Original "article", [www.sgicnews.org]. ($GI Canada News, re: FNCC Cult Retreat Attendees)

Reproduced below, with some bolded reality tweaks to it by me (otherwise, everything else is exactly as it appears in the original article).

**** BEGIN ARTICLE ****

(Photo in background of "America Master and Slave Hall", with a quorum of smiling cult members in special attendance from Canada.)

"From January 22-25, 13 participants from across Canada attended the SGI Leaders Study Conference at the Florida Nature and Culture Center (FNCC). They were among 183 participants from nine countries of North, South and Central America.

The theme of the conference was “The Oneness of Master and Slave” and we all deepened our understanding of this essential principle. The central activities were the lectures, and question and answer sessions with Masaaki Morinaka, Soka Gakkai Study Department Leader.

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Soka Gakkai and the 50th anniversary of The Dear Leader's first trip overseas, there were special exhibits. We were shown around Dear Leader Hall, the location of the new “Oneness of Master and Slave Exhibition.” This exhibition displayed such treasures as original manuscript pages for The Dear Leader's novels The Human Revolution and The New Human Revolution and second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda’s notes for his historic speech against nuclear weapons. We saw another exhibition also entitled “Oneness of Master and Slave” which documented, in photos and commentary, the history of The Dear Leader's visits to the U.S.A.

We also saw a new full-length movie “Traveler for Peace.” This movie recounts the first overseas trip in 1960 by The Dear Leader and his meetings in the U.S.A., Canada and Brazil. The movie uses old photos and video clips as well as re-enactments and interviews with pioneer members sharing their memories of those meetings.

This was a powerful and moving conference. We all felt great determination to bring back the spirit of oneness of master and slave to Canada and to our districts.

Comments ---
I was deeply moved by this conference to deepen my commitment to Cousin Rufus and follow the path of master and slave. I gained a much deeper understanding of my relationship to my master The Dear Leader. I felt so fortunate to be practising in SGI at this time in history. (John Paxton, Ottawa)
...
This study conference was very memorable for me. From the beginning to end the conference was filled with The Dear Leader's spirit, and it was wonderful to meet all of our SGI families from USA and South America, and to know we are all united towards the same goal. I was able to deepen my faith through the study sessions especially The Dear Leader selections and interpretations of Gosho study with Soka Gakkai Study Department leader Mr. Morinaka. This study conference enabled me to reflect on myself and on my faith, and I was able to make my goals more concrete. I am very thankful for The Dear Leader for giving us an opportunity to grow in faith at such a beautiful conference centre in Florida. I am determined to put into action everything I learned through this conference. (Mai Ogushi, Mississauga)
...
I felt I was jumping into a big SGI pond at the official cult indoctrination retreat. Before I came here I didn’t know the real reason why I came to Florida but now I understand. Every activity made sense. I have made a vow to dedicate my life to the Cousin Rufus movement. (Yoshiko Robinson, Calgary)
...
I felt that this was such a warm and heartfelt conference. There was a sense that The Dear Leader was presiding over us, sending us messages, gifts and snacks. It was if he was truly here. The quality of the lectures, courtesy of Mr. Morinaka, was amazing and I was deeply moved by them. The master-slave exhibition and the SGI-USA movie” Traveler of Peace” made me appreciate the efforts of our master in spreading this philosophy worldwide. All in all an unforgettable experience that included the warm and heartfelt contact with all the other SGI members. (Piero Ponzo, Toronto)
...
The conference helped me deepen my understanding of the oneness of master-slave and the importance of making a vow to actualize this concept in my daily life. I was also inspired by the motto “everything begins with courage” and that courageous thought stopping prayer is the key to victory especially at this time and because of the dire circumstances in the world, we are provided a great opportunity to deepen our faith and realize victory. (Debra Bornhuse, Edmonton)
...
This opportunity in FNCC, the cult retreat, was truly one of the greatest benefits. Thanks to the support of my husband Peter, I could fully enjoy this weekend. Not only was this an in-depth Dear Leader interpretation-selection Gosho study, but also we experienced the “Master Slave Program” that involved touring the residence of The Dear Leader and the wife of The Dear Leader when they opened FNCC, the cult retreat and indoctrination center, in 1996, as well as a viewing of an amazing exhibit in Dear Leader Hall. The highlight for me from the lectures was the concepts included in this quote: “ Courage is needed in the battle to change one’s heart. To arouse this courage is the act of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” The final words of this conference from Mr. Morinaka I want to immediately apply: “Everything starts with courage.” (Chris Eddy, Calgary)
...
This was one of the best conferences I have ever attended. I have learned in depth the spirit of master-slave based on the writings of Nichiren Daishonin and what it means to work for Cousin Rufus. The real challenge starts from the day I return to Canada. I will chant to engrave in my heart what I have learned and share everything with the members in Toronto through my words and action. I have such a deep appreciation of The Dear President Leader for giving us this great opportunity to deepen and refresh our faith. (Tsuneko Yamada, Toronto)
...
Meeting with the other members felt like finding long-lost family. In a way that’s what it was – reuniting with members of the great Soka Cult family. The film “Traveler for Peace” was a real highlight. It brought home to me, in a very poignant way, the theme of the oneness of master and slave. I was really touched by a young handsome Dear Leader brimming with passion to carry out his mission of spreading his pseudo-"mentor"-of-convenience, Toda's message and bringing happiness to all mankind. And the great care he took for each person he met. I came away from this conference with a new connection to my mentor. I am determined to keep this connection alive through chanting and taking care of members. (Michelle Raymond, Montreal)
...
This was the first time for me to attend the cult retreat Study Conference in Florida. The beautiful scenery, the infectious enthusiasm of the members from North, Central and South America and the exhibits were highlights. It was the study and the lectures that really cemented my spirit with my master. The purpose of my practice was renewed when I studied with all my heart. (Grace Neptuno, Vancouver)

**** END ARTICLE ****



Notice how everyone is parroting the cult speak lingo:

"Determined", "victory", "courage", "Master-Slave" "relationship", "deeper understanding", "determination", "dedicate my life", "reflect on myself and my faith", "put into action", "opportunity", "heartfelt", "greatest benefits", "battle", "renewed purpose", "all my heart", . . . . . . EVERY SINGLE ONE of these is a Gakkai Cult Org. Cult Speak catch phrase.

I especially like that 4th comment by Piero Ponzo, from Toronto, . . . "There was a sense that The Dear Leader was presiding over us, sending us messages, gifts and snacks. It was if he was truly here." Yup, I heard the exact same thing on tozan (pilgrimage to Japan), every single day, everywhere we went, when I was in N$A. The FNCC cult retreat serves the same purpose today, an intense group shared hardcore indoctrinating 24-7 (or for however long they are there) full-on alternative cult world cold submersion.

$GI = A pseudo-buddhist, personality CULT of Ikeda
FNCC = (North & South) America, official cult org. retreat for specialized, custom indoctrination / the excommunicated org.'s new pilgrimage site, replete with Dear Leader museum & artifacts


- Hitch

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TaitenAndProud
Are you sure they purchased it? In the late 1980s, the organization adopted a leasing policy, which is why virtually all the community centers you'll see are rented office space in strip malls, office plazas, and industrial areas. When the kaikan in Minneapolis/St. Paul was purchased at the end of the 1980s, I remember leaders saying it was the last "owned" kaikan, because the SGI had shifted to an all-leasing policy. Also, the SGI had implemented rules that members were not allowed to participate in the renovations; we all worked on that Minneapolis/St. Paul kaikan, and we were aware that was the last opportunity to participate in that way as well.

However, when strategically useful, sometimes a building WILL be bought, like that one right next to Harvard so Ikeda Senseless could claim to be a Harvard man *eye roll*

I have some kaikan experiences to share.

In 1973, I made many trips with our area senior leader to scout potential properties to establish the first Texas Kaikan. First, we looked at the map to zero in on an area that would serve both Dallas and Ft. Worth (only 60 miles apart). We (Vaden and I) choose Irving as the place to look. After viewing lots of different properties, we decided upon a building that used to house a "fun center" that had a huge slot car table still inside. Williams came out from Santa Monica and approved the building for purchase by NSA. Both Vaden and I immediately relocated our homes to Irving where I founded a new district for my chapter (I was Texas chapter chief).

Eventually, I lost my rental house and wound up living in the newly bought building during the long re-modeling phase done almost entirely by members who drove in each weekend from all around Texas. That's how I came to have my personal butsudan in the back room of a kaikan for seven months.

Then during the 80's, I was living in San Antonio when the city finally got a Kaikan of their own. But it was just a rented space in a strip mall. Again, the members did most all of the renovation work to transform it into a stock kaikan configuration, complete with an office and desk for Dear Leader even though the available space was very limited.

In the late 80's, NSA bought another property in Dallas for a "culture center". It was an expansive four story building that was once a large music center - a familiar one for me, as I used to go there as a child to play at piano recitals and purchase sheet music. Once again, the bulk of the labor to renovate the building came from members. I went up to volunteer with the work crews and stayed for about a week. Late at night,when everyone else was gone, I enjoyed going up to the top floor balcony to smoke a stealthy bowl and enjoy the Dallas skyline (always the rebel). I dont know what the price on the building was, but you can bet it was a hefty sum.

I moved to Seattle in 1997, and found they had a sizeable culture center that was built from the ground up on property owned by SGI. I was told that the old Seattle Kaikan building had been demolished, but that the property it was on was still an SGi owned asset, and that the cult.org was just sitting on it so as to allow the property value to continue to increase.

So there you have it - four out of five properties that I directly know about are/were bought and paid for by NSA/SGI. Seems like they sure do own a lot real estate, so just why do they constantly pressure and cajole the membership so hard for more donations? I know the answer. Many here know the answer. Do you?

Spartacus

Spartacus - so cynical! Of course, they use the funds to promote Cousin Rufus to the unwashed masses throughout the world! You aren't suggesting that they're keeping any for themselves?

The kaikan in Albuquerque was built (right before the nsa/sgi split) on org-owned property as well - it's a pretty big building; the main butsudan room has seating for maybe 300, there's a kitchen and numerous other rooms. From what I heard from long-term zombies, everything that didn't have to be done by contractors was done by volunteers; I bet they found as many contractors who were members as they could, too. I suppose that when you can arrange for so much cheap leaders and donated materials, the cost of the building is relatively cheap.

Does anyone know at what level leaders start receiving pay? I'm just curious.

Donated labor = sweat equity

Quote

stock kaikan configuration, complete with an office and desk for Dear Leader even though the available space was very limited.

Now THERE's a feature I've never seen! I joined in 1987, remember. I wonder when it was they did away with that superfluous vanity office? I can tell you that, if I'd ever seen one of those, I would have thought it deuced odd!

I'll bet that was a detail that was just too culty even for the hard-core Japanophiles to convince themselves it would fly in American culture.

There has been some discussion about how having dedicated Ikedaspace on a property invalidates the whole "religious" angle and might thus invalidate that property's religious exemption - I'm thinking of Precious Ikeda's tony little guest house - reserved solely for him, only entered by SGI leaders for cleaning purposes. How arrogant!

With regard to the discussion on cult org. properties:

The Top Secret Dear Leader rooms are still there and exist in the Gakkai Cult Org..

What happened to the Malibu Training Center? Most older members have conveniently forgotten about it and how many new members even know that it once existed. It's fate was never discussed, as far as I know, then and now. A quick google map search turns up nothing. Multimillion dollar property razed (?), land sold (?) for a huge profit / leased out (?) - who knows.

Does the cult org. use salaried leaders' names in association with property titles?

How many buckets does the cult org. have its hand in in the motherland??

So many questions, so few answers, and so little transparency.


- Hitch

The tony and upscale guest house I mentioned 2 posts up was at the "Malibu Training Center". It sat empty, waiting for King Ikeda to grace it with his lardy presence.

When that property was first bought, I noticed, because my grandparents had had a beach house up in Malibu and I was quite familiar with the property all around there including Ol' PU (Pepperdine University). I remember that, when it first opened, it was supposed to be a graduate studies program, which served 5 Japanese young women that first year (and was never spoken of in that sense again). I remember an article in the Weird Tribune about how they saw 4 deer there and named them Mary, Berry, Sherry, and Fanny or something stupid like that. There were justified criticisms of owning this very pricey and exclusive piece of real estate and squandering it on just FIVE Japanese nationals. I guess they saw Soka U as the fulfillment of the dream that the Malibu property could never have been, especially cheek to jowl with venerable Pepperdine University. Too much competition, you know. So then it became the Malibu Training Center at some point and now? Who knows?? Its "training center" function was superseded by the Florida Nature and Culture Center (ha ha ha - the "Florida" part's accurate, I guess).

If anyone here is interested in contributing, I started a thread over on the New Religious Movements section asking people to describe whether their group had any prescribed style of interior decoration, clothing, etc.

If you cut and paste what you've already described here, that would be just fine.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Quote
TaitenAndProud

Quote
Spartacus
stock kaikan configuration, complete with an office and desk for Dear Leader even though the available space was very limited.

Now THERE's a feature I've never seen! I joined in 1987, remember. I wonder when it was they did away with that superfluous vanity office? I can tell you that, if I'd ever seen one of those, I would have thought it deuced odd!

I'll bet that was a detail that was just too culty even for the hard-core Japanophiles to convince themselves it would fly in American culture.

There has been some discussion about how having dedicated Ikedaspace on a property invalidates the whole "religious" angle and might thus invalidate that property's religious exemption - I'm thinking of Precious Ikeda's tony little guest house - reserved solely for him, only entered by SGI leaders for cleaning purposes. How arrogant!

I know for a fact that both the Dallas culture center and the Seattle culture center (what culture?) had an unaccessable "Presidential Office" hidden away upstairs. I am not a gambling man, but I would bet money that those secretive and off-limits-to-unimportant-members (except the privileged lackeys that do the cleaning) are still there. They are a stock feature with SGI centers in Japan, and everything about SGI.cult is crafted in the Japanese organizational model that we see repeated around the world.

When I joined in 1972 there was no cult.org center in Texas. The area senior leader's converted garage was used to house a few items that were meant to be placed in some future Kaikan. There wasn't much there besides boxes of cult.org publications awaiting redistrbution to other texas localities, mainly just a cheap (homemade with wall panels) butsudan with a regular small-sized Gohonzon. And of course, President Pig's desk and chair (and picture). I spent many an hour gazing at that empty chair, with my senior leader's words echoing in my head, "having his desk and chair here is just like having Senseless himself here!" What a crock of magical mystical crap! Somehow, I just couldn't make the connection. I had the same rational problem with always having a framed picture of the Old Devil garishly displayed on the wall, pretending he was magically watching us fight the sleep demons during those torturously long chanting sessions, while mystically "listening" to our prayers to the magic scroll and assessing our "life condition".

Thus I heard, "if you chant hard enough, with strong enough Faith, he will hear you!" Yes, my children - I (authority figure) am always protecting you! Sounds like the same propaganda we hear everyday here in warcult.USA

Spartacus

Quote
Spartacus
I know for a fact that both the Dallas culture center and the Seattle culture center (what culture?) had an unaccessable "Presidential Office" hidden away upstairs. I am not a gambling man, but I would bet money that those secretive and off-limits-to-unimportant-members (except the privileged lackeys that do the cleaning) are still there. They are a stock feature with SGI centers in Japan, and everything about SGI.cult is crafted in the Japanese organizational model that we see repeated around the world.

Yes, they are and yes it definitely is, right down the smallest detail.

I've seen and been in these Dear Leader Ikeda rooms in two different cult kaikans in America (one big, and one small). They are treated and regarded as if one were allowed to enter The Oval Office. Very strict and very hush-hush. The knowledge of their existence is only shared with hardcore longtime trusted deep faith members. It's a hidden gakkai cult org. secret.

Quote
Spartacus
When I joined in 1972 there was no cult.org center in Texas. The area senior leader's converted garage was used to house a few items that were meant to be placed in some future Kaikan. There wasn't much there besides boxes of cult.org publications awaiting redistrbution to other texas localities, mainly just a cheap (homemade with wall panels) butsudan with a regular small-sized Gohonzon. And of course, President Pig's desk and chair (and picture). I spent many an hour gazing at that empty chair, with my senior leader's words echoing in my head, "having his desk and chair here is just like having Senseless himself here!" What a crock of magical mystical crap! Somehow, I just couldn't make the connection. I had the same rational problem with always having a framed picture of the Old Devil garishly displayed on the wall, pretending he was magically watching us fight the sleep demons during those torturously long chanting sessions, while mystically "listening" to our prayers to the magic scroll and assessing our "life condition".

I was told this exact same thing when given a tour of the Ikeda room as a YMD. "If we work hard enough for Cousin Rufus, Sensei will feel our efforts, our daimoku will call him here and he will come visit our kaikan. It all depends on our pure faith, ichinen, and mission to respond to him. Work hard for our area to have Sensei come in person to give us guidance and encourage us." And with that, you are slowly ushered out, given one last glance as the door closes, the lock turns and the hardcore Japanese WD cult org. queen tightly grasps the key into her fisted hand and places it back into her pocket, to be put back into its special keepsake location.

I was stunned when I learned of these rooms and actually saw them. Stunned. I'm sure they thought I was overwhelmed in a positive way, but in reality, it was just the opposite for me. On the outside, I was speechless. On the inside, I was saying to myself, "Holy sh*t (!), this is w-e-i-r-d, creepy and definitely NOT normal. Whoa." I honestly didn't know *what* to think, for a few days afterwards.


- Hitch