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doubtful
Time and time again guests come to meetings and never return. Some of mine have told me plainly that SGI is too worldly and too materialistic. I have taken this to heart over the years and I have raised this concern with others, leaders included. Often, even hardcore members have no new "experiences" to share at the discussion meetings, probably because a Buddhist practice is not supposed to produce a bunch of material gain. So these well-intentioned members/leaders don't think it's spectacular enough to talk about overcoming delusion, improving perceptions, illuminating fundamental darkness, or overcoming the 4-8 Sufferings.
Hi, doubtful. It seems that many leaders think that more people will be interested and join if they are tempted with the possibility of material gain. And then some of them who do join re-write their experiences to prove that they did indeed get materials "benefits". I have been to meetings where "pioneer" members actually aggressively asked a guest, "Do you want money? Then join!"
I can relate to everything that you said in your first post. It seems that many members like chanting and can go along with SGI's strange ways, but have a real problem with the mentor/disciple issue.