From [academia.issendai.com]:

Fox spirits arrived in Japan in the late seventh century. Although the first signs of their arrival were modest, they flourished, and soon were one of the staples of Japanese folklore. They even did what their Chinese sisters failed to do: They were accepted as part of the official religion. Today, statues of the rice-god Inari's fox servants are commonplace in Japan, and Inari himself is popularly believed to be a fox.

In the voyage across the ocean, Japanese foxes also lost a few of the functions which Chinese foxes fulfill. For example, kitsune are not poltergeists, and they rarely live side-by-side with humans in human dwellings. Japanese men do not have kitsune friends whom they visit at home for drinking parties and gossip. The human world and the kitsune world do not intermingle as easily as they do in China; kitsune are the outsider, whether as kami or as demon, and Japanese stories do not reveal or explore their world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stories of fox spirits originated in China, travelled through Korea, and then went on to Japan, where they sort of mingled with the Shinto and Buddhist traditions and mythology there. I have heard, in general, that Buddhism can be accepting of other religious traditions; it can absorb things like Shinto teachings, animism, etc. I spoke with a Christian missionary in Japan. He said that he could get Japanese to accept some of the tenets of Christianity -- but rarely the "I am thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me." He said that many of the Japanese he knew would go to Christian services, but also continue going to Shinto and Buddhist services too -- and they didn't understand why this bothered him.

Even the Soka Gakkai has absorbed a lot of practices that are not really Nichiren Buddhism, though I can't really imagine any Nichiren sect paying much attention to fox spirits. I can imagine the Soka Gakkai SAYING that other Nichiren sects worship foxes though....anything to make another sect seem kooky or primitive and keep you from checking them out!

The list of 100 cult traits mentions that a cult will attack other, similar groups on relatively obscure and minor -- and usually unprovable -- points of doctrine. In SGI, back when it was affiliated with Nichiren Shoshu, we were told that Nichiren Shoshu was the only legitimate Nichiren sect. Why? Because it was founded by Nichiren's disciple Nikko. Nikko, according to the story, was the only one who followed Nichiren's wishes and tended Nichiren's grave for a certain period. So Nikko supposedly had the kechimyaku, and the other priests didn't. The other disciples left to do missionary work, or take care of their own temples and congregations. No kechimyaku for them.

And yet, if you read the Gosho, Nichiren's letters, during his lifetime, his greatest priorities were spreading his Buddhism and guiding, teaching and helping his followers. You'd think he would want his priests to be out and about spreading his teachings and encouraging and teaching the followers. You'd think that the last thing that he would want is for them to be wasting time hanging around his grave.

The whole argument reminds me of an excellent presentation that a couple of my college classmates made in a Theology class. They paired up, and one guy tried to create a case for capital punishment, using Biblical quotes. The other guy, using the same Bible, tried to make the case against capital punishment. You can just endlessly cherry-pick from a scripture to try to make a case for what Jesus, Buddha, Nichiren, St. Paul, or anyone might have wanted. And in the end, you're still not sure. You can "prove" one point, using your chosen document, while someone else "proves" the opposite.

The fox, in Asian folklore, is a trickster who likes to confuse people. Yes, Wakatta, these foxes get around! And they love to be right.

tsukimoto,

is that same page about SGI-USA's assets referenced above still online on the Wayback Machine?

People need to IMMEDIATELY go and copy every single relevant page from the former buddhajones.com, at the wayback machine and internet archive.
Those pages can be removed by people who want them removed, if they are not all gone already.

partial archive of BuddhaJones.com
[web.archive.org]

_________QUOTE______________________
Updated 9/1/04
[web.archive.org]
Cults are obviously dark and sinister, right?

We don't expect cults to be friendly and normal seeming. We think cult recruiters must use force or diabolical spells to win recruits. We don't expect to be won over, little by little, through apparent care, concern and appeals to our idealism — appeals to “dream big dreams” rather than to think critically about the group.

Being open-minded, we have no reason to doubt what a religious group says about itself. We're usually willing to suspend our skepticism out of politeness if for no other reason. What Soka Gakkai International (SGI) members say about their group, however, is not always consistent with the functional reality of the group.

SGI claims to be a peace organization that opposes authoritarianism, welcomes all people and teaches people how to practice Buddhism so they can become happy. They are unlikely to mention that SGI is a multibillion-dollar religious corporation that refuses to disclose its financial dealings even to members and donors who ask for information. Members have no voting rights, no grievance procedure, and no say in the policies of their own organization.

SGI does teach a version of Nichiren Buddhism, but it is an interpretation that reinforces the belief that SGI members are somehow “chosen” to save the world, and that their belief system is the one, true, correct religion for all time.

SGI also encourages members to chant for stuff. Material gain validates the goup's teachings and is seen as "proof" that the practice of chanting "works." That's why some people say that Soka teaches "prosperity Buddhism" or Yen Buddhism.

SGI promotes and perpetuates itself through recruitment, fund raising and public relations activities. Members call this “working for kosen-rufu” or “world peace.” The group's agenda includes going into U.S. grade schools and universities to promote SGI President Daisaku Ikeda as a “peace activist” on par with Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. — despite the fact that Ikeda lives a life of luxury (spending millions of dollars on classic art, for example) and has never once so much as engaged in a protest demonstration.

Indeed, Ikeda is the de facto head of a ruling-coalition Japanese political party called New Komeito. In the past, The New York Times and others have reported that this is a militant political party that aims to establish theocratic rule in Japan. Others claim its a pacifist or socialist party. Either way, many people in the U.S. who join SGI think that they are joining a friendly group of Buddhists. They have no idea that they are supporting and legitimizing one of the most powerful and controversial political movements in Japan.

As for the SGI welcoming all people, new and potential recruits should know that SGI has publicly condemned and maligned SGI members who have voiced criticism and sponsored public discussion of SGI's policies and activities.

In fact, the “SGI-USA Reform Group” was threatened with legal action if they continued to identify themselves (correctly) as SGI members in good standing. SGI has proven itself capable of and willing to crush dissent and dissenters among its ranks. And non-members or former members who criticize SGI are branded as enemies or "people with problems."

Nichiren Buddhism is a religion, and there are dozens of different temples and organizations in which people learn, teach and practice this religion. Soka Gakkai, on the other hand, is a cult that uses this religion as a cover and a justification for accumulating wealth, political power and more members. Members receive nothing in return except a distorted view of Nichiren Buddhism, peer pressure, emotional manipulation, phobia indoctrination, a misguided belief that SGI membership gives them a special mission in life, and a habit of demonizing all perceived “enemies of Buddhism.”

That being said, SGI members are not evil or bad people -- not at all. Cults are a lot like peer pressure groups. Within the pressures of the group, people may do, say and go along with things that are ordinarily out of character for them. The person who told you about chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and invited you to a SGI meeting is probably sincere, well-meaning and genuinely wants you to be happy. Even so, you should know what you're getting into before you commit yourself to this group.
_______________QUOTE________________________

Quote
The Anticult

Its unfortunate people often think of "cults" as being bald-headed bongo drummers, or mass suicides. Those are the most extreme examples.

But there are countless other much larger cults, where things are not so black and white, where people dress normally, hold jobs, etc.

Exploitation:
In what way are people being exploited and used? Sometimes, for lower level people, all the cult wants is their money, free labor, and to reruit their friends. Only people way up in the cult are asked to give everything to the sect. That is how SGI works.

Deception:

They even go as far as training the everyday SGI people to recruit, without knowing what they are really doing. So they are giving false information to people, but also doing it by deceiving their own SGI people.

But the SGI-USA and the other levels of SGI are really seperate operating systems.
The inner-circle of SGI seems to be absolutely fanatical. What would happen to a person or their family, if someone who knew the inside scoop on SGI inner circle, spoke out in public?
SGI would go at that person with every tactic in their arsenal, and many that have only been hinted at so far. Especially at the highest levels, SGI is very fanatical, and dangerous.

I DO agree with Anticult's point that in many cults, like SGI, the members have very mainstream lifestyles -- and that these cults can be as dangerous than the obvious ones like the Hare Krishnas (and perhaps more so, because they seem so harmless.) When I first encountered SGI, I didn't consider them a cult, because they didn't fit my stereotype of a cult. I'd have run away from the Hare Krishnas or Moonies...I trusted SGI, and I shouldn't have.

"Only people way up in the cult are asked to give everything to the sect."? Anticult, I did not see this in SGI -- would you explain this? To me, the lower-level members and senior leaders are all asked to sacrifice. How are the senior leaders giving up everything? The more senior members are compensated for their work for SGI; lower-level leaders are not. Though that can certainly be a trap -- if a senior leader does see something wrong, and does speak out, he or she risks losing their livelihood.

Members trained to recruit? In my experience, we were pressured to do recruit, but kind of left to figure out HOW to do it on our own, and honestly, most of us were not very good at it. Of the people who came to meetings, few joined -- and even fewer of those stayed in SGI very long. And yes, I also realize that for organizations, it's a numbers game. They must approach and recruit many, many people, to get their few core members. SGI has terrible retention rates; if they're brainwashing people, they're doing a lousy job of it.

Dangerous? Well, SGI does play hardball. The members of the IRG, Internal Reform Group, got kicked out of SGI for asking SGI to reform. George Williams lost his position as leader of Nichiren Shoshu of America -- and was essentially written out of SGI/NSA history, probably because he became too popular for President Ikeda's liking. Lisa Jones was threatened with legal action for criticizing SGI on her website and had to shut it down. There's been money laundering, wiretapping. The Tokyo assemblywoman who fell to her death...well, what's the evidence that SGI had anything to do with that? The rape allegations, unprovable.

Quote
The Anticult
tsukimoto,

is that same page about SGI-USA's assets referenced above still online on the Wayback Machine?

People need to IMMEDIATELY go and copy every single relevant page from the former buddhajones.com, at the wayback machine and internet archive.
Those pages can be removed by people who want them removed, if they are not all gone already.

partial archive of BuddhaJones.com
[web.archive.org]

It was online yesterday. It's interesting that other articles about SGI's finances cannot be accessed. Yesterday, I tried to pull up an article called "Never Give Up on Financial Accountability," January 2, 2004. I got the message, "Not Archived." When I tried to get an article from July 21, 2003, "Hot on the SGI-USA Money Trail," I kept getting the message "Data Retrieval Failure."

Just to quickly clarify, generally people at the very highest level, literally give their entire life to the sect. They work all day, everyday for the sect. By those people, one is talking about the people right at the top, people who report directly to Ikeda.
So the word "leader" was misused, not the local "leaders" but the small group around Ikeda who call the shots. Local leaders, as shown in the SGI code of conduct, have to follow the SGI orders, or they just kick them out.

Again, there is a miscommunication about the local recruiting. They are certainly "trained" and reinforced, to constantly bring up SGI, and try to "share it" (push it) on their friends, and never quit. That is actually a VERY sophisticated way to do recruiting. They don't train SGI members to be dishonest, they train them to be True Believers, and nothing is a better recruiter than a true believer.
The dishonest and conscious use of the techniques is much higher up the food chain. The use of "brainwashing" is higher up the food chain as well. SGI is brilliant at what they are doing.

Of course, the regular everyday SGI local people don't know anything about it really. They are just carrying out the SGI systems to recruit friends and associates, as a True Believer. They think they are getting good Karma, and helping out.
I don't understand how people could think SGI is lousy at what they are doing, when they appear to be the richest sect on earth? They are brilliant at what they are doing, more successful than almost anyone else. SGI is not terrible at using persuasion on their members, they are brilliant. They clearly made a decision in the west, to tone things down a bit, and make the commitment quite loose at the bottom level. They cherry-pick people from those levels for special tasks and duties.
But frankly, the lowest level membership is deliberately made to be not too demanding. One can see it is consciously planned like that, as its changed over the years.
It would be interesting to find out how many levels SGI has around the world, and how those international systems operate.

And as far as the more serious things that have gone on, none of those other things mentioned in that post, were mentioned. But all the signs are there for some very serious repercussions to occur to senior members of SGI in Japan, if any of them tried to speak out.

But is it still online today?
Was this the same page?

May 24, 2004
[web.archive.org]
Confusing Information to Dismiss
[www.buddhajones.com.wstub.archive.org]

Quote
tsukimoto

Quote
The Anticult
tsukimoto,

is that same page about SGI-USA's assets referenced above still online on the Wayback Machine?

partial archive of BuddhaJones.com
[web.archive.org]

It was online yesterday.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2009 06:22AM by The Anticult.

Quote
The Anticult
But is it still online today?
Was this the same page?

May 24, 2004
[web.archive.org]
Confusing Information to Dismiss
[www.buddhajones.com.wstub.archive.org]

Yes, Anticult, I just tried it. I was able to go to that page just now. That's the same page I went to yesterday. I didn't copy the whole page, only the real-estate section.

Interesting discussion. Let me put in my $0.02.

To some extent there is a bit of complicity on the part of the leaders. Most have been practicing for a long time, and in that course of time they have become "indoctrinated" into the way of thinking of SGI. Take the money handling issue for example, to a very senior member the level of trust of the higher-ups is so great that they may actually become insulted when questioned about what NSA/SGI does with the money. They truly believe it is being funneled into building community centers, colleges, etc. That is what makes things so shady because the very people you would look to as watchdogs of your interests are fully bought-into the dogma. I have sat at planning meetings in which a member's concern is repeated by a district or chapter leader and the hombu folks merely shot glances of bemusement or eye-winks at one another and moved onto the next topic. I guess they felt they were acting in "enlightened self-interest" at those times.

Going further, with all the rah-rah! the Temple is EEEVVVIIILLL rhetoric that NSA purveyed in the 90's, many of the members actually believed that NSA was doing something pure and dedicated through their actions! Turning the organization's own dogma on itself, one needs only to consider that an organization filled with people with problems and bad karma will mirror the same and be an organization with problems and bad karma.

I recall the advice I once received early in my practice saying that "SANSHO SHIMA" (3 obstacles and 4 devils) would surely arise and attempt to destroy the person attempting to practice. Since organizations also have their own destiny, the same should apply. Those of us who left, clearly did it for valid reasons (if only to ourselves) which also indicates that there are some problems that we've left behind.

To some extent I agree with Anticult. The "True Believer" model is the most efficient and to some extent and mitigates the question of leadership motivations since for the most part, the need for bad behavior never elevates itself to the level of the higher leadership involvement.

Wakatta1

Quote
The Anticult
Again, there is a miscommunication about the local recruiting. They are certainly "trained" and reinforced, to constantly bring up SGI, and try to "share it" (push it) on their friends, and never quit. That is actually a VERY sophisticated way to do recruiting. They don't train SGI members to be dishonest, they train them to be True Believers, and nothing is a better recruiter than a true believer.

The dishonest and conscious use of the techniques is much higher up the food chain. The use of "brainwashing" is higher up the food chain as well. SGI is brilliant at what they are doing.

when they appear to be the richest sect on earth?

But all the signs are there for some very serious repercussions to occur to senior members of SGI in Japan, if any of them tried to speak out.

-

--Okay, I see your point about not teaching general members a sales pitch. My friends and I went out to do shakabuku, unpolished, naive and rough around the edges, but you're saying that this would make us seem sincere and unthreatening. We wouldn't get our targets' guard up. And if we're recruiting friends and family -- people aren't on guard against friends and family and neighbors. That makes sense. Sort of like saying, "I don't play games," can be a game in itself.

--Dishonest and conscious use of techniques, brainwashing, further up the food chain? Anticult, what do you mean, and how do you know? I question that the higher ranks would even think of speaking out. If they have been in SGI for years, and have risen through the ranks, they're either True Believers, or they have decided that they can get something that they want from SGI, power, influence, wealth, whatever. If a True Believer sees something questionable in SGI, he'll rationalize that it's really okay because this is such a great cause. The guy who's out for what he can get...will just continuing getting what he can. Why would either kind of senior speak out? The kind of person who would speak out has been screened out long before he or she gets to senior leadership levels.

--Richest sect on earth? How does SGI's wealth compare with the Catholic Church, the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Unification Church, Scientology? Probably an unanswerable question; just curious. I would expect the Mormons to be wealthier, with every household required to tithe.

--Certainly, SGI is extremely wealthy, but they have not been able to meet their targets for membership. Someone, sorry I don't remember who, posted in this thread about membership cards. It seems that Japan was angry about the low membership numbers in the USA, so SGI-USA had members fill out cards. Essentially everyone in a member's household was counted as a member -- regardless of whether the other members of the household actually practiced. This was justified by saying that the nonpracticing family members were "friends of SGI," who supported the members' practice. If I had a husband and five children in my household -- and none of them practiced but me -- under this system, we'd still be counted as having seven members in the household! They'd probably count the dog and cat if they could get away with it -- after all, Buddhism teaches that animals actually have the Buddha nature too. Clearly, things are NOT going according to plan if SGI has to play number games like that.

Yeah, SGI's clever and rich....but they've made dumb mistakes. If they'd allow a bit more freedom and open discussion, they wouldn't have lost so many members, they wouldn't have such a bad reputation in Japan, and they could be even richer.

Wakatta, you were in or near Chicago, where there's a Nichiren Shoshu temple. Did you know the priests and temple members? What do you think is the real story there?

--