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TaitenAndProud
Hi, kyrl. What you said below brought a memory to mind.
"I wondered if this YMD leader ever thought about the consequence if someone passed out or died."
One of my fellow YWD, who'd been "in" somewhat longer than I had, once told me about how, at some big YWD activity in Chicago (our Jt. Territory - a several-hour drive from our home base of Minneapolis), she developed excruciating abdominal pain right in the middle of the chanting at the end of gongyo. Everyone around her told her she had to chant through it! Of course it could only be sansho shima O_O
No one suggested taking her to a doctor or calling an ambulance. No, it could *only* be "sansho shima" and if she just chanted, it would just "go away". Like so many problems in life. If you just chant, they'll simply disappear of their own volition!
O_O
She told me that she ended up screaming NMRK because she was in so much pain. And by the end of the daimoku period, the pain went away. Apparently, she had some sort of pelvic inflammatory disorder (NOT the sort of thing you want to play around with if you ever hope to have children, which she may not have held as a goal).
WHAT IF SHE HAD DIED?? WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD NOT TAKE SOMEONE SUFFERING SEVERE PAIN TO THE ER?????
I posted earlier in this thread about coming down with what turned out to be appendicitis on a holiday weekend. Many of my friends and family had gone away. After some desperate calling, I finally reached a couple of SGI members. They would not take me to the Emergency Room -- said, "It wasn't copnvenient."
I'm sure they thought that I just should have chanted until the pain went away! Fortunately, I didn't. I called a taxi, and went to the ER, where they gave me a scan and arranged for emergency surgery.
A hardcore SGI member would say that I got appendicitis because I was not practicing well enough....yet they'd probably also say that I got through the surgery and made a quick recovery because of the fortune I had built up from years of practice.
Kyrl, I can also relate to your experience...SGI members love to talk about how much SGI loves and cares for its members, about the importance of compassion and taking care of others -- and yet, if you look at what they actually do, there is a huge disconnnect.