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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.