@Nichijew.....Priceless!!!

@The Anti-Cult...your post makes me query two things. First, if you polled all the die-harders and asked them if they felt with all they have done for the SGI and Senor Ikeda, if they felt their own enlightenment, or absolute happiness at the very least....I really wonder what they would say.

Second, I've been pretty perplexed with the bone-numbing M/D stuff...if you and Nichijew could shed your light on: People have mentors in life. Teachers, friends, family, others who have influenced them to a better way of doing things, seeing things, knowing things. That being said, I've never known anybody to "worship" and obsess about these mentors. Where the mentor becomes omnipotent in the mind, or as P.I. has stated "My wife and I talk of Mr. Toda incessantly". That, coupled with the directive to always protect your Mentor with the raging courage of a lion king, etc. etc., or else you are a heathen traitor, etc. etc.--- This also classic mind-control, yes?
That's more of their aim, right?

That really scares me even more for the poor young Shirleys and their prescriptions....

No question, many SGI true believers just force themselves to believe it.

Example, they worked hard, made lots of calls, show up on time, have talent, etc.
so they get some career success...instead of patting themselves on the back, they tell themselves its the chanting-Karma that did it.
Or if they mess up due to being lazy, arrogant, or incompetent...its "bad karma".
They really believe it.

Humans can believe almost anything, they can believe there are aliens living in golden cities beneath the earth, some sects believe that.
So the SGI-Karma stuff is pretty tame compared to some crazy belief systems.



As far as "mentor" that is SGI Newspeak.
SGI-USA propagandists chose the "mentor" word, as its trendy in business in the West now, and sounds inoffensive.
But its not Mentor/Colleague.
Its Mentor/Disciple.

Again, Disciple is chose carefully, as that is from the bible for most folks. A disciple is a religious FOLLOWER who follows orders.

but its not really "mentor".
Its MASTER.
MASTER/Disciple.

That is what SGI is really selling. You do worship a "Master".
The real concept SGI is selling is...

Master/Slave.
Ikeda is the Master, and you follow orders and work for free.
Of course that is the classical cultic power-relationship, the Master totally dominates and controls you, your mind, and your life.

So SGI constantly doing that, is simply cultic Master/slave cultic brainwashing, that is all it is.

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The Anticult
No question, many SGI true believers just force themselves to believe it.

Example, they worked hard, made lots of calls, show up on time, have talent, etc.
so they get some career success...instead of patting themselves on the back, they tell themselves its the chanting-Karma that did it.
Or if they mess up due to being lazy, arrogant, or incompetent...its "bad karma".
They really believe it.

Humans can believe almost anything, they can believe there are aliens living in golden cities beneath the earth, some sects believe that.
So the SGI-Karma stuff is pretty tame compared to some crazy belief systems.



As far as "mentor" that is SGI Newspeak.
SGI-USA propagandists chose the "mentor" word, as its trendy in business in the West now, and sounds inoffensive.
But its not Mentor/Colleague.
Its Mentor/Disciple.

Again, Disciple is chose carefully, as that is from the bible for most folks. A disciple is a religious FOLLOWER who follows orders.

but its not really "mentor".
Its MASTER.
MASTER/Disciple.

That is what SGI is really selling. You do worship a "Master".
The real concept SGI is selling is...

Master/Slave.
Ikeda is the Master, and you follow orders and work for free.
Of course that is the classical cultic power-relationship, the Master totally dominates and controls you, your mind, and your life.

So SGI constantly doing that, is simply cultic Master/slave cultic brainwashing, that is all it is.

The Anti-Cult, thanks for answering. Your answer clarifies these issues for me. And it brings more observations to mind. First off, I guess there goes the old phrase "Follow the Law, not the person". With the frenzied Master worship, that seems to have been conveniently tossed to the curb.

Also, it's been said over and over that members are "working alongside their Mentor to realize his vow to accomplish Kosen-Rufu". Alongside? Uh-hmmm.

All this for the benefit of the Master's Great Ego.

You're right. People can believe anything and it becomes true.

Ikeda wants people to follow the person. Ikeda.

It seems every single sect or cult works in this fashion. It doesn't work to get people to follow an idea or even a group, they need to be trained to follow a PERSON.
And like Ikeda, it doesn't matter if they have never met the person, but its personality marketing.

There must be psychological reasons that this works, to make followers subservient and obedient to the Master.
The human brain must be wired-up to go into submission to an Alpha authority figure, like primates in a troupe.

So that is all Ikeda has been doing, its how he manages and "leads" his followers. Its not up to them to think for themselves, but to follow his thinking.

Of course in the west, he has had to conceal this, and they use the term Mentor for that, when in fact Ikeda is the old-school Master with absolute authority.


this is another reason why SGI is such an absurd affront to Buddhism.
It really functions as the opposite to Buddhism, in slavishly following a charismatic leader, chanting for a new Mercedes, getting fake SGI Karma-points for converting others to SGI, getting fake SGI karma-points for giving Ikeda all of your cash...cash-4-karma....

It just goes on and on, its so incredibly absurd.
But Ikeda knows many humans want to chant-for-miracles, which is primitive wishful thinking trying to escape the human condition, and Ikeda has made billions by exploiting this human vulnerability.

Over the holidays, I had lunch with a former boss, who was my mentor when I was in my early 20's. When I worked for her, she let me know that she valued my skills and hard work. She encouraged me, advised me, taught me new skills, and gave me more responsibility.

We are still in touch, though I work for a different organization now, and she has long since retired. She was a real mentor to me, and such a contrast from Ikeda. For year, she and I worked very closely together, talking every day. How can a person like Ikeda, that you've never met, possibly be your mentor? For me, the very essence of mentorship is that close, two-way relationship. Your mentor knows you well enough to give the advice you need. You see, and interact with her so you learn that her advice is actually worth taking!

While I appreciate my former mentor's encouragement and coaching....I don't constantly think of her. I don't feel that I have to imitate her. She would never WANT me to be obsessed with her, or to become a clone of her. At this point, I think she simply wants my friendship -- and for me to have the kind of career and life that I want.

At this point, I've got some skills and knowledge that she doesn't, and she has some skills and knowledge that I don't. We are friends, and equals.

Can you imagine members saying that "I'm equal to Ikeda!"? I can't imagine it either. You can NEVER be equal to Ikeda. You can NEVER get to the point where you don't need him (according to SGI.) You can never move on. Merely being grateful is not enough; you can never repay your so-called "debt of gratitude," no matter how much you give or do. Friendship? Nobody is friends with Ikeda. To be someone's friend -- you have to consider them your equal. Does Ikeda consider anyone to be his equal? Hardly! In his world, people are either his admirers -- or his enemies.

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tsukimoto
Over the holidays, I had lunch with a former boss, who was my mentor when I was in my early 20's. When I worked for her, she let me know that she valued my skills and hard work. She encouraged me, advised me, taught me new skills, and gave me more responsibility.

We are still in touch, though I work for a different organization now, and she has long since retired. She was a real mentor to me, and such a contrast from Ikeda. For year, she and I worked very closely together, talking every day. How can a person like Ikeda, that you've never met, possibly be your mentor? For me, the very essence of mentorship is that close, two-way relationship. Your mentor knows you well enough to give the advice you need. You see, and interact with her so you learn that her advice is actually worth taking!

While I appreciate my former mentor's encouragement and coaching....I don't constantly think of her. I don't feel that I have to imitate her. She would never WANT me to be obsessed with her, or to become a clone of her. At this point, I think she simply wants my friendship -- and for me to have the kind of career and life that I want.

At this point, I've got some skills and knowledge that she doesn't, and she has some skills and knowledge that I don't. We are friends, and equals.

Can you imagine members saying that "I'm equal to Ikeda!"? I can't imagine it either. You can NEVER be equal to Ikeda. You can NEVER get to the point where you don't need him (according to SGI.) You can never move on. Merely being grateful is not enough; you can never repay your so-called "debt of gratitude," no matter how much you give or do. Friendship? Nobody is friends with Ikeda. To be someone's friend -- you have to consider them your equal. Does Ikeda consider anyone to be his equal? Hardly! In his world, people are either his admirers -- or his enemies.

tsukimoto, thanks for sharing your feelings on M/D. On the money you are, as always. Members and leaders do feel they are "equal" to P.I., in their sense of "working alongside their Mentor to realize The Vow." You're right when you say "Does Ikeda consider anyone to be his equal? Hardly! In his world people are either his admirers -- or his enemies".

The way you described your mentor is exactly how it should be, healthy, beneficial and rewarding. Not obsessive. That SGI-ers are told they must accept a man they have never met, as their sole Mentor in Life, is warped. Like new members having no choice if they want to continue with SGI, whether they want the WT/Living Buddhism ($50.00 a year now) or not--they have to take out a subscription.

And "debt of gratitude".....oh, boy. You are told you MUST owe that "debt of gratitude" to Sensei. Good lord. And you're right again---how can that "debt" ever be paid?

I guess only with more hero worship and admiration.

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The Anticult
Ikeda wants people to follow the person. Ikeda.

It seems every single sect or cult works in this fashion. It doesn't work to get people to follow an idea or even a group, they need to be trained to follow a PERSON.
And like Ikeda, it doesn't matter if they have never met the person, but its personality marketing.

There must be psychological reasons that this works, to make followers subservient and obedient to the Master.
The human brain must be wired-up to go into submission to an Alpha authority figure, like primates in a troupe.

So that is all Ikeda has been doing, its how he manages and "leads" his followers. Its not up to them to think for themselves, but to follow his thinking.

Of course in the west, he has had to conceal this, and they use the term Mentor for that, when in fact Ikeda is the old-school Master with absolute authority.


this is another reason why SGI is such an absurd affront to Buddhism.
It really functions as the opposite to Buddhism, in slavishly following a charismatic leader, chanting for a new Mercedes, getting fake SGI Karma-points for converting others to SGI, getting fake SGI karma-points for giving Ikeda all of your cash...cash-4-karma....

It just goes on and on, its so incredibly absurd.
But Ikeda knows many humans want to chant-for-miracles, which is primitive wishful thinking trying to escape the human condition, and Ikeda has made billions by exploiting this human vulnerability.

The Anti-Cult....excellent!

It seems to me if it: Walks like A Duck..Talks like A Duck...So many in SGI can't acknowledge this duck.

Yes, a real Mentor is terrific, but SGI-Ikeda is not a mentor. Its impossible.
You have to personally know your mentor, and deal with them personally for a long period of time.
And a mentor doesn't charge you money.

Ikeda is not the only one to exploit this.
There are all sorts of groups that popped up with "Coaching" as a fake "mentor", and they charge you hundreds of dollars an hour, often to persuade you to buy more products! A total scam.

This is where SGI-USA got the idea, from management consultants and marketing consultants they hire. They know that in the USA and west, people are against the Master/slave relationship, that seems to be more accepted in the east. People in the west find that offensive generally.
So the SGI-USA marketing consultants told them to change the wording to Mentor.
But anyone exercising common sense knows its impossible to have a 'mentor" of some billionaire like Ikeda who you will never meet, who is trying to sell you things, and wants you to give him all of your money, like Ikeda does.
So in reality, the word mentor as used by SGI-USA is simply psychological propaganda.

But Ikeda knows that psychological personality marketing is how to hook people into a sect/group.
People don't identify with a Group, like SGI in total.
There seems to be a need to identify with a personality.
So SGI just like every other giant cultish group, uses the Master/Follower system.
Humans seems to want to identify with a big personality at the top.

Of course, all of this is the opposite to Buddhism.
Whatever happened to no-self and nothingness?
SGI says forget that crap, and chant for more money, a bigger house, and everything the Buddha rejected, according to the legend of the Buddha.

Ikeda is the Wall St fake Buddha...the SGI Buddha says...'Greed is Good'.

If SGI were intellectually honest, they would in fact admit that they are against classical Buddhism, and are not in fact Buddhists by any stretch of the term. But SGI-USA are experts in reframing words, and the meaning of words.
SGI-USA are master of propaganda and persuasion, and have gotten much better over the years, as they used to be very crude in their tactics, and are now much more subtle initially.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2012 06:19AM by The Anticult.

Jean Gilbert, Ireland’s Womens Division Leader Brutally Murdered In Front of Her Three Children

Earthly Desire Equal Enlightenment in the Soka Gakkai is taught from the perspective of a common mortal rather from the perspective of the Buddha.

The members are taught by their leaders that any desire or goal the member has, as long as they chant Namu Myoho renge kyo, is equal to Enlightenment. They are encouraged to chant for cars, boyfriends, houses, fame, even drugs and sex and that is equal to Enlightenment at the moment the desire is fulfilled.

The Wish Granting Jewel to these base depraved men and women of the Soka Gakkai is not the Great Wish for attaining Buddhahood that is bound to the Pure and Perfect Consciousness hidden in the core of being [Amala] but rather those common shallow wishes bound to the Five [Sense] Desires [Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Vision]

Since this matter is of utmost importance, I will give an example of a Soka Gakkai leader who believed faithfully in this perverted doctrine of the Soka Gakkai. She was the top senior leader of a country who lived and breathed the Soka Gakkai and every doctrine and principle taught therein. She was a physically beautiful women of forty five years old with golden blond hair, bright green eyes and a near boundless determination to spread the twisted teachings of the Soka Gakkai, such as the primacy of the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple and Enlightenment Equals Earthly Desires. Married for fifteen years, she had three beautiful children, five, seven and eight years old, and a husband who worshipped the ground she walked on. He was absolutely supportive of her practice which kept her away from home for long periods, doing those insipid slanderous Gakkai activities. The husband, though having a business of his own, split the duties of taking care of the children with a nanny and he was content because he loved his wife and children and was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to make his wife and children happy and to promote the Gakkai’s vision of “Spreading the True Teachings” [Kosen Rufu].

During one of these activities, ten years earlier, she met another top senior leader in the Men’s Division and they immediately hit it off, having so many things in common: Their love and admiration for Sensei; endless activities for “Kosen Rufu”; and spouses and families who chant and support them. Her feelings for this man however, far surpassed those of a mere comrade in faith. Every day for ten years, morning and evening, when she did Gongyo and Daimoku, she always included in her prayers the wish to be with this man. Out of the blue he contacted her revealing his very same desire to be with her. They began an affair and then they both determined in front of the Soka Gakkai no-honzon that they would leave their spouses and be together thus realizing in their very bodies the Gakkai teaching of Earthly Desires are Equal to Enlightenment. They chanted and planned, planned and chanted for everything to go the way that it “must’ since their desires are equal to Enlightenment.

This was the day. This was the day she would tell her husband that she found her true soulmate and she had chanted long and hard about it and it would be. Not 10 seconds after she had told him, he ran to the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife, and in front of their three children he stabbed her four times in the back. She lingered in agony for several hours.

This is the result of the perverted teachings of the Gakkai that makes common mortals out of Buddhas.

Nichijew

Quote
Nichijew
Jean Gilbert, Ireland’s Womens Division Leader Brutally Murdered In Front of Her Three Children

Earthly Desire Equal Enlightenment in the Soka Gakkai is taught from the perspective of a common mortal rather from the perspective of the Buddha.

The members are taught by their leaders that any desire or goal the member has, as long as they chant Namu Myoho renge kyo, is equal to Enlightenment. They are encouraged to chant for cars, boyfriends, houses, fame, even drugs and sex and that is equal to Enlightenment at the moment the desire is fulfilled.

The Wish Granting Jewel to these base depraved men and women of the Soka Gakkai is not the Great Wish for attaining Buddhahood that is bound to the Pure and Perfect Consciousness hidden in the core of being [Amala] but rather those common shallow wishes bound to the Five [Sense] Desires [Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Vision]

Since this matter is of utmost importance, I will give an example of a Soka Gakkai leader who believed faithfully in this perverted doctrine of the Soka Gakkai. She was the top senior leader of a country who lived and breathed the Soka Gakkai and every doctrine and principle taught therein. She was a physically beautiful women of forty five years old with golden blond hair, bright green eyes and a near boundless determination to spread the twisted teachings of the Soka Gakkai, such as the primacy of the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple and Enlightenment Equals Earthly Desires. Married for fifteen years, she had three beautiful children, five, seven and eight years old, and a husband who worshipped the ground she walked on. He was absolutely supportive of her practice which kept her away from home for long periods, doing those insipid slanderous Gakkai activities. The husband, though having a business of his own, split the duties of taking care of the children with a nanny and he was content because he loved his wife and children and was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to make his wife and children happy and to promote the Gakkai’s vision of “Spreading the True Teachings” [Kosen Rufu].

During one of these activities, ten years earlier, she met another top senior leader in the Men’s Division and they immediately hit it off, having so many things in common: Their love and admiration for Sensei; endless activities for “Kosen Rufu”; and spouses and families who chant and support them. Her feelings for this man however, far surpassed those of a mere comrade in faith. Every day for ten years, morning and evening, when she did Gongyo and Daimoku, she always included in her prayers the wish to be with this man. Out of the blue he contacted her revealing his very same desire to be with her. They began an affair and then they both determined in front of the Soka Gakkai no-honzon that they would leave their spouses and be together thus realizing in their very bodies the Gakkai teaching of Earthly Desires are Equal to Enlightenment. They chanted and planned, planned and chanted for everything to go the way that it “must’ since their desires are equal to Enlightenment.

This was the day. This was the day she would tell her husband that she found her true soulmate and she had chanted long and hard about it and it would be. Not 10 seconds after she had told him, he ran to the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife, and in front of their three children he stabbed her four times in the back. She lingered in agony for several hours.

This is the result of the perverted teachings of the Gakkai that makes common mortals out of Buddhas.

Nichijew

Nichijew, did this happen recently? What a sad, sad story.... it goes to show that Gakkai members are not protected from tragedies, despite chanting, activities, all-out devotion to Sensei, etc. They may have felt that, that they would have protection and that they were making the right causes, based on their faith in the SGI and P. Ikeda.

And the poor husband. Was probably told that by supporting her practice 100%, that he would receive benefits and protection, too.