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Hitch

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TaitenAndProud
Do you speak Japanese?

Yes, I do.

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Spartacus
I did a giburu (google) search for two words, "ikeda cult". Lots of interesting results and one big surprise. On the third page of the search results I found this strangely familiar line:

Regarding Ikeda worship. Who's da Master? - Cult Education Forum

There's a reason it had a familiar ring - it was written by me last year!

(here's the post) <sub>"There's a scene from a rather cheesy 80's martial arts movie that I am reminded of by the SGcult ever-intensifying Ikeda cult worship. In this scene, a defeated youthful seeker of a great martial art "secret teaching" is having his head dunked by the villain, who wants to be acknowledged as his Master. Attempting to break will, instill fear, and coerce loyalty, every time the bad guy dunks the young man's head in the water, he asks, "who is the master?" Finally, the youth realizes the truth. Finding the strength to resist the onslaught of his oppressor, he stands tall and exclaims, "I AM THE MASTER".

Although it's just a movie/story, it does illustrate that we CAN take back the personal power that was lost or surrendered in the quest to find ourselves and the ultimate reality/truth of life. Some of us have stood up to the oppression and put a stop to it while others are still being tortured. It is important that we have the compassion to try and help those that are still being waterboarded by the SGcult.

To those who continue to suffer due to being unsure about leaving the SGcult, you will find breathing a lot easier when you stand up and stop letting your head be dunked in a barrel. Stop struggling for air and get your head out of the barrel - NOW!"</sub>


Okay, here's the weird thing about the posts that appear on this page. My post is dated May 23, 2012, but then all the following posts on the page are consecutively dated from January and February 2013. huh? How could that be? Can anyone explain this?

I am pleased and honored to be joined on this search result page for "ikeda cult" by some of my favorite forum contributors: Hitch, Taiten & Proud, Shavoy, and Sleepy Skunk. Our words may be spreading out further than we had hoped or expected.

Spartacus

That must have been a separate thread (from this one) you started back in 2012 that sat without any responses until the following year.

I guarantee you that the gakkai cult org. is watching this thread. I'm hoping some "senior leaders" will join up (Ethan Gelbaum, HI!! You out there?! Come on in and join the party Ethee!!! Current Vice Cult General Director in New York) and then we'll really have some fun.- Hitch

Very few top leaders are willing to post and use their real names because they give a poor showing. Some of the anonymous ones state "Top Senior Leader" but who knows. I am not sure if Ian McCaillraith is still head of the SGI internet committee but he posts from time to time either with his real name or his moniker, Watchman. Guy McCloskey and Bill Aiken used to post on some scholarly Buddhist institute web site but there too, they were woefully outgunned and that didn't last long. Top senior leaders can not use the excuse, "our views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Soka Gakkai", so I imagine that they are given guidance not to post. All others, when they make fools of themselves, either qualify there opinions before or after that their opinions are their own and not necessarily those of the Soka Gakkai, even so called "professors".

N



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2013 10:22PM by Nichijew.

I remember years ago at a big Soka Spirit meeting up in LA - must have been, what, 2002? - they had "open mic" for questions, and some guy (I think I've mentioned this before, but this thread just keeps going...) asked something about posting online, and the panel of top leaders up on the dias told him that they really thought people shouldn't be posting online and then escorted him away from the microphone because he wasn't satisfied with their response.

Now, granted, this was 11 years ago, so teh intarblaags was even *newer* than it is now, and there are *still* plenty of adults who aren't online and who find the whole idea off-putting and vaguely threatening. You know, that old-fashioned Luddite "it's new and therefore to be avoided" thinking? Still, the SGI was even then doing a lot of updates online, so I don't think that's it :/

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Remember what neurologist Marc Lewis describes in his book.

"Dopamine gives thrust".

A purpose driven life (or church) is fizzing with dopamine.

Someone who isnt content to be obscure, someone who has to live that driven life, would in other contexts, be termed a workaholic.

Problem is, if someone of this sort is doing it for a good cause (social service, religion, social justice activism), they have ready means to rationalize it.

And their families may feel ashamed to ask for some ordinary human companionship at home.

If the work addict condenses a charismatic public personality and potent public image, then a painful and tragic split can develop between that persons public persona and his or her private, real, self. The public persona is a construct. It demands more and more input to keep going.

And eventually, the person may refer strangers and converts who adore the public perssona and come to avoid persons and situations who require the presence of the person behind the mask.

Fame doesnt bring peace. It only increase the need for more drive, more dopamine.

Fame creates a public personality that demands propping up, just like the institition that condenses around that charismatic public personality.

Susan Erikson Bloland was daughter of a man who became famous--Erik Erikson, the pscyhologist. Erikson became renowed when his daughter was 13 and she witnessed what he was like before and after.

In the Shadow of Fame got little attention when published. But it is by someone who lived through it all and who can tell us just how costly it becomes when someone develops a public persona that requires constantly care and affirmation.

And...saddest of all, fame did not assauge her father's discontent. He become more remote, more unhappy. People who did not live close to him loved him and were grateful to him for his help. But this gratitude was routed to Eriksons public personal, not to his real self, which he was ashamed of and kept hidden.

Sothe fame he sought and worked for did not bring happiness or peace to Erik Erikson...at least not from his daughter's vantage point. She was sorry for him that it worked out that way.

^ Great post, corboy.

I have seen this dynamic in my own family - my younger sister married a very successful doctor, a workaholic AND an aggressive social climber. They're richer than god - yet she works full-time as a high school teacher. They have nannies/housekeepers who get their four children ready in the morning and to school because Dad starts his rounds at, like, 4 AM and Mom has to be at school an hour before the students get there. Plus, he insists that my sister keep all his books and do all the drug ordering (he's an oncologist). So she's up until, like, 2 in the morning doing that, and she's out of the house before 7. She says that, when they're on vacation (and they go on very expensive vacations), her husband is always up first thing in the morning and expecting everybody to be all go-go-go. She once said that, on one vacation, she looked at herself in the mirror and thought, "I have never looked this tired." I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react - the whole scenario repelled me. Both she and he have their masks firmly glued in place, but she doesn't have the social skills to make hers look charismatic. She just looks mildly pained. We aren't close.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2013 01:01AM by TaitenAndProud.

It's funny - Christianity is supposedly a "revealed religion", where believers (according to many sects) are supposed to have some sort of communications from their god, but the church strictly defines what the content of these communications can be (hint: it matches up with their doctrines).

In Buddhism, everyone walks a unique, individual path, but here as well, the SGI seeks to define and restrict what that path is allowed to be. It *has* to be within their organization (and match up with their doctrines), and the only "mentor in life" a person is allowed to seek is Fatty McFatFat Ikeda. How is this consistent with Buddhism's emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual? How is this even consistent with the "cherry, peach, plum, and damson blossom" of even circumscribed SGI individuality??

I often bring up Christian parallels, because, having come from an Evangelical Christian upbringing, I see so many culty similarities. Also, the only reason that SGI has managed to penetrate the US religious market to any degree is by presenting an environment that seems familiar and acceptable to Christianity-raised Americans. Like having authority figures telling people how to live their lives - for those who've been bullied by authority their whole lives, the idea that they might be completely on their own to figure things out (as I imagine it is within Tibetan Buddhism) might feel overwhelming. And the "lovebombing" we've all experienced - who DOESN'T want to be the cherished new member of a group that apparently thinks we're so brilliant and wonderful??

For example, notice this, that I found on cults:

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Warning signs of dysfunctional cults

Ways of Distinguishing Healthy and Unhealthy Cult Movements

Obsession with invisible or other-worldly entities or forces other than God. [www.enlightened-spirituality.org]

WTH!! Why should we think that obsession with the invisible, other-worldly entity or force that Christians and Jews refer to as “God” is not dysfunctional? Would a Muslim, whose sole deity goes by the name of “Allah,” agree? Would a Hindu, whose dominant deity is referred to as Brahma (or Brahman), accept such a statement? What would a Buddhist or a Jain, who believes in no gods, think? Is this statement unconsciously betraying the author’s cultural bias, evidence of his however unconscious indoctrination into Christianity (“Everything we do is normal”)? Are we even aware of the preconceived notions we accept as “normal” and “natural?”

Notice the similarities to your own thought processes while in the cult with how this preacher describes the evangelical mindset:

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Jim Henderson is a recovering evangelist. Back in his soul-chasing, church-starting days, he began hearing a grating dissonance between his faith in Jesus and the way he went about winning new converts. Henderson realized he was doing unto others what he would never want done unto him. He was manipulating conversations to set up a pitch. Viewing people as potential notches on his evangelism belt rather than fellow sojourners and prospective friends. Listening only to the extent it could reveal an argumentative opening. He realized he hated the whole enterprise. [usatoday30.usatoday.com]

That's how I felt, too - and I hated the whole idea of "shakubuku". It just struck me as fundamentally disrespectful - shouldn't each person have the right to walk his own path, regardless of where it might lead? It's just stupid to think that everyone in the world needs to be of the same religion! Ridiculous!

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Maybe the most subversive — and sensible — surprise of all is the population to which this well-caffeinated Seattle man has turned for partners, friends and teachers: atheists.

What could a Christian possibly learn from atheists? A lot, it turns out. As more and more Jesus followers like Henderson are discovering, taking a look at yourself and your religion through the eyes of the unconvinced can be a revelatory experience.

Although he is just north of 60, Henderson is emblematic of an up-and-coming wave of evangelicals intent on course correction for the church. Through public-opinion research, grassroots dialogue and ears to the shifting ground, they are getting the message that the old ways don't cut it anymore.

The shift has serious implications for the age-old mission to evangelize — the focus of untold generations of well-intentioned Christians compelled to live out the Great Commission that Jesus laid out in the Gospel of Matthew ("Go and make disciples of all nations"). The standard argumentative approach — built around "spiritual laws," A-to-B-to-Z logic, and black-and-white propositions about the one religious truth — seems more counterproductive with each passing year, more likely to repel than persuade.

THAT's where the SGI is stuck, especially with regard to "the priesthood issue".

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What do Christians learn when they start listening to atheists? Henderson, author of the forthcoming book The Outsider Interviews, has found that the "I'm right/you're wrong" model is a conversation-killer par excellence. So is speaking of non-converts as "lost." "Nothing sets off an atheist more than hearing a Christian say, 'I know Jesus is God and that I'm going to heaven when I die,' " Henderson says. "They also notice that we often say it loudly and arrogantly, which only serves to reinforce their negative opinion of our certainty."

Atheists are also wary of being seen as "projects." Does continued contact and eventual friendship with the Christian in their life depend on them converting?

Possibilities for a new model hit home for me in a recent public conversation I had with my friend Doug Pollock, evangelism trainer for the sports-ministry organization Athletes in Action. Pollock had invited me, the non-evangelical religion commentator, to join him for his keynote remarks at an evangelism-training event at a megachurch in the Portland area. When Doug asked me what advice I would have for the assembled missionaries in training, the answer came quickly: If you want to have influence, I said, you have to be willing to be influenced. If not, I asked, would anyone want to have a conversation with you?

Conventional evangelism is often accused, and rightly so, of "bait and switch" tactics; think attractive social gathering or sports outing that, unbeknownst to invitees, is really designed to segue into a Gospel pitch.

That's equally true of all the SGI events. That's why everyone is always supposed to "invite your friends" *ugh*

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Henderson has a fascinating alternative to propose: all bait, no switch.

Call it promotion by non-promotion, evangelism by attraction, goodwill mongering, or letting one's life speak for itself, but this is what will best represent the faith among the many Americans who do not share the evangelical faith.

The SGI referred to this concept as being "Ambassadors for the SGI", but the people you know are SGI members aren't doin it rite O_O

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Henderson and his fellow travelers are right in urging would-be evangelists simply to get to know people, become their friends and let the spiritual chips fall where they may.

This re-imagined form of witness trumpets good news all around — for Christians who, as Henderson puts it, want to be "normal," for the public credibility of Christianity, and for all of the not-yet and never-will-be converts who don't want to be pitied or demonized for (supposedly) living in the dark.

These new-century Jesus representatives seem to be arriving at just the right formula for making their faith real and known in these changing times: no formula.

Interestingly enough, that was *my* approach to being a Buddhist, for virtually my entire tenure. I think I taught maybe 10 people to chant, but not one wanted to join the SGI. And that was fine by me - why should I think that what's right for me (however temporarily) should necessarily be right for someone else? Just as I value my right to make my own choices, I respect others' right to make their own choices as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2013 04:08AM by TaitenAndProud.

Corboy, I have no doubt whatsoever that so-called gakkai cult "senior leaders" are living behind a manufactured facade.

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Nichijew
Very few top leaders are willing to post and use their real names because they give a poor showing. Some of the anonymous ones state "Top Senior Leader" but who knows. I am not sure if Ian McCaillraith is still head of the SGI internet committee but he posts from time to time either with his real name or his moniker, Watchman. Guy McCloskey and Bill Aiken used to post on some scholarly Buddhist institute web site but there too, they were woefully outgunned and that didn't last long. Top senior leaders can not use the excuse, "our views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Soka Gakkai", so I imagine that they are given guidance not to post. All others, when they make fools of themselves, either qualify there opinions before or after that their opinions are their own and not necessarily those of the Soka Gakkai, even so called "professors".

N

Ethan Gelbaum is dumb as a box of rocks. Basically, all you need to be gakkai cult "senior leader" is a subservient puppy-dog devotion to The Dear Leader, a false sense of arrogance (which comes from ignorance), have a pocket or handful of favorite gosho and Ikeda quotes, and be willing to do the cult org.'s bidding, no questions asked, without morals or conscience. In Gelbaum's case, blind devotional longevity works for even the stupidest gakkai cult "leaders" in terms of climbing the cult organizational ladder.

In Ethan's case, I have many examples. He was a walking joke in the YMD, a living, breathing, Saturday Night Live parody in action.

****

Isn't it pathetic that gakkai cult org. salaried "leaders" cannot even speak for themselves. What about the "sword of justice", "lion's roar" and all that gakkai cult-speak crap? Just another demonstration of their doublespeak and living in a delusional reality of their own mind.



- Hitch

Here's a clip from the gakkai cult motherland: A Yamato delivery person (gakkai cult member) (this deliver company is kind of the equivalent to UPS in the U.S.) doesn't like anyone talking bad about his $oka Gakkai Cult Org. and The Dear Leader. She's criticizing $oka Bu$ine$$ holdings. First, he walks away, but then returns and says, "Stop saying bad things about the $oka Gakkai."

The lady is more defiant, saying, "Ikeda is dead. Do you know about the rape case?!"

The Yamato delivery guy fumes. He says, "He's NOT dead!! THAT'S NOT TRUE!!" She says, "Ewww! You're sick / You're creepy!" Looks like he's going to blow, but instead gets out is cellphone and quickly walks away.

As he stomps away, the free speech lady taunts him, "Hora, Hora!" (Hey!, Hey!, See!, See!).

Hilarious clip. [www.youtube.com]

This is how brainwashed gakkai cult members react to any criticism from the outside world. Just imagine if you are a member and have the gall to think for yourself, ask questions or (god forbid) actually speak out against things going on inside the gakkai cult org.. To gakkai cult members, being "negative" about anything gakkai related is a "bad cause", a big NO-NO (!) and cause for you to go get "guidance" or eventually be "home visited." If none of those things control you, then you will be ostracized.


- Hitch



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2013 07:18AM by Hitch.

In case you aren't up on your current events in the US and the ongoing attempts to remove fundamental human rights and basic protections thus far guaranteed to citizens in the US's Constitution, Chris Hedges sued President Obama over the NDAA's provision that the military could arrest anybody and everybody on vague and undefined premises, hold them indefinitely without charge and without trial and without any communication with the outside world - to the point of transferring them to prisons in foreign countries! - "until hostilities cease", which just ain't gonna happen in our era of perpetual war. The judge ruled for the plaintiffs (us), and the government demanded a stay, so that they could continue to use the NDAA in arresting and detaining citizens and legal residents without due process. At that point the judge issued a PERMANENT injunction - it could not be used. Now, to make a long story short, it's off to the Supreme Court. Anyhow, I ran across this quote from him:

“It is one of the great ironies of corporate control that the corporate state needs the abilities of intellectuals to maintain power, yet outside of this role it refuses to permit intellectuals to think or function independently.”
&#8213; Chris Hedges, The Death of the Liberal Class

Doesn't that fit the SGI to a "T"?? It needs the abilities of capable people (how often have you heard leaders exhorting the virtues of capable people???) who can persuade and attract the masses, but who must be kept on a very short leash lest their "gifts" turn against the organization (as Spartacus's did in that final speech he made to the group).

Taiten, I hope your sister get some help or surcease. It is strange that her physician husband has not hired a top notch adminstrative assistant to keep the books and order drugs. If he ever faces a court action, it would look strange for him to have to confess that he requires his wife to do a job that most MDs hire a professional to do.

And one should be up until two in the morning. Its bad for health and much too easy to make a mistake with that kind of work, too.

And that your nieces and nephews may have some encounters and make some friends that can help them find a peaceful and happier way to live.

I spent some years in the activist part of the nonviolent peace movement. One thing that made me very sad was to discover that some of our most admired members, persons who did vast good in public, had private lives that were troubled and their spouses often felt ashamed to complain or protest.

Years ago, in some satirical poem, I read a line "Would you presume to heal others, full of sores yourself?"

Went for a google search and found this.

Euripedes has, "A physician for others, but himself teeming with sores," (Frag.
1086).

This was written over two thousand years ago, but whether one is describing workaholic doctors or preachers, its the same thing. They didnt yet know about addiction, but knew the human picture.

Am sorry for the many spelling mistakes in my post from yesterday. Too often thats what happens when I dont have enough caffeine in my system when typing in the morning.

Part of what was on my mind yesterday was the reported suicide of 27 year old Matthew Warren, son of the empire builder pastor who wrote The Purpose Driven Life.

And the ones who make millions in the name of Buddha forget that, so the story goes, he was heir to clan leadership, had princely life and amusements--and chose to walk away from all of that when he saw the realities that face us all--sickness, old age, and death.

People running, running, running, on dopamine dont want to face their own humanity.

So how can they teach anything deeper to the rest of us.

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TaitenAndProud
In case you aren't up on your current events in the US and the ongoing attempts to remove fundamental human rights and basic protections thus far guaranteed to citizens in the US's Constitution, Chris Hedges sued President Obama over the NDAA's provision that the military could arrest anybody and everybody on vague and undefined premises, hold them indefinitely without charge and without trial and without any communication with the outside world - to the point of transferring them to prisons in foreign countries! - "until hostilities cease", which just ain't gonna happen in our era of perpetual war. The judge ruled for the plaintiffs (us), and the government demanded a stay, so that they could continue to use the NDAA in arresting and detaining citizens and legal residents without due process. At that point the judge issued a PERMANENT injunction - it could not be used. Now, to make a long story short, it's off to the Supreme Court. Anyhow, I ran across this quote from him:

“It is one of the great ironies of corporate control that the corporate state needs the abilities of intellectuals to maintain power, yet outside of this role it refuses to permit intellectuals to think or function independently.”
&#8213; Chris Hedges, The Death of the Liberal Class

Doesn't that fit the SGI to a "T"?? It needs the abilities of capable people (how often have you heard leaders exhorting the virtues of capable people???) who can persuade and attract the masses, but who must be kept on a very short leash lest their "gifts" turn against the organization (as Spartacus's did in that final speech he made to the group).

Taiten, I am an avid reader/listener of Chris Hedges. Thanks for mentioning some of the real challanges citizens are facing here today.

The cult of war. The cult of politics. The cult of religion. I see so many remarkable simularities between all these cults. Each requires indoctination, suspension of rational thought, blind faith, group identity, illusion, total loyalty, disregard of factual reality, blantant self-delusion, unquestioning support of some charismatic leader, and of course, your money!

Williams/Sadanaga often extolled the virtue of voting. His guidance was to get out and vote in elections. A fine example of the cult of religion supporting the cult of politics. So for many years I did my "patriotic duty" by voting. But I finally realized that voting was just more magical thinking, incapable of solving the corruption and rot that is at the root of immense manufactured dilemas we (the 99%) must face. It is impossible to vote our way out of this... oligarchy or patriarchy... or whatever the hell it is.

As with all cults, there's a lot of secrets the man behind the curtain doesn't want us to know about. The puppet masters don't want you to notice. But if you do notice, you will be ostracized and denigrated for speaking out intelligentally about the cult. That's what the owners of this country are in fear of - an intelligent and informed people that know how to think for themselves, and are willing to stand up and speak out.

Any independent thinking or action always makes cult leaders piss their pants. But psychopaths know how the credit slaves are easy to control as long as they believe the outrageous lies. So all of the big 3 cults work in harmony with each other to produce the desired effect - creating and maintaining dumb-downed, broken, needy, passive slaves to ensure that the luxurious lifestyles of the rich and powerful will never end.

The big cults (war, religion, politics) dominate our society. Most people in our country have already slipped into herd mode (by design). Mushy brains indoctrinated since birth are ripe for the picking by all the cult propaganda machines. Just as on Orwell's animal farm, they willingly enter the cult slaughter house.

Its amazing how seemingly rational people so easily accept the crock of bull cookies peddled by the MSM pravda (owned by just 6 corporations), especially in these times. I notice in most polls there's always 30 to 60 per cent or so of our population that are eaten up with dumb-ass. For instance, 60% of these neanderthals still believe that Saddam did 9-11. These are the same guys that just mumble "huh?" and turn away when one mentions the NDAA, central banking system, or illegal wars. Ignorance is bliss. Reality checks - not so much. Cults don't have too work too hard when marks are so willing.

The hardest thing about all parasitic cults - when you are immersed in them it is almost impossible to see how they have brainwashed you into accepting their version of the world. Enlightentment is awakening. Once we awaken ourselves to the truth within, we can begin to blaze a trail for others to follow. It's not easy - it never is. Life is good.

Spartacus

North Korea, Cult of The Dear Leader clip?

[www.youtube.com]

No, but close. $oka Gakkai Cult of The Dear Leader Ikeda clip. Many of the people in the comments section also thought it was N. Korea.

Ikeda must have been wetting his pants for this show. Clip shows The Dear Leader with various foreign (Russian / China) dignitaries. Clip also has snippets of various gaijin (foreigner) celebrities on display.

The sheer level of mass brainwashing achieved for such a show, is simply astounding. Note in particular, the high levels of emotion and tears flowing; this is the same kind of stuff that I experienced from many of the people around me when I was "in." What I saw, however, was much worse --> sobbing seizures and collapsing on the stadium grounds from dopamine overdosing.

Also note the "V" display at the very end of the clip. "V" = VICTORY!! (Gakkai Cult-Speak favored lingo). Nothing is insignificant at these shows, everything has symbolism.

Gakkai CULTure Festival.


- Hitch