Hi, I’m a current SGI member and going to be leaving very soon. I do like the practice and do love reading the Lotus Sutra, but I also have issues with Ikea and his mentor-disciple rhetoric. In fact, after a recent Sunday meeting, I was searching for sites about the org and about the issues I had in mind. This is how I came across this group.

I want to say, reading your posts have uplifted me. Most, if not all, of your experiences somehow coincide with mine.
Anyways, here is something strange that dawned upon me lately.

I am going back to studying Chinese, and I decided to start by reading Mao Zedong’s Book of Quotations that I bought years ago on my first trip to China. This little red book is a bilingual Chinese-English edition. I opened up the first page and something hit me so hard that I couldn’t stop reading the first chapter and had to refer back to a few books of Ikea’s quotations I had to see if I was deluding myself. What I saw that was similar to both writers is that they repeat and hammer in phrases and concepts for the masses to follow. Here is an example that best show my meaning.

“The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism.” Chapter 1: quote 1

Change Chinese Communist Party [hereafter CCP] to SGI and Marxism-Leninism to teachings of Nichiren Daishonin and you get:

“The force at the core leading our cause forward is the SGI. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin.”

Is it me or does that last quote sound too much like a random Ikea quote?

I also looked through many other quotes in Mao’s book. I don’t think it’s possible to do a substitution on all of them, but the tone, manner, and the need to fight an enemy for a cause is consistent in this volume.

“All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.” Chapter 6:1

I can list more, but this will take too much space; however, do feel free to read up Mao’s Little Red Book here and tell me I am wrong.

After reading parts of the quotations and comparing those to Ikea’s, I have seen too many parallels coming up. For example, SGI loved holding shows like the Kansai exhibition and now Rock the World. Is it similar to North Korea’s Airirang games? How about how the way Ikea was supposed to be our mentor, always quoted, studied, and celebrated in songs? This sounds too much like the Cultural Revolution to me. Plus, as Mao was not the founder, he became synonymous with the CCP as Ikea was with the SGI. The only difference is that the founders were convicted as spies and later pardoned. In the SGI, the founders are given a tip of the hat, but still is nothing known about them except through Ikea’s eyes.

For the record, I am not saying Ikea is Communist. I do know that during the war, Marxist ideology was popular amongst many Japanese youths who were against the Imperial expansion in Asia. It could be possible Ikea read a few things in his youth. Furthermore the ideal of the CCP was to have a more democratic and freer China, of course history has shown otherwise.

Ah, Mao's "Little Red Book." I haven't read that in a number of years. Anyone can take any ideology and adapt it to suit their own purpose. Little minor alterations here or there and voila, you have something else. "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win" is one of the slogans of the group I belonged to, NATLFED, which openly states it is organizing the unrecognized workers of the country but secretly says it is plotting the overthrow of the government. Thirty-eight years after its creation, the rank and file continue to do the basic work while the leadership luxuriate in condos and furs.

I do not know much about your group. If you have questions, I can only assume that if you ask someone else in the group they'll say you need some form of re-education (that's fairly standard practice, even in my old group). I do not want to squelch your asking of questions but applaud your interest in doing research outside of the group.

Mary Struggler

This is a great insight -- thanks for posting it. I agree with you -- Ikeda certainly could have read Maoist and Marxist philosophy in his youth. After World War II, Japan was devastated. The Japanese were searching for anything to give them meaning, hope and the promise of a better future. This is how so many bizarre cults flourished after the war. People were just so desperate. Nichiren Buddhism, like Marxism, promised that, to those who worked hard, (and struggled against enemies), there would be the reward of a more utopian and equal future.

I have seen videos of North Korea, and the Arirang games, and it does remind me of SGI's huge conventions -- the crowds of people working to put on a huge show, the wild enthusiasm for the leader, pictures of the leader everywhere. North Koreans, too, must have pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il in their homes. Many SGI members have pictures of Ikeda in their homes. As you say, always quoting, studying and celebrating the leader.

There also seems to be a considerable SGI-China connection. Ikeda's been to China many times, has met the leadership, has received honorary degrees from many Chinese universities...you wonder why, since China doesn't have freedom of religion, and isn't likely to in the near future.

DrJ, do you mind if I copy your post onto the SGI thread? That way, it will be with the other information we have about SGI.

Please, tsukimoto, by all means!

I actually thought I posted this on the SGI group, but somehow ended here.

Hi Dr Jesus, did you actually end up leaving? I'm newer to the boards, and have gushed quite a bit about the influence the SGI has had on my life. I count myself as one of the lucky people who have been finally able to vent and express (at the threat of my "fortune" being erased and my life "lost" if I do. Funny, I feel better than in a long time. The self deprecation and fear after I left is what really harmed me, not the loss of any so called "fortune" I may have "accumulated" as a member. I can't believed I was duped for so many years!!!

Hey sushigirl,

I haven't left yet. As of now, I am tying up loose threads before I sneak my way out of there. I am figuring out a way to keep my friendships with a few (very good and very upright) people while doing my own thing. So far, it's so good, and its most likely I'll make it out by Xmas. Going back to the Communist analogy, I'm preparing everything before I cross the Berlin Wall while avoiding the Stasi pigs :P.

I hope that those friendships will remain strong and true. I thought I had maintained a friendship but was hurt when I found personal information I had mentioned was forwarded to a leader!! I hope that your friendships contain more integrity than that. The member's concern for your eternal happiness can often override their own common sense. Oh there I go being a negative again..good luck getting over the wall!!

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DrJesusEsq
Hey sushigirl,

I haven't left yet. As of now, I am tying up loose threads before I sneak my way out of there. I am figuring out a way to keep my friendships with a few (very good and very upright) people while doing my own thing. So far, it's so good, and its most likely I'll make it out by Xmas. Going back to the Communist analogy, I'm preparing everything before I cross the Berlin Wall while avoiding the Stasi pigs :P.

I was a member of SGI for many years before the rift between the priesthood and the lay organization (SGI). I continued with SGI for about 2 years after said rift. In that time, I began to study the teachings of Buddha and discovered that what SGI promotes has as much to do with buddhism as knitting has to do with ice hockey.

Daisaku Ikeda is a dynamic personality. Fifteen years ago, around the time I decided to leave SGI, I read an article about him which described him as a "shrewd Japanese businessman" who had found a way to get rich and travel and speak all over the world without really having to work. He is not a religious leader in any traditional sense of the word. He's not a minister, pastor, priest, monk, etc..... he's a dynamic public speaker, and his talents pretty much end there.

Doesn't surprise me that he plagiarized the Little Red Cook Book. He's a slippery one, he is.

When I left, of course they didn't want me to leave. They could no longer collect money from me for their little fake-ass newspaper, The World Tribune (I don't know if they even still publish that piece of trash rag)... in 1991, I was paying I think about $40 every 3 months to receive their stupid little newspaper... on top of volunteering my time and any other spare $$$ I had laying around. When my group chief (that's what they were called back then) called me for the 25th time to ask why I hadn't been over to chant, I told her to go f*ck herself and that I would get a restraining order against the entire organization if anyone ever contacted me again and that I had NO problem going to the local news channel about an organization that harasses former members when they try to leave. That pretty much did the trick. None of them ever called me again, and I made a clean, quick break.

So I don't know what it is you're waiting for to leave. Tell them to kiss your ass, threaten them with a restraining order, and move on with your life.

Well, buddy, thanks for yer advice. When I first joined Rick Ross, I wanted to post this on the SGI forum but didn't know what I was doing. This is why this is a topic that stands alone. Furthermore, as I posted in the SGI forum, I left it pretty quietly. I never declared to anyone of my decision, nor did I confided in anyone else. The last meeting I went to, I smiled, I acted like I still loved the SGI, and then went home and didn't show up. I'd get emails, but I ignore them. Some people call, but I tell them I am studying for the GMAT, since I was making so much "noise" about business school. Also, I am so far from other members, that they have to go really out of their way to see me.

And I've been out for a good 5 months.