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Upgrayed
I have seen members fighting over new members. One member introduced a potential member and another member through an act of sabotage, got to become the sponsor of that new member when recieving Gohonzon.
It was petty and destructive, as if this new member was a slab of meat.
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If you have given out any information about yourself in confidence to another member or leader, assuming that this person is your "friend" and that your secrets are safe, you are in trouble.
As soon as any information appears, it is shared and ripped apart as a means to figure you out. Nothing is sacred within the SGI cult.
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In regards to the big leader, again I saw a slick presentation, with the vacous pure sales charm, but in that, as I study people closely, I could see subtle cracks. What were those cracks? That person's experience was weak. This individual must have struggled to put together a leadership level experience regarding gaining fortune as it was not very good and that unto itself made the pitch that much harder. So perhaps still a good errand boy for Ikeda, but beyond that, no feeling or depth in the presentation. In this case the "bullshit" was literally the tough sell regarding one getting rich through donations. It's a propesterous, edgy performance.
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Upgrayed
Wow, that's really creepy. I didn't notice that pink shorted individual.....very good eye. In fact, when dealing with the SGI cult, it's about having a discerning eye and studying what the organization does in it's mind control programming.
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tsukimoto
From www.fraughtwithperil.com, "Diary of a Chapter Leader" blog by Nancy Thomsen, "Presto Chango" essay
Thomsen is writing about recent organizational changes in SGI:
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For about a year, the top leaders in SGI-USA have been trying to figure out how to grow the organization. They talked to each successive leadership position down to chapter. Funny how they stopped short of talking to the front line leaders at the district level. But in the end, I think they have come up with a good short term solution. They are going to combine the two levels above district, chapter and area, which will free up over a thousand leaders to become district leaders again. I just can’t wait for this. I’m all for change and no one believes this will fix everything, but it is a start. It puts the emphasis on the districts, it will put more leaders into the districts and it will let more districts have men and young leaders in them. Also, each area has been tasked to figure out how they want to incorporate the changes. I have to hand it to SGI — good for us. Thank you, SGI-USA leadership for working to make this a more American organization. Now, if we could just get our members to want to understand Buddhism…
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SGI is doing the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You can combine and rearrange various levels all you like. The real problem is that members and prospective members are tired of the Ikeda worship, the incessant, and unreasonable demands on their time, having no voice in the organization, clueless, egotistical leaders, and the lack of Buddhism within SGI. "If we could just get our members to want to understand Buddhism..." Really? A lot of members joined SGI because they wanted to learn about Buddhism....and left when they realized that SGI had nothing to do with Buddhism. It was only ever about money and power for Toda and Ikeda. Those SGI members who understand Buddhism -- realize how little Buddhism there actually is in SGI -- and they leave.
This portion is interesting. I see some things never change. Not only are the "leaders" not very bright to begin with, but they also cannot even be pushed, pulled or even towed, up the learning curve either. On that note (things never changing), many of those "thousands of leaders" are in store for a whole new round of renewed pressure, grief, manipulation and mind games. Announce the changes, hype it up, everybody cheer loudly (especially the "YOUTH!", have to cheer with the most decibels), everyone smile and pretend everything is great, and in the end, nothing substantive ever really changes in the Japanese centric, personality worshiping, pseudo-buddhist cult organization. All members - ENJOY!
This is so funny. How do they ever think that chapter leaders will tolerate becoming district leaders again? It seems to me that the real reason this is being done because SGI is shrinking, that they no longer have the members to need so many "leaders".
@President Ikeda possibly not being with us anymore: I have thought for quite a while, even during the last bit of my involvement with SGI, that President Ikeda had died. Several years ago, the pictures of Ikeda in the world tribune did not look good. He did not look healthy and it looked like he may have had a stroke. And then no current pictures were shown of him. All that were shown is OLD ones. Pictures of him when he was a young man doing something or other, not current ones. This went on for a while. And then suddenly he reappeared. Looking healthy and young again. I thought that they had found someone, and prepared him, to impersonate Pres Ikeda.
@SaffyFoo: Congratulations on getting out before they had you hooked!
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Fair enough Corboy. Not wanting to enter this forum with the wrong foot.
You do seem to be giving me a lecture, which is fine, so please continue to do so if you see something that should be corrected for the sake of this thread's health.
You make some very good points and perhaps you are right.
Because I used a set of reasons to leave this cult, some of that residue remains and therefore this logic slipped into my post.
If I offended anyone, please accept my apologies and I will be more aware in the future.
What I want, more than anything is to expose this organization for what it is.
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Hitch
Another protest group in front of a gakkai cult building, inside a car with loudspeakers (a common protest device used in Japan) [www.youtube.com]. Protesting the cult's media influence (Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper) and Komeito dirty politics, etc..
The "elite" soka-SS protectors (notice the custom eagle emblem patch on the coat of the person who first approaches the car) start photographing the occupants inside the car, to which the protestor, over the loudspeaker states "we are filming you, too" and "it's going on YouTube." To which the "elite" soka-$$ security forces retreat, hide back-n-forth behind a tree and constantly cover their faces so as to not be filmed themselves. They eventually resort to blocking the filming with black umbrellas and having an individual (gakkai member?) who "says" he's a police officer (to which the protestors are skeptical and drive off). It's also interesting to note that the first security guard can be seen calling his "leaders" for direction on what to do; shortly thereafter, more and more black coats slowly show up.
It's all laughable, because the soka protectors ultimately have no powers, other than intimidating stares, bullying and paparazzi-style attacks. Turn it all back onto them and they are at a loss as to what to do. Kind of reminds me of a 3 stooges movie.
Once again, the cult in action in its own homeland.
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Nichijew
I never met one Gakkai top leader who embodied the Lotus Sutra and teachings of Nichiren in word or deed. Most members are too ignorant and unlearned to even know what the authentic teachings entails or what is actually written.
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Hitch
Another protest group in front of a gakkai cult building, inside a car with loudspeakers (a common protest device used in Japan) [www.youtube.com]. Protesting the cult's media influence (Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper) and Komeito dirty politics, etc..
The "elite" soka-SS protectors (notice the custom eagle emblem patch on the coat of the person who first approaches the car) start photographing the occupants inside the car, to which the protestor, over the loudspeaker states "we are filming you, too" and "it's going on YouTube." To which the "elite" soka-$$ security forces retreat, hide back-n-forth behind a tree and constantly cover their faces so as to not be filmed themselves. They eventually resort to blocking the filming with black umbrellas and having an individual (gakkai member?) who "says" he's a police officer (to which the protestors are skeptical and drive off). It's also interesting to note that the first security guard can be seen calling his "leaders" for direction on what to do; shortly thereafter, more and more black coats slowly show up.
It's all laughable, because the soka protectors ultimately have no powers, other than intimidating stares, bullying and paparazzi-style attacks. Turn it all back onto them and they are at a loss as to what to do. Kind of reminds me of a 3 stooges movie.
Once again, the cult in action in its own homeland.
One perspective is that it is so obvious the reality of the Soka Gakkai, especially that of their leaders, to engage them in order to open their blind eyes is essentially meaningless. Nichiren himself stated on more than one occasion that even he couldn't open the blind eyes of the Japanese people. From this Nichiren Buddhist standpoint, they are merely beggars at the gate [of wisdom or enlightenment], to be ignored. I am wrestling with this perspective.
Nichijew