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TaitenAndProud
The last time (I think) that I heard Matilda Buck speak, she offended me with her stupidity.
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So now, after several reorgs and a giant decrease in the number of chapters which caused the demotion of many chapter leaders (these former chapter leaders are now available to support the districts much to the chagrin of current district leaders), we are taking another step towards admin nightmare by renaming the districts and groups.
Posted 3 weeks ago by Joe [sgiwatch.blogspot.com]
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Anyway, after the departure of Mr. Williams, the youth division sort of melted away, Some will say that the youth aged and not enough youth appeared to fill the aging ranks. In actuality, it appears that many youth simply left the organization. Some former members have posted anti-SGI rants on various websites. A recent zone 16 March commemorative meeting elicited a whopping 36 members and 4 guests. Sad.
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After a while things seemed to slow down. Many members became disaffected. Weak faith? Extremely authoritative leadership? Lack of leadership? Perhaps all of that and more. Yesterdays youth matured, got jobs, started families. President Ikeda said that gakkai activities were a leisure time activity. Leisure time became scarce.
When you're new and getting all that fawning attention, you can easily be persuaded to see the "hand of God" - I mean, the POWER OF THE GOHONZON!!! - in the smallest coincidences. However, as time goes by, as everyone else's attention shifts to the new prospect du jour and you are left more or less alone with your own thoughts, if you're honest, you'll acknowledge that you *don't* get everything you chant for. No one does. You'll watch people chant for the most necessary things, like for a child to be cured of a dangerous illness or injury, or to beat the odds and overcome cancer, or to be able to get a good raise this year, and they don't get it. It is impossible to continue to regard the gohonzon as "a machine to produce happiness", as - who was it? Toda or Makiguchi? - said. When all that chanting and efforts to contribute to the organization gain you absolutely squat. You get *nothing*.Quote
Maturing? Yep, that's also part of it. Growing up and seeing thru the con-job, too.
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TaitenAndProudWhen you're new and getting all that fawning attention, you can easily be persuaded to see the "hand of God" - I mean, the POWER OF THE GOHONZON!!! - in the smallest coincidences. However, as time goes by, as everyone else's attention shifts to the new prospect du jour and you are left more or less alone with your own thoughts, if you're honest, you'll acknowledge that you *don't* get everything you chant for. No one does. You'll watch people chant for the most necessary things, like for a child to be cured of a dangerous illness or injury, or to beat the odds and overcome cancer, or to be able to get a good raise this year, and they don't get it. It is impossible to continue to regard the gohonzon as "a machine to produce happiness", as - who was it? Toda or Makiguchi? - said. When all that chanting and efforts to contribute to the organization gain you absolutely squat. You get *nothing*.Quote
Maturing? Yep, that's also part of it. Growing up and seeing thru the con-job, too.
Then you start to realize that, really, nothing remarkable is happening in your life. You are surrounded by people who don't practice who make more money than you do, who have more successful love lives than you do, and who are happier than you are. Sure, you might try to convince yourself that they just *look* happy, and that, in private, they're crying themselves to sleep, but more and more, you can't buy it. You just don't believe that. Even though you're supposed to. And the fact that you don't believe it, when you *know* that you're supposed to believe it, simply makes it ever more clear that what's going on around you doesn't fit you. It isn't working. You tried, but in the end, it's not you.
The hardest part is when you decide to pull away. Because your entire social circle likely consisted of SGI members. So there you are...alone. Your leaders may have manipulated you into antagonizing your family members, leaving you estranged from them. All alone. And in order to reconnect with your estranged family, you probably have to admit that you were involved in something stupid - how embarrassing. People hate doing things that embarrass them - that's why it's such an accomplishment to get the faithful to alienate their own family members. They isolate themselves, making themselves all the more dependent upon the organization for social contact.
Some people can't face the difficult work of getting out of it and try to just make the best of it. That's fine. Others can't stand the hypocrisy that entails and walk away. That's fine, too. Both have their difficulties. In the first case, there is the wrenching loneliness of understanding that no one around you really *likes* you - they just hang out with you because they think you believe what they believe. If they had *any* idea that you didn't, they would avoid you like the plague - their "friendship" is just that conditional. In the latter case, they're truly alone - it takes time to build a new social circle. In this respect, I think the internet is a life-saver - you can go online and find people who share your views, anytime, night or day. It takes longer to find kindred spirits in real life, and I can understand when people gave up, caved in, and went back to the only social circle they had access to, even though it required a betrayal of their own truth. But now, you can be alone, but not alone - friends are as close as your keyboard!
Part of growing up is realizing that living a life of integrity can be lonely and painful, surrounded as we are by people and organizations that seek to manipulate us, use us, and co-opt us for their own benefit. Sure, they all appear sweet and sincere at first - they practice that. It's only once you've swallowed the hook that they start to turn the screws to get what THEY want out of you. And if you don't put out, watch out! The fangs come out.
Being a former cult member is definitely bittersweet.
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Spartacus
"Kosen Rufu will be achieved when 1/3 of the world's population have become practicing Soka Gakkai members, and another 1/3 support the SGI."
That was one steep pile of steaming cultspeak, frequently used during the early 70's Shohondo era of delusion and lies. Can you imagine one top heavy, personality driven cult being in total control of 1/3 of the world's population? This is the ultimate power that Fearless Leader Ikeda has always dreamed of attaining. But the would-be King & Master of the World will soon be dead and gone, without getting his ultimate wish (proof that even the #1 cult man can't achieve what he most desired by chanting.)
Dictatorial power hungry Religious Cult Leaders tend to become the biggest terrorists because they are already dangerous psychopaths with large armies of unquestioning faithful followers, ready to do the master's bidding, even at the cost of their own lives.
The hidden goal of the SGcult is embodied in Elliot's cultspeak statement, "everyone seeks power". This is the true nature of the cult.org as personified by Napoleon Caesar Ikeda, now another fizzled-out would be ruler of the world.
Spartacus
So they've stopped with the whole "1/3" line of crap? Ha ha! They were still saying that when I was a YWD, from 1987-1992. Imagine how thrilled I was to read this, from the eeeEEEEEeeevil Nembutsu sect (aka "Shin"):Quote
"Kosen Rufu will be achieved when 1/3 of the world's population have become practicing Soka Gakkai members, and another 1/3 support the SGI."
That was one steep pile of steaming cultspeak, frequently used during the early 70's Shohondo era of delusion and lies. Can you imagine one top heavy, personality driven cult being in total control of 1/3 of the world's population? This is the ultimate power that Fearless Leader Ikeda has always dreamed of attaining. But the would-be King & Master of the World will soon be dead and gone, without getting his ultimate wish (proof that even the #1 cult man can't achieve what he most desired by chanting.)
Now THAT ^ is mature, egalitarian, magnanimous, and...yes...Buddhist. The SGI? Not so much O_OQuote
The last important difference between Shin and Christianity which we will discuss has to do with the concept of conversion.
Christians believe that all people in the world must accept Christ, and missionaries undergo all sorts of hardship to bring the gospel of Jesus to all mankind. Christians "have a story to tell to the nations." They go to teach and elevate people.
Shin missionaries, on the other hand, go out to seek people who have similar opinions to their own. They invite them to join them in their activities. Shin regards entrance into the Hongwanji as a union of attitudes. The basis of these religious attitudes lies in one's past experiences. No amount of arguing or teaching can bring these attitudes about without there having been the necessary conditioning experiences in one's past.
Shin does not believe that everyone will or must become a Shin follower. It is said that Sakya taught 84,000 different doctrinal systems so that there might be one suited to each possible kind of human personality. Shin, as one of these many doctrines, will find kindred spirits in every country of the world, but were any one country even -let alone the whole world- to follow Shin alone, it would be a sure sign that Shin is not a true doctrine.
With regard to conversion, then, Christianity and Shin are quite different. Christianity finds evidence of its truth in the fact that all people will accept it. Shin takes universal acceptance as a sign of not being a true doctrine. [www.seattlebetsuin.com]
MY ASS it did! I wonder if, now that he's persona non grata, Mr. Williams/Sadanaga ever speaks candidly about the megalomaniac he so dutifully served, only to be tossed aside like so much garbage when his perceived usefulness came to an end.Quote
I have dedicated this book to all the NSA members hwo have stood by me over the years. As they well know, though, there is one man without whom none of this would be possible. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lifelong mentor, President Ikeda. His personal encouragement made this book possible; more importantly, his courageous leadership made NSA possible.