$cientology or $oka Gakkai CULT Org.?

Stealth filming behind dark corners [www.youtube.com]

Filming standoff escalates to cult org. Ikeda-bot automatons intentionally blocking the view with black umbrellas [www.youtube.com]

Blatant intimidation filming [www.youtube.com]

All perpetrators are official "gajokai" or wanna-be pretend $oka "police" officers.

You don't need to understand Japanese to see what is happening in these clips. The $oka Gakkai Cult Org. & its Komeito (Govt. party) branch, being protested, and the quintessential CULT tactic behavior in response.

The TRUE nature of $GI in the Land of Cousin Rufus. Are members abroad aware of any of this? Ask your "leaders" and see what they have to say, their reaction. Guaranteed to get interesting for you, if you do.



- Hitch

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The Gosho Game!!! Who knows 'the'Gosho best? Have you ever known an sgi, nichiren Buddhist, or fanatic to conduct ‘serious research’ into what they are ‘practicing’? Can you expect a sgi member to know what ‘the three objects of devotion’ are? Do they know what Buddhism is? Cult.org (sic) is a manipulation on some very potent history and our common identity with that of spirtuality i.e. buddhism/christianity/judaism/ikedaism/ism-ism… etc.

You know how the "three pillars" are supposedly "faith, practice, and study"? They don't want you to study too much. I always studied more than anyone - I read wicked fast, you see, and when I was doing the Byakuran phone toban at the kaikan (don'tcha just *love* all the cultiespeak??), I'd bring along the Gosho Reference and just start reading.

Disturbing facts:

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Those who wish to uphold the True Dharma should arm themselves with swords, bows and arrows, and halberds, instead of observing the five precepts (against killing, stealing, adultery, lying, and drinking alcohol), and keeping propriety. ... Therefore, those laymen who wish to defend the True Dharma should arm themselves with swords and sticks in order to defend it just as King Virtuous (who killed numerous monks) did.

One who kills an ant will fall into the three evil realms (hell, the realm of hungry spirits, and that of beasts and birds [aka hell, hunger, and animality]) without fail, but one who eliminates a slanderer of the True Dharma will reach the stage of non-regression, and eventually will attain Buddhahood. ...

King Virtuous, who killed slanderers to defend the True Dharma, was reborn in this world as Shakyamuni Buddha.

Emperor Hsuan-tsung of T'ang China was a wise ruler who protected Buddhism. He executed 12 Taoist masters, eliminating enemies of the Buddha and restoring Buddhism.

If you wish to bring about peace in our country and pray for happiness in this life, as well as in the future, then waste no time. Think hard and take the necessary measures to thoroughly deal with slanderers of the True Dharma.

That's from Nichiren's Gosho "On Establishing the True Teaching for the Security of the Nation" or "Rissho Ankoku Ron."

Do you think this is an appropriate perspective for a modern person to hold? Notice that Nichiren defines "slanderers of the True Dharma" as "anyone who preferred a different flavor of Buddhism." Naturally, "the True Dharma" meant "Nichiren's own interpretation." Nichiren obviously wished harm on the competition; he just wanted OTHER PEOPLE to do it. He wants fascism - he wants the government to adopt and enforce his own personal intolerant attitude (and make him famous in the process).

The SGI also acknowledges #3 of the Four Noble Truths: "Attachment leads to suffering." So lip service is paid to "attachment needs to be transcended". But all of this "evil priests" "slanderers of the True Dharma" etc. - it's completely based in attachments and delusions! Nichiren wanted to bend reality to his will - a most UN-enlightened, UN-Buddhist attitude - and sought to persuade, even pressure and coerce, others to agree with him. This is not Buddhist behavior! It is disrespectful and arrogant, which are both the antithesis of Buddhism! The Buddha was able to see from the perspective of eternity, and knew that each person was already doing his best, so the best course of action was to accept and encourage each person, trusting that, in the fullness of time, he would walk his own path as only he could. The Buddha never presumed to tell other people what to do - when you see people ordering other people to do this or that, it should be a flashing red light that what you're reading or hearing is *NOT* Buddhism!

And it gets worse:

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All the Nembutsu and Zen temples, such as Kenchoji, Jufuku-ji, Gokuraku-ji, Daibutsuden, and Choraku-ji, should be burned to the ground, and their priests taken to Yui Beach to have their heads cut off. If this is not done, then Japan is certain to be destroyed! - Nichiren, THE SELECTION OF THE TIME

Guess what? That wasn't done. Yet in spite of The Powers That Be directly disobeying Nichiren's orders, Japan still exists as a country, doesn't it? Japan never became a Mongol vassal state, as Nichiren predicted. Clearly, Nichiren was WRONG. NICHIREN WAS WRONG! So WHY should we pay any attention to him? He was an intolerant, narcissistic prick with delusions of grandeur!

If we're talking about someone who's chanting to win, whatever it is he hopes to win, we're looking at someone who is not enlightened, who is *trapped* within his attachments and delusions. Earthly desires are most definitely *NOT* enlightenment for this individual!

"Winning in the end" = delusion + attachment. There *IS* no "final victory" as a goal in REAL Buddhism.

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ALWAYS remember that victory or defeat in our battle to accomplish kosen-rufu depends upon a tremendous, diamond-like sense of indestructible determination engraved deep within the heart of each and every one of us. After all, Buddhism is "win" or "lose". - Daisaku Ikeda [dailyguidance.blogspot.com]

That's right! STRENGTHEN those attachments!!

"Buddhism is win or lose" is *not* Buddhism. Buddhism is about transcending such base, ego-driven competitive ideas as winning and losing. When you chant for an outcome, you're simply strengthening your attachments. Your attachment to a particular outcome, for example. And when you don't get it, you're plunged into suffering. Such is the nature of attachment. Buddhism is about accepting reality as it is, instead of feeling that you must bend it to your will (and "win"). REAL Buddhism, that is.

Getting rid of attachments is the Buddha way. You should ask yourself why President Ikeda is constantly running around, chasing after ever more honorary degrees (which can be had for a fee!), famous people whose spotlight he can squeeze into (and hopefully capture for himself), and monuments prominently named after himself. This is not the behavior of someone who understands Buddhism.

You should ask yourself why the SGI's finances are not transparent and independently audited, with the results published for all to see.

Mark my words - that pasty, do-nothing Hiromasa Ikeda will be shoved into the International Presidency before Daisaku Ikeda's body has even gotten cold. And the succession pageantry will look identical to that of North Korea.

Here's how I explained it on a different message board and I think it is good:

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One of the criteria that qualifies the Buddha for the title of “teacher” is that he taught a way whereby a person could overcome this consuming needfulness. The Buddha never said that he had the only way; just that he had found a way. The potential for anyone to find a new way is always present in the Buddha’s teachings. This is one of the details that sets Buddhism apart from the theistic religions, which so often emphasize obedience and submission to a leader’s dictates.

Buddhism, therefore, is a set of practices that will reliably enable a person to disentangle himself from the sticky web of attachment and the crushing grip of delusion. The Buddhist practice guides a person toward understand himself and becoming aware of where he is placing unwarranted emphasis on things in his environment, believing erroneously that these independently have the power to change his life.

Against this example, the Jesus of the Gospels cannot be considered any sort of teacher worthy of the title. He supposedly explained that he taught using confusing parables because he did not want people to be saved:

Matthew 13:10-16 (KJV) And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Really? Is this the best that God Almighty, the Author of All Reality, can manage? It’s so sad that it makes me want to cry! To acknowledge that people have limited capacity to understand, and then deliberately talk over their heads, just so that they will end up being harmed! What’s next, knocking over wheelchairs? Tripping the elderly? Taking candy from babies?

Again, the problem of studying. It's when you actually *READ* the "sacred texts" that you find all this crap in there. Most Christians don't read the bible (which is what enables them to stay Christians, I suspect), and I don't think any more SGI Buddhists read the Gosho.

Having my curiosity piqued, I started studying other sources that were tangential to the Gosho. In particular, I found the idea that we're supposed to "close, ignore, discard, abandon" all the other teachings to be very suspicious. I found that the Lotus Sutra was no older than the 2nd Century CE. Why would everyone wait so long to write down what was supposedly the Buddha's "highest teaching" and why did it sound so similar to Christianity?? It's because both arose from within the same temporal/cultural milieu of Hellenism.

If you truly understand that, per the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, attachment causes suffering, you will reach the inescapable conclusion that the Buddha's teachings were not meant to be a lifetime habit (which is itself an attachment). The Buddha's teachings - the REAL Buddha's teachings - were designed to help people understand their own thought patterns so that they could free themselves from the products of deluded thinking (which causes suffering) and interact with reality as it is (instead of with their delusion/misconception of it). However, being *attached* to Buddhism is still an attachment, and ALL attachment causes suffering! There is no "good" or "bad" categorization, you'll notice: Attachment causes suffering. So if you're determined to chant Nam myoho renge kyo until the last moment of your life, you will *not* attain enlightenment, and you will *not* be able to relieve your sufferings. The Buddha recognized that, in order to attain enlightenment, one must leave *every* attachment behind, including Buddhism! The Buddhist practice prepares you for the day when you must leave even it behind and step out into the world on your own, because that is the only way you can complete your journey:

“Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”

"No one can save us but ourselves.
No one can, and no one may.
Each one alone must walk the path
But Buddhas clearly show the way."

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

THAT is REAL Buddhism. And THAT, gentle readers, is why the SGI doesn't want people to study too much :)

This mb has been helpful and nurturing, yet I am no longer comfortable with observing these manipulating behaviors.

I remember FNCC in 2008 after sgi east had shamefully berated a nichiren shoshu priest in front of his house with banners, shouting, and video camera. All about how this priest was with prostitutes. What were the geishas to 70's era nsa ymd? Watching their (sgi east) presentation at FNCC made me even more jet lagged than the 7 hour flight (from hawaii)! I really actually felt physically ill watching how they had 'protested' the priests speech at columbia university in ny, by shoving microphones and cameras into nichiren shoshu members faces, or ordinary people going to the lecture. Americans like the freedom to be private!

People are people and their culture is a reflection. How can nichiren buddhists argue over jesus vs. nichiren, nichiren vs. mohammad, nichiren vs. shayamuni? Or nichiren vs. nichiren shoshu, nichiren shu, soka gakkai? Intolerance is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

What I observed in the cult.org is a complete lack of a seeking spirit. The exams are designed so you pass, the meetings are a gathering of the meek, the leaders forever preaching to the choir. Why all the secrecy, the discrimination, the non informative study? Having a seeking spirit is what brought me to this mb.

I appreciate all the comments here. I am not going to trade my time, which is precious to me, to sgi in any form anymore! Sayonara!

Edit: The three objects of devotion are the three great treasures: object of devotion in terms of person (priest,sage), place (kaiden), law (daimoku).

TaP, we're not supposed to study the wrong stuff too much; we can study sgi-stuff until our eyes rot. The wrong stuff is interpreted as anything that hasn't been fed through Senseless' personal interpretation machine. I can't say that I've read much of the Lotus Sutra, but what I have has been re-statements and distillations of earlier sutras; nothing really new to be had there. Some, if not all, of the Mahayana texts date from that same Hellenic period but, let's face it, Gautama didn't write down a word, so the interpretations of his teachings began the moment someone put pen to paper (or whatever) to start transcribing them.

Sgi is just so freaking twisted; presumably, the Lotus Sutra was the historical Buddha's final teaching that he basically taught with the idea in mind that all of the sutras prior to that were the lead-up and preparation to the wisdom of the LS. That in itself is obviously a load of hooey, and that's the rub for the organization; once people start reading other materials (or even the LS itself), cracks start to appear almost immediately. While there's no direct instruction or prohibition about what a good zombie may or may not read, any questions that arise from studying non-Senseless materials are dismissed, diminished or insulted as being inferior. Apparently, only fat-boy (who I'm not even sure has the Japanese equivalent of a GED) has the wisdom to interpret Nichiren's interpretations. And the latter's interpretations are presented through a filter of bigotry, a violent temper and a big wad of crazy.

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People are people and their culture is a reflection. How can nichiren buddhists argue over jesus vs. nichiren, nichiren vs. mohammad, nichiren vs. shayamuni? Or nichiren vs. nichiren shoshu, nichiren shu, soka gakkai? Intolerance is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

What those who are powerfully *ATTACHED* to intolerant religions don't want to acknowledge is that there are others, just as *attached* to other religions, who feel theirs are "the only way" just as strongly as any other intolerant-religion devotee.

There are so many religions that it has become clear that religious belief is like visiting a buffet - you are free to take whatever you like, whatever appeals to you, and pass the rest on by. But you are not allowed to choose for anyone else! You can pass on the whole darn buffet if you like - so what? The supernatural does not exist. Superstitions are primitive manifestations of fear and ignorance. There is no "magic" out there, no "curses", no dire demonic threats waiting to rain down on the unwary. You can practice Buddhism if you like; you can quit at any time; and you can ignore it if it doesn't appeal to you! The Buddha acknowledged this - that is why he made it clear that he taught "A way" - not "THE way." There is *no* "THE way." Everyone will choose something different - one size fits all actually fits none. Any religion that presents itself as "one size fits all" proves with that premise that it is wrong.

It has been famously said that selfishness is not living as one pleases; selfishness is demanding that others live as one pleases. Those intolerant religion folks would do well to meditate upon THAT!

I ran across this article by a Nembutsu priest some years ago and was quite astonished at the generosity of spirit and gentle wisdom in it, my only impression of the Nembutsu (Amida sect) to that point having been negatively colored by Nichiren's hateful comments:

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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]

Did you realize that more people practice Amida Buddhism in the world than any other flavor of Buddhism? I read that somewhere...it's probably the China effect :)

It is a sign of weird cultish thinking when your only choices are "Agrees with me" or "Has something seriously wrong with him."

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What I observed in the cult.org is a complete lack of a seeking spirit. The exams are designed so you pass, the meetings are a gathering of the meek, the leaders forever preaching to the choir. Why all the secrecy, the discrimination, the non informative study? Having a seeking spirit is what brought me to this mb.

You nailed it. The SGI denies the basic Buddhist principle that each person has a unique path that only he can walk and in the place of that magnanimous wisdom seeks to impose its own formula on anyone who will submit to it.

There is a school of thought that, in such a highly complicated world where no one can master any field of expertise any more because the Information Age means ever more and more and MORE is being discovered and written, too much for any one person to absorb, that some people seek out simplistic rule-based belief systems. "At least I can master THIS!" leads to "Because I am so very clever that I realized the brilliance of THIS and the fact that *I* can master this means *I*'m superior to everyone else and *I* am therefore going to get a big fat reward and everyone else is going to get a big whack! SO THERE!!" However, it is important to note that no major religion is growing by voluntary adult choice; they are only keeping their numbers up via a combination of reproduction and unaudited funny membership numbers.

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fat-boy (who I'm not even sure has the Japanese equivalent of a GED)

If memory serves, it is one of the points of pride of the SGI that the Ikeda backstory includes how young Daisaku dropped out of school to work for Toda's company.

I don't believe there's any point where he goes BACK to finish school - so much for the SG's supposed priority on education! What's funniest is that the SG was originally founded as an organization focused on EDUCATION!

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Originally a small group of educators dedicated to educational reform, the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai gradually developed into an organization with a broad-based membership focusing on the propagation of Buddhism. [www.sgi.org]

Soka Kyoiku Gakkai means "Value Creating Educational Society" - no wonder they got rid of that "Kyoiku", as their new figurehead was an uneducated tool! No wonder he chases endlessly after ever more honorary doctorates, trying to prove that he is, indeed, educated, despite having never finished basic schooling.

BTW, the young woman who said she'd helped 400 people get gohonzons and only 2 now still practiced was Melanie Merians. That was in the fall of 2002, and at the time, she was the Southern Zone Soka Spirit leader.

Just some random thoughts of my own:

The Dear Leader's 300+ bought degrees are obviously a band-aid for a huge psychological insecurity and superficial "validity" complex; the more he accumulates, the more foolish he looks (in the real world).

$oka Gakkai = "Value Education Society" --> This has always sounded some alarm bells in my mind, even as a very young member. It was simply too nebulous, too vague, too meaningless, and an all too convenient definition to suit me. The name & title itself always struck me as a bit of a con. (As "meh" has stated before, always listen to your instincts and those nagging doubts deep within you.)

And . . . .

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TaitenAndProud
BTW, the young woman who said she'd helped 400 people get gohonzons and only 2 now still practiced was Melanie Merians. That was in the fall of 2002, and at the time, she was the Southern Zone Soka Spirit leader.

In my "experience" (not in the cult org. sense of the world), gakkai members can spin this in one of two ways:

1. If a temple (danto) member had said it, they'd say, "that's proof that our practice is superior and that they are on the wrong path" / "our prayers and efforts are working."

2. If from a fellow gakker, "well, that's proof of the 'rarity' and 'value' of the "The Law" - its 'preciousness' and a reminder of how hard it is to encounter, accept and continue the practice of 'faith' in this lifetime - WE are so 'fortunate', and making tremendous 'causes', accumulating enormous 'benefit' by our 'heartfelt' and DIFFICULT efforts."

The game is rigged so that they (the cult org. / cult org. members) always win (in their own minds).



- Hitch

As a Part II to my post at the top of this (661) page, "$cientology or $oka Gakkai CULT Org.?"

$cientology vs. Anonymous [en.wikipedia.org]) - [www.youtube.com]

And now . . . . .

$oka Gakkai International CULT vs. Anonymous [www.youtube.com]

CULT.


- Hitch