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The Anticult
Both on the bookshelf for ages.
Also this Feynman book is terrific,
The Character of Physical Law.

The live audio of Feynman, which was the source for the Lectures, is great, fun to hear his Brooklyn voice.

Why get brainwashed with SGI cultic nonsense and wreck your life, when you can listen to a smart, practical, funny guy like Feynman explain stuff like that?
Especially now its on the net for free.

Replacing New Wage cultic nonsense, with real science and real philosophy and real psychology...that is one way out of the rabbit hole.

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Hitch
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(The "red-box" set and his "QED" are essential reading. They are BRILLIANT and also have the extra added advantage of being true.)

Ahhhh! A breath of fresh air!!!

"The Character of Physical Law" is also on my bookshelf. LOVE IT!!

I have all of the audio lectures and they are a joy to go thru along with the red book series. They are currently revamping the entire set as a new enhanced electronic version [www.youtube.com]. Have been waiting for its release [www.basicfeynman.com] and will most likely repurchase the entire set when available.

On that note:

"Why get brainwashed with SGI cultic nonsense and wreck your life, when you can listen to a smart, practical, funny guy like Feynman explain stuff like that?

Replacing New Wage cultic nonsense, with real science and real philosophy and real psychology...that is one way out of the rabbit hole."

Amen to that brother. Sheer poetry to my ears. That's exactly one of the ways I did it, too. :-))

Unlike wasted time with the gakkai cult & zaimu (monetary donations), this kind of investment, in terms of time and money, is really life altering and enhancing. Read, Learn & Think For Yourself.

Even though Feynman has absolutely nothing to do with cults, sects, or especially SGI, in fact it would be good material for helping to self-deprogram from SGI, or any other new agey cult, as its so different.


And Hitch, the facts you are spilling here about SGI and SGI-USA are invaluable.
Long ago in this thread, some were saying that in their view SGI was not "really" a "cult", mainly due to looking at only somewhat casual SGI members who chant at eachothers house each week.
But the point was made those are just the lowest-rung members, who's job it is to pay Ikeda with free money each month (dues), and buy stuff from SGI, and where SGI looks for recruits to bring higher into the org, and put them to work unpaid 24/7.

SGI is a global cult.
SGI-USA is a corporatized cult who purpose is to create income for SGI Int.

SGI might be the richest cult in the world...that is...Ikeda is the richest, as he controls every dollar from on high. SGI is a multibillion dollar private Ikeda family fortune.

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Hitch
Incidentally, here is their 2011 commencement video, with Hiromasa's keynote address (starting at ~30:00 min. mark). An extraordinarily BORING and vacuous speech that talks about some photo the dear leader took and donated to the univ., the dear leader's dialogues (lots of name dropping) and an exceptionally lame joke (perhaps ironic?) about the graduation class being known as the class of "7-Eleven" (the convenience store business / "konbini" in Japanese parlance).

[www.youtube.com]

You’re right about Hiromasa’s speech being boring! I couldn’t get through it. His lack of presence and charisma is quite glaring. It’s easy to see why the SGI is trying to keep Papa Ikeda alive for as long as possible. I don’t have many positive things to say about Daisaku Ikeda, but when he walks into a room he has the members eating out of the palm of his hand with little to no effort on his part. I have a hard time picturing Hiromasa achieving the same results.

Shakabuku Card story: Around one of the times I was trying to get pumped up about the practice some leader gave me a few NMRK business cards from SGI-USA. On the back there was an explanation that kept me from sharing this card with any non-member:

The practice of Nichiren Buddhism centers on chanting NMRK to the Gohonzon. It is so wondrously simple that anyone can do it, yet so profound it can unlock the highest potential in any individual. it is, therefore, the ultimate reality of life and the universe.

Who needs Feynman when you have scientific explanations like this. I am also a Feynman fan, but the logic of this statement above is so profoundly...uh....

That reads like a joke from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything = 42.

But you see the SGI scam right there.
Supreme Wishful Thinking.

You mindlessly chant some syllables at a SGI piece of paper, its so MINDLESSLY SIMPLE any idiot can do it! Wow.
Yet, it will turn you into Leonardo DaVinci by magick, and reveal the secrets of the cosmos.

Sorry, that is a complete load of bullshit.
Sheer nonsense.
Its a lie, a fraud.

Chanting cannot and will not either: make your realize your potential...only practice and hard work does that.
Chanting does not reveal the secrets of the cosmos...only hard intellectual or creative work can do a little of that...maybe.

SGI is based on a fraud.

(of course, as stated before, each person needs to think this stuff through in their own way).
Or listen to SGI, and don't think, and instead just mindlessly follow their SGI-lies, as they lead people down the rabbit-hole with deception.

Ikeda deliberately made the SGI salespitch so simple, as he thinks the masses are simpletons.

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rattyboy
The practice of Nichiren Buddhism centers on chanting NMRK to the Gohonzon. It is so wondrously simple that anyone can do it, yet so profound it can unlock the highest potential in any individual. it is, therefore, the ultimate reality of life and the universe.

@Hitch...how true, how true, that it would have been ALL your fault if the bus went off a cliff...God, the fear factor is just incredible, how it works on human psyches. Everyone cowering in fear from one pamphlet.

You did get off "easy" with the socializing part, it sounds like. There was a distinct era in my practice where leaders tried to break one of my best friends and I apart---we spent "too much time" outside of activities together. It caused us both needless anguish and confusion. Like I said, the reason given was that we somehow would corrupt our "pure world of faith" and fall off course from our "mission".

Looking back however, there were definitely cases of close friendships being formed among leaders, etc., where they did get out and shake a booty or two. Ahhhh, the duality!

Warning: Sharp post coming up.

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The Anticult
Sorry, that is a complete load of bullshit.
Sheer nonsense.
Its a lie, a fraud.

Chanting cannot and will not either: make your realize your potential...only practice and hard work does that.
Chanting does not reveal the secrets of the cosmos...only hard intellectual or creative work can do a little of that...maybe.

Brilliant, AntiCult. Brilliant. :-))

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rattyboy
Shakabuku Card story: Around one of the times I was trying to get pumped up about the practice some leader gave me a few NMRK business cards from SGI-USA. On the back there was an explanation that kept me from sharing this card with any non-member:

The practice of Nichiren Buddhism centers on chanting NMRK to the Gohonzon. It is so wondrously simple that anyone can do it, yet so profound it can unlock the highest potential in any individual. it is, therefore, the ultimate reality of life and the universe.

Great story Rattyboy. I would have handed the card back, after writing a reply on the back, "You're an idiot."

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rattyboy
Who needs Feynman when you have scientific explanations like this. I am also a Feynman fan, but the logic of this statement above is so profoundly...uh....

So profoundly, . . . . "willfully ignorant."

PS - If the sharpness of my post offends some people, I politely request that it not be taken personally. It is merely a reflection of feelings directed at the cult in general, for having manipulated and lied to me for many years of my youth. And also, for having taken my time, money and (briefly) mind away from me.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2012 04:03AM by Hitch.

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Freeheartandmind

HUH? These defects have long since been corrected? From what I can tell, the structure of the org has remained substantially unchanged. Does anybody know if this Mark Graber is in SGI, he doesn't say what his status is, except he is not representing SGI in an official capacity.

Almost every member in the cult will append their blog, books, websites, etc. with the statement that "these are my opinions only and do not represent the official SGI position." Even on the official Daisaku Ikeda website, the SGI PHD commentators and analysts will not attribute official SGI policy to their views. The SGI is as slippery as an eel.

nichijew

[online.sfsu.edu]

Nichijew

An interesting deductive feat of the Buddha, the size of a carbon atom:

[www.npr.org]

nichijew