@ quiet one

I remember guidances of that kind too i.e. discouraging giving to other organisations. But also giving in terms of time working for other organisations. As it would mean less time for SGI. I was once looked at because I wanted to join amnesty.
With all that in mind asking members to donate is actually an impudence, one really wonders where the money goes besides the obvious assets in real estate.

@Nichijew, you wrote: "The Gakkai gave $50,000.00 dollars to the victims of the Tsunami. Let's say their revenue is $2,000,000,000.00. That is 0.0025% of their income. Now lets take a person who makes $100,000.00 per year. What is 0.0025%? That is $2.50." OMG. That's all they gave? I gave much more than that, proportionally speaking! Now that you mention it, the actual sum quoted in this current article re: Haiti donations is US $32,900 from the Japanese branch, 10K from SGI-USA(given to Red Cross). It's funny though, SGI-Thailand donated US$38,340! Taiwan Soka donated US$31,420. SGI-Hong Kong gave US$25,700. In other words, these contributions are PR opportunities since they are miniscule in the light of how wealthy SGI actually is and the scale of devastation. Perhaps this magazine arrived in time to promote May contribution which ends this weekend. Yet, if the members contributed to SGI the way SGI has contributed to others how would they handle it?

@tsukimoto You wrote, "SGI has an exhibit comparing President Ikeda to Gandhi and Martin Luther King"
I just received the July-Aug 2010 Living Buddhism. As I thumbed through the magazine, I actually felt this issue might be a good one. The titles of the articles, and the continuing History of Buddhism and major terms and concepts section on pp.76-104 looked excellent. In fact, I used to really love this magazine until 4 years ago. Once I took a closer look at the current issue, I determined that EVERY article is about Ikeda in some way. He wrote several of them. In others written by members they always end up quoting him. In fact, there are only 3 pages near the very end of the maganzine where he is not mentioned. Is this a coincidence? I have tremendous respect for some of the editors/contributors of this magazine, but they cannot convince me that there is not some directive that they MUST refer to Ikeda directly or indirectly on nearly every page. But I must include a passage written by him after he refers to Rosa Parks as "my dear friend" and indicates how her arrest "galvanized the people, who initiated a boycott and a non-violent resistance movement"(13):
"When Dr. King and his compatriots were fighting on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I was uniting the youth in Kansai, supporting and encouraging new members, and leading a great people's movement for justice."(p.14)
What does anyone think of this? Is it my fundamental darkness or the Devil of the Sixth Heaven making me think....

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"When Dr. King and his compatriots were fighting on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I was uniting the youth in Kansai, supporting and encouraging new members, and leading a great people's movement for justice."

He and SGI cared a rats ass for what people were fighting for in the civil rights movement !!!! What an audacity to compare Kansai to that movement .... good grief!!
SGI never mentioned Ikeda or King while they were fighting for what they believed in and when they were still alive.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2010 09:54PM by Rothaus.

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doubtful
I just received the April 2010 SGI Quarterly, a glossy magazine that supplements Living Buddhism. You probably know what it is. Reading through it, I did discover some peace-seeking/humanitarian/ecological initiatives sponsored by SGI or particular SGI members. I shall just quote the titles of some of the articles:

"Creating Stablity" by E. Penioso Pernites, Phillipines and Japan
"Peace Proposal: Steps Toward a Nuclear-free World" by D. Ikeda
"Action for Nuclear Abolition" (to "raise awareness about the necessity for nuclear abolition in the run-up to the 2010 Nuke Non-Prolif Treaty Conference to be held in NY")

"SGI-South Africa Receives Gandhi Award"
"Art Exhibitions in Malaysia"
"Faith and Development in Southeast Asia"
"Ikeda's Center's Dialogue Forum on John Dewey"
"Recycling Trash for Groceries" SGI in Singapore
"Haiti Relief Efforts" (lists SGI's financial contributions to Haiti since earthquake)
"At the Parliament of World's Religions"
"Seeds of Change in Italy"

I am quoting these titles because the accompanying articles indicate some positive things SGI is doing in the world. I feel the need to be fair. If anyone has another view of these particular activities please communicate them. Is it possible that SGI is aware of its image and has been trying to make positive changes? If hope this is the case.

Certainly SGI is aware of its image -- and is trying to make changes. To its image. The SGI Quarterly is nothing more than PR to polish SGI's image. It doesn't mean that SGI is making any real changes. SGIKeda is a master of PR and the positive spin. Even the tiniest things can be blown up and spun to make SGI look good.

1. One example is in Polly Toynbee's article about Ikeda's so-called friendship with her grandfather, historian Arnold Toynbee. Ikeda apparently visited Arnold Toynbee a couple of times when Toynbee was elderly and ill. Out of those few visits, Ikeda (or his ghostwriter) spun a book and a tale of a so-called "lifelong" friendship. The Toynbee family says that this wasn't so; Ikeda was NOT a friend of Arnold Toynbee. Arnold Toynbee had visited Japan many times and had many Japanese friends -- these friends apparently knew nothing of this so-called friendship with Ikeda. Toynbee had not visited Ikeda in Japan, nor included Ikeda in social occasions.

2. I remember going to the Boston Convention in the summer of 1988. We were staying at Worcester College, on campus; school was out for the summer. We were rehearsing for the parade one evening, when it started to rain and we heard thunder in the distance. Our leaders allowed us to go inside one of the buildings. I thought little of it, until a few weeks later when I was home reading the World Tribune. There were articles about the convention and one quote caught my eye. I don't remember the exact wording, but it praised our leaders for their "compassion" and "wisdom" in allowing us to go inside during the storm! Even then, I thought WTF!!!??? You go inside when there's rain and thunder, even a dog knows that!

3. As others have already pointed out, what SGI actually gives for charity is the tiniest percentage of its net worth -- but oh, SGI publications trumpet those tiny donations as if they were a fortune. I also remember being in SGI and being told that giving charity to the less-fortunate was not Buddhist compassion. Real Buddhist compassion, my leaders said, was getting the less-fortunate to join SGI so that they could change their own bad karma. We were told to give money to SGI rather than any charities.

4. SGI also wastes a lot of money. Their own AND other people's, including taxpayers. That member who wanted to donate $180,000 to name a park gate after Ikeda? Ikeda's fancy house at the Malibu Training Center? All that money spent on conventions and "Rock the Era"? That money could do so much more elsewhere -- micro-loans for impoverished women to develop small businesses, mosquito nets so that poor third-world kids don't get malaria, after-school programs for at-risk kids. SGI has spent a fortune on its Soka Charter School in Massachusetts -- and it turns out, it's only duplicating science and technology programs that already exist for successful students. The Soka Academny just plans to discard those students who can't keep up academically. They'll be tossed back into underfunded public schools, no help for them! Let them eat cake.

5. All those meetings, discussions, art exhibits, conventions -- that's SGI general members and lower-level leaders doing hours of unpaid work, and senior-level leaders taking the credit. A lot of hoopla...but when it's over, what's changed? Could those members have spent all those hours doing other things that are equally, or more valuable?

6. Awards? WHO is giving the award, and why are they giving it? I could make up some fancy trophy or certificate and say that I'm going to give my best friend "The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award" from the Tsukimoto International Peace Foundation. It might sound impressive, but what would it really mean? Not much.

7. There certainly may be SGI members who are involved in innovative projects in science, the arts, education or ecology, and SGI is certainly happy to take the credit for their accomplishments. But let's face it, there are a lot of nonSGI members who do those things too...and the SGI members might actually be achieving more if they weren't spending so much time on SGI activities.

I recently received my college alumni magazine. It too was a beautiful, glossy magazine, full of stories about all the wonderful things that my fellow alumni are doing -- writing books, creating art, public health projects in impoverished areas, groundbreaking research on the human brain-- and I don't think any of these people are even SGI members. My alumni magazine, like SGI Quarterly, is happy to take credit for its alumni's/members'/ successes! You hear nothing in either publication about those who have not succeeded... the prevailing thought is, "Well, it's their own damn fault that they're failures."

8. Ikeda's peace proposals -- he's been writing them for years, why don't we have world peace yet? Nuclear disarmament is all very well to talk about, but it's a bit more complex than, oh, let's just respect life and put down our weapons. And the terrorists are also going to be delighted to do this? Kim Jong Il and Al Quaida are going to read Ikeda's peace proposals and just say, "Oh! Peace is a good thing! I never knew that! Let's just destroy all our weapons and be friends!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2010 10:57PM by tsukimoto.

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"When Dr. King and his compatriots were fighting on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I was uniting the youth in Kansai, supporting and encouraging new members, and leading a great people's movement for justice."

Sorry just read that quote again ... what a little pompous egomaniac he is. Do they extract brains these days when becomming a member of SGI?

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"When Dr. King and his compatriots were fighting on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I was uniting the youth in Kansai, supporting and encouraging new members, and leading a great people's movement for justice."



The Kansai exhibition was just about as helpful to Japan as the Airirang Mass games are to North Korea.


As for doubtful's citing of articles about SGI doing community service (as small as it is), I remember when I suggested we do that with the YMD in my area. They were hesitant. They thought it was a good idea to do something like clean up a park or do a recycling drive, but ultimately, they chose not to go ahead.

Even if it did went ahead, Hentai would be the one taking credit.

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tsukimoto
6. Awards? WHO is giving the award, and why are they giving it? I could make up some fancy trophy or certificate and say that I'm going to give my best friend "The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award" from the Tsukimoto International Peace Foundation. It might sound impressive, but what would it really mean? Not much.

I would like to humbly accept this great award on behalf of the wonderful members of DGI. It is truly a sign that our wonderful humanitarian organization DavidM Gakkai International is striving towards the truly wonderful goal of Kosen Rufu. When my mentor in life DavidL was teaching me and leading our great organization towards justice and happiness for all the people of the world, I realized that the true path to enlightenment was through the mentor disciple relationship, and May contribution.
With this in mind lets strive forwards together as equals, looking forward to the day that you can sing songs to me in person.

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doubtful
@tsukimoto You wrote, "SGI has an exhibit comparing President Ikeda to Gandhi and Martin Luther King"
I just received the July-Aug 2010 Living Buddhism.

But I must include a passage written by him after he refers to Rosa Parks as "my dear friend" and indicates how her arrest "galvanized the people, who initiated a boycott and a non-violent resistance movement"(13):

"When Dr. King and his compatriots were fighting on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I was uniting the youth in Kansai, supporting and encouraging new members, and leading a great people's movement for justice."(p.14)

What does anyone think of this? Is it my fundamental darkness or the Devil of the Sixth Heaven making me think....

Your fundamental darkness or the Devil of the Sixth Heaven? Um...neither. It is your common sense.

No thinking person can compare Dr. King's fight for civil rights with the Soka Gakkai's membership drive! It's comparing apples to (rotten) oranges!

Dr. King KNEW that he could be killed or injured for continuing his fight for civil rights. His wife, who also knew the risk, begged him to reconsider. He refused, saying that the fight for justice and equality was too important to quit, even if the cost was his life. Which it was.

Ikeda did not risk his life. He lives like a rock star, wealthy and adored by his fans.

Dr. King took concrete action to improve conditions for people, such as leading the bus boycott. Ikeda's energies were devoted to building his empire in SGI, period. Is Japan a more equitable society because of Ikeda's actions? No.

According to Amnesty International, Japan executes mentally ill criminals.

Japan is guilty of extreme prejudice toward Amerasians, the children of Japanese mothers and American servicemen.

During World War II, the Japanese Army captured women -- sometimes young girls -- in the countries it occupied: Korea, China, the Philippines. These women and girls were taken forcibly from their families, and forced into sexual service for the Japanese Imperial Army. Brutal conditions, beatings, multiple rapes every day. The Japanese military and government, at the highest levels, agreed to this as a way to improve morale for the Japanese soldiers. Many women died in captivity, but some did survive the war. After the war, the Japanese were reluctant to even admit to this practice, much less make any reparations to the surviving women.

The Japanese took many Koreans and brought them to Japan as slave labor, to do mining and other work that was considered too dirty or hazardous for Japanese citizens. Some of these Koreans, and their children and grandchildren, still live in Japan. Many of the children and grandchildren of these Korean laborers have lived in Japan their whole lives, and speak only Japanese. They can't return to Korea -- either because their families were taken from the North, because they don't speak Korean, because they have lost touch with any family that they may have had in Korea. These individuals of Korean ancestry are treated with contempt by the Japanese. They do not have the civil rights that people of pure Japanese ancestry have. They are discriminated against in education, socially and in the work force.

Japan also had an "untouchable" caste, the Eta, or Burukumin. These people also had to do the dirty jobs that other Japanese did not want to do...butchering animals and the like. Their descendants are also still suffer discrimination.

So, my question is, if Ikeda is really such an admirer of Dr. King -- then why has Ikeda never spoken out against Japan's discrimination against those people of Amerasian, Burukumin and Korean ancestry who live in Japan. Why has Ikeda never spoken out against capital punishment, as Dr. King and Gandhi did? Why has he never spoken in favor of reparations for those "comfort women," the women taken as sexual slaves by the Japanese military? Where is their civil rights movement?

But of course, Ikeda wouldn't speak out for any of these people. It would be an unpopular cause in Japan, and would hurt the New Komeito Party's chances of staying in power.

But -- did Dr. King ever worry that those in power might not approve of his asking for equal rights for all?

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DavidM

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tsukimoto
6. Awards? WHO is giving the award, and why are they giving it? I could make up some fancy trophy or certificate and say that I'm going to give my best friend "The Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award" from the Tsukimoto International Peace Foundation. It might sound impressive, but what would it really mean? Not much.

I would like to humbly accept this great award on behalf of the wonderful members of DGI. It is truly a sign that our wonderful humanitarian organization DavidM Gakkai International is striving towards the truly wonderful goal of Kosen Rufu. When my mentor in life DavidL was teaching me and leading our great organization towards justice and happiness for all the people of the world, I realized that the true path to enlightenment was through the mentor disciple relationship, and May contribution.
With this in mind lets strive forwards together as equals, looking forward to the day that you can sing songs to me in person.

DavidM, it's an honor to give you the Martin Luther King-Tsukimoto Peace Award on behalf of the great folks at DGI! My buddy Spike at the welding shop is whipping you up a beautiful trophy in honor of all your hard work to teach the world to sing...um, to become enlightened through the mental disciple relationship! Me and my friends in the OWD (Old Women's Division) at the nursing home are preparing for the great day when we can indeed serenade you in person with such great classics as "Forever David" and "I Seek David." Perhaps on that day, Nichijew and his wife can prepare us all a wonderful banquet of kielbasa and Lebanese pastries.