This thread/mb is a veritable treasure trove of things that ex-members can relate to. I've just found a bundle of some more random things.
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Songshand
...... sounds like you were a good leader because you knew exactly when you were qualified to give guidance and when you were not. Also I think it is common sense that if someone comes to you who is an abusive situation to tell them or even assist them in any way you can to get it. It is irresponsible to advice someone to just chant. Tell them chant once they are in a safe situation.
Is there such a thing as a "responsible" cult leader?
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sushigrl
Isn't it amazing that what they told me all those years about "high life condition" after chanting and especially after activities was only adrenaline (adrenaline = ichinen) or being mesmerized by chanting with a group (itai doshin). Finally I can sit here and say that my life condition is higher after I have left!!! I have the hope that my future internal life will not be dictated by some past slogan that was drilled into me.
We were constantly being challenged to maintain "a high life condition" even in the midst of the insanity of conventions or during especially stressful times of organizational chaos, and to whitewash the bad behavior of "leaders". It was just a call to arms to activate the adrenaline and superficial "happy face" so that we could impress our leaders.
Good luck with the "Code of Conduct". More whitewashing and excuses and favoritism for the leaders to play with.
This forum is great. It's a great thing to be able to write these things for other to read and understand.
I agree, it's great to be able to put all of this out there for posterity for others to see and relate to. Wonderful insight and examples: "
It was just a call to arms to activate the adrenaline and superficial "happy face" so that we could impress our leaders." Yup. I will also add that it also had a tendency to make you feel better than your average "Joe", too. We had the secret "key" to happiness and walked taller, prouder and faster.
Deluded is more like it.
The main thing I remember from all the chanting, was not so much being "higher than the sky", but my legs killing me. I never was able to warm up to the fact that we had to sit on the floor for everything, like some kind of mini-Japan-wanna-be society.
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tsukimoto
--SGI has the nerve to tell members who have complaints with the organization, "Be the change you wish to see." Hah! There's NO way for members to change SGI. Everything is so top-down!
--If you question, criticize, or disagree with anything in SGI, you are always wrong.
--SGI just gets you one step at at time. Would you just go to a meeting? Then, why don't you just try chanting? If it doesn't help, you can always quit! Would you give an explanation of the practice at a meeting, would you give an experience, could you invite a friend to a meeting? Say yes to one of these, and then they'll have more things that they want you to do....it just escalates until you're working long hours for SGI, and pestering everyone you know to join....you've reframed your experiences in SGI language, changed your worldview...and turned into a deployable agent, recruiting for SGI.
They would tell you "
you have nothing to lose, except a little bit of your time", so "
just try it!" "
If you don't like it, or it doesn't work, you can quit." I heard the same thing - A LOT. Then, once they tried it, they'd pull a big benefit out of a hat and confabulate it into some sort of mystic working of the universe because you changed your karma and life condition. If the new convert was skeptical, they'd just keep reframing it until you either accepted it or were a reluctant believer. If the latter was the case, you'd be encouraged to try it some more. (Repeat the cycle here.)
If you wanted to quit, the guilt, threats to adverse consequences, manipulation and fear would be pulled out. If you managed to resist it all and depart, I can tell you this much - nobody ever left with a cordial handshake, good wishes and a smile from the gakkai members who had shakubuku'd you; it would be more like "
F*** off!, go die, fall into the gutter and receive your cosmic retribution. See you again someday when you realize the error of your ways."
At least that's the pattern I always saw.
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SGBye
Here's an excerpt from Ikeda's New Year's Message in the 1/1/10 issue of the World Tribune. It may be one of his kookiest quotes yet regarding the mentor-disciple relationship:
"The Brazilian astronomer Dr. Ronaldo Mourao, with whom I have published a dialogue, remarked that an individual's innate potential can blossom in a much more vigorous form through the mentor-disciple relationship, and he said that he considered this the most correct 'orbit' for human beings to travel."
Huh? What? If someone out there can logically explain what the hell that even means, I'd appreciate it.
It has no meaning. It can mean whatever you want it to mean. This is the most mind numbing thing about Ikeda's "guidance" and especially "dialogues." Pretentious, self-serving, verbiage devoid of actual meaning. Non-sequitor garbage for the ignorant.