The Anticult Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Again, this is not a theory, some of us have known
> SGI members who do exactly that.
> Some of us may have even known SGI members who
> went off the SGI deep-end, and started chanting
> all day everyday, until they end up getting
> involuntary psychiatric care.
> Or others who start chanting all day long under
> their breath.
> Its a primitive superstition.
>
> SGI chanting does not solve problems, it creates
> problems. Which is just the way SGI wants it.

Yes, I have seen members who mumble the chant out of habit after a while, especially whenever they have an available, prolonged, opportunity (for example, on long commutes). They (the cult) even encouraged this kind of thinking & behavior when being transported en masse to cult events in the form of manufactured "official" chanting times for the "success" of the event and the endless refrain "no accidents" (of which there were often plenty).

This primitive superstition habit slowly becomes an ingrained vicious cycle:

1. Encouraging more confirmation bias recognition thinking (illusion/delusion)

and/or

2. More problems, which is a downward spiral of the cycle.

Either way, it stagnates you as a human being (as Anticult already mentioned, infantilizing you). Another extension to this infantilization process is the further encouraging of one to go get "guidance" from "seniors in faith" who just stoke the process even more.

Chant & repeat, chant & repeat.


- Hitch

Let's put an even harder edge on this, Anti - sgi tells you that you CANNOT achieve your goals without chanting and, if you do chant, your goals will be achieved (unless you don't chant enough, yadda-yadda). It can't possibly be because the practice is a load of bushwah, it's because YOU are deficient.

And you're absolutely right; if we had spent as much time actually "doing" rather than sitting around chanting and waiting for those benefits and good fortune to rain down upon us, we would've gotten a lot more accomplished during the years we practiced.

Yeah, chanting has worked out for Ikeda just fine . . . that's because he's the best [insert noun here] ever.

Right, SGI has DELIBERATELY told its followers that SGI-Chanting is the only way to achieve their goals.
So then that ACTIVELY BLOCKS people from achieving their own goals and having a happy life!

This way it makes people addicted to SGI, and the more they chant, the worse their life gets, and then they go back to SGI, and SGI tells them to chant harder and faster and to give SGI more money.
So the victim chants harder and longer, and gives SGI more money, and their life is worse and they are more broke.
So they go to SGI, and SGI tells them to chant better and to borrow money on their line of credit against their house, and give that money to SGI, as Ikeda's wife needs another diamond.

So Ikeda gets richer, and the SGI victim gets more broke and doesn't achieve jack squat.

Of course, SGI does NOT apply their own teachings!
Does SGI sit around chanting? Of course not, when they are calling the shots, they give their "volunteers" an overloaded schedule of ACTION recruiting, cleaning toilets, and a hundred other actions for SGI.

Its a classic mindf*ck and Ikeda has done it all deliberately. He puts people on a running wheel like gerbils chasing a carrot they can never get.

SGI-chanting is the worst possible strategy for achieving goals. (lots of New Wage scamolas also sell the same strategy of "something for nothing")

Forget chanting, and learn Project Management skills to achieve goals.

[shadesbreath.hubpages.com]

10 Steps to the Perfect Scam -

1. Charismatic leader - The Dear Leader Ikeda
2. A good story - The Human Revolution / Gosho (take your pick)
3. A good show - "Rock The Era" / Culture Festivals / any and all cult manufactured events, large & small
4. That first sucker - "pioneering" members in any country / Rush Hour of The Gods (post-war Japan, the explosive growth of the gakkai, linked to a time of great turmoil, uncertainty, drastic social change, fear in a society)
5. Bring on the testimonials - every confirmation bias "experience" you have ever heard or read at meetings or in propaganda publications. Everyone is required to have some. Even The Dear Leader has his pseudo-persecution stories and his "incredible" "victory" over tuberculosis (I kid you not). Would be nice if Ikeda could have a weight-loss "victory," too
6. Swell the ranks - shakubuku, shakubuku, shakubuku (translation: proselytise)
7. Give praise and succour to believers - "congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!" Everyday is your birthday in the gakkai cult. Home-V(isit) other members, "encourage" & "support" them back into line
8. Defend assaults from outside with ambiguity, sweet talk and open arms - "us vs. them" mentality (priesthood / taiten heathens or those who have "abandoned" their faith or "gakkai family")
9. Take checks to bank - [www.sgi-usa.org]
10. Laugh silently when no one else is around - [www.wikileaks.org] (Note: item 5(C), in particular)


- Hitch

All gurus (whatever the title) who tells us critical analytical thought hampers
spirituality take care to hire specialists in analytical thinking.

*Accountants

*Investment advisors

*PR advisors

*Real estate advisors

*Attorneys

Imagine someone handling the complex accounts for SGI. Can that CPA do a competant job with the numbers and mathematics of first in first out (FIFO) if he or she is chanting all the while?

Thats the slimy thing.

These types want *us* the 'marks' to ditch our capacities for analytic thought and to revert to cognitive peasanthood.

But these gurus are performance artists. They feign to be in exalted states of mind, while preserving all the analytical thought needed to work rooms and get us to abandon our analytical thought.

All the while hiring experts in specilized applications of analytical thought to do all the important tasks described above.

Thanks to Anticult, a lot of info is available on various applications of
critical thinking by gurus and transformational workshop leaders.

[forum.culteducation.com]

They want us to leave our brains at the door.

They keep their own brains and hire other great minds to do analytical thinking
so that the money can be taken care of.

[markrogow.blogspot.com]

"It didn’t start to dawn on me that SGI is a cult until I tried to leave."

Some members say, “So what if it’s a cult? SGI has helped me, given me structure and a sense of purpose. Besides, I don’t care about organizational stuff. I just care about practicing Buddhism correctly.”
This is the most insidious thing about SGI, in my opinion: the organization distorts Nichiren Buddhism to undermine members’ autonomy and increase their dependence on SGI, and promotes this as “correct practice.”
For example, consider the fact that members do not own the SGI-issued Gohonzon enshrined in their homes — "your" Gohonzon is the property of SGI.

[www.sgi-usa.org]

For a one-time fee, SGI will loan you a Nichikan Gohonzon, the “banner” of SGI. Leaders and members spread rumors that other Gohonzon are “demon infested” or “don’t work.”

Some members think, “Great! We have more unity in SGI because we all embrace the same ‘edition’ of Gohonzon.” Conformity is often praised as unity in SGI. But what’s more insidious is that SGI inserts itself into the most sacred and central aspect of Nichiren Buddhism: the relationship between the practitioner and the Gohonzon.

"If SGI owns your Gohonzon, it’s not such a leap to say that they own your practice.

''And if they own your practice, it’s not such a leap to say that they own a large share of your mind and heart. After all, the Gohonzon is not just a paper scroll, Nichiren teaches, but the very essence of our life itself.
To be a good SGI member, you must have a Gohonzon that is approved by SGI. Leaders may rationalize this as “protecting the members,” but even Gohonzon inscribed by Nichiren himself are not approved by SGI. Perhaps many members are relieved that they do not have to choose from the dozens of Nichiren-inscribed Gohonzon available for free. But my point is that SGI pays lip service to freedom of choice and diversity, yet there is no choice with regard to the most essential and personal aspect of Buddhist practice.

"Granted, most SGI members do not believe that the teachings of Nichiren have been manipulated to serve the self-enriching interests of a cult. We have been told for so long that SGI serves all humanity. Serving SGI is wonderful, we are told, because SGI alone is fulfilling the Buddha’s decree. In other words, the group itself perpetuates a belief in the unquestionable greatness of the group.

"Most destructive of all, SGI members are indoctrinated to "never give up.” In Buddhism, “never give up” means never give up on your own life and practice, and to be persistent in your quest for liberation for yourself and all living beings. This is a great Buddhist attitude.
But in SGI, “never give up” is often invoked to mean never give up on the organization.

"I’m talking about indoctrinating people with a fear that serves to benefit the religious corporation rather than the practitioner -- a fear that is not instructive or helpful, but is destructive and manipulative.
By contrast, I had been a confirmed Catholic for more than ten years before I decided to join SGI, but I never gave the Pope a second thought. I just moved on to a religion that I felt was better for me.

"Leaving the SGI, on the other hand, was difficult and terrifying."

Quote

"“SGI used to be a cult, maybe, back when members wore uniforms and aggressively recruited people,” I would explain. “But that has all changed. We don’t worship President Ikeda. We learn from him and try to emulate him. Besides, my life has improved since I joined SGI. President Ikeda always talks about freedom and the importance of the individual. I’ve learned a lot from him about standing up and speaking out. You’d never learn that in a cult.”"

Quote


I joined SGI almost 14 years ago. I've worked for the SGI as a paid propagandist — first as a staff writer for the World Tribune and more recently as a freelance ghostwriter for SGI-USA's Middleway Press. SGI is on my professional résumé. I've defended the SGI in print. I've tried to explain away charges from friends, family and strangers that SGI is a cult. I've tried to convince myself that SGI might one day change.

But cults like SGI change only in the sense that they become more sophisticated or perhaps more subtle in their workings. They may take Ikeda's photo down from the wall in the Gohonzon room, and stop making members wear white uniforms — they may look less cartoonishly cult-like. But the goal remains the same: to make members believe that they will suffer without the group, and whatever happiness and success they have is attributable to the group, and they owe everything to the group. This is *not* Nichiren Buddhism — this is SGI-ism, and it's precisely what makes SGI a cult.

and

Quote

SGI members are programmed to believe (whether we are aware of it or not) that we will suffer if we get crosswise of the SGI or part with it voluntarily. Only cowards, weaklings and corrupters leave the SGI voluntarily, we are told. We are convinced that the correctness of our Buddhist practice is dependent on our SGI affiliation, even if that affiliation is loose or sporadic. Being an absentee member for a few months is fine, but leaving SGI will invite the wrath of all the Buddhist gods and our lives will become nothing but misery.
During my years as an SGI member and as the editor of BuddhaJones.com, I have observed the extreme fear and superstition that SGI members feel toward their own organization. Many write to tell me about some crappy thing that happened to them in the SGI, but they beg me not to publish their letter, or to post it under an assumed name — and some ask me not to tell anyone that they were even reading my web site. They are afraid of being in trouble with SGI, of being shunned, of having misfortune rain down upon them because they dared to displease "the org."
One of the reasons why I say SGI is a cult is because it instills in members this irrational fear that harm will come to them unless they remain members in good standing. It’s not as if some leader says: “OK, now we’re going to indoctrinate you with fear and irrational beliefs.”

Instead, we are indoctrinated with what it means to be a noble soldier of Soka:
...You are the SGI. If you are not happy with SGI, you must work harder to make it better. Leaving the SGI is the same as trying to escape your karma, which can’t be done. The people who quit are deluded traitors. Those who betray the SGI are betraying Nichiren. They will experience retribution. Those who leave come crawling back to SGI begging for forgiveness....

There is nothing in Nichiren’s teachings to support the notion that correct practice is dependent upon compliance with or commitment to a particular religious corporation. It’s utter nonsense…unless a group of people you trust tells you repeatedly that it’s absolutely true, and you chant with all your heart to internalize the lesson.

[sokagakkailies.wordpress.com]

Quote

8. SGI members are afraid. SGI members have been indoctrinated with a litany of fears: fear of visiting temples or investigating other forms of Buddhism, fear of not chanting enough or skipping gongyo, fear of contradicting the SGI, fear of listening to or entertaining criticism of the SGI, fear of chanting to the “wrong” Gohonzon, fear of leaving the SGI. SGI members fear that these things will invite severe “mystical” punishment such as financial hardship, illness, family strife, loss of a romantic relationship, getting fired from a job or a horrible, agonizing death.

[cultbustersgalactica.yuku.com]

Quote

Insistence that its members frequently purchase religious paraphernalia, only available through SGI affiliated stores, which they say are required to participate in the SGI activities. There is a strict ban on these products being purchased outside of SGI, and members that have purchased these items from an outside source have been threatened and harassed, and told that “bad karma” will follow them. The primary item to the member is a thing called a Gohonzon scroll. According to the SGI website: “The Gohonzon is the object of devotion, in the form of a scroll, that practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism enshrine in their homes and is the focal point of their daily practice of morning and evening sutra recitation and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” The scroll is obtained through a mandatory donation, and if a member leaves the organization, they are required to return the scroll.

•
-Members are frequently urged to “recruit” new members from the person’s pool of family or friends, or even from complete strangers. This is called “shakubuku” which means ‘to break and subdue.’ Former members do mention the use of monthly quotas that were supposed to be met when working on “shakubuku.” And if these quotas weren’t met, they would be chastised in front of other members for their lack of effort and faith, and told of their increased “bad karma.” Sometimes, it was reported that SGI officials would ask for a list of a member’s family and friends, and pursue recruitment without the consent of the member.

•
-Chanting is a very important aspect of SGI practice, and members are encouraged to “testify” to other members in an audience format, what material things they have acquired because of diligent chanting. If a person said that a situation in their life wasn’t getting better, they weren’t chanting hard enough or giving enough time and devotion to SGI. Chanting is taught to reduce one’s “bad karma” and increase happiness, and it also said to aid in the progression towards a goal of “kosen-rufu”, or a peaceful harmonic society. Members are also told of the great fortunes that awaited those who put forth enough effort into SGI.

•
-Critics and former members of SGI have been the subject of intense scrutiny, legal threats and smear campaigns. If a member leaves or threatens to leave, they are subject to various degrees of harassment, usually ending with all the friends they had inside the organization, at the urging of SGI officials, disowning them.
•
-Members were expected to participate in almost daily meetings and programs, and were again chastised as weak and lacking faith for missing these events. The events were part discussion of Daisaku Ikeda writing’s, the founder of SGI, and part encouragement to recruit new members and purchase additional SGI paraphernalia. These meetings were often also used to praise members who brought in new members, and chastise those who didn’t. This reinforcement is an important part of keeping their members hooked, by pointing out the good things that happened to them in their lives as the direct result of their participation in SGI activities.

Good discussion here.

[buddhism.about.com]