Quote
wakatta1
Just to stir some further discussion, onething that repeatedly bothered me a lot when I practiced was the loneliness. Sure I was surrounded by members who were chanting intentedly to their "happiness machines" for their "heart's desire", but aside for administrative or faith-based activities, there was very little in the way of "fellowship". Frankly, throughout my long practice there were maybe two people who showed what I perceived as genuine concern, the rest of the folks were too intent on either "improving their practice", doing onshitsu to other members or trying to emulate some sort of "shin'ichi yamamoto" type of persona.
If you said "lets be real here..." folks would either retreat behind their masks, or throw up an ink-cloud of quotations from "sensei", the world tribune or the seikyo times.
At the upper levels there were few who even cared to relate to one another, and often in discussion things turned into "guidance" and a half-hour of canned speeches.
Can anyone relate to that?
Wakatta1
Wakatta, that sounds just so familiar! I was spending a lot of time with SGI people; they were always calling me -- but it was always about SGI. We were either planning some activity, at some activity, or chanting. Any discussion always seemed to turn into guidance, or as you say, canned speeches, talk of how wonderful Ikeda was, or quotes from the publications. Or, patting ourselves on the back -- how wonderful we were to be practicing this Buddhism, and bringing about world peace! We really
couldn't seem to talk about anything else for long. Why? Were we really that programmed?
Members didn't seem to call eachother just to chat, or get together for coffee or a beer. I must say, I was as guilty of this as anyone else. I can complain that other people didn't call me for anything other than SGI matters -- but I didn't call them either. Why didn't I?
Members would gush over other members at meetings. It often felt phony and forced to me. A while back, a women's division member left a very warm message on my answering machine -- "Oh, I've been thinking of you, I miss you, please call me, yadda yadda."
I thought, "Miss me? I have not attended a meeting in more than three years. You've only just noticed that I haven't been around? If you actually MISSED me, you would have called me before this!" Why would someone call and say that they miss you, when they obviously didn't? I deleted the message and did not call her back.
Any thoughts on WHY there is so little real fellowship and friendship in SGI?
Is it that members are so programmed to focus on Ikeda that they can barely see eachother? Does the organization deliberately keep people so busy that they just don't have the energy for much besides SGI?
Is it that a lot of things that SGI says and pushes are just so phony -- that that phoniness carries over into the members' relationships with eachother? Just this whole mentor-disciple relationship -- Ikeda as your fantasy father, big brother, friend, Santa Claus -- seems incredibly bizarre to me. You're supposed to think of someone you've never met as your closest friend. It seems an odd and dangerous fantasy.
Do SGI's teachings just encourage members to think only of themselves, and to think of other people as means to an end?
Do most SGI members know, on some level, that SGI's promises are illusions -- and that if they start speaking honestly and being real with each other --- all the SGI-created illusions are going to start falling down like dominoes?
Or is it something else?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2010 11:22AM by tsukimoto.