Quote
To each his own...except SGI is a deceptive cult masquerading as a religion and whose followers likely do not know that both Ikea and the org are BILLIONAIRES, while they scrub toilets for free.
I roundly condemn SGI, it is a despicable organization. I do not condemn the people who feel they benefit from it (illicit drug users feel that they benefit from their addiction too, so feeling that you benefit from something does not make it a good thing), but I do hope they wake up and realize the truth about the what they really belong to. - Freeheartandmind
Sure, that's YOUR perspective.
But now we come around again to: WHO is qualified and authorized to declare whether another person is acceptably happy or not?
People choose their involvements for many different reasons, many (if not most) of which are not necessarily healthy. Damage drives us far more effectively than wisdom, I'm afraid. And people have to learn in their own ways. I would never walk up to someone cleaning toilets in an SGI Culture Center and try to drag him/her away! That would be grossly inappropriate.
Bottom line: If we want people to respect our path, our process, and our perspective, we need to extend the same to them. The SGI wasn't for us. That's fine. It might suit someone else. If we declare blanket condemnation on the SGI, then we're really no better than them. Intolerant is as intolerant does, after all.
Sure, the fact that it's profiting off the membership is despicable, but that is the story of ALL religious groups, you know. Every single one. Are you willing to issue the same blanket condemnation for Christianity and call for all those churches to start paying their fair share of taxes, at the very least, which would mean that every family in the US would pay about $1,000 LESS each year in taxes? If not, WHY not? They're just as bad.
Quote
And all too often they dont want to hear of the harm done and sacrifices imposed on the low ranking members who labor behind the scenes of the Bliss Factory.
Why should they care? The low ranking members who labor behind the scenes are volunteers, aren't they? Nobody's chaining them to a sink or a table, after all. Another bottom line: If there weren't people willing to sign up for these duties, there would be no organization. There are plenty of damaged people who sign on, and who's to stop them? Should someone be assigned to following them around all day, every day, just to make sure they aren't doing something that...someone...doesn't approve of?
Quote
I wonder...when someone experiences the full on bliss that SGI can engineer via the chanting and group meetings, does the planet "begin to feel like a waiting room" between orchestrated bliss hits?
Well, I got that feeling early on, in part because I was so petted and pampered, the "golden child" as someone upstream described. Plus, I was manipulating the hell out of my boyfriend, and that was immensely satisfying (need again). Once I "graduated" to WD and moved away, that all ended. As abruptly as slamming a door.
What I experienced in the SGI here in the San Diego area really surprised me. It appeared that people showed up at the activities for the sake of showing up at the activities. Not to see friends, not to get together - no one went out to, say, lunch or dinner after an activity. No parents made any efforts to get their school-age children together. There were "social" things, like a pot luck or whatever, but they seemed to be going through the motions. People were there for the organization - not the other way around. It struck me as really peculiar - if you're going to be in an organization, shouldn't you be making actual *friendships* within that organization? Shouldn't that be a priority? All the studies of health benefits from organization affiliation reveal that it is the social aspect that makes the difference - it doesn't matter what you're doing. Just like chanting - remember how the SGI used to say that some psychologist said that chanting was great, and chanting something REALLY SIGNIFICANT was even better??? Ha! I am quite confident that chanting *ANYTHING* will gain you the same benefits - the content of the chant doesn't matter in the least. The SGI even made a big deal about emphasizing how the SGI was the "most ideal, family-like organization" in the world. Really? Where people *never* get together, never call each other just to talk, never go out to movies, never do any of the things that friends do together?? It was such a joke!
When I joined in 1987, there were activities virtually every night. It was *exhausting*! But even then, people would get together afterward and go out to dinner or see a movie or something. Even with such a consuming run-on-the-wheel of activities. Here, though? Nothing! Even with activities only a few times a month, people still weren't getting together - except to meet to go on a "home visit" together. I watched, I listened. There were no outside relationships. When our district would have its District General Meeting, we'd sometimes meet at a park for a potluck and do the meeting there, but there was never any question - we were there because we had to be there. No one was ever eager to go; we went because we were supposed to go. Again, it was because we'd been told how important it was to "support the organization", if we wanted to maximize our benefits.
So I was relieved when I finally stopped attending activities - I'd never liked them, I'd never wanted to go - it always felt like a chore - and I never got anything out of them. Certainly not enough to make up for the pain in my ass of going and spending my time there! And when I stopped feeling like I should be getting some social payoff from my investment of time and energy, I found far more fulfillment through choosing for myself where that time and energy would be spent. It's like if someone promises you'll feel so much better if you do *this* and *this* and *that*, so you do it, even though you don't like it, and at the end, you find you AREN'T feeling better, so you say so, and the person says, "You just haven't given it enough time", so you continue, growing ever more frustrated and disappointed - and feeling ever so much more like a ponce. Then, once you say "The hell with this!", you experience a real sense of freedom. Sure, you probably feel more than a little silly for wasting so much time on that, but hopefully you learned something from the experience. If only NOT to be suckered into something whose activities you don't actively enjoy!!