@tsukimoto, @quietone
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tsukimoto, After I left, I was told that the reason that things were going well for me was that I had built up fortune from my years of practice and "good causes". That's why everything was going well. But I was warned that my fortune would run out!!
In contrast, perhaps Tsukimoto will eventually find enlightenment and that was the cause for her good fortune? Maybe she will convert to another religion and make the "truly correct" cause and that action is having a "halo effect". Maybe someday she will give money to a homeless person and that will expiate all of her sin and be the cause for her current good fortune. Maybe her good fortune is a trick from Mara (the deceiver) and she is being further led astray? Maybe....
My point being that when you disallow any restrictions on your thinking, suddenly everything means everything. The renditions of cult thinking may be very helpful to reinforce the "we are the chosen" thinking within the cult, but it can be contradicted by life's ups and downs. Inside the cult everything reinforces everything else, like a spiderweb of interlocked ideas. Sadly, this interconnectedness excludes individual skepticism triggered by the same "actual proof" which is so heavily touted because the individual "doesn't want to make a bad cause". And like the earlier posts on senior leader's misfortunes, one could just as easily argue the contrary. A set of misfortunes befalls a "chanting" member and using the same set of rules you could paint a grim picture of the inescapability of karma and the ever presence of one's own dark nature. What to do, what to do? The cult says "fall in line" and do the "right" thing, i.e. what the cult specifies. Trust Ikea, don't question, just chant and donate. See the trap?
For me, recognizing the modality of cult thinking is important because once you see it for what it is, then you can take steps to protect yourself from its influence. Anyone immersed in SGI can look back and see critical points in which the cult thinking was used to manipulate them, for better or for worse. In the end we all take full responsibility for our actions and views, so it makes sense that we should know where those "motivating views" come from and what their purpose is - both positive and negative.
Lastly, Buddhism teaches that "right thought" is where everything begins. If you adopt the cult's dogma believing that it represents "right thought" you could easily get led astray. Every thought that crosses your mind should get some scrutiny as to its pedigree, there is no easy way around this. Adopting cookie-cutter group-think opinions may seem to make this process "easy and convenient" but I'd advise a lot of caution taking such things on whole cloth since they include a lot of embedded assumptions (such as Ikea=Buddha for one).
Wakatta
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2010 06:18PM by wakatta1.