Has my life improved after leaving SGI? From the perspective of having been out over six years -- absolutely! I did have very mixed feelings when I left. I had that superstitious fear that SGI implants in people -- that I was inviting disaster into my life by leaving. There were also some things about SGI that I had enjoyed -- interacting with certain members, some of the activities.

I think it's like leaving a relationship, even one that's going badly. You still may have some feelings for your ex, despite his or her faults and bad behavior. You are so accustomed to having him or her as part of your everyday life, and you have to get used to a new routine. You may have invested a lot of time and effort into a group, or person, and it can be hard to admit that they really weren't worth it. Maybe you're not used to being alone. It can feel like there's a gap in your life. It can be hard to face that someone that you cared about deceived you or used you. Breaking up with an organization can be like breaking up with a person.

I had been very involved with SGI, so I felt almost like there was something missing when I left. I also found that I couldn't continue the so-called friendships that I'd had in the group.

But as time went by, I began to feel a sense of relief and freedom. I had more time for real friends, and family, and to explore new interests and activities. And I no longer felt guilty about taking time to do things besides chant and do SGI activities. I didn't have to sit through meetings where everyone was talking about how great President Ikeda was, and feel like an outsider because I didn't think so. Near the end of my time in SGI, there were just too many things that I couldn't accept...and yet I was still trying to convince myself that I should believe SGI's views. It was a relief, so freeing, to say honestly, "No, I just don't believe this, and I have the right to see things the way I see them." I also love that I can just enjoy talking to people, and spending time with them --- without feeling that I've got to get them to chant and come to a meeting.

And after over six years -- I've had no disasters. Just the usual ups and downs of life.

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wakatta1

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shavoy
But there is a new sense of happiness brewing---the peace of knowing that I have listened to the voice inside and am living true to myself.

Consider this: We all have had the "value creation power" within us. Ours to focus and use however we choose. Getting sidetracked by the Gakkai is like the person who doesn't trust the accelerator pedal and brake pedal in their car and depending upon their mechanic to tell them on each and every occasion to use one or the other.

Didn't Nichiren say that the Boddhisattva's of the earth had obtained enlightenment in the distant past? Wasn't Jogyo Bhoddisattva himself enlightened from the past and it was only revealed at that critical point in time when the treasure tower appeared? Where in all of that was Ikea and the great money absorbtion machine in those allegorical treatices?

Each person has the seeds of enlightenment, the organization doesn't control, manage or direct how those seeds sprout. It's all just stage scenery. Once you see that for what it is, then you are set free.

Wakatta1

Great point.

Mark

Also, for many people who are NOT into SGI, their mind can still "catastrophize".
that is, for neutral, or unknown future events, the mind seems to naturally go to the negative scenario, and imagine it might happen, thus making the person anxious.

So a person is on a new job, doing a very good job, yet their self-doubt creeps into their minds, and they start fearing they are going to get fired, so they are constantly worried and anxious.

so when a person with that kind of vulnerability to worry, anxiety, etc, gets into SGI, they can get trapped. Because SGI preys on that anxiety, and tells them more chanting will stop the bad thing from happening.

Ultimately people with that vulnerability have to teach themselves that their own focus on potential negative events is the problem.
SGI blocks development, and creates more superstition, which is what Ikeda wants.

SGI really is a mind-trap, not so easy to get out of.

I've imagined myself happening across this $GI "buddhist" "organization" as a full thinking adult, in this present day and age ...

If I encountered this [www.youtube.com] type of individual and this type of "activity" [www.youtube.com] as part of someone I met at an event that I was invited to, I'm pretty sure my "cult" alarm bells would be sounding off.

Quintessential "Cult" material.

- Hitch

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The Anticult
Also, for many people who are NOT into SGI, their mind can still "catastrophize".
that is, for neutral, or unknown future events, the mind seems to naturally go to the negative scenario, and imagine it might happen, thus making the person anxious.

So a person is on a new job, doing a very good job, yet their self-doubt creeps into their minds, and they start fearing they are going to get fired, so they are constantly worried and anxious.

so when a person with that kind of vulnerability to worry, anxiety, etc, gets into SGI, they can get trapped. Because SGI preys on that anxiety, and tells them more chanting will stop the bad thing from happening.

Ultimately people with that vulnerability have to teach themselves that their own focus on potential negative events is the problem.
SGI blocks development, and creates more superstition, which is what Ikeda wants.

SGI really is a mind-trap, not so easy to get out of.

Oh, my goodness! This is really helpful advice for me right now. I had a lot of self doubt, and it is so true that SGI blocks development , and creates more superstition! This is true!

I am sorry for my ignorance, but is one an SGI member as long as you have an SGI Gohonzon? I no longer attend meetings, and I am rarely called. I am connected to a district, but no one asks about coming to chant with me, so that is fine. Am I still a member, as long as I have a Gohonzon from the SGI?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2012 11:13AM by Findingmywaytoday.

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Findingmywaytoday
I am sorry for my ignorance, but is one an SGI member as long as you have an SGI Gohonzon? I no longer attend meetings, and I am rarely called. I am connected to a district, but no one asks about coming to chant with me, so that is fine. Am I still a member, as long as I have a Gohonzon from the SGI?

SGI plays mind-games with their members.
They try to make people believe they are a "member" due to something like that.
You are a member, or a non-member, based on what YOU decide.

Some people might give their Gohonzon back, some might give it away, others might throw it away, its up to the freedom of the individual.

Some people who grew up in a religion, as an adult they may choose to reject it. They may choose to take all of the "official papers" for various religious rights, and then burn them, just as a symbolic gesture.

So its up to the individual to decide for themselves what they belong to, and what that means.

Don't let SGI mess with your mind...

This thread has over 233,000 views, and the thread was RESET a while back deleting massive amounts of views, I believe. So there are very large amounts of people looking for some critical information about SGI, and not the junky vain superficial advertising propaganda on the SGI website.

From the perspective of the $GI cult org., once you join and receive a gohonzon (scroll / mandala), you are a "member" forever - period. To them, there are different kinds of "members":

1. Active Members (believers, participating, the whole nine-yards)
2. Inactive Members (quasi-believers, no longer participating, also referred to as "sleeping" members --> i.e., the kind that can potentially be brought back to "active" status)
3. Taiten Members (no longer believers, have left permanently and not likely to ever return or be welcome back - depending on their "offence" --> i.e., returning vs. ripping up / destroying your gohonzon, etc.).

There is probably a fourth category nowadays ...

4. Ex-communicated members (non-believers of Ikedaism who caused too much trouble, who have abandoned the "One True Way" for "inferior" buddhist sects).

It doesn't matter what The Cult Org. says or thinks. As mentioned before, their "authority" is all smoke and mirrors, a figment of their imagination, and yours - if you let it be.

AntiCult is correct, all that matters is what you decide.

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findingmywaytoday
I am sorry for my ignorance, but is one an SGI member as long as you have an SGI Gohonzon? I no longer attend meetings, and I am rarely called. I am connected to a district, but no one asks about coming to chant with me, so that is fine. Am I still a member, as long as I have a Gohonzon from the SGI?

In a strictly legal sense you have never been a member of SGI - this is the case in most countries.

"I also want to say to the children, "I'm so sorry that you have such ignorant and brainwashed adults making you do this. I hope you grow up to think for yourself and learn to recognize the chains that your parents have inadvertently handed to you and not become permanently shackled to the cult, as they have."

Absolutely key for me - my kids "fortune babies" are starting to reject their mother's practice. I may have something to do with it although I have not overtly criticized to them. They are mostly questioning on their own.