On the theme of "chanting", I've got some stories to share.

It was very common to see "members" become chanting obsessed during big "campaigns' or other "official" pushes for supporting some formally announced event. 24/48 hour daimoku (chanting) tosos (non-stop marathons) and midnight gongyos (prayers) were routine at certain times. These kinds of "meetings" were for all divisions (YMD, YWD, MD, WD).

I can't speak for any of the other divisions, but in the YMD, chanting frenzies were invariably ad hoc. If you were at a practice and things weren't going too well, you would have to break up into a group, go off into a corner and start chanting for things to (magically) improve. There was no requesting or polite asking either, you basically had to do it. If you didn't, then you were officially contributing to the disunity, disharmony and obstacles that were (again, magically) appearing to hinder progress. We're talking going off to sit in the corner of some warehouse or room and chant to the wall (or somebody's omamori gohonzon (miniature, portable, pocket-sized mandala), if you were "lucky"). These things would last for however long the "leader" subjectively felt was needed for things to change. You also had to chant with the proper level of vigor and enthusiasm, or face rebuke for being weak in spirit and effort.

YMD bus trips had impromptu designated chanting times. It was kind of like how on International plane trips you have a certain time where everyone has to close their window shades, the lights go down and everyone generally has to be respectfully quiet as it is "official" sleep time. Same thing on the bus trips. It was usually on the way down (not back, when everything was "mission accomplished"). They would announce mandatory chanting time for x-amount of time. You couldn't talk, read, stare out the window and enjoy the ride, relax or otherwise not participate. "Leaders" walk up and down the aisles like drill sergeants scolding offenders to participate properly. If the "campaign" had an accident or some other bad thing happened (and your particular "leader" was sufficiently brainwashed), you'd also have to have a repeat chanting session on the way back in anticipation of the next time and preventing a repeat occurrence of sansho shima (devilish obstacles).

Oh, and there's more: on tozan (cult retreat trips to Japan), all of that went into hyperdrive. People who went on tozan didn't have to ever be told to chant. They WANTED to and wanted to it at every possible free moment. Waiting in line for breakfast, lunch or dinner, chant quietly under your breath like whispering and lips moving as if you're talking to yourself. Walking or running to practice, do the same on the way. Being bused somewhere, again, spontaneous, random, group chanting: in this case, one or two people start and soon everyone is joining in without being told. At the height of the event, like right before going on for the cultural festival performance, it was common to see YD chanting wild-eyed off all alone facing a wall or under a tree; these people, I remember, actually looked psychotic in their pre-event chanting orgy (eyes wide open, praying hands pressed tightly together right up against their chin under their mouth, gripping their juzu beads with red fingers, head bobbing aggressively up and down with each syllable of nmrk and sweat even trickling down their brow).

Some of the things that I saw, no one can ever tell me that it wasn't anything other than pure crazy or at the very least, temporarily insane, behavior.

Here is a photo from a tozan [www.freefallarchive.com], notice the little group off in the background, all sitting on their knees, facing toward the window. If there isn't a butsudan set up right in front of them, then I'd venture to say that they are facing the same area where the dai-gohonzon (or towards the former sho-hondo) is enshrined on the grounds of Taiseki-ji (head temple). This was the constant norm and frame of mind on such trips.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2012 05:30AM by Hitch.

Hitch - Even willing to accept all the superstitions and expectations around chanting I wasn't going to accept the conclusion written on that card as a reasonable summation. Maybe I was "out of rhythm", but I wanted my daily chant to not be stupidified.

Later,as part of my distancing process I felt I had to consider throwing out the idea of the chant also. Consider at first, I guess.

I could have taken the road out in the first 6 months - year of practicing when I was on a housemate interview and asked if I sacrifice small animals or have any other strange religious ritual(s). Obvioiusly they had run into something before. This woman used to ring a bell in the morning and chant, they said. "Sounds harmless to me" or something like that, I said. I found it hard to believe they were actually talking about "The Practice"! Apparently they thought she was a freaky person in other ways and that is why they were interviewing for a new housemate. (I didn't move in, but that would have been interesting.

I think co workers found my book and beads in a bag and then later on in social situations they said things like " You gotta watch out for weird churches, especially the Japanese ones." or " I was stopped right here on the sidewalk by some people and told about NMRK...pretty soon you would be chanting about doing more chanting." Around that same time:

A non - practicing friend and I drove past a house where there fairly large YMD meetings. You could see the butsudan in the window. "Oh my God!', my friend said seeing the butsudan. "those things are everywhere?!!!" he seemed really scared. I think he was creeped out by the vibe already established by NSA/SGI members he had met. The ones picking me up for meetings. A picture of the Dalai lama or the word "Zen" showing up everywhere would not have led to such
a freaked out reaction, I think.

Hi! It has been a little bit since I last posted. I just wanted to say hello, and say how grateful I am for this board. I joined the SGI six years ago. About 2-3 years into it, maybe less, I became smarter. I started questioning things about the SGI. I always got the same answers, and was considered a "difficult" member.

Anyhow, I am writing today because I have mostly disconnected myself from the SGI. I finally found a way to still chant if I want. I chant on my own. I cleared off everything off my altar that reminded me of the SGI. You see, for a while, I was trying to decide if I should turn my Gohonzon back in. At this point, I haven't. I have actually connected with other schools of Nichiren Buddhism, not because I want to join, but to help me realize there is more to learn out there on Nichiren Buddhism than the SGI.

I made a mistake today that I regret. Some women from the SGI called me and told me not to be a stranger. I reconnected, and I thought I am strong enough to deal with them. I even let someone come and home visit me today. It was her first time to my house. I could sense she became very judgemental about my Gohonzon, and where I put things. I actually had printed out a quote in the recent months that was more meaningful to me. I put it away, and took out some of the SGI stuff. That was mistake number one, because it is not matching what is true for me right now.

Then, she told me it was May Contribution month, and she asked me what my intentions were. Blah, blah, blah! I feel sick now knowing I had a person from the SGI come over, but I also wanted to see where I stood, or if I really was attached to the SGI.

She told me that I need to order publications, and then I will get all my questions answered about my life.

In the interim, I have found new ways to support my life without the need of the SGI. It feels so good to make friends with non-SGI members. I don't know why I am surprised that sounded so brainwashed when she answered my questions.

I am still stunned that I let her into my house. I feel sick when I think of the SGI.

I did not consider "practicing" after I taitened, it would have been the fruit of the poisonous tree.

Now, I think there is a distinct possibilty that Ikea exported SGI to the US with the intent to, at some point, exact revenge for WWII. At the very least, he has laughed all the way to the bank at foolish Americans, so unrealistically idealistic that they give their time and money to something they barely know anything about!

You know what I don’t miss? Filling in those daimoku charts that you were given for every single campaign. You filled in the little blocks for every 15 or 30 minutes of chanting and were then required to turn it in so everyone’s daimoku could be tallied up for the success and victory of the campaign. They always made a point of how your chanting needed to be “sincere” in order for it to work, but how sincere can it be when you’re constantly trying to meet your quota for the day and repeatedly looking at the time? Sometimes I think I directed more daimoku towards the clock than I did the Gohonzon.

Findingmywaytoday, sorry to read about your unpleasant visit. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear about a home visitation where the person doing the visiting actually cared for the well-being of the person they’re visiting? In the end, the SGI-er always shows his or her true intentions: getting more money for their "mentor" and/or making sure their all-important subscription quotas are met. And they call that “Buddhism.“ These folks are beyond pathetic.

Quote
Findingmywaytoday
I made a mistake today that I regret. Some women from the SGI called me and told me not to be a stranger. I reconnected, and I thought I am strong enough to deal with them. I even let someone come and home visit me today. It was her first time to my house. I could sense she became very judgemental about my Gohonzon, and where I put things. I actually had printed out a quote in the recent months that was more meaningful to me. I put it away, and took out some of the SGI stuff. That was mistake number one, because it is not matching what is true for me right now.

Findingmywaytoday, you sound like you are just too nice of a person. IMO, it's your house, you set the rules, you dictate what is acceptable to you and, most of all, you determine how a "guest" in your house treats you.

Don't let them do this kind of thing to you.

Quote
Findingmywaytoday
Then, she told me it was May Contribution month, and she asked me what my intentions were. Blah, blah, blah! I feel sick now knowing I had a person from the SGI come over, .....

It's end of the month and you are merely a last ditch chance to for her to get brownie points and a cookie from her senior "leader", if she can extract some zaimu from you. You are a statistic, a number, a source of money, in her eyes - nothing more.

Quote
Findingmywaytoday
...... but I also wanted to see where I stood, or if I really was attached to the SGI.

IMO, you stand wherever it is you decide to stand with regard to the cult organization. If you care enough to worry about where you stand with them, they will only view you as somebody who can potentially be lured back and manipulated. They'll keep your name basically, forever.

Quote
Findingmywaytoday
I am still stunned that I let her into my house. I feel sick when I think of the SGI.

What you are describing is a common experience that I noticed with "leaders." They invariably had a matter of fact tendency to quickly make themselves completely at home in your house/apt.. Their behavior could be very appalling: walking around without asking, looking into rooms and otherwise eyeing and even touching things. Taking command and trying to act as if they were in charge, in your own house! Have seen it played out over and over again. I've even seen a salaried leader plop himself down on the arm of a sofa as if he were a monkey straddling a tree branch, one leg on the sofa and the other dangling over the side onto the floor, and proceed to dispense guidance in somebody else's home! It was utterly offensive and disgusting behavior to witness. Unfortunately, that's how these people are. They just don't follow the normal courtesy and constraints that regular people do. That's also usually why the are in a leadership position. They are self-righteous, arrogant, narcissistic, selfish and master manipulators (if you let them).

Holy BuddhaHead! I just followed your link at freefallarchive.com and found myself in a Tozan picture from 1972.

Here's a link to the picture I am in - [www.freefallarchive.com] . I am the third male face in the line descending the steps at Shohondo (dark brown curly hair parted on the side.)

Geez, what a happy young sheeple I was 40 years ago! Chapter Three of my blog Cult of the Master covers my experiences during that 1972 tozan event, and can be found at: [spartacusrebel.weebly.com]