In fairness, most people are too scared to look around since they have members afraid to search online. Anything I found at the time I easily re-framed in their way of seeing things. All they have to say is that those people online are just negative and you really shouldn't be looking at anything outside SGI's materials because they are a heavily targeted organization who only have the best intentions. Add in that the people who say anything against it are harmful and should be probably avoided. They seem to do it subtly now, just enough to cause enough doubt to make members or prospective members pause before looking around. When I saw what was online, just trying to find anything on YouTube was pointless because the videos are mostly in Asian languages and are alarmist. Anything that was any good has already been removed, and the open articles like on Wikipedia are edited on a regular basis by defenders/fanatics, so those are dead ends. If you add the priesthood issue and the other competing factions or other religions, the rape and murder allegations and everything else that can be found, you get a confusing picture and probably just block it out like I did. Which is keep your head up and mind open and carry on. I did not read what was given, so I am not under the influence as others might be or might have been. I was not in long though so I can't speak for people who have been in for a lot longer. When you come to a site like this it's hard because when you are in you do not want to believe the organization you joined for whatever reason you did, is a cult.Quote
Nichijew
I disagree. Many SGI members and every single leader above Chapter Chief is pernicious. Initially, they may be absolutely sincere with the most noble of intentions but they are sincerely wrong and do irreparable damage. The road to hell is paved with the best intentions: For years ecologists and conservationists have been adopting wildland fire prevention strategies that have led to the biggest proliferation of forest fires in history; doctors overprescribing antibiotics in their desire to alleviate suffering has led to antibiotic resistant bacteria that threatens not only the most seriously ill hospitalized patients but the general public; the addition of MTBE [now outlawed] to gasoline to diminish air pollution has led to widespread water pollution; the addition of aggressive non-native species to fix some ecological imbalance leading to an ecological disaster; the overuse of pesticides and ever more powerful fertilizers to increase crop yields leading to ever increasing oceanic dead zones...the list goes on and on. We might be able to overlook the behaviors of SGI members were they unaware of their grievous principles and practices. However, most leaders and many members, thanks to the internet, are aware of their "sins". By demonstrating their unwillingless to change, they have become downright malevolent.
Nichijew
Indeed. But people can't realize they're going in the wrong direction until they see the evidence, and even in the areas you mentioned, there are *plenty* of people who can be presented with the studies and scientific evidence and *still* insist that everything is fine - just look at the climate change denialists! Now, what tends to happen is that you've got some badniks who oppose climate change legislation because it would cut into their profits, so they (evilly) undertake misinformation campaigns that unfortunately sucker in well-meaning but uneducated folks, who then insist that there's no such thing as climate change! The "witting" participants are a miniscule fraction of the total compared with the unwitting participants who are being intentionally misled but do not realize it. Same thing's going on here.Quote
The road to hell is paved with the best intentions:
I remember being at a Soka Spirit conference up in LA, and they had open microphone, where anyone could get up and stand in the line for the microphone, and the national leaders sitting up on the dias would answer. I remember someone, an older gent, asking about something he'd read on-line, and the leaders dismissed it with "We don't recommend that people pay too much attention to what other people are writing on-line - there are a lot of crazy people out there" or some such. He was then gently hustled away from the microphone - it appeared he wanted to continue his line of inquiry... I didn't really understand; this was about 2002, and I wasn't really very Internet savvy yet. I definitely got the impression that there were online dangers, though...*le shudder*...and that there was something fundamentally "wrong" with that guy, powerful "fundamental darkness" or some such - you know, those people who just can't seem to accept anything but have to question-question-question everything and challenge every little last thing, to the point that they can't get any benefit because their unbelief proves to be such an obstacle for them.Quote
Gakkai cult members are paranoid about anybody (i.e., members and non-members alike) reading any of the "negativity" on the internet. Visiting such websites is almost like holding a cross up to a vampire to them - I kid you not. They react quickly, strongly and angrily whenever "information" from the web is brought to their attention, even as a basic inquiry. They frame all the negative and critical stuff out there as a conspiracy by the priesthood on some level, too. Sleepyskunk is correct, in many cases, they are afraid to even look (bad causes, evil influences, etc.).
Pleasepleaseplease mummify the Great Man!! Preserve his pudgy corpse for all eternity in a glass-topped coffin in a public shrine!!!Quote
soon to be worshiped relic when he's gone (Nichiren Shoshu has their Daishonin relics and the gakkai cult org. will have thier Ikeda relics, too)
Good observation. From 1995 until today there is an un-moderated Google newsgroup called ARBN, Alternate Religion Buddhism of Nichiren. From 1995 until about 1998 there were nearly 500 posts a day and from 1998 until 2000 ~ 200-300 or more posts a day, mostly from SGI and Nichiren Shoshu members but also from believers of all the established Nichiren schools and some independents. Abruptly, around 2002, all the many dozens of SGI members stopped posting there [except for a rare sporadic post]. It was probably due to guidance from the SGI Internet Committee to cease and desist, either because they were losing debates [no doubt] and/or losing members or because they got tired of the fight. Also, I'm sure, there was general guidance [as reported above] about the insane devilish people on the internet that might weaken SGI members' faith. For the last several years there has been no SGI activity, save for one lone SGI member troll that has been inundating the newsgroup with the same twenty part diatribes about Zen Buddhism and the Nichiren Shoshu again and again. Fortunately, since he is an annoying troll, I doubt that he has converted [shakubukued] even one person to the SGI.Quote
TaitenAndProudI remember being at a Soka Spirit conference up in LA, and they had open microphone, where anyone could get up and stand in the line for the microphone, and the national leaders sitting up on the dias would answer. I remember someone, an older gent, asking about something he'd read on-line, and the leaders dismissed it with "We don't recommend that people pay too much attention to what other people are writing on-line - there are a lot of crazy people out there" or some such. He was then gently hustled away from the microphone - it appeared he wanted to continue his line of inquiry... I didn't really understand; this was about 2002, and I wasn't really very Internet savvy yet. I definitely got the impression that there were online dangers, though...*le shudder*...and that there was something fundamentally "wrong" with that guy, powerful "fundamental darkness" or some such - you know, those people who just can't seem to accept anything but have to question-question-question everything and challenge every little last thing, to the point that they can't get any benefit because their unbelief proves to be such an obstacle for them.Quote
Gakkai cult members are paranoid about anybody (i.e., members and non-members alike) reading any of the "negativity" on the internet. Visiting such websites is almost like holding a cross up to a vampire to them - I kid you not. They react quickly, strongly and angrily whenever "information" from the web is brought to their attention, even as a basic inquiry. They frame all the negative and critical stuff out there as a conspiracy by the priesthood on some level, too. Sleepyskunk is correct, in many cases, they are afraid to even look (bad causes, evil influences, etc.).
That was how the malcontents were described.Pleasepleaseplease mummify the Great Man!! Preserve his pudgy corpse for all eternity in a glass-topped coffin in a public shrine!!!Quote
soon to be worshiped relic when he's gone (Nichiren Shoshu has their Daishonin relics and the gakkai cult org. will have thier Ikeda relics, too)
REALLY??? Wow o_O That's some powerful circling-the-wagons!Quote
From 1995 until today there is an un-moderated Google newsgroup called ARBN, Alternate Religion Buddhism of Nichiren. From 1995 until about 1998 there were nearly 500 posts a day and from 1998 until 2000 ~ 200-300 or more posts a day, mostly from SGI and Nichiren Shoshu members but also from believers of all the established Nichiren schools and some independents. Abruptly, around 2002, all the many dozens of SGI members stopped posting there [except for a rare sporadic post].