The whole problem with the intolerant mindset is that it is both small and vindictive. First of all, how presumptuous and self-centered to declare that "What *I* prefer is obviously the only proper choice for everyone!" Imagine if someone were to declare that their favorite flavor of ice cream was objectively the most tasty in the entire world, and that there was something seriously wrong with everyone who didn't agree! Religions and belief systems are like a big buffet - take whatever you like. Or take nothing! There's no difference - the only criterion is whether a given belief system suits you or not. And looking over this site, I think we can all see that there are some pretty wacky needs out there! The main point of Buddhism, which both Nichiren and the SGI exchanged for "all for me" thinking, is that each person has a unique path. No one is qualified to judge or evaluate another's path. Only the individual himself can walk his path, and no one else is allowed to define it for him.

With intolerant belief systems, they hold that "Ours is the only right way." All the others are, by definition, false and even evil! What was it Nichiren said about other sects of Buddhism of his time? How Nembutsu led to the hell of incessant suffering and Zen was the work of devils?? Lovely! And Shingon is ruinous to the country, and Risshu is traitorous to the country! Gee, Nichiren, why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel??

And this lovely passage?

All the Nembutsu and Zen temples, such as Kenchoji, Jufuku-ji, Gokuraku-ji, Daibutsuden, and Choraku-ji, should be burned to the ground, and their priests taken to Yui Beach to have their heads cut off. If this is not done, then Japan is certain to be destroyed! - from On The Selection of the Time

Teh o noes!! It wasn't done, and, last I checked, Japan was still a country - and doing quite well for itself!

I always had a problem with all that intolerance. Of course, the Gakkai members tried to soft-pedal it: "Oh, he didn't really mean have their heads cut off! What he MEANT was that people should stop making donations to them!" Yuh huh *eye roll*

The only criterion that makes a religion acceptable or not is how well it suits a given person's needs. That is all. Of course, from this site especially, we see that some people's needs are so pathological that they end up with something truly harmful, but even so, it's their path to walk and their life to live. We are not allowed to lock people up for their own safety! Better that we attempt to understand what is driving these individuals in these harmful directions in the first place and see if there's anything that can be provided to help. For example, people who get addicted to cocaine, crack, or meth very often have undiagnosed ADD. Ritalin, which is legal, cheaper, and way safer, will provide them the same benefit they're getting from the street drugs. But if they never realize that, they'll remain addicted. People who are *stuck* in self-destructive patterns, such as the Quiverful nutcases, were raised in authoritarian, violent homes by brutal parents who made strict obedience the only goal - and who got what appears to be a sick pleasure out of causing as much pain as possible to their helpless children, who grew up to be severely damaged adults. If you ever read some of the accounts at the ex-Quiverfull sites, you'll likely be appalled. When people seek out something harmful, that is evidence that they are in extreme pain and that they have a very distorted view of the world. You can't fix that by punishing them yet more.

The fundamental problem with intolerance in Buddhism is that intolerance conflicts with one of the Four Noble Truths, that attachment causes suffering. Intolerance means being VERY attached to something, so by advocating this mindset, the SGI is actually leading its membership to MORE suffering! That's, like, the anti-Buddhism! With regard to Nichijew's Nancy (so glad you're all doing better, BTW!), I remember when I accompanied some friends to the Deer Park Monastery, not too far away from where we live in Southern California. He had drug problems and wanted to check out the Buddhism there, and his wife and I were going along for support. It was started by Thich Nat Thahn, who is a towering figure in modern Buddhism. Anyhow, they were starting their "gongyo" when we got there, so he and I sat in while she stayed outside with the wiggly children. Their gongyo book was recited in Pali, phonetically transcribed, but with an english translation of every line beneath! How considerate! And here's part of what we recited:

"Properly considering alms food, I use it: not playfully, nor for intoxication, nor for putting on weight, nor for beautification; but simply for the survival and continuance of this body, for ending its afflictions, for the support of the chaste life, (thinking) I will destroy old feelings (of hunger) and not create new feelings (from overeating). Thus I will maintain myself, be blameless, and live in comfort." (OP p.46)

"Properly considering medicinal requisites for curing the sick, I use them: simply to ward off any pains of illness that have arisen, and for the maximum freedom from disease." (OP p.47)

That immediately struck me as eminently practical and useful guidance! And yet we're supposed to "discard, ignore, close, and abandon"?? When it contains such wise instructions?? This, BTW, is from Theravada Buddhism.

From this site: [www.accesstoinsight.org]

Here is how they describe the purpose of their gongyo:

Quote

Discipline is for the sake of restraint,
restraint for the sake of freedom from remorse,
freedom from remorse for the sake of joy,
joy for the sake of rapture,
rapture for the sake of tranquillity,
tranquillity for the sake of pleasure,
pleasure for the sake of concentration,
concentration for the sake of knowledge
and vision of things as they are,
knowledge and vision of things as they are
for the sake of disenchantment,
disenchantment for the sake of release,
release for the sake of knowledge and vision of release,
knowledge and vision of release
for the sake of total unbinding without clinging.

The Buddha never insisted on complete devotion. People were free to come and go as they pleased, to either immerse themselves in his teachings or perhaps just dip a toe, for as long or as short a period as they chose. The Buddha did not threaten anyone. The Buddha sought only to help. The Buddha respected each person's individuality and individual path, and did not attempt to run people's lives for them. THAT is what I learned when I started reading more about Buddhism!

Quote
TaitenAndProud
The whole problem with the intolerant mindset is that it is both small and vindictive. First of all, how presumptuous and self-centered to declare that "What *I* prefer is obviously the only proper choice for everyone!" Imagine if someone were to declare that their favorite flavor of ice cream was objectively the most tasty in the entire world, and that there was something seriously wrong with everyone who didn't agree! Religions and belief systems are like a big buffet - take whatever you like. Or take nothing! There's no difference - the only criterion is whether a given belief system suits you or not. And looking over this site, I think we can all see that there are some pretty wacky needs out there! The main point of Buddhism, which both Nichiren and the SGI exchanged for "all for me" thinking, is that each person has a unique path. No one is qualified to judge or evaluate another's path. Only the individual himself can walk his path, and no one else is allowed to define it for him.

With intolerant belief systems, they hold that "Ours is the only right way." All the others are, by definition, false and even evil! What was it Nichiren said about other sects of Buddhism of his time? How Nembutsu led to the hell of incessant suffering and Zen was the work of devils?? Lovely! And Shingon is ruinous to the country, and Risshu is traitorous to the country! Gee, Nichiren, why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel??

And this lovely passage?

All the Nembutsu and Zen temples, such as Kenchoji, Jufuku-ji, Gokuraku-ji, Daibutsuden, and Choraku-ji, should be burned to the ground, and their priests taken to Yui Beach to have their heads cut off. If this is not done, then Japan is certain to be destroyed! - from On The Selection of the Time

Teh o noes!! It wasn't done, and, last I checked, Japan was still a country - and doing quite well for itself!

I always had a problem with all that intolerance. Of course, the Gakkai members tried to soft-pedal it: "Oh, he didn't really mean have their heads cut off! What he MEANT was that people should stop making donations to them!" Yuh huh *eye roll*

The only criterion that makes a religion acceptable or not is how well it suits a given person's needs. That is all. Of course, from this site especially, we see that some people's needs are so pathological that they end up with something truly harmful, but even so, it's their path to walk and their life to live. We are not allowed to lock people up for their own safety! Better that we attempt to understand what is driving these individuals in these harmful directions in the first place and see if there's anything that can be provided to help. For example, people who get addicted to cocaine, crack, or meth very often have undiagnosed ADD. Ritalin, which is legal, cheaper, and way safer, will provide them the same benefit they're getting from the street drugs. But if they never realize that, they'll remain addicted. People who are *stuck* in self-destructive patterns, such as the Quiverful nutcases, were raised in authoritarian, violent homes by brutal parents who made strict obedience the only goal - and who got what appears to be a sick pleasure out of causing as much pain as possible to their helpless children, who grew up to be severely damaged adults. If you ever read some of the accounts at the ex-Quiverfull sites, you'll likely be appalled. When people seek out something harmful, that is evidence that they are in extreme pain and that they have a very distorted view of the world. You can't fix that by punishing them yet more.

The fundamental problem with intolerance in Buddhism is that intolerance conflicts with one of the Four Noble Truths, that attachment causes suffering. Intolerance means being VERY attached to something, so by advocating this mindset, the SGI is actually leading its membership to MORE suffering! That's, like, the anti-Buddhism! With regard to Nichijew's Nancy (so glad you're all doing better, BTW!), I remember when I accompanied some friends to the Deer Park Monastery, not too far away from where we live in Southern California. He had drug problems and wanted to check out the Buddhism there, and his wife and I were going along for support. It was started by Thich Nat Thahn, who is a towering figure in modern Buddhism. Anyhow, they were starting their "gongyo" when we got there, so he and I sat in while she stayed outside with the wiggly children. Their gongyo book was recited in Pali, phonetically transcribed, but with an english translation of every line beneath! How considerate! And here's part of what we recited:

"Properly considering alms food, I use it: not playfully, nor for intoxication, nor for putting on weight, nor for beautification; but simply for the survival and continuance of this body, for ending its afflictions, for the support of the chaste life, (thinking) I will destroy old feelings (of hunger) and not create new feelings (from overeating). Thus I will maintain myself, be blameless, and live in comfort." (OP p.46)

"Properly considering medicinal requisites for curing the sick, I use them: simply to ward off any pains of illness that have arisen, and for the maximum freedom from disease." (OP p.47)

That immediately struck me as eminently practical and useful guidance! And yet we're supposed to "discard, ignore, close, and abandon"?? When it contains such wise instructions?? This, BTW, is from Theravada Buddhism.

From this site: [www.accesstoinsight.org]

Here is how they describe the purpose of their gongyo:

Quote

Discipline is for the sake of restraint,
restraint for the sake of freedom from remorse,
freedom from remorse for the sake of joy,
joy for the sake of rapture,
rapture for the sake of tranquillity,
tranquillity for the sake of pleasure,
pleasure for the sake of concentration,
concentration for the sake of knowledge
and vision of things as they are,
knowledge and vision of things as they are
for the sake of disenchantment,
disenchantment for the sake of release,
release for the sake of knowledge and vision of release,
knowledge and vision of release
for the sake of total unbinding without clinging.

The Buddha never insisted on complete devotion. People were free to come and go as they pleased, to either immerse themselves in his teachings or perhaps just dip a toe, for as long or as short a period as they chose. The Buddha did not threaten anyone. The Buddha sought only to help. The Buddha respected each person's individuality and individual path, and did not attempt to run people's lives for them. THAT is what I learned when I started reading more about Buddhism!

Spot on taiten.John Snelling in The Buddhist Handbook described Nichiren Buddhism as 'the very antithesis of Buddhism'.SGI is the wackiest and worst but Nichiren Shu, Nichiren Shoshu and Kempon Hokke all teach similar stuff and use virtually identical gongyo.I now see that Nichiren was probably mentally ill.A distorted syncretism of Buddhism and Shinto is what Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is.Alarm bells were ringing loud and clear when I heard mention of the devil king of the sixth heaven and the 'Buddhist gods'.It is so far removed from Shakyamuni one might conclude it is an entirely different religion.

Hi, everybody. I haven't posted for a few months. Like so many of you, I have been happily busy since leaving SGI and got my life back.

I received word that a friend of mine from the NSA days passed away and his funeral is tomorrow. Even though he was a very nice person, and my former district chief, I don't know if I should go to the funeral or not because I know that there will probably be SGI members there and I have very mixed feelings about seeing anyone from the org.

He joined in 1969 in California and eventually, in 1979, he and his partner decided to move back here to the South because this is where his family is. He quit practicing in the late '80's and he and his partner moved about 60 miles south of here. I lost touch with him until last month when his partner contacted me on Facebook.

I'm not really sure why he quit, but I have a theory - He was appointed to a district chief position around 1981 and as some of you know, the top leaders started telling gay and Lesbian leaders around this time that they had to choose between their leadership positions or their partners. This guy was in a committed, loving and long-term relationship with his partner and was not about to give up his position. He and his partner were a couple for a total of almost 40 years - from 1974 to 2013.

I'm really feeling torn - as a practicing Buddhist (I'm now practicing with a small group of Tibetan lineage Buddhists), I know I would be showing compassion and loving kindness toward his partner if I went, but at the same time, I am still carrying anger toward the leaders for things they have said and done. One of the big things that pushed me over the edge and made me decide to quit SGI was in a leaders meeting, in March, 2011, where several leaders were discussing the personal problems of some of the members (sound familiar?). A pioneer women's division member, who was always very kind to me, was mentioned as having dementia and a leader exclaimed, "I'll tell you this: I think she deserves it!"

Any input from ya'll would be deeply appreciated.

Well, remember one of the basic principles of Buddhism (and psychology): Whatever someone says to you tells you *nothing* about YOU and EVERYTHING about THEM! The goal has always been to feel a sense of balance, to know that whatever comes at you from your environment, you can observe it and let it pass right on by. Someone can say something to you - you can't stop that! - but there's no reason you need to take it to heart. You can let it go right in the one ear and out the other. If anything, you might find that the content arouses feelings of pity within you (in the event that someone can't resist saying something mean to you).

No one can force you to have contact with these people. No one can demand your phone number. If someone asks if you want to get together for coffee or lunch, you can just smile and say, "I don't think so - I'm really pretty busy." If they press, like pointing out that they hadn't even suggested a date yet, you can just shrug and say, "I'm not really in a position to make plans right now." If they continue to not take the hint, you can just limit your responses to smiles and shrugs until you say, "Excuse me, there's someone I need to speak with." And then you walk away.

If it's someone you REALLY don't like and you want to make that clear, when s/he comes up to talk to you, you can just say, "Who are you again?" When s/he identifies himself/herself, you respond, "Oh, yeah." And turn and walk away.

YOU are in control. No one has the right to interact with you. If someone comes up to you and you don't wish to speak to him/her, just say, "Oh, hi! Please excuse me." and then turn and walk away.

Remember, no one there can hurt you or define you. You are in a good place, and they can't affect that. Go to show your respects for your friend (if you would like to), and let that be that. You don't need to talk to anyone. If your experience is anything like mine has been, they probably won't even approach you at all! :P

There will always be unpleasant people in life. Simply limit your contact with them - that's completely under your control. Cause and effect, mon - the more time you spend with people you DON'T like, the less time you have for spending with people you DO like, and the more the unpleasant people will assume they can monopolize your time. Make wise choices.

Quote
Jackie_Flash
Hi, everybody. I haven't posted for a few months. Like so many of you, I have been happily busy since leaving SGI and got my life back.

I received word that a friend of mine from the NSA days passed away and his funeral is tomorrow. Even though he was a very nice person, and my former district chief, I don't know if I should go to the funeral or not because I know that there will probably be SGI members there and I have very mixed feelings about seeing anyone from the org.

He joined in 1969 in California and eventually, in 1979, he and his partner decided to move back here to the South because this is where his family is. He quit practicing in the late '80's and he and his partner moved about 60 miles south of here. I lost touch with him until last month when his partner contacted me on Facebook.

I'm not really sure why he quit, but I have a theory - He was appointed to a district chief position around 1981 and as some of you know, the top leaders started telling gay and Lesbian leaders around this time that they had to choose between their leadership positions or their partners. This guy was in a committed, loving and long-term relationship with his partner and was not about to give up his position. He and his partner were a couple for a total of almost 40 years - from 1974 to 2013.

I'm really feeling torn - as a practicing Buddhist (I'm now practicing with a small group of Tibetan lineage Buddhists), I know I would be showing compassion and loving kindness toward his partner if I went, but at the same time, I am still carrying anger toward the leaders for things they have said and done. One of the big things that pushed me over the edge and made me decide to quit SGI was in a leaders meeting, in March, 2011, where several leaders were discussing the personal problems of some of the members (sound familiar?). A pioneer women's division member, who was always very kind to me, was mentioned as having dementia and a leader exclaimed, "I'll tell you this: I think she deserves it!"

Any input from ya'll would be deeply appreciated.

Hi Jackie

I would go to the funeral just to show respect to your friend and his partner. That is providing you will not be too stressed being around Soka Gakkai folks. Obviously you have been deeply wounded by the Cult but, bottom line, do what you think is right and don't let them influence your decision. They have no power over you and never really did. Also you may shine a chink of Dharma light on them when they see your life has not collapsed under the weight of' "provisional": Buddhism.

Hope that helps.

Namo Amida Bu

Unfortunately,

Quote
Jackie_Flash
One of the big things that pushed me over the edge and made me decide to quit SGI was in a leaders meeting, in March, 2011, where several leaders were discussing the personal problems of some of the members (sound familiar?). A pioneer women's division member, who was always very kind to me, was mentioned as having dementia and a leader exclaimed, "I'll tell you this: I think she deserves it!"

These are the kind of gakkai cult members that I remember the most. This type of individual is all too common in the gakkai cult org. (and a so-called "leader", too).

As for the funeral, if you want to go, then you should by all means go - for your friend, his loved ones and to say good-bye, especially if you need the closure. I have no problem running into current gakkai cult members (and I still do from time to time). I treat them the same way I do anybody whom I wish to keep at arm's length or have no intention of being "friends" with. The polite ones will cause you no trouble, but the pushy ones (like the "leader" you mentioned) - who are manipulative a**-holes by definition, are easily handled with a firm "NO" and simply standing your ground (just be ready to repeat the firm "NO", more strongly if necessary), then just say "Take care" or "Have a Nice Day" and walk away or turn around and resume what you were doing.

This is going to sound harsh, but if you run into any really whacked out members, just treat them like you would anybody out on a day-pass from the local psychiatric hospital - with a gentle re-direction, smile and wave good-bye.

****

It's interesting how the cult org. has done a 180 degree turn on the gay-lesbian issue, nowadays. Just another reminder as to how the cult org. changes its colors like a chameleon to blend in with the times (I'm sure it also had something to do with their bottom $line$). Much of what the $oka Gakkai Cult Org. said and held in the past to be sacred guidance has now been conveniently "adjusted." It's all manipulative lies to serve the cult org.. What's most insulting about it all is, they think that people don't remember. But, as your post points out, many do.


- Hitch

The gakkai cult equivalent of dancing in the holy ghost and speaking in tongues "And if you dont' now you know Buddhaaaa".

If you can't make it thru the whole 4 min. clip, at least don't miss the 0:15 sec. mark and the closing with "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo", "Thank You!" at 3:59.

Buddhism? I don't think so.

CULT? Absolutely.


- Hitch

Wow - that was *seriously* embarrassing! Talk about a COMPLETE lack of talent! That was as embarrassing as anything you'll see in one of those Evangelical mega-churches, where they try to make their jesus seem "cool".

I don't know if everybody has been following the ruckus over at SUA (Soka University), but my suspicion that, with that Gakkai-heavy staff, there was going to be coercion proved spot on:

Soka University of America Is a School On a Hill

The Aliso Viejo college was founded by a Buddhist sect that preaches peace—so why are so many former professors alleging the opposite?

Anyone who has ever visited Aliso Viejo knows about gates. Gates separate residential communities from one another. Gates demarcate front yards from back yards and keep pools and tennis courts for the use of those who have the access key. It's a careful study in suburban paranoia, one befitting Orange County's youngest city, and one designed to keep the rest of the world away.

There are guard gates at the entrance to Soka University of America (SUA), a small liberal-arts school perched on a coastal ridge near Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park.

The plethora of gates and locks should tip everyone off that there's something wrong here. Fundamentally, basically wrong.

College guidebooks don't have much to say about Soka, and it remains a mystery even in Orange County academic circles. It's not as old as Chapman University, not as teeming with students as Cal State Fullerton or UC Irvine, not as hidden as Concordia, or as visible as Vanguard. But the school—founded 10 years ago "upon the Buddhist principals of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life," according to its glossy pamphlets—boasts an impressive list of offerings: a nine-to-one student-faculty ratio. Free tuition for students whose family income is $60,000 or less.

That last bit sounds very nice - but how many students actually get to take advantage of it? Or does Admissions simply reject all the po' folks? "No room for you - sorry!"

Gaye Christoffersen, a worldly academic with a pages-long list of works on Asia-Pacific international relations to her name, felt an instant connection with Soka when she interviewed for a teaching position in 2005 after seeing a job posting in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Contracts were signed, and the 65-year-old relocated from Northern California to become a professor of political science at the school.

"Who wouldn't want to be at a university with a Buddhist peace movement?" she asks from outside a coffee shop in Santa Ana, near Orange County Superior Court. "I thought, 'This is a beautiful campus in Orange County, in America.' How could things be so weird and terrible?"

She makes reference to an e-mail sent in 2002 by Alfred Balitzer, then-dean of Soka University, to a colleague, "SUA will always have two faces and two kinds of faculty," he wrote, "and that is why we as SUA top administrators have to carefully care for the Gakkai members as they are being swamped by non-Gakkai faculty."

Notice that you can't find *any* figures on what percentage of the faculty consists of Gakkai members.

The document and others are tucked in Christoffersen's court files, submitted as evidence to a judge. The former Soka professor is suing the university for religious discrimination, claiming she was denied tenure because she refused to abandon her Lutheran faith to join the Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect that founded the university.

"It was a constant pressure," Christoffersen says, staring austerely through rectangular, rimless sunglasses while describing the aggressive proselytizing she says was practiced by both faculty members and students in her classes affiliated with Soka Gakkai on campus. "They're constantly after you, constantly trying to get you. You can't escape."

Christoffersen is one in a lengthening chain of faculty members and students who say they were deceived by the university's nonsectarian status and promotion of "free and open dialogue" and left. They're "Soka refugees," as former psychology professor Jeffrey Green puts it.

Now THAT's what I'd expect from SGI-USA! Hey, remember when they used to say that, if a woman had strong faith, her husband would "naturally" want to start practicing???

Many of those who've left—some by choice, others escorted by security—say that university decisions are made behind locked doors by a group of top administrators whose mission isn't the pursuit of academic excellence, but rather to extol Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, the wealthy religious organization that finances the $300 million institution. A culture of paranoia rules the campus, dissidents claim, with jobs always teetering on the line based on whether professors are Soka Gakkai or not.

"We started asking if this is a religious institution or the institution we were promised," says Green, now a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It's sort of ironic that they are a group for peace, but essentially, they declare war on anyone who raises a question."

And THERE it is! This article is several pages long - feel free to read it here: [www.ocweekly.com]

It's one thing to "preach peace", but such preaching always rings hollow when it's an intolerant group doing the preaching.

One professor who asked to remain anonymous alleges that in the school's first year of operation, students told him of a sexual assault that had happened on campus. The victim went to administrators, who urged her not to say anything. "The excuses they gave were medieval," the professor states. "They said they were going to protect her reputation. It was horrifying to me."

Yikes! But surprising? No.

“High faculty turnover due to a subculture of a Soka Gakkai religious elite; a sectarian college”
Former Professor/Faculty in Aliso Viejo, CA – Reviewed Jun 18, 2012

Pros – Students are quite focused on learning and not distracted by either intercollegiate sports or binge drinking. Facilities are quite new. Soka Bistro's food is excellent.

Cons – Non-Soka Gakkai (SGI) believers are shut out of believers' meetings where the most important decisions are made behind closed doors; it's sort of like a small theocracy or communist party ruled regime. University President more likely to eulogize SGI Great Leader Ikeda than to discuss issues of academic significance. Curriculum is very rigid with fewer electives for students to choose from. Students are required to live in on-campus dorms all 4 years: infantilization. A large proportion of students come from feeder SGI high schools, many in Japan; certain ideas such as doubts about the SGI doctrine are verboten.

Advice to Senior Management – Decide whether Soka University is in large part a religious monument to Founder Ikeda of Soka Gakkai International or whether it is a bona fide university that upholds free inquiry and true faculty governance. If SUA is indeed a monument to Mr. Ikeda, then do not claim that it is a non-sectarian university. If it is not, then outlaw on-campus meetings in which only SGI members are welcome to attend. [www.glassdoor.com]

Again, no surprises there!

Hey, remember when the SGI (which might have still been NSA) bought that hugely expensive parcel of land in Calabasas, just down the street from Pepperdine University (Ol' P-U) right next to Malibu? And announced it would be a "graduate school" that would serve perhaps a half-dozen Japanese members (aka "students") per year?? That was REALLY bizarre! I remember a World Tribune article that focused on some deer on the property, that Ikeda had named something like "Huey, Duey, Louie, and Barbara" or whatever - just strange.

And the Gakkai members should be smart enough to realize that their bizarro Ikeda worship will not look sensible or rational to anyone who hasn't drunk their Kool-Aid.

From Wikipedia: Criticism

There have however been reports of possible proselytising according to non-Gakkai staff and students. Surprisingly enough for a university with a Buddhist background it does not engage in Buddhist Studies.

Surprising indeed. Considering that they consider their own sect the only REAL Buddhism - the "class" would amount to just another "Discussion Meeting"!!

From an update on this site: University officials involved in the tenure process declared in documents that they did not know the religion or age of any of the candidates who were being considered for tenure. Impossible. Is anybody stupid enough to think that, at such a *small* university, a given professor's personal information will remain unknown???

It's also interesting that no breakdown of the faculty in terms of Gakkai/non-Gakkai members can be found. Anecdotes abound, but nothing concrete:

Another member of the tenure committee, Anthony Mazeroll, told Christoffersen, "Everyone who works here is a member of Soka Gakkai—every administrative person, every IT person, everybody." The assistant dean, Phat Vu, declared in front of several faculty members his intention to "purify" Soka University of all non-Soka Gakkai so that eventually only Soka Gakkai faculty would teach there, according to the complaint. [www.ocweekly.com]

Given the fact that the SGI is *notoriously* intolerant of other belief systems, the idea that they would allow more non-Gakkai faculty members than Gakkai faculty members is just too much to swallow. The SGI has always been about rewarding loyalty and President Ikeda worship, and I see no reason to think that won't pervade Soka U as well. The ol' apple can't fall far from the tree.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2013 11:58AM by TaitenAndProud.

Nichiren does indeed clarify his non-violent stance in Establishing the Correct Law for the Peace of the Land:

"The host said: You have clearly seen the sutra passages that I have cited, and yet you can ask a question like that! Are they beyond the power of your mind to comprehend? Or do you fail to understand the reasoning behind them? I certainly have no intention of censuring the sons of the Buddha. My only hatred is for the act of slandering the Law. According to the Buddhist teachings, prior to Shakyamuni slanderous monks would have incurred the death penalty. But since the time of Shakyamuni, the One Who Can Endure, the giving of alms to slanderous monks is forbidden in the sutra teachings. Now if all the four kinds of Buddhists within the four seas and the ten thousand lands would only cease giving alms to wicked priests and instead all come over to the side of the good, then how could any more troubles rise to plague us, or disasters come to confront us?"

Even were it not the case, when Nichiren made that statement about his persecutors having their heads cut off at Yui beach [1274], he had recently been sentenced for execution and subsequent exile to certain death in a cold and foreboding place. Please compare his life to the comfortable life of the Princeton grad and Nobel laureate Thich Nat Hanh and the Dalai Lama who was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth.

Nichijew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2013 03:43AM by Nichijew.

Quote
Hitch
The gakkai cult equivalent of dancing in the holy ghost and speaking in tongues "And if you dont' now you know Buddhaaaa".

If you can't make it thru the whole 4 min. clip, at least don't miss the 0:15 sec. mark and the closing with "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo", "Thank You!" at 3:59.

Buddhism? I don't think so.

CULT? Absolutely.


- Hitch

Noooo, SUA has nothing to do Ikedaism and the New Komeito "Clean Government Party" has nothing do with the Soka Gakkai. I wonder if non SGI students [are there really any?] were invited to the Ikedafest and if they were, what they felt about the meeting? Are there any SUA youth leaders who are not Gakkai members? If not, and I doubt there are, then all the "chiefs" at Soka University are Gakkai members and all the indians are non-Gakkai. What non-Gakkai would want to go to this Gakkai cult University? A masochist?

Nichijew



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2013 04:17AM by Nichijew.