---------------------------Beginning of Quote, Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer--------------------------------------------------------------

-- “All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action;

--All of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance;

--All of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance.” (Preface)

-- Hoffer defines a “true believer” as “the man of fanatical faith who is ready to sacrifice his life for a holy cause.” Leaders of the mass movement “must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope”(p. 13)

-- “An active mass movement rejects the present and centers its interest on the future.” (p. 82)

--The mass movement hates independence and individualism. The focus is on “obedience” and “one mindedness.” “Uniformity” must be developed. (p. 101) Members must be “deindividualized” and “incorporated” into the mass movement. (p. 100)

--Members of the fanatic group are taught to have a common hatred, a single foe, a devil. “The ideal devil is a foreigner….Hitler—the foremost authority on devils—found it easy to brand the German Jews as foreigners.” (pp. 92-93) Hatred becomes a habit. (p. 146)
-------------------------------------------------End of Quote-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. When I was in SGI, (actually NSA) in the late 1980's, we were encouraged to memorize a quote by Nichiren Daishonin. I forget the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of "No matter what persecutions assail me, I will give my life for the Law."

I don't think that SGI was necessarily telling members to die for SGI or Ikeda...and yet members are certainly asked to sacrifice huge portions of their life, including time with spouses and kids, for SGI. That's giving your life for SGI, in a sense. And those Men's Division and Young Men's Division members who guard Ikeda during his overseas travel -- many of them probably ARE willing to take a bullet and die for Sensei.

2. SGI members are encouraged to "substitute faith for wisdom." Don't think too much, just believe.

3. SGI members are also encouraged to practice "itai dosshin," which is to be "many in body, one in mind," to be devoted to Ikeda and SGI's goals, and to obey leaders' guidance, rather than to be independent individuals. Isn't that what the paranoia about "disloyal members" within the organization is about -- Heavens! There might actually be members who dare to think for themselves; we can't have that!

4. Members are encouraged to have grand dreams (extravagant hopes.)

5. The Nichiren Shoshu priests have been a very good common foe. True, they're Japanese, as is Ikeda, but most western members would rarely see a Buddhist priest of any race or nationality. They shave their heads and wear robes. They're just so different, which makes it easier to get members to hate and fear them.

The Bodhisattvas Alwayforhire and Their Busy Little "Bodhisattva" Bee Wives Promoting the Sustaining Contribution Program

We would like to inform every one of the following, related to the Sustaining Contribution Program, in order to continue to increase the awareness of and participation in the program:
1. Sustaining Contribution Brochure: While the main content of the brochure remains the same, some revisions were made to further clarify the instructional portion of the brochure. One major change was to add a $20 minimum per transaction. The revised brochure will be distributed nationwide by mid-November and can be distributed to members at various gatherings from November to January, but will also be available throughout the year. Leaders are encouraged to incorporate introduction of this brochure and study on the spirit of contribution in gatherings such as November district general meetings, December World Peace Prayer meetings, New Year’s Gongyo meetings and Rock the Era activities.
2. Promotional Poster: The poster was also revised so that it includes the SGI-USA contribution Web site address and SGI-USA contribution hotline number. As with last year, posters with brochure holders will be distributed to all SGI-USA centers nationwide so that they can be posted at locations readily available to members throughout the year. We ask that the brochure holders be replenished when necessary so that they are always stocked with brochures.
3. World Tribune: The November 20, 2009, issue will feature the Sustaining Contribution Program. The issue will include an introduction of the sustaining contribution brochures, including how to use them and the spirit behind the program. The “Writings for Discussion Meetings” section will feature a study on appreciation to facilitate promotion of sustaining contribution at December
discussion meetings. A contribution experience will also be included in this issue.
4. National Leaders Video Conference: On December 12, a nationwide district through territory leaders video/telephone conference hosted by the SGI-USA national leaders will be held. They will introduce the Sustaining Contribution Program and its underlying spirit in a portion of this program so that all leaders can understand and be able to confidently share the significance of this program. The video conference will be recorded and will be available on SGI-USA Leaders
Resource Site for access later.

I want my salaried SGI leaders LOOKIN FLY and CRUISIN in some fine wheels when they travel to their meetings. No public schools for THEIR kids and their wives must have their hair and nails done weekly cause they got no time to do it themselves [with all those meeting and sustaining contribution campaigns]. They are busy little "bodhisattva" bees

Nichijew, SGI's best friend in the entire world

Update on the Soka (Spirit of Knowledge Academy) Charter School in Massachusetts, from www.telegram.com

The Soka Gakkai submitted a proposal for a charter school in the Fall of 2008. Massachusetts State Education Department rejected the proposal in February 2009, but the Soka folks were told that they could resubmit their proposal in the fall. They have. It looks as if they've scaled down their plans a bit, planning for fewer students in fewer grades. Massachusetts will now review the plans and make their final determination in February 2010.

------------------------------------------------Beginning of Quote-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Central Mass. charter school proposals advance
State likes 4 applicants in area


By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jreis@telegram.com
Add a comment

One week after controversy roiled the last round of charter school approvals, the state announced progress with the next batch.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has asked eight of the 14 proposed charter schools to move to the next stage of the process and submit a final application for their school. Of the eight, four could affect Central Massachusetts:

•Spirit of Knowledge Academy Charter School, which would serve up to 275 students in Grades 7-12 in Worcester;

•Leaders of Tomorrow Charter Public School, which would serve up to 270 students in Grades 6-8 in Worcester;

•Rediscovery Academy Charter School, which would serve up to 150 students from Ayer, Fitchburg, Grafton, Leominster, Shirley, Southboro, Westboro, Worcester and 21 other communities from Cambridge to Natick; and

•Discovery Charter School of Sustainability, which would serve up to 260 students in kindergarten through Grade 6 in Orange and 13 other school districts.

The other applicants were the Hanlin International Academy Charter School in Quincy, Housatonic River Charter School in Western Massachusetts, Lynn Preparatory School in Lynn and the Road to Success Charter High School on the North Shore.

Those not invited to submit a final application include the Newton Science & Technology Charter School, which would have been in Worcester.

Final applications are due Nov. 13 and will be followed by a review, interviews, public hearings and public comments. In February, Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester will recommend to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that none, some or all receive charters.

This is the second year that schools named Spirit of Knowledge and Rediscovery Academy are applying for a charter, although some of the details have changed. Last year’s Spirit of Knowledge application, for instance, would have served more students in more grades, and the Rediscovery Academy would have been statewide.

Last week’s controversy erupted over an e-mail that state Education Secretary S. Paul Reville of Worcester, a voting member of the board, sent to the commissioner in February urging him to find a charter school to recommend and suggesting a Gloucester proposal. The board ultimately approved the Gloucester charter and the commissioner never recommended last year’s Spirit of Knowledge and Rediscovery applications. Mr. Reville has said the e-mail was part of a broader conversation he had with the commissioner about the proposals.
--------------------------------End of Quote---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

tsukimoto, do you think that any of these new proposed schools are also SGI schools in addition to Spirit of Knowledge Academy? "Leaders of Tomorrow Academy" to me sounds especially like something that SGI would come up with. So do some of the other names.

Today was the 20-year anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. I heard a lot of stories about it all day on the radio. Some of these stories were very touching!

A couple of years ago I was at a meeting at someone's house. The leader who was invited to speak was Nathan Gauer, who I think is the Young Men's Division leader for all of SGI. He actually told us at the meeting that Daisaku Ikeda was responsible for the Berlin wall coming down! He spoke in a very matter-of-fact manner--like it was just a certain fact that everyone knew about.

I have heard a couple of times Ikeda's claim to have averted World War III, but that is the only time that I heard that he caused the Berlin Wall to topple!

I don't know if this has been posted previously in this thread but here is the executive summary of the proposal for the SOKA Charter School from the Massachusetts DOE website:

[www.doe.mass.edu]

My favorite line: The SOKA humanistic philosophy is best articulated by Daisaku Ikeda, respected educator, and prolific author: “What our world most requires now is the kind of education that fosters love for humankind that develops character - that provides an intellectual basis for the realization of peace and empowers learners to contribute to and improve society."

@ quiet one
As a European I must say that I also heard this claim of Mr. Ikeda having had an influence on the iron curtain to lift. Especially, and funny enough, in SGI-D (SGI Germany) this cliam was not too loudly popagated.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Polish Solidarnosc; movement (together with the Catholic Church - and the then Pope John Paul II) played a key role all this in combination with a system that was near or in economic collapse. For SGI to make such a claim is beyond belief - just beacause Mr. Ikedas PR-Office was able to make some nice pictures with him handshaking officials --- one thing that is not often seen these days.
SGI makes the same claims on the Sino/Japanese relationship even though it is well established truth that Tanzan Ishibashi 55th prime minister of Japan laid the foundation to that --- pity that Ishibashi came from a family that had close links to Nichiren Shu of which his father was a minister and his mother was from a family very much engaged in Nichiren Buddhism. Ishibashi just was quite aware not to mix political issues with religious ones though.
SGI making those claims is a slap in the face to those who risked their lives may it be in the uprise in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the German Uprise in 1957 or afterwards in Poland and Germany. Some also regard the events in Germany quite critical in the sense that they are blown up out of proportion - the East Germans only had the guts to take to the streets when it was obvious that the "Russian Bear" was loosing its teeth so to speak - its a matter of opinion I guess.
Let me remind you that SGI, hence Mr. Ikeda, never spoke out on Chinese human rights violations.

@ all
As most of you on this board are Americans would it not be a good idea to inform the press or you senator on those issues regarding SGI concerning this school buisiness?? I mean this is EXTREMLY disturbing.
I know that you guys have different sytem when it comes to school funding, but the way I understand it you are talking of the funding for public schools - if it were private (okay what can you do), but this seems out of order.

Need help guys
I would like to get more information may it be internet, news papers or academic resources wich cover the following:
- SGI as being defined as a cult
- SGI's tax evasion efforts
- Anything that deals with issues controversial on SGI other than personal experiene and that is not too out dated.
Thank you all

Quote
quiet one
tsukimoto, do you think that any of these new proposed schools are also SGI schools in addition to Spirit of Knowledge Academy? "Leaders of Tomorrow Academy" to me sounds especially like something that SGI would come up with.

A couple of years ago I was at a meeting at someone's house. The leader who was invited to speak was Nathan Gauer, who I think is the Young Men's Division leader for all of SGI. He actually told us at the meeting that Daisaku Ikeda was responsible for the Berlin wall coming down!

Quiet one, I did a quick google and didn't find anything to suggest that the Leaders of Tomorrow Academy might have an SGI connection. Of course, it doesn't mean that there isn't one. Look at the Barack Obama School in Los Angeles. The only thing on its website connecting it to SGI is that some of its board members are board members for SGI's Soka University in California also. But if you didn't know who the board members of Soka U were, you wouldn't make the connection. Officially, the school is sponsored by the Ingenium Corporation -- no mention of SGI. SGI may very well have many charter schools in the U.S. that we don't know about. They'd just set up some front group to make the application.

Scooby Dooby, thanks for the quote. Ah, that "Soka Humanistic Philosophy," gotta love it! Elsewhere on the DOE site, there's a reference to Ikeda's being a Buddhist writer and educator. Not one reference to his being the president of SGI. You would think that the guy was just some philanthropist doing all this on his own, never mind the worker bees who are doing all the work involved with opening a charter school, and making all those donations to fund it. Mr. SGI does not want people to know he's president of SGI? What's that all about? Again, it's one of those slick little half-truths that SGI does so smoothly.

It's like that case at Ball State University in Indiana-- a professor, an SGI member, was teaching a course in peace studies, sponsored by the Toda Institute for Peace. The professor claims that the Toda Institute was run by this professor in Hawaii, and a Buddhist group occasionally helped them out a bit. Well, the truth is that the Toda Institute is SGI's baby, founded and funded by Ikeda. And sure, this professor in Hawaii may direct the day to day operations of the Toda Institute -- but Ikeda's his boss. The professor either pleases Ikeda -- or gets fired.

SGI is deliberately misdirecting people, lying, telling half-truths. And they've been doing it for years. With both the Soka Charter School and the Toda Institute -- they're NOT being open and honest. WHY are they afraid to say, truthfully, "We are part of the Soka Gakkai."? SGI talks a lot about courage -- why are they not courageous enough to say who they really are, and what they're really doing? Why? It's because they know they have a bad reputation. They know that Ikeda's relationship to the New Komeito Party wouldn't play well with the Massachusetts taxpayers.

And the claim that he toppled the Berlin Wall? People in Massachusetts might say, "No, don't let him start a charter school -- send him to the Public Works Department instead. We won't have to spend so much money demolishing dilapidated structures anymore -- we'll have this guy just chant for them to crumble!"

Quote
Rothaus
Need help guys
I would like to get more information may it be internet, news papers or academic resources wich cover the following:
- SGI as being defined as a cult
- SGI's tax evasion efforts
- Anything that deals with issues controversial on SGI other than personal experiene and that is not too out dated.
Thank you all

Rothaus, that's a challenge. I would like to find similar information myself. Much of what I've found online has been older information, from the 1990's. It makes me wonder why. Perhaps when the internet was newer, SGI didn't monitor it as closely? Maybe more recently, they watch for, and remove anything that is not favorable to SGI?

Rick Ross is a great resource. Their archives have many articles, various ages and topics, about SGI. Have you gone back into this thread? Maybe there's a link or a topic that will lead to other information. For example, Anticult wrote about how nonprofit organizations in the United States need to file a 990 form about their finances. SGI, and some of its subgroups, like the Toda Institute for Peace and the Institute for Oriental Studies, do not do this -- despite their claims of being nonprofit organizations. You could try the website that Anticult was using; it's in this thread.

Recent controversies involving SGI have involved Soka University, Public School 24 in the Bronx (Phillip Scharper, the hate-chanting principal), and an academic freedom case at Ball State University in Indiana, involving Professor George Wolfe, who was teaching a course on Peace Studies. (Try googling David Horowitz and the Toda Institute.) Someone might have put out more information on these topics recently.

Publications: Forbes.com, put out an article, "Sensei's World" in 2005, Time Magazine did an article in 2008 or 2009, and Der Spiegel did an article that SGI did not like in January 2004.

There's a former SGI member, Junya Yano, who is or was writing some information unfavorable to SGI. There was a case in the United States involving a defendant named Rebekah Poston...SGI allegedly hired her to get into some records invoving Nikken Abe's alleged arrest in Seattle...and she tried to get them illegally. I think Rick Ross has that article.

Websites: Cult Awareness and information centre (though some of the information is old), icsa, mombu.com (though much of this is sensationalistic and the members insult eachother), factnet.org, freedomofmind.com, buddhapatriot.blogspot.com.

You could also look at the Massachusetts Department of Education website -- the charter application for Soka School. Note that there's no mention of SGI. That's not illegal, but it is suspicious that they omit it.

So what are you actually doing with all this information, Rothaus? Writing a book?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2009 10:58PM by tsukimoto.