The Cause and Effect of the Twisted Slanderous Teachings of the Soka Gakkai

Earthly Desire Equal Enlightenment in the Soka Gakkai is taught from the perspective of a common mortal rather from the perspective of the Buddha.

The members are taught by their leaders that any desire or goal the member has, as long as they chant Namu Myoho renge kyo, is equal to Enlightenment. They are encouraged to chant for cars, boyfriends, houses, fame, even drugs and sex and that is equal to Enlightenment at the moment the desire is fulfilled.

The Wish Granting Jewel to these base depraved men and women of the Soka Gakkai is not the Great Wish for attaining Buddhahood that is bound to the Pure and Perfect Consciousness hidden in the core of being [Amala] but rather those common shallow wishes bound to the Five [Sense] Desires [Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Vision].

Since this matter is of utmost importance, I will give an example of a Soka Gakkai leader who believed faithfully in this perverted doctrine of the Soka Gakkai. She was the top senior leader of a country who lived and breathed the Soka Gakkai and every doctrine and principle taught therein. She was a physically beautiful women of forty five years old with golden blond hair, bright green eyes and a near boundless determination to spread the twisted teachings of the Soka Gakkai, such as the primacy of the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple and Enlightenment Equals Earthly Desires. Married for fifteen years, she had three beautiful children, five, seven and eight years old, and a husband who worshipped the ground she walked on. He was absolutely supportive of her practice which kept her away from home for long periods, doing those insipid slanderous Gakkai activities. The husband, though having a business of his own, split the duties of taking care of the children with a nanny and he was content because he loved his wife and children and was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to make his wife and children happy and to promote the Gakkai's vision of "Spreading the True Teachings" [Kosen Rufu].

During one of these activities, ten years earlier, she met another top senior leader in the Men's Division and they immediately hit it off having so many things in common, their love and admiration for Sensei, endless activities for "Kosen Rufu", and spouses and families who chant and support them. Her feelings for this man however, far surpassed those of a mere comrade in faith. Every day for ten years, morning and evening, when she did Gongyo and Daimoku, she always included in her prayers the wish to be with this man. Out of the blue he contacted her revealing his very same desire to be with her. They began an affair and then they both determined in front of the Soka Gakkai no-honzon that they would leave their spouses and be together thus realizing in their very bodies the Gakkai teaching of Earthly Desires are Equal to Enlightenment. They chanted and planned, planned and chanted for everything to go the way that it "must' since their desires are equal to Enlightenment.

This was the day. This was the day she would tell her husband that she found her true soulmate and she had chanted long and hard about it and it would be. Not 10 seconds after she had told him, he ran to the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife, and in front of their three children he stabbed her four times in the back. She lingered in agony for several hours.

This is the result of the perverted teachings of the Gakkai that makes common mortals out of Buddhas.

Thanks for the welcome, Rothaus.

I'm fortunate because I was able to leave the SGI very easily: I moved out of state and simply haven't bothered to hook up with the organization in my new state. If I had tried to just leave, I would've undoubtedly been hounded. But once you sign up with the SGI, they'll count you as a member for life pretty much. In the district I used to be in, there were about 50 members on paper. But the number of people from that list who regularly attended meetings came to a grand total of 5! This is how the SGI can claim to have as many members as they do. The numbers never reveal how many of those people are actually active. There were people on my district list who I had never even seen or heard of, and I was in that district for 10 years!

Here's an experience I had: we once had a very active new member coming out to all the meetings. One day she just stopped and I was asked to give her a call. I didn't mind because I was wondering if everything was all right with her. She told me that she had gone back to Christianity/her old church and that she felt comfortable there. I told her that that was great but if she ever wanted to return to the SGI my door was open. I appreciated her honesty but the other leaders weren't satisfied with that (surprise, surprise!). A few months later, I was asked to call her again. However, I refused and put my foot down, telling them to leave her alone. The point of this story is that once you sign up to be an SGI member, you'll always be an SGI member. On paper anyway.

quiet one, it really blows my mind that more members aren't creeped out or turned off by this whole mentor and disciple thing. But I guess that's the power of brainwashing. In hindsight, I can't believe I used to sing "Forever Sensei" at meetings, thinking nothing of it. I personally believe that the SGI is brainwashing everyone into worshipping Ikeda so that when he eventually dies, everyone will automatically side with his son (who I'm sure is being groomed to take over daddy's position) when the inevitable power struggle occurs.

The other thing that bothers me about Ikeda is that he constantly gives guidance about how chasing fame and fortune is unimportant, yet he loves to walk into a room and spread his arms out and be received like a rock god. And that entourage of his... I've seen presidents of countries traveling with less people. Does Ikeda really need 5 photographers to document his every move? Sometimes I think some of them are just popping their flashes and not taking any actual photos. I think they're all just there to boost his ego and give off an air of importance to the poor members who, unfortunately, lap it all up.

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Hi, I’m a current SGI member and going to be leaving very soon. I do like the practice and do love reading the Lotus Sutra, but I also have issues with Ikea and his mentor-disciple rhetoric. In fact, after a recent Sunday meeting, I was searching for sites about the org and about the issues I had in mind. This is how I came across this group.

I want to say, reading your posts have uplifted me. Most, if not all, of your experiences somehow coincide with mine.
Anyways, here is something strange that dawned upon me lately.

I am going back to studying Chinese, and I decided to start by reading Mao Zedong’s Book of Quotations that I bought years ago on my first trip to China. This little red book is a bilingual Chinese-English edition. I opened up the first page and something hit me so hard that I couldn’t stop reading the first chapter and had to refer back to a few books of Ikea’s quotations I had to see if I was deluding myself. What I saw that was similar to both writers is that they repeat and hammer in phrases and concepts for the masses to follow. Here is an example that best show my meaning.

“The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism.” Chapter 1: quote 1

Change Chinese Communist Party [hereafter CCP] to SGI and Marxism-Leninism to teachings of Nichiren Daishonin and you get:

“The force at the core leading our cause forward is the SGI. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin.”

Is it me or does that last quote sound too much like a random Ikea quote?

I also looked through many other quotes in Mao’s book. I don’t think it’s possible to do a substitution on all of them, but the tone, manner, and the need to fight an enemy for a cause is consistent in this volume.

“All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful.” Chapter 6:1

I can list more, but this will take too much space; however, do feel free to read up Mao’s Little Red Book here and tell me I am wrong.

After reading parts of the quotations and comparing those to Ikea’s, I have seen too many parallels coming up. For example, SGI loved holding shows like the Kansai exhibition and now Rock the World. Is it similar to North Korea’s Airirang games? How about how the way Ikea was supposed to be our mentor, always quoted, studied, and celebrated in songs? This sounds too much like the Cultural Revolution to me. Plus, as Mao was not the founder, he became synonymous with the CCP as Ikea was with the SGI. The only difference is that the founders were convicted as spies and later pardoned. In the SGI, the founders are given a tip of the hat, but still is nothing known about them except through Ikea’s eyes.

For the record, I am not saying Ikea is Communist. I do know that during the war, Marxist ideology was popular amongst many Japanese youths who were against the Imperial expansion in Asia. It could be possible Ikea read a few things in his youth. Furthermore the ideal of the CCP was to have a more democratic and freer China, of course history has shown otherwise.
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I've never read Mao's Little Red Book, but it's certainly an interesting parallel. When I saw a clip of North Korea's Arirang Games, it did remind me of SGI's big conventions. Huge numbers of performers, wild, over-the-top cheering and enthusiasm, huge pictures of the Great Leader...it was so familiar, it was scary. SGI members having pictures of Ikeda in their homes, North Koreans having pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in theirs...constant praise, quoting, and celebration of the leader.

Japan, after the war was in desperate straits, and there were all kinds of cults, religions and philosophies around. People were just so desperate for anything that might give them the promise of a better future. Ikeda certainly could have been exposed to Marxist philosophy as a youth. Didn't Japan have a Red Army back in the 1950's or 60's?

SGI also has some ties with China -- Ikeda's been there many times to meet with leaders, and has received many degrees from Chinese universities.

I'm also reminded of Eric Hoffer's book "The True Believer." Hoffer compares Nazis and communists with religious fanatics -- argues that there are really a lot of similarities in all these groups. Such groups can be very willing and eager to trample individual liberties to create their ideal society. Membership in such groups can offer a sense of purpose to people who don't have one. Members are often willing to sacrifice to be part of a group. In theory, the group says that they're trying to create an egalitarian society -- but it ends up that a small elite group of members gets all the power and privileges.

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Soka Loves the People's Republic of China
by: mroaks
Sun Nov 30, 2008 at 13:49:27 PM MST

Suck it up, Dalai Lama. You'll get neither support nor sympathy from Soka Gakkai, whose leaders are longtime admirers and friends of China.
Each year, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda writes a "Peace Proposal" prescribing actions to achieve world peace. His recipe for peace in Asia is simple: greater friendship between China and Japan. Tibet has never rated a mention.

Why won't SGI use its carefully constructed relationship with the Chinese government to lobby on behalf of the Tibetan people?

mroaks :: Soka Loves the People's Republic of China
A Soka building and Soka-founded China-Japan friendship association building were recently bombed in Japan. There are many Japanese who are wary, first, of Soka's powerful role in Japan's government and, second, of Soka's push for stronger ties with China.
As Soka tells it, its efforts to curry favor with Chinese officials are inspired by a need to atone for the horrors inflicted by Japan on China during the WWII era. To be sure, Japan has much to atone for.

Critics, however, point out that Soka's approach to China ignores the human rights violations currently committed by China. Soka pursues "friendship" between Japan and China without questioning or challenging the brutality of the Chinese government.

Lotsa SGI members may be surprised that their supposedly Buddhist organization has intimate ties with a regime famous for pursuing extermination of the Buddhist culture and tradition of Tibet. Especially in the U.S., SGI members shrug and say they just want to chant, they don't care about Japanese politics. They don't want to understand that the organization they loyally defend and claim as their own has tacitly condoned China's aggression against Tibet.

For its part, China has an interest in currying favor with Buddhists other than Tibetan Buddhists as part of its campaign to smear and undermine the Dalai Lama. Soka Gakkai has played gamely along.

Why? Because SGI wants to expand into China, not as a religion but as a "peace, culture and education" organization, perhaps? Why would any "peace organization" [heart] the People's Republic of China? It's a good question.

If you scratch deeper than the surface and talk to SGI members, you'll find that a good many of them think there's some kind of global competition for Top Buddhist. They feel that Daisaku Ikeda deserves the Nobel Peace Prize; the Dalai Lama won the Nobel, but he's a pretender, a "provisional" Buddhist as opposed to a "true" Buddhist like Ikeda. The suffering of the Tibetan people was brought on because they subscribe to a heretical form of Buddhism, according to some Soka soldiers. This thread had to be cut off before SGI members started writing on a public message board what many of them say in private. This entry by a SGI member sums up the "my mentor Ikeda is better than your Dalai Lama" attitude common in the SGI:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Along the way, learning from a mentor may be essential, but a mentor is not a Pope, a Prophet or a Dalai Lama. I mean no offense to those who choose to follow those faiths, just to explain the difference and to supply a broader understanding. In my case, as an adherent of Nichiren Buddhism, I have chosen Daisaku Ikeda, leader of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist lay organization as a mentor. I do so because I believe he has and continues to very effectively demonstrate a profound understanding of compassionate Buddhism that will make the world a better place.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For all their official statements, press releases, proposals and papers, SGI has never made a single statement about Tibet. As of my last advanced Google search of the SGI.org website, "China" returned 238 hits; "Tibet" returned exactly zero.

SGI claims to be a peace organization fighting for human rights across the globe. Their butt-kissing support of the Chinese government proves otherwise.
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Ikeda has also visited Castro, in Cuba. Apparently, human rights violations don't bother him too much.

I had to laugh a little bit. Did I not say earlier that SGI has many simularities to the Communist Party, in trems of structure, and Ikeda to Mao?
I just see one problem I can not see SGI expanding in China as a religious Group (just look at Tibet or Falung Gong), the Communist Party is like God in the Bilbe - no gods beside him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2009 04:41PM by Rothaus.

Howdy everyone!

Yeah China is strange even to me, and I go there all the time. You can practice almost (emphasize almost) any religion you want as long as you don't go against the party line, so that's why the Dalai Lama is evil since he wants a free Tibet, Falun Gong is evil since people revere Li Hongzhi as a god higher than Hu Jintao (current leader) and Mao, and the Catholic church isn't allowed in China since the Pope doesn't agree with the CCP ideas and still the only European power with diplomatic relations with Taiwan (there is a Catholic 'alternative' called the Chinese Patriotic Church). In fact, there is no SGI center in China but only a handful of expats and Chinese members who found out about the SGI as students abroad.

And yet . . .

Most of Ikea's degrees comes from China.

He has been back and forth between China and Japan many times, even before they opened diplomatic relations.

You can even buy some of his books in China. In fact, I have a copy [appropriately] titled "Our Tendai sect."

Strange bedfellows, are they not?

Daar all:

Very good thoughts. I think parallels between SGI and fascism can be just as easily made. I have highlighted several sentences and phrases and I will leave it up to you to draw the parallels.

Scruton:

"[Fascism is] more notable as a political phenomenon on which
diverse intellectual influences converge than as a distinct idea;
as political phenomenon, one of its most remarkable features has
been the ability to win massive popular support for ideas that are
expressly ANTI-EGALITARIAN."

"Fascism is characterised by the following features (not all of
which need be present in any of its recognized instances):
nationalism; HOSTILITY TO DEMOCRACY, TO EGALITARIANISM,
and to the VALUES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT; the CULT OF THE LEADER,
AND ADMIRATION FOR HIS SPECIAL QUALITIES; A RESPECT FOR
A COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION, AND A LOVE OF THE SYMBOLS
associated with it, such as UNIFORMS, PARADES and ARMY DISCIPLINE."

"The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond AN
APPEAL TO ENERGY AND ACTION."

Another way to look at fascism is as a movement of extreme racial
or CULTURAL NATIONALISM, combined with ECONOMIC CORPORATISM
and AUTHORATARIAN AUTOCRACY; masked during its rise to state
power by PSEUDO-RADICAL POPULIST APPEALS to overthrow a
conspiratorial elitist regime; SPURRED BY A STRONG CHARISMATIC
LEADER WHOSE REACTIONARY IDEAS ARE SAID TO ORGANICALLY
EXPRESS THE WILL OF THE MASSES WHO ARE URGED TO ENGAGE
IN A HEROIC COLLECTIVE EFFORT TO ATTAIN A METAPHYSICAL GOAL
against the machinations of a SCAPEGOATED DEMONIZED ADVERSARY.

In any case, in most definitions of fascism the themes of
conspiracism and a NEEDED SCAPEGOAT emerge.

Mark

I would be careful though even when we see those parallels to open a drawer under which we can can put SGI. What becomes clearer that ist attitudes become more extreme an uncomprimsing in terms of absolute submision to Ikeda as a Leader.
What would ineterest me is that at time when I left I felt a sort of anti-academic atmosphere. Meaning that when ever I or somebody else raised rather academic based issues one was looked down at - like saying academics won't get the message of how important that mentor/disciple idea is. What is the current situation? Thats to all those how left just a while ago.