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wakatta1

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Anticult
There is no question, it is a hard FACT, that SGI in fact uses their "SGI-Chanting" as a technique of thought-control of their members.

If I heard it once I heard it a hundred times, the guidance about linking worries to chanting:

"When I begin to worry about something I begin to chant and if I've chanted enough, the worries go away and I know I've changed my Karma".

Worries about paying the rent, getting that medical operation, paying for medicine, staying employed, managing relationships, etc.?

I guess the old saying "no brains, no headaches..." would apply here :-)

Wakatta1

No brains, no headaches...HA! The time I spent chanting to get into a good university would have been better spent studying to get the best grades possible! When I realized that and focused more on my education, the org was not supportive. I began to feel that these folks did not have my best interest at heart. The hypocritical part is that the org will take people with higher levels of education, doctors, lawyers and such, and place them in positions of high leadership. Always trying to impress society at large. If you came in with education, good, otherwise stay dumb, and keep chanting and forking over your time and money to the billion dollar quasi-religion and its dear leader.

I have read interactions between genuine Buddhist scholars and $GI so-called scholars and there is no contest.

Clip from the cult's own homeland:

$oka Gakkai Cult Org. stalkers retreat to shouts of "Ikeda Daisaku's Dog, GO HOME!!" Such shouts even trigger one stalker (blue t-shirt & brown hat) to wave "good-bye" (~ .40 sec. mark). [www.youtube.com]

Cousin Rufus is definitely not welcome, even in the homeland.

While I found the Conservative Patriot and Non-Apologist from Cali blog to be interesting reading in terms of criticizing SGI, I was offended by the racist tone of some of the author's posts. Just a warning, you may be offended also at President Obama being described as "not a natural born citizen". In my opinion, Conservative Patriot is an extremist, even about SGI, and I despise SGI.

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The Anticult
Some vulnerable people get sucked into this, and start SGI-chanting all the time.
Some people are a bit obsessive, and start doing it under their breath constantly, any time they have some anxiety or any issue in life.

This kind of stuff gets waaaay out of hand during the cult retreat trips (tozan of past, FNCC of present). That clip I posted a little ways back, from the FNCC, it was from a magic chanting session that was taking place at 2 A.M. in the morning. Tozan was the same. Whacked out cultie weirdoes chanting constantly, all the time, all day. I even remember one fellow who was chanting under his breath, mumbling the magic words (NMRK), while waiting in line for the breakfast buffet. When asked what you were planning to do when there was nothing scheduled for a few hours (which was rare), a hardcore believer would respond "I'm going back to my room to chant."

The chanting never did much for me, I could take it or leave it as an innocent believer, but some of the stuff I saw on Tozan was ultra-creepy. Even at the height of my time in, I never swam completely out into the deep end to join them. People exhausted, eyes glazed over in mindless mental conditions. Some didn't even seem human any more.

There were also a number of others who couldn't function normally in everyday life, if they missed their morning (especially) or evening gongyo; they'd have fits of anxiety attacks until they performed their daily ritual to release the tension and just be able to cope.


- Hitch

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Hitch
There were also a number of others who couldn't function normally in everyday life, if they missed their morning (especially) or evening gongyo; they'd have fits of anxiety attacks until they performed their daily ritual to release the tension and just be able to cope.

That raises an interesting question. Consider a craftsman whose only tool is a hammer, to him everything looks like a nail.

My point is that I wonder how many of those very dependent people (dependent upon the magic chant) believed they had other ways to deal with life? Not many I'm sure. When you put it in the perspective of a person who is fully unable to cope with the challenges of life, chanting may be the only way to cope with it at all? In cases of people with very low self esteem, chanting may be all they can muster up.

Years ago I read a book called "The unheavenly city" by Edwin Bamfield (sp?) that discussed poverty and those people trapped in poverty. His position was that for the most part, the people mired in poverty lacked a "future sense" and because of that, they lived on a very short action-reward timeline. Doing Gongyo and chanting for six hours, a person can then pat themselves on the back and say to themselves "Gee, I've moved closer to fixing all of those bad problems in my life.."

I recall during my time in the Gakkai, then NSA and then SGI, one thing was for sure that the membership had a very large number of dysfunctional people within it. As a matter of fact, to some extent anyone who was able to cope with life beyond simply sitting and chanting usually ended up being made into Hancho, District chief or some such thing. Being able to visualize the road ahead and plan, make course changes and remove obstacles (beyond hoping they would just go away) was a key trait for a successful district chief.

The Cult advocated challenging your life's problems, but it fell short of really helping people change their Karma in order to suit its own selfish ends ("build those human pyramids and adore the man-god Daisaku!", "Chant chant chant").

I guess, if a person chooses to sit and chant rather than face life, at least they are being kept busy :-).

Wakatta1

Have known some people who are in SGI who have some "issues" in the mental health area, and some of them really went overboard with the SGI-chanting.
One person was chanting, and not getting what they want out of life, and things were getting worse.
So this person was getting more and more anxious, and started to chant longer, and faster and faster.
Eventually the person had a mental-breakdown.

Now obviously chanting by itself won't trigger a mental-breakdown, but if someone is vulnerable, and obsessive perhaps with some OCD, they can get into a SGI chanting-loop like that person, and there is no way out.
Think about it.
You are having mental health issues, and you are a SGI true believer. Instead of seeking help from a mental health provider, SGI tells you that chanting more and harder will cure your problems.

So instead of getting diagnosed with OCD, or anxiety disorder, instead you start chanting morning to night, and at night, and everytime you get anxious.
Of course it doesn't work, so you chant longer, harder and faster.

There is no way out of that, probably other than a mental breakdown.
You are caught like a gerbil in a wheel.

Meanwhile a mental health provider, would probably tell you that "chanting" is obviously not going to solve your problems, that you need to figure out how to manage your life.
And Anxiety, chanting would probably be the WORST thing for it! Because as soon as you stop chanting, you get more anxious, and have to start again.

Its a SGI closed loop, a vicious circle.

SGI tells you chanting will solve all your problems, but that is a lie, and fraud. It won't, it can't.

And if a person superstitiously believes SGI-chanting will cure their anxiety, probably the first step is learning that it won't, and instead do something like cognitive-behavioral therapy, which has been shown to work.

It would seem that anything beyond a few minutes of "chanting' a day, is leading a vulnerable person down a dangerous path.
SGI chanting is not harmless, its certainly not helpful, and is in fact harmful for vulnerable people.

More of The Cult Master's Fan Dance -

This fellow likes his kool-aid in big tall, extra flavoring added, cool glasses. [www.youtube.com].

With free refills [www.youtube.com] / [www.youtube.com].

(Sorry, but LMAO!!)

CULT!!

Seriously, however, these kinds of people are invariably of the high pressure, overbearing, ultra-manipulative type who can potentially make the life of their "members" hell as they try to meet their own high expectations, activity and practice requirements, while demanding the very same of others around them. When they fall short, they just become more intense, or eventually (slowly) burn out.

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The Anticult
Have known some people who are in SGI who have some "issues" in the mental health area, .... .

I saw many members who fell into this category (mental health issues) and it applies to some of the salaried leadership, too.

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The Anticult
There is no way out of that, probably other than a mental breakdown.

You've taken the words right out of my mouth. That is exactly the case and what would happen, with some of the people whom I have in mind.

They also use the magic chant as an excuse to never actually do anything about their real problems, except to superstitiously continue the magic incantations, convincing themselves that if they can't solve any in this lifetime, then at the very least, they are somehow magically cutting their "karma" for the next. For some, it's a convenient mechanism to avoid facing problems.

Freeheartandmind.....you are not alone in your dislike of that website. It is definitely a racist.......maybe they will secede from the union?