[www.sgi.org]

Love that bench.

The gakkai cult org. sure knows how to milk something, don't they. I wonder if they will bronze their footsteps into the ground, too. Perhaps they should put an addendum in future reprints of the book ("Choose Life"), "More Dialogues to come, hopefully, pending Toynbee Family approval and lots of daimoku - NMRK!"

I thought The Dear Leader had Super-Daimoku powers to get whatever he wants.

****

Anybody who criticizes or does not show proper deference to The Dear Leader Ikeda, shall always be attacked by hardcore brainwashed gakkai cultie members. I've mentioned before how when Mandela met with Ikeda in Japan, the grapevine was burning up members' ears with how insolent, disrespectful and rude Mandela was for having the gall to be tired and sleepy (head bobbing stuff) while officially meeting and "dialoguing" with "sensei." I can also tell you that this information was shared between members with extreme disgust and prejudice (exemplary "bodhisattva" behavior).

For any current cult members who don't believe this, I recommend trying to make a simple statement of fact at your next gakkai meeting. Try to say, "I think President Ikeda is a little plump and perhaps should be on a diet." In the normal, real world, most people would just laugh a bit and say, "Yeah, you're right." In the gakkai cult, they'll throw darts at you with their eyes and the really hardcore will turn on you. I've seen it happen. Any perceived insult to The Dear Leader, no matter how slight, is taken as if it were a grave personal insult against their own mother or father.

****

Btw, in Japan, amongst non-gakkai ordinary citizens, it is often shared as to whether or not other people (strangers who one has just met) are "gakkai" or not. If somebody *is*, they generally go out of their way to try to avoid them and have any unnecessary interactions with them in everyday life. Let us not forget, Japan is also the land where Cousin Rufus has supposedly officially achieved some of the greatest heights anywhere on the planet earth.


- Hitch

Soooooo, how is this a religion? How is this faith? These last several posts have done more than cement that the SGI is really the complete worship of Daisaku Ikeda.

I'll digress--yet again--as Hitch said, the Ikeda worship has gone on steroids. Do they really, REALLY think that the USA, for one, is going to go all Ikeda-crazy and sign up in droves?

I need some enlightenment on this, guys. WHY? Why do you think the PR people think, that this obvious Cult O' Personality is going to catch any kind of fire??? What IS it, man????

Shavoy, one of the incidents I'm sure I've mentioned before happened in...August of 2006 or 2007, I believe. I live in the San Diego area, so leaders from LA (nat'l HQ) came down to explain the new "membership cards" system to all us leaders. At this point, I was still a WD District leader. The HQ leader explained that the new "rhythm" (ugh) was to fill out a membership card for each member - AND FOR EACH PERSON IN THAT MEMBER'S FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD! So nonmember roommates, spouses, children, parents, grandparents - each would get a "membership card" even though they were not members in any sense of the word. This was supposedly to help the leaders "take better care" of each member.

I spoke up: "My husband is not a member, and, as he has top-secret national security clearance, he does not want any organization keeping his personal information on file. Can I be assured that his information won't be put on a membership card?"

HQ Leader: "We have plenty of members who have top-secret national security clearance, and THEY don't have any problem with the membership card system."

Me: "My husband is NOT a member. Why not *ask* each person for permission before putting their personal information on a membership card?"

HQ Leader: "The policy is to make out a membership card for each member AND for each person in that member's family or household."

That was the end of it. Boy was I steamed! Afterward, my chapter MD leader came up to me and assured me that my husband's information would not be put on a membership card, but the damage was done. That really opened the door to leaving for me.

And how would I know if there were a card filled out for my husband? I wouldn't! That was, of course, taken care of at the leadership level ABOVE mine, and you know that members don't ask to have a look at their membership cards!!

I remember talking on the phone with a former fellow member, from back in NC - she's the only SGI member who has *ever* kept in touch after we moved - and she thought this "policy" was retarded - "Why would they do such a thing?" she asked. Apparently, it never got rolled out. The only answer is that the SGI wanted to maximize the number of membership cards, which would be then counted to provide the membership totals. It was purely to pad their obviously crumbling membership. There is simply no other possible rationale.

I am preparing a resignation letter demanding that they purge all my personal information and my children's from their record system. And they'd BETTER not have my husband's information on file!! >:(

Quote
Hitch

Anybody who criticizes or does not show proper deference to The Dear Leader Ikeda, shall always be attacked by hardcore brainwashed gakkai cultie members. I've mentioned before how when Mandela met with Ikeda in Japan, the grapevine was burning up members' ears with how insolent, disrespectful and rude Mandela was for having the gall to be tired and sleepy (head bobbing stuff) while officially meeting and "dialoguing" with "sensei." I can also tell you that this information was shared between members with extreme disgust and prejudice (exemplary "bodhisattva" behavior).

- Hitch

Yes -- on Veoh, there used to be video of Ikeda's visit to the U.S. in 1993, some meeting in California. This video was taken down after we posted about it here. Anyone copy it? I wish I had thought to.

In it, Fred Zaitsu, then SGI-USA director, tries to give a speech -- all the while, being mocked and interrupted by Ikeda, who was sitting on stage banging on the table and ranting. Ikeda mocks Zaitsu, and George Williams (who was not there) and then goes on a long rant about Bill Clinton, who was then president. Clinton would not meet with Ikeda! Imagine that! And Ikeda is clearly furious! Such rude, bizarre behavior....yet the hardcore members just did not see that. They were all agog over President Clinton's so called rudeness to Ikeda!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2013 09:00AM by tsukimoto.

"on Veoh, there used to be video of Ikeda's visit to the U.S. in 1993, some meeting in California. "

I saw it - it was bizarre! Ikeda would randomly start whacking the desk in front of him like a monkey! George Williams was sitting right there - he was sittting slumped off to the side instead of sitting up ramrod straight as is expected of proper cult leaders, don'tcha know. Either he was nursing a back injury, or his spirit had been broken. And Ikeda was being so rude toward him! Sure, Wirriams laughed it of - what else could he do?? Ikeda didn't so much rant about "Presiden' Crinton" as compare Zaitsu's introduction to "Crinton"'s inaugural address, saying Zaitsu's comments were every bit the equal of the President's (or perhaps superior). Yeah, whatever. I got the impression that Ikeda was on the verge of mooning the adoring audience and then ripping a great big fart directly at them, knowing full well they'd all applaud and cheery his "youthful energy" and then praise his greatness. Yes it IS just that bad!!

Ikeda didn't look furious to me - he just looked like he didn't give a shit how he appeared. Maybe he was drunk! And did his translator ever sound incompetent! Sure, she's a hot babe, but this is *really* the best interpreting they can manage???

We've been reviewing that article "Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt" and comparing it to the Soka Gakkai approach: [www.themodernword.com]

One item that stands out from the above article is the preoccupation with gaining control over others. One way this is accomplished is by dictating to the targets when, how, and with whom they are allowed to express their own sexuality. Like it's any of anyone's business??? They make it so by declaring it "sin" or whatever. Shouldn't that be each person's most private decision to make for himself - and off limits for others' peeping or analyses?? It seems that, as soon as something so private becomes openly regulated, that should set off the warning sirens and flashing red lights.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Spartacus, linked earlier by Hitch (Thank you so much!!! Applause!!!), who was involved in the late 1960s to early 1970s at least. Things changed a lot in 1991, when NSA became SGI in the wake of being excommunicated by NS. However, I joined in 1987, and so I can certainly relate to his descriptions of the crazy, because I saw it for myself! It was his explanation of this dictating-others'-sexuality tactic that really made me aware of it - and how often it is (ab)used within religious groups:

Quote

It wasn’t very long at all after returning from my first pilgrimage to the head temple in 1972 that I was appointed to the position of Texas Chapter Chief (or as someone has described being an NSA leader, “brainwash meat in a guilt trip sandwich”). At the time, I was very proud (it appealed to my young ego) to be one of the very first American youth to hold a chapter level position in Texas. But that pride was just the illusion and delusion of a naïve youth. It would be many more years before I would begin to comprehend how holding a senior leader position was really just a veiled means of deepening control over me by SGcult HQ leadership. Like puppet masters, SGcult senior leaders were controlling my strings, using me for ulterior purposes, while dressing me up with a pre-approved appearance to show off for the audience (membership). I was discouraged from forming my own opinions, taking any actions, or making any decisions without prior guidance and approval from my senior leaders. I was even forbidden from having a girlfriend! I repeat - forbidden from having a girlfriend (or any sexual relations). No sex for singles was an undeclared commandment carefully kept under wraps! Would I have ever embarked on this bizarre journey if I had understood there was a requirement to become sexually inactive in order to become a senior leader? Well no, I certainly would not have, but I was already hooked (addicted). However, by succumbing to the manipulation to surrender my sexual freedom, I had unknowingly given tremendous control of my life to my SGcult leaders (exploiters/abusers). I was being indoctrinated to blindly obey my leaders, to no longer trust my own mind or my ability to make important decisions and judgments for myself, but to instead seek guidance (control) from leaders for everything.
.
At the same time I was being torn down as an independent and free spiritual being, I was being molded and shaped into the appearance of being a “perfect leader”. Then, I could be held up as an ideal example of a local SGcult leader to all the wanna-bees. An outer shell of appearance/polite face (tatemae) was slowly being constructed, masking my “honest feelings” (honne). That suppressing and repressing empty shell would continue to engulf me, until eventually, this pretense of false appearance would come crashing down upon me in the form of an agonizing identity crisis. My own self-identity would eventually become completely lost inside of phony appearance. This false facade left me empty and depressed while fallaciously portraying me as the perfect example of a happy and successful Cult SGI leader. [spartacusrebel.weebly.com]

Unfortunately, he hasn't finished his "memoirs" - I would have loved to read the rest! But in about 1989, I remember a WD Chapter leader, who was divorced, telling me gleefully that she hadn't had sex in 7 years and she felt like a virgin again! :0 A little too much information, honey?? Squickness!! It was during that early period of my tenure (I divorced my first husband in early 1987) that I went a whole year without sex, though :/ All right - sorry! TMI!!

I arrived at the conclusion that it was a cult as well - I kind of knew it all along, but my own needs (and their masterful exploitation of them) kept me clinging.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2013 09:47AM by TaitenAndProud.

Quote

Btw, in Japan, amongst non-gakkai ordinary citizens, it is often shared as to whether or not other people (strangers who one has just met) are "gakkai" or not. If somebody *is*, they generally go out of their way to try to avoid them and have any unnecessary interactions with them in everyday life. Let us not forget, Japan is also the land where Cousin Rufus has supposedly officially achieved some of the greatest heights anywhere on the planet earth. - Hitch

We're starting to see the same reaction against Evangelical Christians and Mormons. And they've *earned* it - in spades. Any group so arrogant, so preening, so contemptuous of others, and so clannish (will only be friends with members of their church) really should not expect society at large to treat them so much more generously and magnanimously than they're willing to treat anyone else.

Quote
TaitenAndProud
"on Veoh, there used to be video of Ikeda's visit to the U.S. in 1993, some meeting in California. "

I saw it - it was bizarre! Ikeda would randomly start whacking the desk in front of him like a monkey! George Williams was sitting right there - he was sittting slumped off to the side instead of sitting up ramrod straight as is expected of proper cult leaders, don'tcha know. Either he was nursing a back injury, or his spirit had been broken. And Ikeda was being so rude toward him! Sure, Wirriams laughed it of - what else could he do?? Ikeda didn't so much rant about "Presiden' Crinton" as compare Zaitsu's introduction to "Crinton"'s inaugural address, saying Zaitsu's comments were every bit the equal of the President's (or perhaps superior). Yeah, whatever. I got the impression that Ikeda was on the verge of mooning the adoring audience and then ripping a great big fart directly at them, knowing full well they'd all applaud and cheery his "youthful energy" and then praise his greatness. Yes it IS just that bad!!

Ikeda didn't look furious to me - he just looked like he didn't give a shit how he appeared. Maybe he was drunk! And did his translator ever sound incompetent! Sure, she's a hot babe, but this is *really* the best interpreting they can manage???

The 'hot babe' translator was probably the English/Japanese translator that Polly Toynbee refered to and the YMD drooled over. Some housemates of mine who mocked NSA/SGi noticed the 'hot babe' in my Seikyo Times (Living Buddhism's earlier incarnation) and said she stands out as hot next to those stodgy buffoons. One house guest told of his 'experience' of being invited to a meeting and watching people fawn over the worst poetry he has ever heard. My housemates and their friends laughed loudly. I shrugged.. I agreed. One of my housemates who chanted with me 10 minutes or so tried to convince me that I was being controlled by this group -just doing what they said. I tried to defend my position figuring it was like any discipline in which you need to toe the line in order to do the practice right. My friend said he understood that. He wanted to go into the army where he would have to follow orders, but he saw that I did not have a clear vision of what was happening to me.

Well, the cult makes all these promises: "Do as we say and you'll get all these goodies!!" The only reason we remain in is because we believe them. And it takes a while to see for yourself that it isn't working.

I don't think it's the same hot babe translator, because Polly Toynbee was reporting in 1985, and the video was from 1993. Hm...8 years...I guess it could still be the same young woman, but I think they traded the 1985 model in for a newer model, if you know what I mean. You know, one with fewer miles on it? If this WAS that same chick, wow. I mean, how can she still be so bad after doing this for at least 8 years????

From what I can recall the UK became more Ikeda-orientated after the late 90s. Before this time there was a Reassessment group formed of members and some leaders who wanted to look at the way SGI-UK was organised, with a view to making it more democratic.
A report about this can be found at

[groups.yahoo.com]

although it is difficult to determine if it is the original source. However, it is the only one I can find.
This Reassessment group proposals were circulated to members in the SGI bulletin, as it had the approval of the UK leaders at that time.
However, the ideas that the group came up with were never to be and it seems as if there was a power struggle with the more traditional members.

As the report says

‘According to the facilitators, there was a group of "fundamentalists" (mostly
English, some with Japanese spouses) who banded together to, in their view,
save the organisation from the Focus Group's work.'

At this point the report states that the SGI leadership from Japan came over

‘On August 1 a meeting was held for headquarters level leaders and above from
throughout the SGI-UK. …………………During the meeting there was no mention of the practice of the
Daishonin's Buddhism. The overall theme was "back to basics; you naughty
children you have gone off the rails." Back to basics," in this case, means
fight the Nikken sect, contribute to the kosen-rufu fund, and get more
members.’

The report goes onto describe how the focus groups were disbanded

‘It was announced that the results of the Focus Groups were to be abandoned,
and a restructuring of the SGI-UK leadership would take place, with another
level of leadership to be added at the top, including the re-appointment of
many older "retired" leaders. All of the individuals who opposed the
Reassessment Process, many of whom had held no leadership position for years,
were given positions. All of the Reassessment leaders and key supporters
lost their positions.’

In my experience I have found that there is very little information about this period of time apart from this report, and the Reassessment group is certainly never mentioned in official publications, (there will be no benches built to commemorate this group :)) It’s almost as if it has been erased from history, and the members who joined after this time are none the wiser unless they dig deep for this information.

Although I was never heavily involved with the reassessment group I did notice that after this time there was a lot more emphasis on the master/disciple relationship. It was also the time when ‘dedicated’ groups were formed for the youth division so that they could ‘understand Sensei’s heart’. The wearing of uniforms for the youth division was more encouraged, and any discussion about changing the leadership structure disappeared.
There was also a greater emphasis on studying Ikeda’s guidance.

We started to get more information about the priesthood/SGI split (all from SGI’s point of view of course) and the youth division were encouraged to study the ‘Untold History of the Fuji School’ as part of their dedicated commitment. We learnt from leaders about how Ikeda had tried so hard to protect the members and not wanted to let them know at first of the priesthood’s bullying ways and how he had ‘sacrificed’ his leadership position in 1979 in order to save the organisation. I remember listening to all this with tears in my eyes, feeling shocked at everything Sensei had gone through on our behalf – lol.

IMO there was a lot of fear installed in the UK leadership at that time from Japan, and it was all based around the idea that the members didn’t have the proper master disciple spirit, in other words, Ikeda would lose his power if members prioritised the actual Buddhism and didn’t make him the centre of their universes.

Of course, it is dressed up in other ways such as the master/disciple relationship being a fundamental concept of Buddhism (this is what I was always told). But it also helps to discourage independent thought, criticism and creativity – after all who knows what would happen if members started being allowed to express negative opinions about Ikeda.