You couldn't even be inspired to study another gosho that the group wasn't studying right then or you'd be considered "Out of rhythm".

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SGBye
I love how the slacker Gajokai member gets physically assaulted by his superior for goofing off. Is this supposed to encourage or discourage YMD from joining the “elite group“? At the end of the day, the Gajokai are just a bunch of glorified door openers.

I agree. Although the skit is done in jest, ironically, it isn't too far from the truth. Btw, I think that YWD in the skit is the same one I posted earlier in the thread giving an asinine experience.

BINGO!! The entire concept is just an excuse to control and brainwash people into being better members that can be mindlessly manipulated.

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SGBye
I spent many nights doing Gajokai duty, sleeping over at a kaikan in the Midwest during the late 80’s. It was an hour and a half drive each way. I regret all the time and gas I wasted, not to mention the wear and tear on my car. Where’s all the good fortune that I was supposedly building up? Is it yet to come or did I already use it? Guess I’ll never know.

You sound exactly like me when I was doing it. Long ass drive both ways, volunteer "work", all for the privilege of going to get sleep deprived, yelled at and mentally abused 12+ non-stop hours.

Our family car was like the unofficial gakkai-mobile. Gas, wear and tear, time . . . . . . you got all that right!! What a glorious waste. Not to mention the dangers of driving thru busy freeways during rush hours and driving while sleep deprived while going to and returning from our shifts. ALL non-paid FREE labor. What a dumbass I was.

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rattyboy
You couldn't even be inspired to study another gosho that the group wasn't studying right then or you'd be considered "Out of rhythm".

The one that I often heard was, "you need to strengthen your faith." I now take it as a compliment. :-))

Hey Everybody! Chapter Four: APPEARANCES ARE EVERYTHING is up! Kept hammerin' away at the keys throughout the night and into the foggy dawn (well, maybe the foggy part was just in my brain) to get it ready for ya. Here's a link to the new page: [spartacusrebel.weebly.com] Please light some incense, ring a bell, take a deep breath, and come with me on a another trip in the wayback machine to the mind bending NSA Phase One era of early 1973. Enjoy!

Many thanks and much appreciation to all of you for your kind interest and support which has given me much inspiration and courage to continue with Cult of the Master. Bless you all!

Peace,

Spartacus

PS Attached a blow up of that pic of me at Shohondo in 1972. Again, I'm the one with the pile of curly hair parted on the side.

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Hitch

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SGBye
I love how the slacker Gajokai member gets physically assaulted by his superior for goofing off. Is this supposed to encourage or discourage YMD from joining the “elite group“? At the end of the day, the Gajokai are just a bunch of glorified door openers.

I agree. Although the skit is done in jest, ironically, it isn't too far from the truth. Btw, I think that YWD in the skit is the same one I posted earlier in the thread giving an asinine experience.

BINGO!! The entire concept is just an excuse to control and brainwash people into being better members that can be mindlessly manipulated.

Quote
SGBye
I spent many nights doing Gajokai duty, sleeping over at a kaikan in the Midwest during the late 80’s. It was an hour and a half drive each way. I regret all the time and gas I wasted, not to mention the wear and tear on my car. Where’s all the good fortune that I was supposedly building up? Is it yet to come or did I already use it? Guess I’ll never know.

You sound exactly like me when I was doing it. Long ass drive both ways, volunteer "work", all for the privilege of going to get sleep deprived, yelled at and mentally abused 12+ non-stop hours.

Our family car was like the unofficial gakkai-mobile. Gas, wear and tear, time . . . . . . you got all that right!! What a glorious waste. Not to mention the dangers of driving thru busy freeways during rush hours and driving while sleep deprived while going to and returning from our shifts. ALL non-paid FREE labor. What a dumbass I was.

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rattyboy
You couldn't even be inspired to study another gosho that the group wasn't studying right then or you'd be considered "Out of rhythm".

The one that I often heard was, "you need to strengthen your faith." I now take it as a compliment. :-))

I remember at one early 7:00 am Saturday morning YMD meeting in an out of the way meeting place near Detroit, I was so tired that I got to a stop sign about 1/4 of a mile from the house, looked right, failed to look left and I got broadsided by a Lincoln Town Car. Our cars were nearly totalled but able to limp along. I was such a brainwashed Ikedabot that I told the guy without fault who hit me, I had to go to an important Buddhist meeting, so I couldn't wait for the police to arrive. We exchanged license and insurance certificate information and I made it to the meeting on time. I was so proud that nothing could keep me from the meeting [which I can barely remember except for the Japanese leader and members congratulating me for having overcome Sansho Shima (the Three Obstacles and Four Devils) to get to the meeting]. However, the roomate who shared the car with me was pissed!

Nichijew

Haven't posted lately..got 3 annoying texts fm bfhllll just now feiggning interest in me & letting me know bout ccntr activity...ZAIMO OF COURSE! SO ANNOYING!!

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jlynneda63
Haven't posted lately..got 3 annoying texts fm bfhllll just now feiggning interest in me & letting me know bout ccntr activity...ZAIMO OF COURSE! SO ANNOYING!!

Don't respond to those texts! Change your number if you have to! They just want your money, greedy b#$#@!%s. Particularly with the awful economy of the past few years, it is downright immoral to pressure people to give to a multi-billion dollar org to further enrich Ikea and company. It's not for cousin rufus, it's for him! Keep that in mind! You do not need these fake people. It is a CULT, plain and simple, and I am sure you never aimed to join a cult (I know I didn't).

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Nichijew
I remember at one early 7:00 am Saturday morning YMD meeting in an out of the way meeting place near Detroit, I was so tired that I got to a stop sign about 1/4 of a mile from the house, looked right, failed to look left and I got broadsided by a Lincoln Town Car. Our cars were nearly totalled but able to limp along. I was such a brainwashed Ikedabot that I told the guy without fault who hit me, I had to go to an important Buddhist meeting, so I couldn't wait for the police to arrive. We exchanged license and insurance certificate information and I made it to the meeting on time. I was so proud that nothing could keep me from the meeting [which I can barely remember except for the Japanese leader and members congratulating me for having overcome Sansho Shima (the Three Obstacles and Four Devils) to get to the meeting]. However, the roomate who shared the car with me was pissed!

Nichijew

I remember lots of members had accidents commuting to and from (especially) long distant meetings. It was always categorized as sansho shima and as a "hidden" benefit. What a crock of sh**!! Yet, people bought it, hook-line-and-sinker. "Wow! Your car was totaled, BUT, that means you're making true progress, growing in your practice and changing your karma quickly! You're SO fortunate that this happened to you! It means that you must have truly great potential!" Cars were repaired, for those that had the money and insurance. For those that didn't, oh well, better practice even harder now, because it's your fault. Rewind, repeat and keep plugging away and racking up those miles.

This is a reflection of the brainwashing and manipulation that the cult does to its members. They are conditioned to put their own reasoning abilities asleep and allow others (cult leaders) to reframe their word view for them, into an entirely warped concept that always serves to reinforce their devotion to the cult organization. Because you are sincere, naive, trusting and essentially look up to your "leaders" in faith (a mistake, btw), most are only all too willing and eager to allow them to do it. Many "leaders" also relish their power over their members - THEY are the all mighty, all knowing, altruistic, wise, oracles who can "lead" others to happiness (at least they've convinced themselves of that).

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Spartacus
Hey Everybody! Chapter Four: APPEARANCES ARE EVERYTHING is up! Kept hammerin' away at the keys throughout the night and into the foggy dawn (well, maybe the foggy part was just in my brain) to get it ready for ya. Here's a link to the new page: [spartacusrebel.weebly.com] Please light some incense, ring a bell, take a deep breath, and come with me on a another trip in the wayback machine to the mind bending NSA Phase One era of early 1973. Enjoy!

Many thanks and much appreciation to all of you for your kind interest and support which has given me much inspiration and courage to continue with Cult of the Master. Bless you all!

Peace,

Spartacus

PS Attached a blow up of that pic of me at Shohondo in 1972. Again, I'm the one with the pile of curly hair parted on the side.

Loved every word of it, Spartacus. I hope you will keep it up and continue. Not only is it a catharsis to write, but it also (at least to me) reinforces the fact that many of us didn't go through what we went through completely alone. There are legions of us out there who were put through the ringer with this cult, in differing ways, but the theme is the same. More importantly, for those who are currently lost within its clutches, perhaps, one day, the cog and wheels of their brains will start to turn again, by reading things (this mb, your book).

Many thanks for your hard efforts. It is greatly appreciated by Hitch.

PS, man oh man, the part about the yellow stained white pants of the YMD, it's little things like that that come crashing back and make me laugh about those times. I saw the same thing! Thanks for the reminder, just because it gave me a good laugh. (Some of the YMD, I remember, should have taken a little bit of their chanting time and used it to do their laundry properly and take a nice long bath and scrub themselves well. Yuck!)

All of this talk about commuting to and from meetings reminds me of one manipulative episode that I encountered regarding my beloved car as a YMD.

I was hounded to attend a long distance meeting that I was reluctant to go to. They finally convinced me to go, but it required a 50 min. drive by me just to join the carpool that was going to the meeting - which was still another few hours away by car. So, off I go. I arrive. There are casual greetings, daimoku sansho, etc.. Then, as I'm actually getting into the carpool to leave, the husband of the lady who is driving us all asks me for my car keys. I thought he just wanted to move my car for me or something. But, NO!! He said he has to go to work and was taking my car to do it, because his wife was using their car to drive us all to the meeting. Under the circumstances, it was a bit hard for me to say "No, I don't think so" or "It would have been nice if you had told me and asked me all of this before hand." I reluctantly handed over my keys, but was not too happy about it. I'll never forget that kind of shocking, rude and calculated manipulation that was carried out against the members. (My car was my baby and I was proud of it. I never let anybody drive it before then, and there I was handing over my car keys to somebody whom I barely even knew, just because he was the husband of the fellow cult lady who was driving us.)

Oh, and I forgot: after the meeting, late at night, the carpool back, I still had to drive another hour half asleep, head bobbing all the way, to get back to MY home. No accidents, but it was sheer stupidity. When it was all over I told myself, "Yep, I was right. Should've listened to that inner voice and not gone in the first place." Slowly, I started to listen that inner voice, more and more.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2012 06:23AM by Hitch.

I remember my SGI days as one road trip after another. Several times a year, we had to go to the kaikon, several hours away, to see simulcasts of President Ikeda speaking. Come on, people, this was a damn video. SGI could've made copies and just sent them to the smaller cities, but why make anything easy or convenient for members? They had to make us jump through hoops. It was part of the indoctrination process, just getting us used to accepting endless requests to do things for them.

Around January or February, we'd always have a huge meeting in another state -- we'd drive six hours to get there, six hours to return. The members who lived closer would love-bomb us when we entered the auditorium --- that we had so much "seeking spirit" that we would travel so far for a meeting. Anyway, my area has harsh winters with a lot of snow, and this one particular winter, we were having a lot more than usual. I was a leader by then, and I told my leader, no, I would NOT encourage my members to travel so far when the weather was so dicey. It was not safe. If our senior leaders in the other state wanted to see us, they should just plan a meeting in the spring, summer or fall when the weather was better.

I received a lot of verbal abuse for taking this stand; I was told that I had weak faith and a lazy character. I was told, if I was that scared of a little snow, maybe I should just hide under my bed from November to April. I don't know, I'd done what my leaders wanted so many times....and I just was not going to go to this damn meeting, nor would I encourage anyone else to.

I didn't go to the meeting, my members didn't go....and life went on.