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Shavoy
. It is all, ALL, for the worship of Daisaku Ikeda. Why promote M/D so heavily, especially in the last decade? Because he is old now, if he is dead or alive, we might not know that, but does it matter? Just as he once said in one of his speeches that I quoted in an earlier post, a statement that still blows my mind---"Mrs. Ikeda and I talk incessantly about our mentor, Josei Toda".
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If that's even true, it's sad. A good mentor, teacher or coach may help someone learn specific skills, and develop qualities like leadership, confidence and self-discipline. In the end, though, a true mentor should want you to live YOUR life -- not spend all your time thinking about them!
To change the subject completely, I found this article, by Jim Stephens, on his fourteen years in SGI. The website is sponsored by the Christian Research Institute, CRI, and Stephens also writes about how he became a born-again Christian after leaving SGI. I'm not saying that people should become Christians after SGI --- or that they shouldn't become Christians after SGI. The striking thing to me is how similar our experiences in SGI have been, no matter what path we take afterwards.
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[
www.equip.org]-
Jim Stephens:
I was in a train station in Japan, making a pilgrimage to the head Buddhist temple Daisekiji at the foot of Mount Fuji, when a young man — in perfect English — warned: "Beware the winds of Himeiji!" Three and one-half hours later, I was leaning over to put some postcards into my travel bag and heard someone yell a warning in Japanese. The next thing I knew, a sign weighing nearly 200 pounds came crashing down on my back. I was in shock and my right arm was paralyzed.
In a wheelchair and all alone, I decided to seek help from leaders at the Soka Gakkai Buddhist headquarters in Tokyo. But my efforts were in vain. They had no compassion whatsoever for me or my unfortunate turn of events; they simply urged me to continue my pilgrimage, even though I was confined to a wheelchair. As a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist, I had for fourteen years invested my energy, prayers, and hopes for a better life in the philosophy of Nichiren Daishonin,
As I reflect back on those years, it strikes me that
my commitment to NSA could be questioned by none. As a young Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist, I became a member of the Brass Band.
I also helped build the Malibu Training Center and Santa Monica headquarters (both in California). I became a senior leader (or elder) of the young men's division at the Santa Monica headquarters, and was a graduate of the Nichiren Shoshu study department. By this time, my life had become thoroughly and unconditionally committed to Kosenrufu.
Open forums and meetings with fellow Buddhists began to shed a new (and negative) light on the Buddhist religion for me. During these sessions, like-minded Buddhists began to ask questions like, "Why must we have a picture of sect President Daisaku Ikeda on the wall? Doesn't that make it look like we're worshipping him? Why must we wear white? Why can't men wear beards? Why must men and women sit apart from one another? And where is all the money going in NSA?"
We felt that we should have a little more control over what was going on. During one period, some of the Japanese leadership attended the meetings and were later overheard behind closed doors saying, "these meetings must be stopped." And so, one by one, the meetings were stopped. This caused me a great deal of disillusionment. As a senior leader in NSA, I encountered more and more hypocrisy in the upper leadership levels and made sincere attempts to resolve organizational and philosophical deficiencies. However, these attempts were only met by deceit, jealousy, power maneuvers, and even threats against my life.-----------------------------------End of Quote-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2012 04:59AM by tsukimoto.