I can relate to this. This kind of behavior is manipulative control over others and, invariably, a sign of an individual with some personal, emotional issues. Lots of blatant, in your face, big time, bizarre personality disorders in the gakkai cult org.. For "normal" people with a good center of emotional gravity and balance in their lives, dealing with such individuals can indeed knock you for a loop, especially when encountering for the first time.

It's often a power ploy done by manipulative and self-centered people. I've learned in life to be wary of people like this.

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corboy
Interesting that some coped with the tension by smoking pot.

Would be interesting to know if stressed out members of Sokka Gokkai suppress their suffering by resorting to lots of palliative massage or acupuncture treatments? It is possible to use massage and some acupuncture protocols the way others would use tranquillizers---for temporary relief of stress symptoms so as to remain in the diseased situation.

The inner circle around the Dear Leader must need all the palliatives they can get.

Wonder if there is a network of Sokka Gokkai body workers (massage, acupuncture, doctors willing to write RX for tranquillizers) all the to keep these inner circlers comfortably numb so they can remain in the hell realm?

Most of the people I knew dealt with cult org. stress by increasing their magic chanting time (one million daimoku, or some multiple of it, is the magic number) and immersing themselves deeper into gakkai activities or gakkai support roles (cleaning bustudans, kaikans, etc.). They dig deeper into the magical thinking and dysfunctional (delusional) dependency.

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leeduffield
Is all the fortune baby stuff based on the Gosho?

It's gakkai cult mystical nepotism, invented for psychologically hooking people deeper into the cult org.. It hooks the kids by making them feel ultra-special and it hooks the hardcore believing parent(s) by instilling into them the need to practice harder and more seriously "for the sake of their family."

As the mis-fortune baby grows up, the "responsibility" is eventually shifted onto them to stop "relying" on their "parent's mystical fortune" for their well-being and happiness, and to start creating their "own", by becoming a hardcore cult devotee themselves. The ideal goal, of course, being that they repeat the cycle, continuously, with their own children, grandchildren, and so on. It's an attempt to lock familial generations to cult shackles.

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Freeheartandmind
Disassociation from comfortable relationships can be difficult, especially when family members are still in, but whatever you think you are losing (most of the "friends" are fake anyway) is more than made up for by the freedom and personal integrity that you gain.

This is so true. I will also add my personal perspective to this as well:

What I once thought to be "comfortable" relationships turned out, in fact, to actually be uncomfortable ones (I just didn't realize it at the time I was in them).

I've found that their is always just something a little bit "off" with gakkai members.


- Hitch

Btw, above post, "their" = there. Typo.

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More $oka Gakkai Cult Malibu Thought Reform ("Training") Center photos (from 1976, a YWD group pic.) [picasaweb.google.com] and (from a few weeks later, YMD group pic.) [picasaweb.google.com].

(Follow the "Gallery" link, click on the "Sonrise" category, for more photos from CULT N$A days - ShoHondo, temple weddings, cult parades, old N$A CULT publications, etc..)

A walk down N$A/$GI CULT Memory Lane.


- Hitch

The Malibu "Training" Center = "training" "YOUTH!" and other regional area "leaders" in gakkai cult speak and other "activities" of thought reform. People are brought in to "renew their determinations in faith" for the cult org., "encourage" each other to "never backslide in their practice" and vow to pressure (errr, I mean "help") those that do. Some participants in these events are locked into lifelong bonds with fellow cult members, as a result. It pretty much served the purpose of a stateside mini Tozan-kai (pilgrimage) or was somewhat the equivalent in purpose to the current (more sophisticated) cult FNCC retreat.

Comment to the Malibu Training Center WMD pic posted by Hitch stated: "I remember Bob. He disappeared in a skiing accident up a Mammoth Lakes on the backside of the cornice run. Evidently his body was found the next spring. A real tragedy. He was a very nice gentlemen from what I recall of my contact."

So much for the magical protection afforded by chanting. Accidents happen to EVERYBODY.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2013 01:12AM by Freeheartandmind.

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Freeheartandmind
Comment to the Malibu Training Center WMD pic posted by Hitch stated: "I remember Bob. He disappeared in a skiing accident up a Mammoth Lakes on the backside of the cornice run. Evidently his body was found the next spring. A real tragedy. He was a very nice gentlemen from what I recall of my contact."

So much for the magical protection afforded by chanting. Accidents happen to EVERYBODY.

The most interesting (and ridiculous) thing about this kind of confirmation bias magical thinking is that any party can spin it any way they want to suit their own manipulative "faith" needs. Gakkai cult members will say that he had heavy karma in this life, but lessened it thru his practice; therefore he will meet the gohonzon again his next life, with less karma. Other sects will point to it as proof of an incorrect practice, etc..

It's either a palliative or a poison, depending on whatever one wants (or needs) it to be.


- Hitch

On the theme of cleaning kaikans, come volunteer (free labor) and don't miss a golden opportunity chance to "Clean Your Karma!" (Actual quote).

Everybody come and clean your "Castle of Peace" (i.e., local cult HQ). (Japanese traditional New Year's Cleaning, Dec. 29, 2012, for 2013!)

[www.youtube.com]

"I've made a cause."

"We have no choice. We have to clean. Just like your life. It's dirty. We have to clean it up."

I like the beginning when the cameraman asks the local "leader", "How do you like cleaning?" and he responds with a typical gakkai cult cliche, "Oh, it's WONDERFUL!" He then asks what exactly is it that he means by "wonderful" and you can actually see the "leader" blank out for a few seconds as he buys time with a silly laugh to try and think of a more substantive answer (in typical gakkai cult leader fashion, his words are a superficial let down). Typical idiot salaried "leader."

Get a load of The Dear Leader bookstore, with multi-language editions for sale, bustudans and custom gakkai cult logo butsugu supplies.

Let's clean for Cousin Rufus, "NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO!" (A couple of people actually admit that they don't even clean their own houses as well as the cult kaikan.)

Not much ever changes in the gakkai cult org., does it (the people, the mentality, the behavior, the cliches).


- Hitch