@SGBYE I was not aware that Orlando Bloom came to a big meeting in 2009, I am positive that he did attend one of the big meetings in 2006 or 2007. I just can't remember the year. I also know that he went to FNCC for an arts conference because on the the YMD said he went, people could talk to him but were not allowed to take pictures. I never cared but was surprised to find out that he chanted. Also, I attending a YWD meeting two years ago at a member's house and one of the young women explained to us how people could not see how great Ikeda was. It was about 8 women and everyone agreed in unison. I had never felt so uncomfortable in all of my life. I thought to myself that some people are clearly brainwashed, you cannot change the way that they feel. Another thing that I did not like about the organization were that people were never asked to leave as a result of their behavior. There were instances were two men in the organization who were leaders made women feel extremely uncomfortable by their comments or the ways in which they reacted. It was common knowledge that the men were creepy yet no one took the initiative to do anything about it.

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tsukimoto

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lthomas
Looking back on it now, I realized that she was trying to keep me in by saying that, "did your mother or father or sister's give up on you when you treated them wrong"? I felt trapped because I had shared so many personal things with her and she knew that I only mistreated my little sister at times because I had suffered at the hands of physical and emotional abuse from both my mother and father, therefore I put up with a lot of crap from people within the organization as a result of this. I was often told that this was my kharma coming back to me. That is how this organization used people they really did prey on our emotions.

Your leader was being very manipulative when she said these things --getting you to confide in them and then using that information to try to stop you from questioning leaders' actions in the organization. This is a common practice in cults -- get members to make confessions, then use that information to manipulate or even blackmail the member to do what the leaders want.

Dear Tsukimoto:

If you are a relentless critic of the SGI, even after twenty or thirty years, they will ask around about you, find a leader who knew you, and bring up things from the past that only someone with intimate knowledge of you knows. They will do anything in their power to try and discredit you. just recently, an SGI pitbull wrote something about me on my blog that only one of several people could have ever known. Since they don't have anything of substance against me, it was innocuous but revealing the lengths they will go to silence their critics. Anyone from the SGI reading this, I implore you, don't reveal anything about yourself to your leaders that only your wife, parents, children, or lawyer should know.

Ithomas, most people don't know about the Orlando Bloom meeting I attended because it was never reported about in the World Tribune. Actually, the general meeting was reported about, but there was no mention that Bloom was there. I was really surprised by that, knowing how the SGI loves to brag about their celebrity members. My guess is that they were probably parading Bloom around to other general meetings at the time and didn't want word to get out that would cause the other meetings to go completely out of hand. I'm sure everybody and their mother would've mobbed the other meetings. Bloom was quickly in and out of our meeting - no photos, nothing. I'm sorry that I can't say where the meeting was due to the fact that I'm trying to keep my anonimity as much as possible - but it wasn't NYC or LA.

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Nichijew
If you are a relentless critic of the SGI, even after twenty or thirty years, they will ask around about you, find a leader who knew you, and bring up things from the past that only someone with intimate knowledge of you knows. They will do anything in their power to try and discredit you. just recently, an SGI pitbull wrote something about me on my blog that only one of several people could have ever known. Since they don't have anything of substance against me, it was innocuous but revealing the lengths they will go to silence their critics. Anyone from the SGI reading this, I implore you, don't reveal anything about yourself to your leaders that only your wife, parents, children, or lawyer should know.

Dear Nichijew,

Yes, I've looked back on what I've said to SGI leaders and members. I don't think I've said anything that would be too incriminating...I'm really quite dull. I've always been a person who followed the rules and respected authority. Had I been less like that, I'd probably have left SGI much sooner.

To anyone else who is reading this -- I second Nichijew's advice. Be very careful about what you share with any SGI leader or member. There's a good chance that they will not keep your confidences private, even if you remain a member in good standing.

And if you do criticize SGI -- watch out! Pages 109-116 of this thread tell about what happened to Wendy Byrd Ehlmann, who wrote a blog on www.fraughtwithperil that SGI didn't like. SGI harassed her while she was alive. After she died suddenly of a heart attack, certain members still couldn't stop gossiping and backbiting, saying very nasty things about her and her practice.

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SGBye
Ithomas, most people don't know about the Orlando Bloom meeting I attended because it was never reported about in the World Tribune. Actually, the general meeting was reported about, but there was no mention that Bloom was there. I was really surprised by that, knowing how the SGI loves to brag about their celebrity members. My guess is that they were probably parading Bloom around to other general meetings at the time and didn't want word to get out that would cause the other meetings to go completely out of hand. I'm sure everybody and their mother would've mobbed the other meetings. Bloom was quickly in and out of our meeting - no photos, nothing. I'm sorry that I can't say where the meeting was due to the fact that I'm trying to keep my anonimity as much as possible - but it wasn't NYC or LA.

Are they still bragging about Tina Turner and Patrick Duffy? And maybe John Astin?

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dragon14

Are they still bragging about Tina Turner and Patrick Duffy? And maybe John Astin?

They wouldn't shut up about them back in the 80's! I know that Patrick Duffy still does a bunch of stuff for the SGI, as does Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. 80's musician Howard Jones also. I think Tina Turner mixes some other things in with her Buddhist practice so I'm sure the SGI isn't too keen on that!

@SGBYE I totally understand you wanting to protect your anonymity. @Nichijew- as far as revealing things to the SGI I know that I have not revealed anything to incriminating as well, yet at times feel a sense of guilt because they're truly a lot of things that I wish that I had not of said to members because they were used against me. So far it has been about a week since I have taken down my Gohonzan and I am still doing well. I still feel the sadness but I am also balancing that with being honest to the members when they ask if I am going to a meeting. I encountered two more members today and told them that I had left the organization. Both seemed to accept my answer, yet one gave me "that look" (you know the kind of look when someone says they want to stop practicing) and asked me if the chanting worked for me, I replied that sometimes yes and sometimes no. She then asked me why I quit but I was on my way to school so I just said that it was a long story. The other member just wished me the best of luck and hoped that I'd find something else that was spiritual and would bring me happiness. I still feel not out of the woods, and at times am a little apprehensive because I know that members will call and asked why I stopped practicing. I know that I can avoid the calls but for some reason I just don't want to. This is a personal choice. I guess the reasons as to why I choose not to avoid certain members is because the first time that I stopped practicing, I did and I ended up going back because of avoiding them, and I was afraid of what people would think, so I just came back. Whatever anyone in this thread (if they have decided to stop practicing) decides how to deal with telling or not telling members that is fine. The important thing is for you to be at peace (sorry can't use the word happyright now it's just tainted for me) and to take care of your feelings instead of someone else's. Furthermore my heart goes out to each and everyone who has participated on this thread because I know how the SGI has affected each and everyone of us and that is where my compassion comes in. That to me is what "we are all connected is about" and is a true essence of Buddhism.

an employee at my daughter's school gave me that same look two days ago. imagine you want to run but there are members everywhere (including your parents). that is the nightmare. this bad dream is not due to the lack of fortune in my life.

Day by day, little by little it's being expunged from my system So many memories and Random thoughts about what was said to me. They just happen. I remember a member saying if you slander another member in this organization your Kharma will get you. Never mind the fact that if you did that to anyone Kharma may or may not get to you anyway. The people of the organization were so adamant about that. They turned everyday things into something so big. @Evergreen I am sure to get more of those looks as time goes by. I remember when one member found out that I stopped practicing and when I came back she questioned the status of my mental health!! Right after a Kosen-Rufu meeting, all because my "sponsor" told her some things about me. I think that that is the hard part about this whole situation that I have a hard time dealing with, what it is that people think of me because I told the members so many things in my state of depression. I'll get through it but SGI is no different than the churches that I grew up going to. The minute you give up on an aspect of faith they think that you are doomed to a life of hell. I have had members come up to me on a perfectly fine day and ask me how I am doing. When I have told them that I am ok, they have literally given me a condescending look and said, "Are you sure about that" because you don't seem happy to me. It was so frustrating I am so glad I don't have to become apart of that anymore. I would literally pretend that I was happy at times all because being sad was looked down upon even though that is a natural human emotion. I should also like to say that as a person who has suffered from depression there were times when I was just plain sad or there was nothing wrong with me at all. Neither happy nor sad just being. When things like that would happen I would be told that I was in the "fourth world", which is the Humane State and that I was just letting my life pass me by without a goal or a determination. The focus was always on obtaining something through a goal or some kind of "determination". Sometimes I did not want anything, I just wanted to be. It really got silly at times so much so that I had to laugh.

I haven't been here in some time. Wow, this thread has really grown in these past few months. Here is my original post back on January 29, 2009. I'm posting this because I finally ran into my neighbor this morning. I had been struggling with how to deal with the Butsudan and the Gohonzan, the former a gift from my neighbor, and the latter purchased in February of 2008. I was praying for a way to do this diplomatically and not hurt feelings, if possible. I've gotten messages from time to time on my cell and have pretty much ignored them. But this morning could not be avoided -- and that turned out to be a good thing.

So we talked and she was pleasant. I said I haven't chanted in a long time. She said she knew -- how she would know this I have no idea, but I assume it's because I stopped coming over months and months ago for a weekly chant session. I told her I was quite happy with my own faith and my faith is incompatible with SGI, period. So we talked about things and I said that things were rough -- the economy, you know -- and she said I had to chant. If I did not chant I would still be in the same position 10 years from now. Yikes!! Glad I stuck to my guns. I'm meeting her in two weeks for a breakfast with some other neighbors and I said at that time I'll come a little early and give her all of the SGI paraphernalia (didn't call it that, of course) that I had.

One of the more amusing tidbits from the conversation involved my being a Catholic. She was convinced that, like another SGI member, I could "get over it". Again, yikes!! Get over it like it was some disease. I had run into this attitude while I was still going to meetings. I would say more than half the people in attendance were former Catholics at these meetings, and I was assured that if I kept chanting I would see that SGI was the right way because it gets "results." I heard that same thing this morning. SIG is results-oriented -- guaranteed results of you chant enough.

Well, when we parted I felt more content than I had in months. While my neighbor saw fit to once again disparage my beliefs, I took the high ground -- I said not one derogatory thing about SGI, nor did I criticize or express an opinion on chanting or Ikeda, or anything else. I was simply firm in my decision not to remain a member of SGI.