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Hitch

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Nichijew

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Hitch
Some protest video clips were posted earlier in this thread. Here's an interesting related clip:

[www.youtube.com]

Some of those same protestors, on another day, are being tailed through the streets by an earpiece wearing undercover soka (MIB=Men In Black, but in this case light brown) James Bond wanna-be stalker. He appears at the beginning of the clip (~20 sec. mark) and is confronted toward the end of the clip (~2:00 min. mark).

Take a look at his face at the beginning of the clip --> psycho eyes. At the end of the clip, when confronted, he is reaching for his communication piece in the back of his waist.

For those that don't think this is a cult, you'd better wake up and open your own eyes. Educate and inform yourself.

A joyful bodhiNOTva is he. Unbelievable clip. those anti-SGI people are such fearsome desperados. He looked so angry. What a low life condition.

Nichijew

That guy is exactly the kind of ymd "leader" that I remember from growing up in the cult. That look in his eyes, I've seen it many, many times. It's the look of delusional psychosis, fundamentalism, intolerance, 100% certainty in one's beliefs, arrogance, dogma and ignorance.

He also looks stupid, almost developmentally disabled. Have talked to dozens of members and leaders like that. No sense of logic and reality. As far as the the burning of the Nichikan No-Honzon, several people have sent me their Nichikan No-Honzon for respectful burning or have burned it themselves on my urging. I recommend the chanting of the Daimoku and the Jiga-ge while burning it and to burn it in a clean receptacle, if for no other reason than what it is supposed to represent, everything Nichikan and the SGI fail to stand for.

Nichijew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2012 02:20AM by Nichijew.

Hi have been dormant for a while. Lately there yet again have been attempts to whitewash the articles on SGI in Wikipedia. Anyone active in Wikipedia - needs sources though?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2012 03:41AM by Rothaus.

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Nichijew

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Hitch
That guy is exactly the kind of ymd "leader" that I remember from growing up in the cult. That look in his eyes, I've seen it many, many times. It's the look of delusional psychosis, fundamentalism, intolerance, 100% certainty in one's beliefs, arrogance, dogma and ignorance.

He also looks stupid, almost developmentally disabled. Have talked to dozens of members and leaders like that. No sense of logic and reality.

You also just perfectly summed up Ethan Gelbaum. Ironically, the guy in the video also reminds me of him, right down to his psycho eyes, alopecia and cephalic disorder.

Speaking of gohonzons, here is some major dumbing down from the pseudo-buddhist cult:

[www.youtube.com] What is the Gohonzon?

[www.youtube.com] Red, blue, yellow (the cult colors).

*************

In addition to the point mentioned by Rothaus,

Has anyone ever given, even a cursory, read of the so-called "reviews" of gakkai/Ikeda books on Amazon? It's rife with propagandized drivel posted by mindless indoctrinated (obviously) gakkai members.

Hitch,

Wow, the burning pocket gohonzon brought back a long repressed SGI memory. At the time my living situation wasn't hospitable so I was trying to get a pocket gohonzon given that I was rarely at home. The SGI simply refused to give me one. No rhyme or reason I was just simply refused a pocket gohonzon. Think about that one for a minute and see the transparent arrogance of an so-called religious organization refusal to give it's most cherished object of worship to strengthen ones faith. Would any mainstream church explicitly refuse certain individuals access to the book of Matthew or any other books of the New Testament? Matter of fact they would love nothing more than to give you a Bible. Think about it...

If any SGI member with doubts happen to stumble upon this posting please advise that this alone is a ploy to control your faith. Please run far way from them as you can.

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Hitch
Warning: Potentially Offensive Clip Alert.

The following was obviously posted by an ex-gakkai-cult member as an act of personal liberation from the shackles of the cult:

[www.youtube.com]

They filmed themselves getting rid of (destroying) their official gakka-cult omamori gohonzon (personal, portable, miniature mandala) to a musical theme of the "Aum Shinrikyo" cult. They also allude to Ikeda being sick, hospitalized and likely to die soon, symbolized by their actions in the clip.

A few of the comments (all in Japanese) show support: "You can see clearly now." / "Well done!" / "Gakka is a cult!" / "Gakkai cult is dying." / Etc.

BTW, I find the buffer music to most appropriate....

I agree with KR, it's all a control tactic. Only the "chosen special" ones are awarded the aumamori (misspelling intentional) pocket good luck charms (which is what they are). Superstitious manipulation of cult members' faith. You had (have) to earn these by displaying consistent, dedicated, devotion to your "leaders" (elders) and be "recommended" for one. Same thing went for special gohonzons with your name inscribed on it, just another level of manipulation. (Btw, joju gohonzons are now viewed as undesirable by gakkai cult members, ever since the split. Yet another reminder as to how they can easily revise their own "doctrines" to fit their own purposes; they were always viewed as ultra-sacred and spoken about as such back from my days in the pseudo-buddhist cult).

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KR
Wow, the burning pocket gohonzon brought back a long repressed SGI memory. At the time my living situation wasn't hospitable so I was trying to get a pocket gohonzon given that I was rarely at home. The SGI simply refused to give me one. No rhyme or reason I was just simply refused a pocket gohonzon. Think about that one for a minute and see the transparent arrogance of an so-called religious organization refusal to give it's most cherished object of worship to strengthen ones faith. Would any mainstream church explicitly refuse certain individuals access to the book of Matthew or any other books of the New Testament? Matter of fact they would love nothing more than to give you a Bible. Think about it...

This is interesting because I had the complete opposite experience. The leaders in my area repeatedly tried to get me to take an omamori Gohonzon and I repeatedly refused (was I one of the “chosen special ones” as Hitch pointed out?!? If I was, boy were they barking up the wrong tree!). Back in the 80’s you couldn’t get an omamori Gohonzon unless you had a valid reason for doing so, i.e. you traveled a lot. They started relaxing those rules sometime during the late 90’s. I was old school - so whenever they said I could get one, I’d always say, “But I don’t travel a lot for my job,” and they’d say, “That’s OK!” while shoving the paperwork into my hand. I just couldn’t figure out why they were so gung-ho about me getting an omamori Gohonzon. During their last attempt, I finally figured it out. Several weeks after they unsuccessfully tried to get me to accept one yet again, we had a big meeting where a huge number of people received their Gohonzons. In fact, it was some sort of record, and a report of the meeting was prominently featured in the World Tribune, touting the large number of Gohonzons received. So that was it: they desperately wanted me to get one just for the sake of making that number just a tiny bit bigger. Like it’s been pointed out here before, it’s all a numbers game. It’s got absolutely nothing to do with Buddhism, faith, or the “Law of the Universe.“ It’s who can sell the most boxes of cookies.

Unless you were an outcast, "fortune babies" were pretty much a shoe-in for receiving omamori gohonzons. I think your critical analysis of the situation is spot-on SGBye. You had good timing. You were in total "rhythm." Your "fortune bank" was overflowing with omamori benefits. LUCKY YOU!!!

You are SOOOOOO fortunate! HOWABOUT ZATTO?!?!?! C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S!!! ;-)

The Gohonzon, for Nichiren Buddhists, is a sacred Object of Devotion, yet the SGI gives them out like Las Vegas escort fliers. Every Tom, Dick, and Yushi who want one, has 12 dollars for a Gohonzon, and 36 dollars for subscriptions, gets one. Before, the Gohonzon was 5 dollars and you didn't even need to buy the subscriptions. If the new member couldn't afford it, the sponsors would buy it for him. They would push Gohonzon on people who didn't even want one or those chanting for only a day or two.

It has been estimated that ~560,000 were "bestowed" and there are only 40,000 active members [according to World Tribune Circulation figures]. Nichiren never gave out Gohonzon to just anyone. He was very strict about who received a Gohonzon, omamaori or otherwise. Even after years, there was no guarantee that he would bestow a Gohonzon on a person.

I remember the leaders would have long chains and something in their pockets. All the new members were curious about what the leaders had on the end of the chain [the omamori Gohonzon]. They would tell us that if we had strong faith, ie: we followed without ever questioning ["follow no matter what"] and believed completely in Sensei, we too could get one. Then they changed it to whomever did a lot of traveling could get one as had already been mentioned above.

Then there is the various sizes of Gohonzon, the Okatagi, the Tokubetsu Okatagi, and the Joju Gohonzon, which were bestowed on the various Ikedabot levels. In Nichiren's times, some of his strongest disciples revceived 16' tall Gohonzon and others received 60 " tall Gohonzons, the size of the Gohonzons had absolutely nothing to do with the faith or stature [priest or layman] of the believer who merited one. Also, as mentioned above, it was all carrot and stick in the Gakkai. Let me ask them a question. why would a Buddhist seeking Supreme and Perfect Enlightenment or Buddhahood need a carrot and stick? Wouldn't the pure goal of boundless compassion and wisdom be enough to spur on an individual? The sick part about the Gakkai, they told their members that everyone is already a Buddha but they act just the opposite, as if there are some Buddhas who are more worthy than others. Worse yet, there is the big god-man kahuna Ikeda Buddha who is more worthy than even Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin. Of course, this is left unsaid but every single outside observer can come to no other conclusion.

Nichiju

To me, it's all Lucky Charms [3.bp.blogspot.com] & Fairy Tales [chuckieb123.files.wordpress.com]. JMO.

Came across this interesting post from way back:

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commongirl
I don't usually respond to these threads, but the idea that Mr. Williams is a poor, defenseless man is so wildly off-base, I had to say something.

Did it ever occur to you that the experiences listed here come from the '70s and '80s, when Mr. Williams was the general director? If Mr. Williams was such an effective leader, why did so many people receive the Gohonzon, but not continue to practice in the '80s? It was because he treated the spread of Nichiren Buddhism as a numbers game, and he created an unsustainable, punitive and oppressive culture in which many sincere, honest people were hurt deeply, my family included.

He may have talked about President Ikeda with tears in his eyes, but it's never about what people say, it's about what they do.

I don't think he is/was "poor" and "defenseless." I think he ultimately reaped what he sowed (just like the members numbers game, members came and went, and so did he). As far his actions regarding the dear leader, I only ever saw him completely devoted, respectful and idolizing in behavior. He practically worshiped the ground "Ikea" walked on (his fatal mistake).

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commongirl
Wherever Mr. Williams traveled, he had the women's division members wait on him hand and foot. They were required to be on standby to make Japanese food for him at a moment's notice, served on their own china. I know this, because my mother was one of them.

I have to completely disagree with this. I saw this many times and they (the Japanese WD) all did it simply because it was what they wanted to do. Once he was "officially" ostracized by "Ikea", they went 180 degrees in the opposite direction, practically ignoring him (on the telephone and in person).

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commongirl
He favored Japanese leaders and looked down on Americans as incapable of effectively communicating Buddhism. I know this, because my father was one of them.

No one would ever stand for that sort of arrogant behavior today. Why? Because since Mr. Williams stepped down in 1990, members were encouraged to deeply study Buddhism for the first time and develop a self-motivated practice. Mr. Williams was not a genuine Buddhist; he was a cult of personality. I may be Chudapanthaka, but he is, in my book, Devadatta.

For those of us who survived Mr. Williams' oppressive era, we understand how misled we were. People misunderstood President Ikeda's encouragement, because Mr. Williams taught members to fear him and treat him like a god. This is simply not Buddhism.

The oneness of mentor and disciple is not a hierarchical relationship, but rather a shared determination to accomplish the Buddha's vow—to make all persons equal to the Buddha without any distinction between them. It is a relationship in which the mentor and disciple advance the Buddha's vow side-by-side and in which the disciple surpasses the mentor in ability and understanding.

If people speak about President Ikeda as a god today, it's because of their NSA training.

I would never deny someone's experience; I can only share my own. But this e-mail thread feels stuck in a time warp.

The gakkai cult has always been a Japanese centric "organization." I think it is also one of their greatest flaws, outside of Japan. Your post honestly doesn't correlate much to anything that I experienced in nsa/sgi-usa. If anything, the cult was less Ikeda obsessed, in comparison to today. Regarding studying, we were pushed all the time to study the gosho, independently, at study meetings and even officially take study department exams (and progressively move up to higher and higher levels of in-depth study). I remember it well, because I never wanted to, nor was I very interested in all the fairy tales, but I did, because I HAD to. Ikeda's insipid "Human Revolution" was merely a sideshow (although I do remember an occasional brainwashed Japanese youth leader going gaga over it trying to convince others, but not many people were biting).

The cult organization that I see today is far more shallow than what I grew up in, much more dumbed down, and the current general director sounds a lot like a Williams wanna-be (in his meaningless stereotyped speeches). There really is nothing new to see. It's just the same old game, tweaked to appeal to another generation, so that the cult goes on.