You're dead on this issue. Yes, it's lacks any academic study. For the most part, we are focusing less on the Gosho and the Lotus Sutra and more on Ikea's messages. Sure the do have study meetings where it's all questions and answers i.e. "What does Daishonin mean by Devil King of the Sixth Heaven?" ans. The Devil King of the Sixth Heaven represents our arrogance and disregard towards others." Not much discussion is involved, just what is the right answer.

Whenever I do want to study and bring up something outside of the curriculum, it's more or less ignored and goes back to focusing what the head office in Tokyo(?) wants us to do.

Quote
Rothaus
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.

Dear Rothaus;

Of course you are right. They misunderstand the teachings of the Lotus Sutra that Men of Learning and Self-realization [academics] are incorporated into the One Buddha Vehicle. How many times have members been derided as being like Sharihotsu [a man of learning], when they ask more than a few questions or attempt to explore concepts not covered in the SGI Ikeda "curriculum"? Nothing has changed, I am told.

Nichijew

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DrJesusEsq
You're dead on this issue. Yes, it's lacks any academic study. For the most part, we are focusing less on the Gosho and the Lotus Sutra and more on Ikea's messages. Sure the do have study meetings where it's all questions and answers i.e. "What does Daishonin mean by Devil King of the Sixth Heaven?" ans. The Devil King of the Sixth Heaven represents our arrogance and disregard towards others." Not much discussion is involved, just what is the right answer.

Whenever I do want to study and bring up something outside of the curriculum, it's more or less ignored and goes back to focusing what the head office in Tokyo(?) wants us to do.

Well, don't you see this in communism and other kinds of dictatorships? China, at one point, demonized its educated class. Professors, teachers, college students were sent out into the countryside to plant rice. Young Red Guards -- mostly uneducated teenagers -- were encouraged to taunt and humiliate intellectuals on trumped-up charges. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge in Cambodia killed many of Cambodia's educated people too.

Critical thinkers are a huge threat to leaders who want absolute power. The General -- any General -- wants people who will follow orders unquestioningly, not ask, "Why are we doing this?"

It doesn't surprise me, that, the more SGI continues to push "Mentor/Disciple" the worse the study gets. In the eighties, we actually studied the Gosho, and the Lotus Sutra...the quality of the study kept declining through the 1990's, at least in my area. It became all about just getting the right answer, no discussion of WHY that was the answer.

Why is Ikeda interested in mainland China, though, when it's unlikely that there will be any openly practicing SGI groups in China...well, for decades at least? Does he think he's giving people the impression that he is a great diplomat and humanitarian who can create ties between China and Japan? Is it really just all about publicity for him? SGI does have investments and businesses. Is Ikeda cultivating China as a market, or source of cheap labor? Is it that he is intrigued by how Mao got such a following -- and how a relatively small number of people in the Communist Party can have such control over China's enormous population?

Although I no longer have a subscription to The World Tribune (the SGI's main publication that I kick myself for wasting so much money on), I currently have access to someone else's. This is great for me because I'm able to keep up-to-date on what's being spewed out to the members. A recent issue (11/6/09) had a message from Ikeda to the U.S. members that contained a few sentences that sent a chill up my spine. It reads:

"You should base your lives on the oneness of mentor and disciple. You must decide that pursuing the oneness of mentor and disciple is the primary quest of your lives. You should continue to fight, especially in those areas where your mentor may not be watching, but with the same spirit as your mentor. Such dedicated disciples are surely praiseworthy. This is the essence of Buddhism."

And The World Tribune is constantly flooded with articles regarding Ikeda the mentor. Here are the titles of some recent ones, followed by the issue date:

"Capturing the Spirit of Our Mentor" (9/25/09)
"Mentor and Disciple Hall Opens" (10/23/09)
"Treasures of the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple Exhibition" (10/23/09)
"Rocking the Era, Together With Sensei!" (10/30/09)
"If I Win, Then My Mentor Wins" (11/6/09)
"Running with the Mentor" (11/27/09)

So the next step will probably be to declare Ikeda a Buddha - just a lucky guess though. What almost everyone says especially those who have been with SGI for quite a number of years is the decline in serious Buddhist study. I believe the amount of people uncomfortable with the situation is greater than we can imagine.
What astonishes me is that it seems at none of SGI's “universities” one can study Buddhist or Nichiren studies – coincidence?
To those who just have left recently. What is the current stand on enlightenment – I guess it can only be achieved through the mentor can it not? What sort of language is being used about those openly critical of some internal SGI issues? I am curious because I left about five years ago so it would be interesting what the current situation is like.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2009 02:43PM by Rothaus.

Rothaus, one of the more significant changes I noticed recently is that in the past SGI members would have monthly study meetings based on a certain Gosho (Nichiren Daishonin's teachings) or Gosho passage. There are still monthly study meetings, but now members study lectures on the Gosho given by Ikeda. If I recall correctly, I think they refer to it as something like "President Ikeda's Faith-Based Gosho Lectures." I guess directly studying Nichiren Daishonin's teachings weren't good enough. Now they have to study Ikeda's interpretation of those teachings.

So if I get you right SGI members study an interpretation of a work that is mainly preoccupied to clarify the Lotus Sutra. That is od must say.
Because when you look at it, all that Nichiren did in his Goshos was basically a lecture on the Lotus Sutra. Nothing wrong with clarifying what Nichiren intended but that seems to go a bit over the top. What is said in the gosho? The longer the stream the further the source (or something along the line). It seems SGI is building a multi bending canal that one does not even dare to think there is a source .



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2009 02:54PM by Rothaus.

Here is a scathing socio-religious commentary on the Soka Gakkai. If it is not appropriate for this forum, please remove it.

November 29, 2009

The Fawning, Flattering, Ignorant, Deceitful High Paid Senior Leaders of the Soka Gakkai and their Foolish Followers

Pass the Doobie an SGI leader writes on Chanter Growers Group:

(Unlike you Mark! You are simply a slanderer! But I pray for your happiness as I should. Do you for mine? The honest answer to that question reveals who you really are.)


Mark:

"Here you listen to my good words and think them wicked, point to a slanderer of the Law and call him a sage, mistrust a correct teacher and take him for an evil priest. Your confusion is great indeed, and your offense anything but light."

You may cut and paste as many Gosho passages as there are stars in the sky, pass along as many guidances of Daisaku Ikeda as there are sands of ten thousand Ganges rivers, chant one billion Daimoku, convert as many people to the Soka Gakkai as there are seedlings of hemp, and still, you will fall into the Lower Realms.

I say this because you support evil men, abandon Nichiren Daishonin, the Lotus Sutra, and Shakyamuni Buddha. Nichiren foresaw that such groups as the Soka Gakkai would emerge in the future and he wrote:

"They entirely look up to groups of icchantikas and rely on them as
leaders and, reverencing blasphemers against the Dharma, make
them national teachers.Taking up the Classic Filial Piety of Confucius,
they beat their parents' heads and, while chanting the Lotus Sutra
of Lord Shakya with their mouths, they go against the Master of
teachings." -- Letter to the Tonsured Layman Soya

You have abandoned Nichiren Daishonin and his faith for the twisted faith of Nichikan and the Three Presidents. Nichiren has this to say about you and your high salaried senior leaders.

"Sho-bo, Noto-bo, and the lay nun of Nagoe were once Nichiren’s disciples. Greedy, cowardly, and foolish, they nonetheless pass themselves off as wise persons. When persecutions befell me, they took advantage of these to convince many of my followers to drop out. If you allow yourself to be so persuaded, those in Suruga who seem to believe in the Lotus Sutra, as well as the others who are about to take faith in it, will all discard the sutra without exception."

The five hundred thousand or more human beings in the USA you gave Gohonzon and abandoned their faith: Do you think it was their fault or your leaders fault for turning the most noble religion on earth into a personality cult, these sincere Bodhisattvas of the Earth unable to continue to believe? Was it these new and old members fault, the excesses of your grimy leaders and the abject hatred you and the Nichiren Shoshu brought forth? Whose fault was it, these sincere neophyte Bodhisattva seekers of the Way or your fatally flawed President and his dirty salaried minions who call all the shots, fail to reflect, and suck the very life out of the Buddha's children? Do you really think your smile and pat on the back of these Buddha sons and daughters can possibly change the reality that is SGI, the vacuity of your faith? Do you really think you can abandon and denigrates the Master, Lord Shakya of the Original Doctrine, the Three Bodied Tathagata and remain unscathed?. Would these people have abandoned the Lotus Sutra in droves had you embraced the Buddha instead of Daisaku Ikeda, received guidance from the Buddha rather than your flawed, shallow, greedy, and ignorant leaders?

Nichiren goes on to say,

"There are a few in this province of Kai who have expressed their desire to take faith. Yet I make it a rule not to permit them to join us unless they remain steadfast in their resolve."

Yet you continue to give out Gohonzons like Las Vegas escort fliers, demon infested Taisekaji Gohonzons. One would have thought your Buddha of the Modern Age and his high priced male hookers of the Dharma would have learned their lesson and procured a copy of Master Nichiren's Gohonzon[in form AND spirit].

Nichiren Daishonin continues:

"Some people, despite their shallow understanding, pretend staunch faith and speak contemptuously to their fellow believers, thus often disrupting the faith of others."

Who might Nichiren be referring? You and the other faithless SGI leaders who denigrate the believers and True Priests of the other Nichiren sects? You and the other faithless leaders who claim they have attained what they have not and give shallow self-serving guidance contrary to Nichiren who explicitly teaches we should seek guidance from the Master of teachings, Lord shakya of the Original Doctrine?

Lastly, Nichiren concludes this passage:

"Leave such people strictly alone. The time will certainly come when, by the workings of Brahma, Shakra, and other gods, the entire Japanese nation will simultaneously take faith in the Lotus Sutra. At that time, I am convinced, many people will insist that they too have believed since the very beginning."

We have been telling the disciples and believers all along to leave you alone but many will not heed our appeals. Still, we are joyous to believe Nichiren Daishonin's prophecy that the entire Japanese nation will simultaneously take faith and at that time, you too and the other faithless Soka Gakkai leaders will claim to have believed from the very beginning.

You took up the slanderous faith of Taisekaji at the urging of Makiguchi and Toda and therefore, you were never faithful disciples of Nichiren Daishonin even from the very beginning. Yes, I will chant for you despite being so cowardly that you won't let me respond on your site. Likewise, you are greedy because you won't let me compete for the hearts and minds of the people in your group, allowing me to correct you. It would go a long way were you to post my response on the Chanting Growers group or were you to come here and discuss the issues. I don't see it happening.

Nichiren says of you and your leaders,

Answer: According to the sutra text, the votaries of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law, who are so faithful in upholding the sutra that they are hated by others, are the true priests of Mahayana. They are the teachers of the Law who will propagate the Lotus Sutra and bring people benefit. As for priests who are thought well of by others, who go along with other people’s desires and so come to be revered, one should regard them as the enemies of the Lotus Sutra and as evil influences to the world. A sutra passage likens persons of this type to a hunter who spies sharply about him as he stalks a deer, or to a cat who hides its claws as it creeps up on a mouse. In just such a way, we are told, do they flatter, deceive, and mislead the lay men and women.'

In another writing, Nichiren could well be speaking about your Mentor and his Directors and Vice Presidents,

"Greedy for profit and support, they will preach the Law to white-robed laymen and will be respected and revered by the world as though they were arhats who possess the six transcendental powers."

who are these "white robed laymen"? Orlando Bloom, Herbie Hancock, Roberto Biaggi, and the other rich and famous who have personal audiences with the king...I mean president while the poor abused common folk are cleaning his toilets, answering his phones, and sweeping the floors of his sacred "temples and stupas" for nothing. The deference paid to the these white robed laymen by Ikeda and the top senior leaders is nothing short of fawning and flattery.

And then we read still more about your leaders,

"We also find persons who, though they receive offerings openly, being greedy, never share them with others."

How much have you earned for your efforts? Nothing while your top leaders are earning mid six figures salaries to do the very same "Buddha" work that you do for free. These men are not Nichiren Daishonin, shivering in the snow and living off of grass and brachen. They are neither deserving of your reverences nor deserving of alms. How very foolish of you to to praise them and give them your money and worse, you bring these poor innocents into the meat grinder that is the SGI. You should be ashamed and afraid.

You are just just like those disciples who abandoned Nichiren Daishonin,

"Yet with the lay nun of Nagoe, Sho-bo, Noto-bo, Sammibo, and the like, who are cowardly, unreasoning, greedy, and doubting, my words have no more effect than pouring water on lacquer ware or slicing through air."

Still, I will try again and again for your sake and the sake of the new believers to try and help you believe in the Sutra and the words of Nichiren Daishonin rather than the faithless teachings of Nichikan and Ikeda.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2009 03:15AM by Nichijew.

One thing (out of many) that drove me crazy about the SGI was the "SGI-speak" that all the members do. For anyone who's been in the SGI for any length of time will recognize what I mean. Variations of the word "victory" is used rampantly: "The year of victory!," "We must be victorious!," "Let's be victors!." And there's an obsession with winning: "Buddhism is win or lose!," "We must win in our daily lives!," "Let's win and be victorious!" You'd almost think they were at war with someone. Actually, I guess they are - with the priesthood, and all the other religions of the world. To illustrate my point, here are a few titles of some recent World Tribune articles:

"A Great Victory" (9/25/09)
"Making America Ever Victorious" (9/25/09)
"Savoring the Sweetness of Victory" (10/30/09)
"Ever-Victorious Festival in the Rain" (10/30/09)
"2010: 'The Year of the Total Victory of Soka and the Dynamic Development of Youth" (11/6/09)
"Paving the Way to Victory" (11/27/09)
"My Dance of Victory" (11/27/09)
"Always a Victor" (11/27/09)
"Youth: A Time for Victory" (12/4/09)

It just became comical to me after a while, and I found it amazing that other members didn't reach the same conclusion.

Hi all, since I burst in the forum with my communist paranoia, I thought I'd introduce myself. There's a lot I can write about, so I did the best I can to keep it brief. Sorry if this introduction is too long. Since I am still weaning myself out, I unfortunately will have to keep myself as anonymous as possible. Still, give me a PM, and I can fill you in on the details if you'd like.

Here is my personal story called:


How I changed poison into medicine . . .M----F---AS!!!


I joined the SGI my senior year in college in the Midwest (2004-5) not because I had any problems in particular. In fact, I first read and enjoyed the book, "Buddha in Your Mirror" then found out there was a university group that believed in Nichiren Buddhism. I hung out with them, made some good friends (most I still keep in contact with) and eventually got the Gohonzon. Sure I had my problems, but once I overcame them, the rest of my senior year was great. I would call these my halycon days as everything was going my way and I enjoyed the SGI activities and chanting. I did find the "Hate the NST" talk strange, and even as I watched many of Ikeda's videos, I found them increasingly boring and repetitive. Still, it didn't matter. I was getting a lot out of the practice.

It was then I moved to China to teach English. Before I went there, I asked a lot of my friends and they asked their friends of where there are SGI members in China. I lived in a small town far from Beijing, but I was told there was a Chinese woman who uses her apartment as a gathering place for members. She got her Gohonzon in the states and now uses her apartment to host meetings for any Chinese or expat practitioners. Don't worry kids, despite the bad reputation China has for religious freedom, what she did is legal.

I did contact her and made my way to Beijing to meet her. I was also going to Beijing to meet a former Chinese teacher as well. By the time I got to her apartment complex, she told me to get to her apartment by myself. I was cool with that. In fact her address was easy to understand, "Building #x, floor #y, and room #z". The thing was though, I tried to look for that building and couldn't find it and called her a few times, she refused to even send anyone to meet me. I finally did find her building and all of a sudden was subjected to a formal SGI meeting listening to others vent out their personal problems for about 20 minutes each, while not even wanting to hear everyone else's point of view. As traffic was getting heavy, I had to leave to meet my teacher on time and I had no cell phone. The Chinese woman would not let me go. Even though I was being nice to her, she was rude, abrupt, and very curt to me. Every time I said I needed to go, she kept on saying, "No, you stay." I ended up sharing a taxi with a professor from Taiwan and a Japanese student, who was also rude to me when I was trying to talk to her. All I ever said to that student was "Where are you from in Japan?" and "How long have you studied in China?"

After I met my teacher 2 hours late, I was back in my apartment in the small city fuming. I was ready to burn my Gohonzon and urinate on it to put out the fire. I did calm down, but my chanting was less frequent. Luckily, I had a friend who was also in spirituality and philosophy and he taught me a lot back then. Later, I met an owner of a Buddhist book store, and he taught me more.

I got back in the states, and had to live at home with my parents in the East Coast. Remembering my better days in the SGI, I joined up with the SGI group there but I was still feeling the bad blood. As much as I chanted for a better job and an improvement in my relationship with my (ex) girlfriend, things didn't work out and I felt like crap. In fact, most of the time it was "my fault", the people who I hung out with always had an answer why I was chanting wrong. Most of the time, I was told I lacked faith. Although they knew of my "loss of faith" back in China, they didn't want to know the circumstances, even when I decided to go tell them without them asking me.

After awhile, I would just shut up and not ask them anymore for advice about my practice. I do feel a bit deceived, however, every time I talked to them. I was under the impression I just chant and things fall into place, as was written in "Buddha in Your Mirror". I didn't know that chanting was more complicated. What made me wonder is that Nichiren did say that one must have actual proof in order to have faith in a practice. Since I had no actual proof from my time in China, so I was losing faith. Yet, it's because I lacked faith that proof will not manifest itself. Complicated, n'est pas?

Later on, I ended up teaching English in South Korea and did hang out with the SGI there on occasion. Although most of the time I was there, all I heard were more basic basics of Nichiren Buddhism, like the ten worlds, who this Shijo Kingo character was, and the meaning of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I still practiced, but I hung out more at the Jogye Zen temple in Seoul.

Now, as I am back in the states, I have more of my own personal understanding of Buddhism in general. I still have friends in the SGI and for awhile still went to the meetings. Even if I heard anything I disagreed with, I still would not say a thing. It was until the last couple of meetings all the young members were focusing on this rock the world event, more and more of the content is geared toward that and more and more content is geared toward the mentor-disciple relationship. It was until one morning as one of my friends was driving me home from a meeting, I tacitly said something is wrong with this Ikea worship. He and his wife, usually very soft spoken and nice people, all of a sudden turned their anger towards me, lecturing me like an ingrate of a child of how Sensei made the world a better, his copious honorary degrees, and how I don't understand how other people benefited from Sensei's teachings.

Since that time I have been thinking a lot lately of my time in the SGI. Had I not met the woman and China, would I chant for the destruction of Nichiren Shoshu? Would I post pics of Ikea all over my room? Would I troll this board preaching to you all of how you misunderstood Sensei's teachings?

My poison was the betrayal I have faced, my medicine is the ability to think for myself and question everything I have learned and have done.

I am grateful to that Chinese woman for opening my eyes.