A behind-the-scenes glimpse into a $oka cult USA "planning" mtg.. This one [www.youtube.com] is about shakubuku ('break and subdue' = proselytise, the fastest sure fire way to expiate one's fake karma). Lots of cult-speak lingo in the one, too. One interesting part = LPG Plan, Lowest Possible Goal Plan --> it's always a numbers game - always.

6 people:

First lady, parroting senior "leader", superficial generic "guidance" (everyone says, "wow", "that was great").
Next lady, all cult-speak, strictly by the book (you can never go wrong with this approach).
Next guy, the numbers man.
After that, the lady who tells everyone from the get-go that she's a "buddhist" (pseudo-buddhist in a Japanese cult, that is).
Next up, ("last but not least, the most important") the "YOUTH!" "leader", trying to give a good yank on the emotional heart string.
Finally, the "leader" of the group that night, sprinkles all of it on top with a bit of throw away humor.

They'll meet again next month and most likely have zero shakubuku show up or join. Rewind and repeat the entire process from the beginning. Sooner or later, they will catch a new fish by the hook and it may or may not take, but it will be hugely feted within cult org. circles as a mystical benefit. When good things happen, it's all because of the gohonzon. When bad things happen, it's all because of your karma. When really, really bad things happen, you'll never hear about it.



- Hitch

Regarding crazy and dangerous members, there were always one or two people around whom I instinctively didn't trust and was wary of. I kept my distance from them at meetings and even more importantly, I never - ever - allowed myself to be put into a situation where I would have been dependent on them for anything as a "YOUTH!" division member (e.g., joining them in their own gakkai mobile for a long - and potentially dangerous - commute to a cult venue). I always found an excuse or a way out. I NEVER trusted the magic chant NMRK for anything when it came to the rubber actually hitting the road; theoretically, I could pretend all day, play along and believe in the fairy tales for sake of sheep harmony, but not in reality when my survival instincts would override everything else.

Don't know what, if anything, ever happened with those individuals, but they *do* indeed exist in the gakkai cult org..



- Hitch

I saw the Ghandi, King, Ikeda exhibition in Manchester once, it was a joke and I felt uncomfortable being there, and at most meetings I was told how great Sensei was and how he was a Master of 'this' Buddhism.

Can anyone tell me anything of note that this guy has actually done, no one ever explained what he had done, but to question it was very much frowned upon.

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Hitch
When good things happen, it's all because of the gohonzon. When bad things happen, it's all because of your karma. When really, really bad things happen, you'll never hear about it.



- Hitch

So true. And the org. keeps pretty silent about the sad stories.
I can't find the interview of Alejandra Hernandez sister stating that she always felt protected by her buddhist gods. She was murdered by her ex in June 2011- a few days earlier she had been the leader in KR Gongyo and see what happened later:OC register


"I told her 'Alex, I'm scared he is going to hurt you,' " said Erica Deleon. "She said 'Don't worry.' She believed if she prayed hard enough she would be protected."

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TheVoid
I saw the Ghandi, King, Ikeda exhibition in Manchester once, it was a joke and I felt uncomfortable being there, and at most meetings I was told how great Sensei was and how he was a Master of 'this' Buddhism.

Can anyone tell me anything of note that this guy has actually done, no one ever explained what he had done, but to question it was very much frowned upon.

@Void: this was already posted before, it is a funny reading,Barbara O'Brien's question on the board about.com buddhism .Ghandi,King, and.....Ikeda?

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sixtyseven

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TheVoid
I saw the Ghandi, King, Ikeda exhibition in Manchester once, it was a joke and I felt uncomfortable being there, and at most meetings I was told how great Sensei was and how he was a Master of 'this' Buddhism.

Can anyone tell me anything of note that this guy has actually done, no one ever explained what he had done, but to question it was very much frowned upon.

@Void: this was already posted before, it is a funny reading,Barbara O'Brien's question on the board about.com buddhism .Ghandi,King, and.....Ikeda?

Don't you just love how slimy the U.S. Gakkai Cult Org.'s national salaried leaders come across in the comments section (Ian McIlraith & Bill Aiken). McIlraith, is especially disingenuous:

"While several people have already described why they believe there is justification for the inclusion of Daisaku Ikeda’s name in the title of this exhibit, I for one simply appreciate and applaud Dr. Lawrence E. Carter’s effort to introduce Mr. Ikeda’s name and work to the larger public. Clearly it is impossible to precisely equate even any two of the three men. Yet, the primary message of the exhibit; that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things when they embody spiritual and nonviolent values in their actions, is hopeful and inspiring. That has been my impression and the impression of many others who have seen the exhibit. This public endorsement of the exhibit’s primary message is especially heartening in today’s world when you consider the diversity of the religions Gandhi, King and Ikeda represent.

Ian McIlraith
Culver City, CA"

That kind of talk just washes over the unthinking membership like some kind of slippery biofilm, but not those on the outside. It's an insult to people's intelligence. I also disagree with McIlraith's statement on "impressions" of the exhibit; people I've spoken to about it have felt quite the opposite: "Ikeda WHO!?! And WHY?!?" It's an absurd exhibit and is also outward evidence as to the extent of the cult brainwashing that has been going on, particularly since the priesthood breakup. The cult org. is completely out of touch with the real world and their delusions are overtaking their minds - they can almost no longer distinguish fantasy from reality. If this kind of exhibit campaign had popped up while I was still in the gakkai's ranks, I would have laughed out loud, got up and left the meeting they were presenting it at. What a sick, deluded joke.

I love the author's responses (and agree) -

"So far, no one has been able to explain exactly what Ikeda does to promote world peace that puts him in the same company as Gandhi and King. The exhibit is absurd on its face, as is the belief that Ikeda was “chosen.” The exhibit obviously was created primarily as a vehicle to publicize Ikeda. And may I also say that I continue to be saddened by the cult of personality that surrounds Ikeda. It cheapens the entire SGI organization and makes what could be a more purely beneficial organization into Ikeda’s personal self-promotion machine."

"Ikeda sounds like a great spiritual master, until you compare him to the other spiritual masters. A genuine master would not allow the exhibit to be shown, nor would he have people buy him “honorary” degrees, or have parks and streets named after him. A real teacher is one you work with personally, and who knows you personally. Otherwise, he’s just someone whose (possibly ghostwritten) books you have read."


Bravo to Barbara O'Brien on this one! It's no surprise that she is a non-member, who can actually t-h-i-n-k for herself.


- Hitch

My reaction to Ian McIlraith's comments:

OH BARF

So Precious Ikeda was sick and still got up and went to work. BF deal - *LOTS* of people do that, and last I heard, NONE of them feels that this puts them on the same level as GANDHI and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!

The cult tries to *make* Ikeda sound like a great man, but apart from his astonishing accomplishment of amassing an absolutely stunning fortune for himself, he's *nothing*.

Oh, one more thing - that murderer I mentioned who was in my SGI-USA district in Raleigh, NC? The one who shot his wife dead in a convenience store parking lot? They'd met in prison - she worked as a prison nurse, and he was an inmate at the prison she was working at when they met. He always sat in the meetings passively, like a pock-marked lump, and rarely said two words. Hardly surprising - she was scary and overbearing. Back in prison, he was once again Christian. I imagine he was going along with the Buddhism thing because she wanted it and they had that sort of dominant/sub relationship. Until he'd had enough. It's a warning, people O_O

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sixtyseven

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TheVoid
I saw the Ghandi, King, Ikeda exhibition in Manchester once, it was a joke and I felt uncomfortable being there, and at most meetings I was told how great Sensei was and how he was a Master of 'this' Buddhism.

Can anyone tell me anything of note that this guy has actually done, no one ever explained what he had done, but to question it was very much frowned upon.

@Void: this was already posted before, it is a funny reading,Barbara O'Brien's question on the board about.com buddhism .Ghandi,King, and.....Ikeda?

I almost posted this. Yes the comments are very interesting, lots of notable names in the discussion including hq leaders or something like that. Should we post the entire article or has it already been done? You know it's serious when they get involved in a mere online discussion. I'm starting to feel eyes all over me now. ;)

Dr. Lawrence Carter's [www.morehouse.edu] (referenced in the article) spin on the IKG exhibit:

Part I [www.youtube.com] (18:51 minutes).

Part II [www.youtube.com] (1:41 minutes, audio is messed up.)

It's a bit much to sit through the whole thing, but there are several essential (not to be missed) parts:

Part I - "You are to live in and be the results, of up leveling the vibrations in your own life as you reflect the vibratory order of the cosmos." He then asks, "How am I doing?" Responses are "Fantastic!" (6:59 min. mark)

(Hitch's comment: Holy sh**! He's obviously making this crap up as he goes along; I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I heard this part. Utter and completely 100% gibberish, meaningless, nonsense, and there are actually people in the audience shaking their head in serious contemplation and agreement with him!!)

Ikeda "speaks only one language", "the truth." (12:14 min. mark).

(Hitch's comment: With this kind of ignorance, I don't even know where to begin to address it.)

Later on, he states, "Who we are is not limited by the name of our faith tradition." The gakkai culties are dead silent. He then says, "Hello?" "If I were in the baptist church that should have gotten an 'amen'." ( 8:24 minute mark.)

(Hitch's comment: never in the notoriously intolerant $oka cult org.)

Part II - "How many people here this room?" "About 128, with 4 or 5 empty chairs, .... hmmm, .... that's quite a few book sales." "Kosen-Rufu will be helped." "Hope to have it in your bookstore."

(Hitch's comment: Here, Carter definitely speaks "his" "truth.").

****

I got a kick out of the way Carter kept referring to The Dear Leader as "Dr." Ikeda and how the YMD gajokai in the gohonzon room was standing around with his hands in his pocket - if you did that when I was in, you would have gotten smacked upside the head - HA!

Also, take a gander at how many places he has traveled to to speak about the IKG exhibit ($oka sponsored $??$) [www.morehouse.edu] - PDF file.

Sorry, but I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dr. Lawrence Carter is a pseudo-intellectual, bought and paid for by the $oka Cult Org. - "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Two parties, using each other, to inflate one another's egos. I still can't believe that remark about the vibrations of the cosmos - Holy smokes(!), he's even much worse than I ever imagined (i.e., QUACK!).


- Hitch



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2013 02:52PM by Hitch.