Yes Shavoy. The reality is that SGI is a wasteland of shattered lives. The cause is their false distorted teachings and the evil in the hearts of the top leaders.

Nichijew

Quote
Shavoy

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.

The murder occurred in August 2007, though the trial did not take place until 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the article in the Irish Herald.

------------------------------------beginning of quote---------------------------------------------------------------

[www.herald.ie]

The man who seduced murdered Jean Gilbert today revealed he wants to meet her killer husband.
Musician Bob Campion said he wants a face-to-face meeting with David Bourke – convicted of killing his wife.
The Englishman, whose explicit letters and emails to Ms Gilbert caused her husband to become insanely jealous, says he forgives Bourke (49) for the murder.
Mr Campion and Ms Gilbert (pictured below) met after a 20-year gap and rekindled their relationship in the full glare of her husband.

STABBED
Bourke subsequently stabbed his wife four times in the back, killing her in front of their three young children at their Castleknock home.
He got a life sentence for the August 2007 murder.
Today, the other man, Bob Campion says he forgives the killer and claims his Buddhism tells him “anyone can change for the better”.
One day he wants to to meet Bourke “face-to-face and talk to him”, adding that Jean would want that too.

----------------------------------------------------end of quote---------------------------------------------------------

The other man, Bob Campion, says he forgives Jean's husband, and wants to meet with him, saying that "Jean would want that too." Lord, the insensitivity, the nerve, the sheer idiocy of some people is just un-fucking-believable! How about him (Bob) asking for forgiveness for having sex with another man's wife! Or asking for forgiveness from her children for having destroyed their family and their happiness?

His Buddhism tells him that anyone can change for the better. Bah! He should worry about his own character, not anyone else's.

They are the most blind and arrogant people on the planet, bar none.

The warped "ideas" sold by SGI, are certainly not classical Buddhism. If anything, SGI as marketed, is a capitalistic faux-Buddhism of selfishness.
The whopper of converting others to SGI, to enhance your OWN Karma, so you can have more of what you want in life, is so perverse as to make your jaw drop.

The core of real Buddhism is that Suffering is created by Desire.
SGI obviously totally rejects that idea. Ok fine, but then you are not actually Buddhist!

So the SGI belief system is very seductive to people, like The Secret, telling naive people they will get all their desires met by magic/karma and chanting.

Whatever happened to attaining happiness by releasing excessive Desires? That is not an easy sell, so SGI ignores it, and instead panders to human greed.
So SGI seems to attract and keep people who want to believe stuff like that, who want to deceive themselves.

Many of the ground-level SGI people are nice people, they have just been deceived and manipulated by SGI. Its always the "nicest" people who are the ones to get victimized.

I've asked long-term SGI members what are the The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha? Without exception, they give a blank stare, they have never even heard of that! And they call themselves Buddhists!
They truly believe that "Buddhism" means you SGI-chant to get MORE of the STUFF you WANT! And they see no absurdity or irony in that.


At the same time, there is no chance that Ikeda, and the handful of senior leaders of SGI global believe any of that drivel. They are hard-nosed businessmen. They hire experts to invest the money, and pay them millions, they don't care if they are Buddhist or not.

There is no evidence that in fact Ikeda believes any of the SGI drivel. The evidence shows he is just a ruthless businessman and power-grabber.

There were many articles in the Irish press about this case. Some are very painful to read...her children screaming and pleading with their father to stop stabbing their mother.

-------------------------------beginning of links and quotes-------------------------------------------------


[www.rte.ie]

[www.thefreelibrary.com]

The Gilbert family have cared for the children since the killing and Robert said the stress of coping with the aftermath had left them all "at breaking point".

He told the court Jean's Buddhist faith meant everything to her: "She lived by the Buddhist principles of peace and happiness but sadly she did not die in this way.

The court heard harrowing evidence that the couple's daughter begged her father to stop killing her mum.

The girl also gave her mother the kiss of life as she lay dying in the family's sitting room.

Bourke admitted stabbing Jean to gardai but told them: "It was not my intention to kill her - just to cause her pain and suffering as she had caused me to suffer."

She lived by the Buddhist principles of peace and happiness but sadly she did not die in this way

[www.independent.ie]

Evidence concludes in Jean Gilbert murder trial - National News, Breaking News - Enniscourthyguardian.ie

[www.herald.ie]

Closing his eyes, he put his hands up to his face as if to avoid hearing the words his wife had written to her lover. She had told him: "I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I didn't know love like this was possible, I really didn't, but guess what, it's f***ing amazing."
---------------------------------end of links/quotes---------------------------------------------------------

"She lived by the Buddhist principles of peace and happiness, but sadly she did not die in this way." Oh, please. Doesn't traditional Buddhism have principles like right action, right speech, doing no harm, compassion, acting with integrity, proper sexual conduct, considering the possible consequences of your actions? Can we see ANY of these principles in this woman's actions? Oh right. She practiced Ikedaism -- how would she know anything about Buddhism.

Nah....screwing around on your husband...."Guess what, it's f***ng amazing!"

I wonder how amazing her children feel right now.

Interesting post on Yahoo Answers


Why do SGI Buddhists attack and try to convert others with a strong arm?
[answers.yahoo.com]

(complete with a few SGI public-relations marketing posts. Notice how the SGI-USA propagandists stay away from this thread on Cult Education, where their techniques will be questioned and challenged by those with the knowledge to do so.)

SGI
[buddhists.livejournal.com]

In the "Cults, Sects, and New Religions" Forum, there's a link to an excellent article on cult methods. I'm only quoting the main points here, as it's a bit long -- but it's really worth reading the whole article.

[www.lermanet.com]

-------------Beginning of Quote------------------------------------------

People have an overwhelming desire to believe in some- thing. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf.

THE SCIENCE OF CHARLATANISM, OR HOW TO CREATE A CULT IN FIVE, EASY STEPS
Having a large following opens up all sorts of possibilities for deception; not only will your followers worship you, they will defend you from your enemies and will voluntarily take on the work of enticing others to join your fledgling cult. This kind of power will lift you to another realm: You will no longer have to struggle or use subterfuge to enforce your will. You are adored and can do no wrong.

You might think it a gargantuan task to create such a following, but in fact it is fairly simple. As humans, we have a desperate need to believe in something, anything. This makes us eminently gullible: We simply cannot endure long periods of doubt, or of the emptiness that comes from a lack of something to believe in. Dangle in front of us some new cause, elixir, getrich-quick scheme, or the latest technological trend or art movement and we leap from the water as one to take the bait.

Always in a rush to believe in something, we will manufacture saints and faiths out of nothing. Do not let this gullibility go to waste: Make yourself the object of worship. Make people form a cult around you.

The great European charlatans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mastered the art of cultmaking. They lived, as we do now, in a time of transformation: Organized religion was on the wane, science on the rise. People were desperate to rally around a new cause or faith. The charlatans had begun by peddling health elixirs and alchemic shortcuts to wealth.

Moving quickly from town to town, they originally focused on small groups-until, by accident, they stumbled on a truth of human nature: The larger the group they gathered around themselves, the easier it was to deceive. In a group setting, people were more emotional, less able to reason. Had the charlatan spoken to them individually, they might have found him ridiculous, but lost in a crowd they got caught up in a communal mood of rapt attention. It became impossible for them to find the distance to be skeptical.

Any deficiencies in the charlatan's ideas were hidden by the zeal of the mass. Passion and enthusiasm swept through the crowd like a contagion, and they reacted violently to anyone who dared to spread a seed of doubt.

Simply follow the five steps of cultmaking that our charlatan ancestors perfected over the years.

Step I: Keep It Vague; Keep It Simple. To create a cult you must first attract attention. This you should do not through actions, which are too clear and readable, but through words, which are hazy and deceptive. Your initial speeches, conversations, and interviews must include two elements: on the one hand the promise of something great and transformative, and on the other a total vagueness. This combination will stimulate all kinds of hazy dreams in your listeners, who will make their own connections and see what they want to see.

To make your vagueness attractive, use words of great resonance but cloudy meaning, words full of heat and enthusiasm. Fancy titles for simple things are helpful, as are the use of numbers and the creation of new words for vague concepts. All of these create the impression of specialized knowledge, giving you a veneer of profundity. By the same token, try to make the subject of your cult new and fresh, so that few will understand it. Done right, the combination of vague promises, cloudy but alluring concepts, and fiery enthusiasm will stir people's souls and a group will form around you.

As a corollary to its vagueness your appeal should also be simple. Most people's problems have complex causes: deep-rooted neurosis, interconnected social factors, roots that go way back in time and are exceed ingly hard to unravel. Few, however, have the patience to deal with this:most people want to hear that a simple solution will cure their problems.

Step 2: Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual. Once people have begun to gather around you, two dangers will present themselves: boredom and skepticism. Boredom will make people go elsewhere; skepticism will allow them the distance to think rationally about whatever it is you are offering, blowing away the mist you have artfully created and revealing your ideas for what they are. You need to amuse the bored, then, and ward off the cynics. The best way to do this is through theater, or other devices of its kind. Surround yourself with luxury, dazzle your followers with visual splendor, fill their eyes with spectacle. Not only will this keep them from seeing the ridiculousness of your ideas, the holes in your belief system, it will also attract more attention, more followers.

Appeal to all the senses: Use incense for scent, soothing music for hearing, colorful charts and graphs for the eye. Use the exotic-distant cultures, strange customs-to create theatrical effects, and to make the most banal ordinary affairs seem signs of something extraordinary.

Step 3: Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the Group. The lofty and holy associations of organized religion can be endlesslv exploited. Create rituals for your followers: organize organize them into a hierarchy, ranking then in grades of sanctity, and giving them names and tides that resound with religious overtones; ask them for sacrifices that will fill your coffers and increase your power.

Step 4: Disguise Your Source of Income. Your group has grown, and you have structured it in a churchlike form. Your coffers are beginning to fill with your followers' money. Yet you must never be seen as hungry for money and the power it brings. It is at this moment that you must disguise the source of your income.

Your followers want to believe that if they follow you all sorts of good things will fall into their lap. By surrounding yourself with luxury you become living proof of the soundness of your belief system. Never reveal that your wealth actually comes from your followers' pockets; instead, make it seem to come from the truth of your methods. Followers will copy your each and every move in the belief that it will bring them the same results, and their imitative enthusiasm will blind them to the charlatan nature of your wealth.

Step 5: Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. The group is now large and thriving, a magnet attracting more and more particles. If you are not careful, though, inertia will set in, and time and boredom will demagnetize the group. To keep your followers united, you must now do what all religions and belief systems have done: create an us-versus-them dynamic.

First, make sure your followers believe they are part of an exclusive club unified by a bond of common goals. Then to stregthen this bond, manufactre the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin you. There is a force of nonbelievers that will do anything to stop you. Any outsider who tries to reveal the charlatan nature of your belief system can now be described as member of this devious force.

If you have no enemies, invent one. Given a straw man to react against your, your followers will tighten and cohere. They have your cause to believe in and infidels to destroy.

--------------------------------------------end of quote--------------------------------------------------------------

Much in this article reminded me of SGI:

1. A large group is more effective...look at riots and looting. People who are part of a mob will do things that they would never do alone. People somehow just believe that if a lot of other people are doing something -- it must be a good thing to do.

2. The need for drama and spectacle and multisensory activities-- We've discussed SGI's huge conventions --- music, dancing, dramatic speeches, frantic excitement, guys making human pyramids on roller skates! Travelling so far, coming up with the money to make the trip, rehearsing....and again, huge numbers of members attend these meetings. This all creates excitement, and focuses people's minds on SGI and the convention. Months before a convention and months after -- people are thinking about the convention, and SGI.

3. Simple answers to complex problems. All you have to do is chant and do things for SGI, and take Ikeda as your mentor -- and you can do, or have anything you want!

4. Disguise your income. Or just refuse to disclose any information about it. Ikeda has certainly got this one down pat.

5. Create enemies to unite the members. That was Nichiren Shoshu in the past; now it's members who question the organization, and ex members.

6. Use glorious sounding, but cloudy language. Every January, SGI had a name for the new year -- "the Year of Glorious Victory, or some such pretty, empty phrase. The Year of Glorious Victory -- what does that even mean?

Quote
The Anticult
(complete with a few SGI public-relations marketing posts. Notice how the SGI-USA propagandists stay away from this thread on Cult Education, where their techniques will be questioned and challenged by those with the knowledge to do so.)

SGI
[buddhists.livejournal.com]

Hello,

First time poster, long time reader...

I had left the SGI reservation back in March 2011, and I'm thankful for this forum being provided. It served as vindication that my actions weren't in haste.

After checking Anticult's link it just brought back so many laughable memories of the moral equivocation members used in effort to keep me on board. I would confront the issue with members who I thought I could trust, they would become gravely agitated with the conversation and hang up. More alarming is that I would get these calls from other members from out of the blue attempting to address the issues that I confided in another SGI member (Typical snitching of course) When I confronted them with New Komeito, or fallacies with their version of the split with the priesthood there only rebuttal was "we aren't about that anymore." or "Religion isn't perfect" then go into this condescending "guidance" session laced with nothing but President Ikeda quotes (yeah, like he is the first person you want to hear)

One conversation in particular and I'm paraphrasing (I only remember what I said to this person that made this person abruptly hang up on me)

Quote

Caller: I hear your having some struggles with this Buddhism

KR: I have been looking around and I have came into some information that gives me the impression that SGI isn't what it says it is.

(Other words are said but I'll skip to save a little time)

Caller: ...Well every one has struggles, Ghandi had struggles, Martin Luther King had struggles, President Ikeda even had struggles when he came to America.

KR: Dude. Slow down, really. You are using the word "struggle" very loosely. I am not struggling. This is really not that epic, okay.

(Then he hangs up)

Point being that this person has been so emersed in his little SGI bubble of touchy feely talking points that the propaganda has severely affected his ability to lie. Their version of Buddhism is that they teach is that they're is no such thing as right or wrong. It's about winning and losing. Maybe it's some veiled admission that the facts don't matter to the SGI.

Great post KR!