OMG, my first meeting when I was 15, I heard Forever Sensei, and at the end, when they would sing "Kosen Rufu is the way" I thought they were saying "Cousin Rufus here to stay"!!! I asked who Cousin Rufus was at the end! I should have run from cousin Rufus right then and there. I think I will nickname Ikeda "Cousin Rufus" from now on...it's more becoming. :)

I also thought they were going to steal my shoes so I couldn't run away...which is in some part true. they "stole my shoes" emotionally by telling me I had a great "mission" and would become a great YWD Leader someday leading thousands...all at my first meeting!! who wouldn't join with those grandiose predictions! AND, they gave us SNACKS!!!

Things were great back then!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2009 03:22AM by sushigrl.

Back then too, some of my leaders actually were "Higher than the Sky" before they led meetings...I know because I sat toward the back of the room sometimes where the back door to the yard was..phew!!! Oh such memories. I know we were young and foolish, but these were leaders appointed by the all knowing and wise Japanese leaders to lead us to cousin rufus! I don't mean to be a Gakkai stand up comedian, but these things were true :)

good god the lyrics are ever so rediculous ---- sorry have to say that never heard much of that in europe. but the start theses bi meetings here too.

I am sorry to tell you all this, but . . .

I love Forever Sensei. Every time we sang that song, I do nothing but giggle to myself like a schoolboy.

That's because it sounds too much like the theme song for the Japanese animated show "Space Battleship Yamato".

Exhibit A:

[www.youtube.com]



I rest my case.

"Grass" and Baloney Sandwiches for the Youth Division and $300,000,000.00 to the High Paid Business Suited Senior Leeches

"Make sure that the participants each bring a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. And ask each person to pack their own lunch, since we can't afford to provide lunch for them as well. Those who don't bring any food with them will just have to make do with whatever edible they can find in the surrounding forest. In the future, the Soka Gakkai may experience severe oppression; we may be called on to fight or endure a long, drawn-out struggle. At such time, each person will have to find their own food. We may even have to eat grass. For the sake of training, I would actually have like the youth to spend the night outdoors. I don't want the members of the Soka Gakkai youth division to be soft." -- Human Revolution by Daisaku Ikeda

That must be why, even after the Soka Gakkai accumulated more than one hundred billion dollars, they still serve the hard working Bodhisattva bees, baloney and mayo sandwiches or cake and biscuits: To give them the privilege of experiencing the privations of Nichiren Daishonin.

Let's examine the financial pie chart on the SGI-USA website: 8% [of ~ five billion a year in untaxed revenues] equals four hundred million dollars a year for "Administration costs" [if these percentages are true and we know how the Soka Gakkai lies just about everything]. Even so, that is a huge amount for administrative costs. Searching the definition of administrative costs we find the largest percentage is EXECUTIVE SALARIES!!! Three Hundred Million dollars in salaries [75% of administrative costs] for these so-called Bodhisattvas leaders who, according to Nichiren Daishonin should "desire little".

I propose, instead of serving the sincere members of the youth division grass or baloney sandwiches for training, we should send their charlatan Vice Presidents and high paid senior leaders to state prison for training. If you donate one red cent to these religious hucksters, you should be ashamed. You should be afraid.

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sushigrl
DrJesus, yes every gakkai shakubuku meeting had the same format. The only thing they were interested in was introducing new people to the practice, and make them feel "special" by tailoring the meeting to them, and boring the rest of the members out of their minds. Instead of offering really meaningful or interesting information, they would shove the same junk down our throats in hopes that the new person would join. In the event that no new person showed up, we would turn to some poignant guidance or World Tribune "experience" to fill in the time. OR, we would adjourn early and head out to the streets again to drag yet another unsuspecting soul into the room.

Oh, I remember these meetings well! Same old, same old. Get new bodies in, tailor the meeting to them, love-bomb them, in the hopes that they'd love SGI and quickly decide to join so we could meet our quota, make our leaders happy and improve our own karma. I used to hope sometimes that we WOULDN'T have a guest (yes, I'm evil) -- so that the members would act normal. With no guests, we might even have some decent study!

But, the meetings were what the top leaders wanted them to be. Ikeda wanted and needed big numbers. He didn't need us to study and have a deep understanding of Buddhism -- he needs his followers to follow HIS interpretation of Buddhism.

Likewise, the music. The senior leadership of SGI-USA didn't want or need great music, they needed advertising jingles. Simple, catchy little tunes with lyrics that reinforced the concepts that SGI wanted us to think about...and containing SGI "catchphrases."

I do not remember that SGI theme song, about marching with banners high, at all -- was it phased out by the late eighties? LOL at Ikeda putting his hands over his ears! It still has the SGI military theme of marching together as comrades, victory -- and even the concept of "up" -- banners flying high! Raise the banner for SGI, woo-hoo!

Some of the posts here are cracking me up! Cousin Rufus, people who lead meetings when they're "higher than the sky," "loony" surroundings, smelly feet, stealing guests' shoes so they can't leave, Ikeda taking Hefner as a role model (nude hot tubbing and Hef creating a more interesting magazine).

On one hand, I think it's great to laugh at the ridiculousness that is SGI -- God knows we couldn't always do this when we were in SGI. Many of the things that we did, and were told in SGI were utterly absurd, and yet certain leaders and members took it so seriously!

And on the other hand, these "silly" people HAVE accumulated billions of dollars and much power. Corny, trite, ugly though these songs were....SGI still had their reasons for using them. If singing the songs wasn't accomplishing something, SGI would have dropped them quickly.

o man, I've been on youtube viewing videos of SGI songs...if anyone wants a good laugh, look up 'Ifu DODo no Uta" banda musical taiyo ongakutai, and others. Gosh I couldn't stop laughing at how serious these guys are.

I can't stop laughing DrJesus!!!!

No matter how corny and silly the lyrics to "Have a Gohonzon" are, the underlying message is very clear: the Gohonzon is something that will make "your benefits grow in a pile," and doing shakabuku will erase your karma and you'll live happily ever after.

This is true Tsuki. I can only laugh now remembering how I thought the way to achieve enlightenment was to be able to chant with my legs asleep folded under me and not move my body so I would not fall over when I kneeled.

We adopted so many Japanese traditions back then and thought that the new modern concept of chairs at meetings was a real breakthrough! The song I wrote about was written for a "World Peace Culture Festival" in which throngs of American members traveled to Japan to do "Cape Dancing" to Neil Daimond's "We're coming to America". Hmm, that was truly a nightmare. It was in the early 80s yes. The one thing I do retain from my participation is a sincere love for Japanese food...