I have seen SGI change course many times since the 1980's, depending on what the leadership in Japan decided:

--1970's-80's: Huge national conventions, and just all this "rah rah rah" enthusiasm. We're just so excited to practice this Buddhism! SGI activities every night of the week. That got toned down dramatically in the late eighties, early nineties...and then slowly, activities and meetings increased again.

--We were told, in the eighties, to respect and honor the Nichiren Shoshu priests. Then in the nineties, they became the enemy and we were supposed to fight them. And appparently, there were a lot of difficulties between the SGI senior leadership and the priesthood even as far back as the seventies. This was kept from the members, at least the American members.

--We studied Buddhism a lot in the eighties, and serious study of Buddhism seems to have all but disappeared from SGI now.

--SGI focused an enormous amount of attention on their vendetta with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood in the 1990's. While SGI still hates the priesthood, they seem now to be more focused on "disloyal members," "enemies within the organization," and the Code of Conduct.

--In the 80's, Doing things in a very "Japanese" way even outside of Japan -- men leading the chanting at meetings (unless it was an all-women's meeting), lots of use of Japanese jargon ("kaikon" instead of community center, "hancho," "regicho", etc. instead of leader, etc.) Shouting "HAI!!!" (yes) when senior leaders said something. Now, we are encouraged to use the English words, and women can lead the chanting, even if a man is present. I haven't heard anyone shout "HAI!!" in ages. They're trying to make the practice seem more American.

--I do remember the "mentor-disciple" relationship being discussed back in the 80's -- but nowhere near as much as it was in the nineties.

--I agree with quiet one -- the SGI of the eighties certainly felt warmer and more optimistic than the SGI of the nineties. In the eighties, there was a lot of "Become happy, make your dreams come true." By the mid-nineties, the atmosphere at meetings just felt very paranoid, angry and negative -- the whole "priests evil/SGI good" message, over and over.

But still, even in the seventies and eighties, there was still considerable pressure to conform to your leaders' expectations, and the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and SGI leaders were NOT getting along -- most of us just didn't know that. The SGI of the late forties and 1950's was very aggressively expanding in Japan, to the point where many Japanese disliked and distrusted it. Josei Toda, the SGI president before Ikeda, hated the priesthood and pushed for the expansion of SGI worldwide. Toda also preached the gospel of "You can chant and get anything you want." He selected and groomed Ikeda as his successor.

I think that the SGI of 2009 has simply become what Toda and young Daisaku planned as they sat in some tea shop in 1950's Tokyo.

As for Ikeda's writings, I've always wondered how much he actually writes himself. Even generals cannot be everywhere, do everything and have control over everyone. He doesn't speak English; a lot of the senior leaders don't. How true are the English (Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Swahili, Italian, etc.) translations of his work to what he or his writers actually wrote?) Ikeda is also eighty -- if he is, or were to become confused and forgetful -- then what? Is there a member of his inner circle who is actually pulling the strings, but making it look as if everything is still coming from Ikeda. (And no, I'm not suggesting that all people in their eighties are confused and forgetful -- some are way sharper than people decades younger.) I'm just saying, the senior leadership of SGI is like North Korea. You know that there's got to be a lot of scheming going on, but not who's actually doing what.

@ quiet one: do you seriously believe that Ikeda writes all that stuff himself - I do not think so. Even when translated the style does not seem to be consistent.

What worries me is what "tsukimoto" wrote that SGI now targets so called traitors. Do you have more information on that? To be honest people that’s us here!

Never the less it’s encouraging that people appear to be speaking up in greater numbers now. On the other hand it’s also nice to see that there are more people who are willing to differentiate between the Buddhist concept/philosophy and what SGI practices.

I often wonder what kept me so long in SGI and I do not know about you guys, but I believe it was also the comfort of the group, the district you name it that served as an extended family.

After having my severe doubts about SGI’s interpretation of Nichirens work and the words of the Buddha I came to realize that this is not what Buddhism is about though. Never ever have I read in the Gosho that chanting for your wishes is the reason for this practice – the sentence “earthly desires are enlightment” was stretched beyond belief in my eyes. Troubles are a fact of life and the point is with what attitude to face difficult circumstances. One of the messages of the Lotus Sutra in my books is that we are equal. Equally precious and worthy of respect, to nurture this attitude with our Buddhist practice is to me the main objective of the Lotus Sutra. I do not need fancy community centres for that, tasteless picture books nor demonizing others who may have a different outlook on life.

I learned that I have to do this on my own in my own environment – and this is very difficult. And now that I am slowly joining another Nichiren school the words of Nichiren make much more sense to me.

A few weeks ago a SGI member who happens to be in my family said that there are to many academics in this world (I am an academic) – I felt quite insulted actually, as I do not see myself as a person detached from the world. I have my financial worries as we all do still trying to improve my professional credits by going to evening university (yet another degree *grin*). I remember I was kind of shunned in SGI when I shared what I have learned about the history of Nichiren Buddhism from non-sanctioned reading material. I remember hearing the same sort of reproach of being too academic!!!

As always though the best replies one could have made always come to mind afterwards as I should have asked my family member that it must be much better to be part of a herd of dumb sheep then and that when I want to study chemistry I will choose the gardener as my mentor.

The glorification of the lay concept in my eyes is just a good means to cultivate ignorance – for an organisation, that sees itself also as an educational organisation (which from today’s perspective is so absurd) the treatment of basic scholastic approaches is appalling.

Have you noticed that in its so called universities SGI does not even offer Buddhist and/or Nichiren Studies? Why? It would demand a much firmer knowledge of the Buddhist world in general. Consequently this would question the self-imposed claim on orthodoxy – a claim inherited by Nichiren Shoshu.

I also believe that the members in Japan and the members lets say North America and Europe are much different.

Especially when you look at New Komeito I can not help the feeling that those are a bunch of mediocre small minded conservatives, with a clear nationalistic agenda.

Hate to say this but having all these community centres round the globe does make a good PR in Japan. Especially after the split there was a tendency to select first class spots to locate a centre – the centres where not opened where most members lived anymore. It was much more important to purchase prestigious buildings. Look at SGI-UK - the classic English country estate, SGI-Germany - an estate right at the banks of one of the most idyllic parts of the river Rhine, SGI-Italy - now that’s Tuscany for you.

Oh yea right ---- “it is a present to the members, such a kodoku being able to come together here in this castle for Kosen-Rufu and Sensei sends you some biscuits and cake … and don’t forget at the end of this course you can contribute”. Scary thing is I believed all that too

Remember how Nichiren criticized clerics being much more interested in the affairs of the material world? Difference today is that one does have not be a cleric to achieve that.

It’s so sad to have wasted so many years in SGI – hope some good will come out of it though.

Now a question to the owner of this site – have you already been targeted by SGI-lawyers?
Gassho
Rothaus



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2009 11:50PM by Rothaus.

General Ikeda would probably have a few ghostwriters, who know what he wants to hear.
And he could just use dictation, and have others transcribe it.
Most of these sects, the Leader really does want his/her own thoughts going out there, that is the point of it to them.

But there has been weirdness in various sects or with Leaders, where their speech-writers will write the stuff for them, and then the Leader starts to really believe they wrote it, especially if its well written.
Or they have some poet write poetry for them, and they just put their own name to it.
but usually their own vanity wins out, and they want their own horrible poetry published, as they think its wonderful.

Its fascinating how SGI has changed over the years. They were always trying new things, trying to make the organization more effective to their own objectives.
One does get the sense that the american SGI is mainly just a profit-center.

I've been part of SGI for 4 years and a half already. Someone shaku-bukued me to the practise and told me chanting daimoku would definitely rid me of all that negative karma, help me transform some situations and improve my life for the better.

I started chanting and less than 2 months later I suffered a horrible tragedy that changed all my life for the worse.


I decided to be strong, change poison into medicine, take responsibility and be victorious. I listened to leaders and kept chanting even harder and ultimately received Gohonzon about 4 months later.

I kept chanting, shaku-bukuing people occasionally, partaking in SGI activities, thinking of the bigger picture, getting involved in the Earth charter, charities, studying, receiving guidances and taking action. All the right steps for success... I am grateful for any benefit I have.


That being said, major issues kept getting worse and worse and worse in my life, years after years...
It led me to think: ''Wait a minute!''... Isn't this practise supposed to be beneficial for my happiness? Wasn't I going to transform my karma through faith, study, practise and taking action? There MUST be something wrong and it's my duty to get to the core of it.''

Leaders kept telling me to chant more and more and more. They told me 1 hour a day was never gonna transform anything and I had to chant at least 3 to 5 to 6 hours a day! Someone told me he only got benefits after chanting about 5 hours a day for 6 years! Someone else told me when facing though challenges she would chant all night long and would not even sleep! Seriously!


I was like... ''No! It's been 4 years and a half already. It's crazy! This practise isn't for me.'' I knew about the split between Nichiren Shoshu and SGI but didn't know the Gohonzon had to be eye-opened by Nichiren Shoshu High Priests and that Soka Gokkai International actually made 4 unnecessary changes to its Nichikan Gohonzon... Very curious and odd...

Say I wanna join Nichiren Shoshu and received their Gohonzon... How do I proceed? SGI is definitelty richer and wealthier. LOL! I've barely been able to find just one official Nichiren Shoshu website so far and some links are broken (you need to type them in the address bar). No Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Canada... There are SGI centers (kaikans) in Montreal, where I live, Quebec, Vancouver and Toronto.


To those of you who still chant daimoku (Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo), do you chant to an official Nichiren Shoshu Gohonzon, a printed one, or one given by another Buddhist organization?

I read chanting to the SGI Gohonzon leads to Hell of incessant suffering and bars someone from enlightenment... How did you manage to cleanse yourself from those energies and leave that ''Hell of incessant suffering''?


Did you give your Gohonzon back to SGI or did you hand it to Nichiren Shoshu (they might know how to properly dispose of it)? Did you officially leave SGI by sending a notice?

After years of practise, you must have made lots of friends and acquaintances there... There are tons of activies at SGI. But have been hard not to see any of those people anymore, huh?

Did you life actually get BETTER after you started chanting to the right Gohonzons? I am eternally grateful for your answers.

This chanting 3-6 hrs a day, is clearly a deliberate technique of control coming right from the top of SGI. That amount of SGI-chanting, is literally brainwashing.

They know full well, that if people are working, then that means all of their non-work time, will be spent in SGI chanting, and other SGI activities.

Here's the Catch-22.
The more a person chants, the less they are involved with life, and the worse their life is going to get.

Instead, if a person spent only 1 hour in direct focussed problem-solving action in their life each day, then things might get a bit better!
But one of the worst things a person can do, is to just avoid their problems, with some form of distraction.

So again, SGI has set this up brilliantly.
They know for the average person, anything more than 1 hr a day of chanting is almost impossible to do, and keep up.
So when "shit happens" in life, then they can say to the person...CHANT HARDER AND LONGER, that is your problem.
So they TRY to chant more, but who is going to chant 4-6 hrs a day and keep it up? Almost no one. So then the person blames themselves for not chanting enough.
Or if they do chant more, the get sucked deeper into the SGI brainwashing.
So its a win/win for SGI.

What is it for the chanter?
Its really a type of Catch-22, lose/lose.
The more you chant, the more you avoid active problem solving, the worse one's life can get.
Or if a person is a "normal person" they will stop chanting much, and be lucky to do 30 minutes. Then they SELF-BLAME themselves for not chanting enough.

Its a TRAP, and its very common in cultic groups to get people caught in these "Double-Binds", they all do it. A Double-Bind is like a Catch-22, and makes people passive and locked-in.
the Byron Katie sytem also does this to people.
Byron Katie Catch-22 [forum.culteducation.com]

If a person's life is not so great, then they tell you to chant harder and longer. But what if it is doing nothing, and is just a distraction? Then their life gets even worse, and their life becomes all about SGI.

The questions is how to deal with life's challenges and problems?
Instead of passive distraction, and obsessive rituals like chanting excessively which are counter-productive...and set people up for more failure.
Active problem-solving and other helpful strategies are going to work much better. (not perfectly, of course).

SGI is giving directions for people to engage in extreme amounts of SGI-chanting, for many reasons, including the deep deep indoctrination, and also to lock people into SGI.
Its possible only the people at the top have thought it through completely, but its just one of many techniques of social control, that SGI uses. They are very skilled at managing the behavior and the minds of large groups of people, and blocking critical thinking, and locking people into extreme amounts of SGI-chanting is one of them.

And they also use FEAR, in that they tell people if they stop chanting, or leave SGI, then something horrible will happen to them. They are just taking advantage of the superstituous nature of people.

So they have locked people into an SGI Catch-22 Double-Bind, and they try to use FEAR to keep people locked into it.
Not so easy to get out of, for some people.

One way to get out of it, is to keep a journal, and track the good-bad things that happen in life. One may see that is has nothing to do with "SGI chanting", and is just the Confirmation Bias. [www.skepdic.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2009 05:48AM by The Anticult.

@ Arckangel

in my books nichirens buddhism is not about granting wishes. you may also read into nichtiren shu which is the oldest nichiren school ( not the same as nichiren shoshu).

a good idea in your case might be is to get a good overview of buddhism as a whole an if you wish then to learn more on nichiren buddhism. the book "fire in the lotos" gives a good basis for that.

the eye openeing ceremony is nothing magical that gives supernatural powers to a (go)honzon, it is a ceremony that is rather about entering the sangha that you have chosen and can also be found in other buddhist traditions.

the coments you made about the SGI gohonzon is correct though. they have omitted certain aspects of the orginal that served as a templte of their gohonzon. its just a guess but it could be it was dedictaed to a person or temple originally.

i hope you do not misunderstand what I am saying now, but my advice would be to study hard what your objective is in practising buddhism ratherr than trying to find a replacement for SGI just without the SGI in it.

you may come to realise that buddhism is much more than what was thought in SGI.

greetings
rothaus

Quote
Arckangel

Say I wanna join Nichiren Shoshu and received their Gohonzon... How do I proceed? SGI is definitelty richer and wealthier. LOL! I've barely been able to find just one official Nichiren Shoshu website so far and some links are broken (you need to type them in the address bar). No Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Canada... There are SGI centers (kaikans) in Montreal, where I live, Quebec, Vancouver and Toronto.


To those of you who still chant daimoku (Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo), do you chant to an official Nichiren Shoshu Gohonzon, a printed one, or one given by another Buddhist organization?

I read chanting to the SGI Gohonzon leads to Hell of incessant suffering and bars someone from enlightenment... How did you manage to cleanse yourself from those energies and leave that ''Hell of incessant suffering''?


Did you give your Gohonzon back to SGI or did you hand it to Nichiren Shoshu (they might know how to properly dispose of it)? Did you officially leave SGI by sending a notice?

After years of practise, you must have made lots of friends and acquaintances there... There are tons of activies at SGI. But have been hard not to see any of those people anymore, huh?

Did you life actually get BETTER after you started chanting to the right Gohonzons? I am eternally grateful for your answers.

Arckangel, I have not found anything on Nichiren Shoshu Canada either. At www.nst.org/ I found temple listings for the United States. If you are interested in Nichiren Shoshu, try contacting the temple in Flushing, New York. They may know of other Nichiren Shoshu groups in eastern Canada. Have you tried www.fraughtwithperil.com, or nichirenscofeehouse.net? These are forums for people who practice Nichiren Buddhism. Yahoo also has several groups that discuss Nichiren Buddhism -- the "taiten" board for those of us who've quit SGI, the "SGI Unofficial," and the Independents board for those who chant daimoku but don't necessarily support SGI, Nichiren Shoshu or Nichiren Shu. Someone on one of these boards may be, or know of Nichiren Shu or Nichiren Shoshu members in your area whom you could speak to. (You know that Nichiren Shu and Nichiren Shoshu are two different sects, right?)

I have had two Gohonzons over the past twenty-something years. At the beginning of my practice, I received a Nikken gohonzon. I had many lovely gongyos and sessions of daimoku with it, and life, overall was good. In the nineties, I went through a bad patch -- some relationship and job difficulties. This was at the time of the priesthood/SGI split. One of my leaders insisted that I needed to exchange the Nikken Gohonzon for a Nichikan Gohonzon, and took me to do this. I still had some difficulties but felt a bit better. I can't really give the Nichikan Gohonzon credit....I think it was mind over matter. And perhaps, just the encouragement -- that my leaders and fellow members wanted to help me.

Frankly, I don't think it matters which Gohonzon you chant to. To me the Gohonzon serves as a place to fix your eyes, so that you're not looking all over the place while you're chanting. It can also remind you of the teachings of Buddhism -- the ceremony at Eagle Peak, the Ten Worlds. I don't think that Nichiren even gave Gohonzons to all of his followers. I do not believe that a Gohonzon can make a person fall into the Hell of incessant suffering. This is a superstition that organizations put out to their members to manipulate them. To me, the negative energies come from people who tell you scary, misleading and manipulative things. I "cleanse" myself of this anxiety by reminding myself that they're just telling me superstitions that there are no proof for!

I used to be a leader. I called one of my leaders and told her that I was resigning this position. It was the responsible thing to do -- she needed to know that I was no longer going to be doing certain jobs so that she could get someone else to cover them. I continued to attend meetings for awhile, and then just stopped. I never formally resigned. I suppose I could go back some day if I wanted, but I don't think I will. I went to a meeting a couple of years ago....and it just seemed so silly and pointless. I never returned the Nichikan Gohonzon and I still chant to it. SGI says you should return your Gohonzon if you're no longer in SGI, but nobody has ever asked me to return it, and I'd say no if they did.

Some members do choose to return their Gohonzons to SGI when they leave. Maybe they aren't chanting anymore, and see no point in having a Gohonzon. Maybe they're joining another sect, and will receive a Gohonzon from them. Maybe they just hate SGI and don't want anything that reminds them of it in their house. I feel, do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just, if you no longer want your Gohonzon, it's more respectful to return it to SGI or a Nichiren temple so it can be disposed of properly rather than just tossing it in the garbage with the banana peels.

I left SGI in 2006. In the beginning, I missed SGI a bit, and felt angry at the organization itself and certain members. Over time, I came to see that yes, I'd spent a lot of time with members in activities, and had thought of them as my friends --- but really, they were not friends! They had no interest in me once I quit doing things for them, and the organization. Sure, they'd call me to come for this or that group or activity -- but did they ever call me just to say hi, and see how I was? No. All we had in common was SGI. When I began questioning SGI and participating in fewer activities -- we didn't have much to say to eachother. That was a bit sad, at first -- but it made space and time in my life for new activities, and for those friends and family members who do genuinely care about me.

Rothaus, when I said that SGI might crack down on people who question them, I meant SGI members who question. I was thinking of people like the poor late Byrd Ehlmann on the Fraught With Peril website. She clearly loved SGI, and wanted to improve it -- and "leaders" interrogated her, berated her, and told her she wasn't welcome at meetings anymore! She had a fatal heart attack in 2008. Certainly, she may have had pre-existing heart problems. Perhaps she didn't take prescribed medication. Who knows? Still, the way SGI treated her could not have helped! From her writing, you could see that she felt deeply sad and torn about how SGI treated her.

That's a problem if someone wants to be in SGI. You and I don't -- so I can't think of anything SGI could do to us. As to whether SGI would go after the Rick Ross site...well, if they did, they'd give Rick Ross a lot of publicity, and themselves, a lot of negative publicity. Lisa Jones had to shut down her website due to legal threats from SGI, but she was an ex-employee of SGI, and she'd signed something saying that she wouldn't write about SGI even after her job ended. Again, I don't think Rick Ross has any ex-SGI employees, so he's probably safe.

Rothaus:
It was much more important to purchase prestigious buildings. Look at SGI-UK - the classic English country estate, SGI-Germany - an estate right at the banks of one of the most idyllic parts of the river Rhine, SGI-Italy - now that’s Tuscany for you.

Oh yea right ---- “it is a present to the members, such a kodoku being able to come together here in this castle for Kosen-Rufu and Sensei sends you some biscuits and cake … and don’t forget at the end of this course you can contribute”. Scary thing is I believed all that too

Yeah, so true. When there is a community center established, it's usually in a place that no one wants to go to, like a run down neighborhood. Then, after the "opening" everyone holds a big sign saying, "Thank You Sensei", for the World Tribune photo op.
Why are they thanking him, when they are the one's contributing the money? And, on top of it, the place is usually too small so the members have to cram themselves in. Then, they proudly proclaim that the membership has grown so much, look how they already fill the place! Not. They also proudly add that the run down rotten area will change due to their efforts ( based on oneness of self and the enviroment). Duh! Every run down area changes given five to ten years! It's the way of the real estate market.

Yeah Roathus, scary to think that I bought in to that stuff too.

Tsukimoto, I'm in that "angry" phase of healing. How long does that last!?

Oh, I might add to avoid confusion, that Culture Centers are property bought by the SGI, and are usually lavish places with no expense spared, while Community Centers are rented, and, well, from my experience, are too small and in undesireable areas.

Hi gingermarie,
if I may give my opinion to this healing phase I would say the anger stage will take a while its part of the "detoxing", in my case I gave up on buddhism for a while. But gathering knowledge is a good way to heal and slowly finding a rationale behind it all.

Its also a question if you are still interested in buddhism or not. As such much information was withheld from me in my SGI times I got interested in other faiths. Not in order to shop around, but enriching my understanding of them. And also trying to leran more on Nichiren Buddhim.

Most of all though allow yourself some time to heal - I was over 20 yeras in SGI

Greetings
Rothaus