Re: The Ikeda "Daily Guidance" brainwashing book (always thought The Daily Guidance was generic, inane, mind pap) -

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DavidM
I occasionaly did read the daily guidance, looking back on it now its all just cutesy inspiring words (or serious cult manipulation whichever way you look at.

I had a very cathartic experience last night of going through the piles of SGI magazines and 'study' materials I've accumulated over the years. The person I had been trying to shakabuku was with me too. We wound up on the floor laughing at how often the phrase 'Oneness of mentor and disciple' comes up.

I've decided I'm going to recycle it all.

The Cult Org. used to make a big deal about having the most current volume officially sitting next to your bustudan so that you had to read it everyday after your morning prayers. The different volumes were different colors, I seem to recall. They used to have very solemn "official" readings from it at every "YOUTH!" meeting. It was treated like a great honor if your were chosen (i.e., forced) to read it out loud in the front of the room for everyone; you were also strictly trained to read it very seriously, stern face, clear, commanding voice - so as to adequately impart The Dear Leader's spirit to your fellow culties as encouragement.

Looking back, it was all very 1930's brownshirt type behavior.

When I moved, I had several shelves full of decades old N$A / $GI cult material, to clear out (in some cases, multiple copies of the same thing). It felt good to toss it all and I did so without any hesitation whatsoever. I thumbed thru some of it while I was tossing it and had the exact same reaction: couldn't help myself from laughing, shook my head, and thought to myself, "what an idiot" I was. Always hated the stuff.

On that note, always listen to the little voice in your head telling you your true feelings. Suppress it at your own peril (that was exactly the purpose of The Daily Guidance book, everyday a fresh mind wash to rinse all the doubts away and re-boot your neurons fresh from the blue screen freeze-up).

I am new to this forum. I have spent my time with the SGI since 99. I stopped chanting in February after a miraculous moment with the Gohonzon. Believe it or not the scroll itself showed me this thread. A deep depression followed since I was reading every page of this mb and when I started distancing myself from the SGI and my so called SGI family. Maybe later I will tell you my story,but first, I want to thank you all - you saved my life.

This morning I have read following post on my facebook wall:
J.M.
Btw, do you know if Yoshida-san has any English info about the policies of the New Komeito? Will be meeting some Japanese friends and election time is 9 days away. I don't really feel comfortable talking about politics and convincing Japanese friends to vote for Komeito when I have very little info myself.Will search the net tonight before I meet them this Sunday but it would be nice to have something to show on paper.
It never fails to raise an eyebrow when I tell my friends that I'm a member of SGI. Most people here think that we only have members here in Japan. And they can't figure out why foreigners would be interested to join and become a member.


...ahh convincing Japanese friends to vote for Komeito!
I reckon I have nothing to add.

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sixtyseven
I am new to this forum. I have spent my time with the SGI since 99. I stopped chanting in February after a miraculous moment with the Gohonzon. Believe it or not the scroll itself showed me this thread. A deep depression followed since I was reading every page of this mb and when I started distancing myself from the SGI and my so called SGI family. Maybe later I will tell you my story,but first, I want to thank you all - you saved my life.

This morning I have read following post on my facebook wall:
J.M.
Btw, do you know if Yoshida-san has any English info about the policies of the New Komeito? Will be meeting some Japanese friends and election time is 9 days away. I don't really feel comfortable talking about politics and convincing Japanese friends to vote for Komeito when I have very little info myself.Will search the net tonight before I meet them this Sunday but it would be nice to have something to show on paper.
It never fails to raise an eyebrow when I tell my friends that I'm a member of SGI. Most people here think that we only have members here in Japan. And they can't figure out why foreigners would be interested to join and become a member.


...ahh convincing Japanese friends to vote for Komeito!
I reckon I have nothing to add.

I know nothing about the Komeito party in Japan. All I know is anything connected with the SGI is wrong wrong wrong. Hope to hear more about your story when you're up to it. Keep in touch with the forum you'll get lots of support here.

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sixtyseven
...ahh convincing Japanese friends to vote for Komeito!
I reckon I have nothing to add.

All "good" gakkai cult members do as they are told, no thinking required; they just do it because it's an edict from the top, down - PLUS, their "leaders" are watching them, who have "leaders" watching them, and so on. The edict flows down, the reports flow back up .... and all is well, or heads roll. That's the gakkai cult.

Btw, am I reading this right? You (or they) are a non-Japanese citizen, a foreigner, a gaijin, no voting rights and are going to tell other citizens, other Japanese, *who* they should be voting for in *their* own elections??? If so, typical arrogant gakkai chutzpah. I would hope that a rational person with common sense would think twice about how ridiculous, rude and beyond the bounds of a normal respectful "friendship" (especially in Japan), that kind of behavior would be.

If any of my "friends" (citizen or non-citizen, or just plain ol' human being) tried to pressure or lecture me on how to vote, they wouldn't remain my friend for very long.

Came across this post from the distant past:

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debonaire
Thanks to everyone for their very insightful posts on SGI. I have learnt so much from reading many of the posts.
I have an issue that is concerning me, regarding SGI. I will give you an abridged background.

My friend started practicing through SGI about 2 years ago. They are heavily involved. Chants twice a day. Goes to various meeting each week. Has hosted mass events, organised conferences of some sort, given their testimonies in front of many people at the local SGI community centre. They are also a leader for young people in their region. It didn't take me long to realise that SGI was cult-like. The constant chanting worried me. It started to scare me, to be honest.

My friend has become self-centred and now only has time for their SGI associates. They are friends with me, when it's convenient for them. I have noticed that my friend is extremely charismatic and in a very covert way, influences people to come to meetings and to support them. Quite a few of my friends have fallen prey. I must admit that I did too for a short while. They encouraged me to go to their local meetings whilst I was feeling depressed and vulnerable. Sure, the people involved in SGI are very friendly...but there has to be some alterior motive. I have become friends with a few of them and I find the way that they communicate to be so contrived, with all their too-good to be true 'lingo'. Their 'worship' of Ikeda is a concern. I find it hard to understand how they can claim that they are authentic buddhists. Anyway, that's the background of my issue.

I've seen many non-members freak out when they were inadvertently exposed to some of the more hardcore / zealot-like "chanters." It's a common reaction and I can see how it can be viewed as "scary." It's always had the opposite effect on me though, it always just made me laugh whenever I witnessed such things.

All hardcore gakkai cult members are by definition "self-centered" and manipulative. If you're not, you can't climb the cult org. ladder; it's an unwritten prerequisite to succeed in the cult org..

Yes you are right, Hitch.
The young man was told to chant for Komeito, to convince his japanese friends to vote for Komeito. I think, he feels quite uncomfortable with this situation. I guess he will not find a lot of information in English on the net. The Komeito or New Komeito is the political wing of Ikeda. And parliamentary elections will be held on Dec. 16th in Japan : it's not about Buddhism, or world-peace, or compassion, or enlightment. More power to the SGI- only 8 days left!
This makes me so angry, SGI utilizes and ruins frienship.

Thanks for posting, sixtyseven! This mb is indeed a lifeline, and at the risk of sounding over-the-top, a beacon of democracy. You can't underestimate the power of free speech.

Mentor/Disciple, mentor/disciple. This whole concept and the unrelenting push around it is all for the ego of D. Ikeda. It has nothing to do with developing one's faith, one's inner growth. People in America feel weird a lot of times when they come across it, via a friend, etc., because it has become so transparently a cult of personality. Members who throw themselves in wholehardedly can become self-centered, moreso because of "you can change your karma and have an endless multitude of fortune, in this life and eternity"---it appeals to the human desire for happiness---we all want it, right?

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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

You stated it perfectly--thanks, Wakatta1.

It's been my experience that the gakkai cult goes off the deep-end into even more nutso behavior during snap election times. It reminds me of those high pressure times and forceful manipulation tactics that would become more intense and commonplace during the height of major campaigns of times past (in the U.S.A. branch).

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sixtyseven
The young man was told to chant for Komeito, to convince his japanese friends to vote for Komeito. I think, he feels quite uncomfortable with this situation.

They routinely hold daimoku tosos (magic chanting sessions) for the Komeito during election times, too. More blatant wishful magical thinking manipulation; if it goes well, the members were good sheep - if not, their practice (and by extension, their faith), is lacking and they need to redouble their efforts for the cult org..

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sixtyseven
I guess he will not find a lot of information in English on the net. The Komeito or New Komeito is the political wing of Ikeda. And parliamentary elections will be held on Dec. 16th in Japan : it's not about Buddhism, or world-peace, or compassion, or enlightment. More power to the SGI- only 8 days left!

The Komeito, like the gakkai cult org., swings and blows in whatever direction prevailing winds dictate for its survival and to retain power. Many common gakkai members were grumbling about the Komeito's support in recent years of the wars (sending SDF, Self-Defense Forces, for nation building support and providing fuel for coalition forces, etc..) to the Middle East, going completely against the "official" gakkai position of always being vehemently anti-war in all shapes, forms and circumstances.

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sixtyseven
This makes me so angry, SGI utilizes and ruins frienship.

Just another modern day example as to *why* the gakkai cult in its motherland is commonly viewed in a very negative light and its members as (at the very least) under mind-control or (at the very worst) as insane.

****

As mentioned before, admitting to being a gakkai (cult) member in Japan is a good way to throw egg on your own face and never be viewed quite the same way ever again by non-member and ordinary citizen friends / neighbors / co-workers / human beings. It never fails to have potent shock value. Not many $GI members abroad are ever aware of this. In fact, I doubt it is even on most International members' own radar - but it definitely should be.



- Hitch

I've been reading this forum for several years, and this is my first post. I left SGI two years ago-- I was a district leader for 13 years and a member for 17 years. Reading this forum has been a tremendous help to me in leaving the SGI, but so many factors contributed, and I'd like to mention them in case my experience could help anyone else. Several years before I left, I began to feel bored with the study material, the constant meetings, the whole thing really. I watched those mandatory videos of President Ikeda in which he managed to speak for 20 or 30 minutes and never say one thing of value-- just read a bunch of disconnected quotes and clack his false teeth around and maybe intentionally insult some other big wig on the stage. I found the publications repetitive and vacuous. Suddenly, we were told one's Buddhist practice depended on one's relationship to the mentor!! What happened to the law? I had weekly meeting at my house-- I asked repeatedly for years to be relieved of district chief duty and was told to chant for a replacement-- one never appeared. I began to dred the meetings and felt depressed, trapped and suffocated by the narrow repetitive views of the group.

I remember going to the now defunct Borders Books Store, drinking coffee and reading other Buddhist magazines like Shambala Sun cover to cover-- it was a secret thing and, of course, I never bought any of them. Eventually though, I seriously began to READ, READ, READ: Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, Adyashanti, Thich Naht Hanh, Yogananda, and many others-- After all those years on a starvation diet, I was really hungry for spiritual ideas, so I read widely and hungrily. There are so many beautiful ways to be spiritual and to transform your life-- if you read about other traditions and learn from other spiritual teachers for just a few months-- the superficiality of SGI will begin to be obvious.

Another thing I did that helped to really wake up was to travel. Luckily I preserved one other passion besides SGI activities-- I loved yoga. Since no one in SGI ever said anything specifically about yoga, it seemed ok. (of course all other buddhist groups and other spiritual paths, it was made perfectly clear, were a waste of time or a slander according to SGI) Through my love of yoga I went on two retreats to India-- a place where my eyes were greatly opened. I was introduced to meditation and met the most beautiful, humble, and loving people-- all of whom exhibited far more obvious spiritual cultivation, awareness, and insight than anyone I had ever met in SGI, and I know many people well who have 30 and 40 years of SGI practice. Honestly, it seemed to me that length of practice in SGI seemed to correlate mathmatically with both an enlargement of ego and shrinking of mental perspective.

Finally, I took a chance and went on my own on a Buddhist Retreat outside of SGI. I told my SGI friends that I was going on a yoga retreat ( so sad that even though I am an adult, I felt I had to lie about my activities to those people). But it wasn't a yoga retreat, it was a week long retreat at a Buddhist monastery with Thich Nhat Hanh. Of course it was incredible. The most important thing, though, was the glaring contrast between TNH and President Ikeda. There were no brass bands, awards, and other prancing peacock things-- when TNH spoke-- which he did for two hours each day without any notes-- he projected a quiet, humble presence AND he actually spoke with great insight, simplicity and profundity about BUDDHIST CCONCEPTS!! He never once quoted Tolstoy or Arnold Toynbe!! He spoke about emptiness, interbeing, mindfulness, enlightenment-- you know-- about Buddhism.


Finally, I would just like to thank all the people on this forum for the reinforcement it gave me- this forum helped me know that it wasn't my "negativity" that was the problem-- that I should listen to my own strong inner voice. I will say that I have noticed that many people who post here feel regret for the time "wasted" in SGI. Although I stayed too long-- I don't think the time was wasted. Our path is our path-- we had things to learn and we have learned those things. Everything can be your teacher, and I really think that the time, the chanting and even the money given to SGI-- if given sincerely -- was not wasted in a strictly spiritual sense.

Oh-- and nothing bad has happened to me since I left SGI-- rather my life has opened up in astounding and beautiful ways-- I feel free, authentic, alive and excited about life. I am practicing Buddhism with a real teacher and with an open mind. Keep the door open!!