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"Sensei...," she began hesitantly, as if wondering how to broach a difficult subject. "Actually, Yukiko Gilmore and some of the others have collected a dollar from each member because they want to treat us to dinner....Shin'ichi's face clouded when he heard Kiyohara's words. "That won't do" he said. He sent for Yukiko Gilmore and proceeded to give her careful and detailed instruction on this point.

"By announcing that you have decided to collect money to buy me dinner, you end up creating an atmosphere where everyone will feel they should comply even if they don't want to. Therefore, you may say it's everyone's wish, in effect it will be half compoulsory. This may actually cause some people to harbor mistrust toward the Soka Gakkai.

"Even thought the original intent may have been sincere, it could quite easily throw the member's faith into confusion. Therefore, leaders must take great care never to collect money from members. In the Soka Gakkai, we are very strict about money matters, if anything, tending towards over-cautiousness.

"Although it may seem like I am being very harsh, I want you to take the money and respectfully return it to each person, carefully explaining to each the reason why." Shin'ichi was fully aware that her actions had been well intentioned. Thus the thought of having her apologize and return the money to each member pained him. However, if she was to lead the organization, she had to learn the Soka Gakkai's strict attitude towards money matters. Otherwise, there was a possible danger that some major problem over money might erupt in the future.

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Nichijew
Hi all. The battle here is to reveal the true nature of the SGI and to encourage and support those who have left the destructive SGI oganization, not to fight among ourselves.


You belong to a duplicitous evil organization headed by a conman who would take every last penny of your hard earned dollars if he could..

Nichijew

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sixtyseven

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Nichijew
Hi all. The battle here is to reveal the true nature of the SGI and to encourage and support those who have left the destructive SGI oganization, not to fight among ourselves.


You belong to a duplicitous evil organization headed by a conman who would take every last penny of your hard earned dollars if he could..

Nichijew

Hi Nichijew. Thank you so much for the support. Maybe those fights among ourselves are the outcome of all the harm done by the cult, the perception is twisted and people turn away from you and you will become more isolated and lonelier as the cult already had left you.

I went to Trets in 2011 and the vice president of GY held the study seminar. He named the evil organization "The Buddha SGI", seriously, he said in the next hundreds of years everybody would talk about SGI as the Buddha, cause the noble org would be enlightened and the Buddha SGI inscribed into the Gohonzon. What a snobbish act,hmm.Will they send Ikeda also to plastination to keep him fresh for the next ten thousand years?
Soon after it was announced that Trets will close for the European countries, only brainwashing courses for the french people themselves and the Youth of course, it's all open for the Youth! I've heard rumors that SGI had problems in France because of their cult status there, but it was all refuted by the leaders " No, no the organization is increasing so much that Trets is undersized"

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TaitenAndProud
I remember members who'd been on official tozans telling of "visions" they had while chanting to the Dai-Gohonzon, as if it were something magical - you know, seeing lightning bolts come out of it and halos and whatnot (they were probably too sleep deprived! :P ), but she said it just looked really dark to her, so naturally she thought there was a problem with her "life condition". Turns out the priests just didn't turn on the Dai-Gohonzon lights O_O

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TaitenAndProud
Oh, who am I kidding? I would have interpreted it as MY KARMA and obviously the result of my own low life condition! :P

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TaitenAndProud
Back in 1987, a bunch of us went on a bus trip to Philadelphia to march in the parade for the 200th anniversary of the Liberty Bell (or something). One afternoon was scheduled to be a bus trip sightseeing around Philadelphia - our only sightseeing outing. We hung out in a parking lot all afternoon (our leaders wanted us to all stand in straight lines, facing the same direction), chanting for the buses to emerge from the state of ku. They never did...

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TaitenAndProud
... chanting is supposed to "activate the universe" to "send what you need", ....

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TaitenAndProud

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"Sensei...," she began hesitantly, as if wondering how to broach a difficult subject. "Actually, Yukiko Gilmore and some of the others have collected a dollar from each member because they want to treat us to dinner....Shin'ichi's face clouded when he heard Kiyohara's words. "That won't do" he said. He sent for Yukiko Gilmore and proceeded to give her careful and detailed instruction on this point.

"By announcing that you have decided to collect money to buy me dinner, you end up creating an atmosphere where everyone will feel they should comply even if they don't want to. Therefore, you may say it's everyone's wish, in effect it will be half compoulsory. This may actually cause some people to harbor mistrust toward the Soka Gakkai.

"Even thought the original intent may have been sincere, it could quite easily throw the member's faith into confusion. Therefore, leaders must take great care never to collect money from members. In the Soka Gakkai, we are very strict about money matters, if anything, tending towards over-cautiousness.

"Although it may seem like I am being very harsh, I want you to take the money and respectfully return it to each person, carefully explaining to each the reason why." Shin'ichi was fully aware that her actions had been well intentioned. Thus the thought of having her apologize and return the money to each member pained him. However, if she was to lead the organization, she had to learn the Soka Gakkai's strict attitude towards money matters. Otherwise, there was a possible danger that some major problem over money might erupt in the future.

Oh barf *eye roll*

See, THIS is why I could never read "The Human Revolution". It's just childish, self-glorifying dreck. Shinichi Yamamoto can go **** himself!! I guess that was one of the criteria for becoming a True Leader - being able to 1) actually *read* The Human Revolution without gagging, and 2) convincingly explain to others just how *wonderful* and *valuable* it is!

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tsukimoto
Looking at the Soka Gakkai in postwar Japan -- none of this is surprising. In the 1950's, a group of Young Men's Division mocked and assaulted an elderly Nichiren Shoshu priest, the Reverend Ogasawara. Their leader? None other than our dear Daisaku Ikeda. SGI blamed this elderly priest because the priests enshrined the Shinto talisman that the Japanese military government forced everyone to enshrine during World War II. Somehow because of this, the priests were responsible for Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the first Soka Gakkai president, and Josei Toda, going to prison. (They refused to enshrine the talisman.)

The assault was widely publicized in Japan, and the public was outraged. Toda eventually apologized, when it became clear that this incident was causing the Soka Gakkai to be villified throughout Japan. You think? A bunch of young men beating up on a lone elderly man? And they're supposedly Buddhists who are deeply concerned with world peace?

I asked a couple of leaders about this, and they defended Ikeda's actions as justified.

So the hatred for the priesthood was always there. In the early years, SGI needed the priesthood; they made SGI seem more legitimate. Many cults sprang up in postwar Japan, but SGI could say, "No, we are not one of these new religions, our teachings go back to the 1200's. By the 1990's, SGI finally had the money and the numbers to break with Nichiren Shoshu, who were the only ones telling Ikeda what he could and couldn't do.

Breaking with the priesthood also served as a way to unify members -- giving people a common enemy often does that. They made the priests sound dangerous. I was at meeting and we were told that Nichiren Shoshu priests might be coming to America! To our city! We needed to be ON GUARD -- and report any priest sightings to our leaders!

I never saw any priests in my area -- but come on! Even if priests came to town, what did SGI think that the priests were going to do? Ambush lone members, put a chlorofoam-soaked rag over our noses until we were unconscious, and drag us off to be prisoners in the temple basement?

Manipulation -- get everyone all upset over the priests, and they won't pay attention to what the SGI leaders are doing. It's like a magician -- distract the audience by doing something with one hand, while the other hand is performing the magic trick.

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sixtyseven
Fact is the SGI owns a paper signed by deceived sixtyseven. And I feel real sick when I think about that examination papers.

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Shavoy
The Human Revolutions, both old and new, are nothing but self-glorification for Mr. Ikeda. He is all-knowing, the fairest and wisest of all---noone else, not even leaders, can measure up. The ego floods off the pages. I am sure that at least some current members must catch the whiff of ego and maybe it makes them think. I know it was one of the biggest red flags for me.

I happened to catch the PBS documentary about the Freedom Riders in the early 60's last night. Fascinating and encouraging. Martin Luther King, Jr. figured predominantly, of course, and he was called Dr. King throughout. Couldn't help but have little thoughts that maybe that's how Sensei started getting called Dr. Ikeda---you know, the Ghandi, King, Ikeda thing.

Is the guy really a "Dr."?