@TheVoid and @chooselife You wrote, "did it never cross your mind as odd, that you had pics of Ikeda and his wife on you ALTAR!!!" Okay, I am guilty as charged. I still have a pic of Ikeda in the room where I chant but I never put it anywhere near the altar at anytime in the past 21 years of my practice. I always had a feeling that would be wrong. However, I did really like the black and white pic of him doing the fan dance when he was young-ish. I still have the pic there and will probably not take it down. Some out there might say that has been brainwashing, but I will not go through my whole life tearing out every trace of SGI in my life. Simply put, I got a lot out of the experience, especially being introduced to the practice, and I do still see Ikeda as an important part of that experience. Furthermore, I simply like the picture, but not because it inspires me to chant or because it makes me think he's chanting for me etc. However, when any images or text deal with Gandhi-King-Ikeda, Ikeda's poetry, mentor-disciple or his honorary doctorates that's another story. He is the same man in those representations--I know. I do also think it's cultish and inconsistent for SGI to be so against any Buddhist icons near or on the altar but to encourage placing images of Ikeda there. It's funny. I used to have a condescending attitude whenever I would encounter ANY Buddhist images, icons, statues, or temples--even though I knew NOTHING about them. I had this oh-that's-so-quaint mentality which I had no basis for. Since I left SGI, I feel more open to seeing the spirituality in other faiths instead of getting caught up in some delusion of particulars. BTW, thank you Rothaus for warning people about communicating with aliciaenfermeira or anyone else who wants us to use a method which will break anonymity. I know for a fact SGI reads this forum. While I can now say that it does not matter that they know who I am, I cannot presume everyone else feels that way, especially those who are in the preliminary stages of leaving SGI.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2010 06:56AM by doubtful.

@Dioforever, I meant just the altar - the surface i have my butsudan on. my butsudan is way too tiny to put anything in. the only things ive really seen in the butsudan besides the gohonzon are those little metal sgi lotuses.

@doubtful - i agree with the opening up to other faiths too. the fact that this is yet another absolutist faith was one of the things that really sent me over the edge. when i first started, i met a person who was also catholic AND practicing this Buddhism, and they actually have been practicing for a very long time. i had the impression that this faith was very inclusive. turns out, thats not really the case. in order to do "shakabuku", you really have to convince your friend that their way of thinking was totally wrong and leading them into a life of delusion. who was i to judge their way of living? ive always been kind of a relativist: no one is wrong, and no one is completely right. your faith and your truth has to do with who YOU are, not what anyone else tells you. and i really thought that SGI was going to be MY path - i never imagined that it would be yet ANOTHER "Were right, theyre wrong, and lets tell them so!" religion. now the fact that i am still looking for my path is both exhilirating and frightening. however, i am so grateful to have the opportunity to free my mind and find it out for myself.

It's joke time on the cult education forum:

SGI Member: "Do you think Tom Cruise will fall into hell?
SGI Leader: Of course! He's brainwashed.

Bada Bing.....

Nichijew

I dont know if this is true but i heard they beleave .L.RON.. is going to return to earth as messhia,just like jesus in the bible.

Happy New Year to all of from over the big pond too :-)
Lately I've been getting the odd calls form high (very high) national leaders on my answer machine -- five years onwards LOL.

I enjoy the New Year so much more since I've left SGI. No more getting up at the crack of dawn on New Year's Day to drive to the culture center and spend 7 hours doing byakuren. No more vowing to achieve victory in the New Year (victory over what, I'm not sure). Now I spend time with my family and my friends. What a concept.

not to forget the sgi-only partys or sgi-mainly-lets-shakubuku-the-guests partys on new year :-)

Thank you for sharing your story Tsukimoto. I had been following SGI for 20 Years! I can't say that I've been a member for all of that time and never received Gohonzon until this year. I was introduced to my first meeting in around 1991 by a Japanese lady that I worked with. Up to that point I'd only had a loose interest in Buddhism and religion. I went to that meeting not knowing what to expect and was greeted by a room, in someones house, full of people chanting to what I now know to be the Gohonzon in its shrine at the altar. I didn't really understand what it was about really. Anyway, I moved house quite a few times and connected on and off whenever I moved. In 1998 I felt that I was being harassed for not attending meetings. Members would call my house to find out why I wasn't attending meetings. I shyed away and stayed away for quite some time. In 1996 I was unfortunate enough to develop Trigeminal Neuralgia. It's the worst pain known to man and affects the Trigeminal Nerve near the brain. It's because the artery is compressed by the largest nerve in the human body. It caused constant electric shock and burning/shooting pains in the whole right side of my head. It was crippling. I wasn't able to eat properly, talk, swallow, sleep, breath, shave etc etc. I reengaged with the practice and this is where I can identify with someone saying in their posting that religions tend to pray on people who are experiencing difficulties in their lives and who are in need. This year, ,after living in my area for 2 years, I started chanting again and got in touch with some local members. It seemed great to begin with. A bit of chanting, a few discussion meetings. The people were really friendly. <<Still brainwashed up to this point>> I had brain surgery for my Trigeminal Neuralgia in April in London. It has cured the pain. I have to say that I did not reengage with the SGI practice until after I'd come out of hospital. So one might ask "How come you were cured of your pain when you weren't chanting?" That's a very good question!
I had time off work so I decided to commit to chanting and a few members seemed to rally round, which should have thrown up warning flags to me, to get the Gohonzon within 1 Month. I went to the ceremony and received Gohonzon in July of this year. I stopped attending meetings and started doubting what I was doing. It's very confusing to be told that you are not practising or chanting enough or that your faith needs strengthening. I felt that a couple of very strong minded individuals were trying to coerce me into introducing others. I went to a kick off meeting in early December where there must have been more than 100 members there. It was in that meeting that the penny finally dropped. I was watching a Video of President Ikeda on his travels around Europe. When the Senior Leaders and Directors spoke at the podium it was all about Ikeda and hardly any mention of Nichiren Daishonin or Buddhism. Then the envelopes came out for contribution to the Kosen Rufu fund! And suddenly the fog had cleared for me and I started to see SGI for what it really is- "A very lucrative multi billion dollar money making enterprise" A very clever and devious one at that. You are encouraged and enticed in and then when you sign up and become a commited member more and more is asked of you. They never leave you alone for one minute. I could see the panic in their eyes that they were losing a member. Buddhism for me is about how I act and behave in my daily life, observing how I treat others and improving and bettering myself from within. When a religion asks that I actively encourage other people to join then something is wrong and I don't agree with that. Also I don't agree with pouring my hard earned cash into an organisation that chooses not to "declare" whereabouts that income goes or details of it's wealth. Why am I asked to fund SGI when I'm told in the beginning that all that matters is chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo? Or when I'm told in my own home that I need to do things in a certain way because it is not the SGI way....either the set up of the Gohonzon/Shrine or the order that people chant in "in front of MY Gohonzon"?
I don't know who "President Ikeda" is and therefore I choose also not to follow and idolise some rich president of an organisation in a far off country round the other side of the world. Ok, so he writes great articles and books or does he? Surely someone who commands such a great status in a company would not write his own articles? I only ask the question as if I had billions of $'s I would probably employ someone to write a book using some of the ideas that I throw out occasionally? I really don't know. :) Perhaps I'm missing the point, I don't care. I feel like I made a lucky escape when I handed back my Gohonzon and funnily enough only 1 of those members, a senior womans leader, has stayed in touch. Noone else has, so what does that tell you?
BY THE WAY WHEN I'VE GIVEN BACK MY GOHONZON AFTER LEAVING SGI IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO DO TO FINALISE EVERYTHING? I SIGNED A FORM WHEN I RECEIVED MY GOHONZON AND I'M CONCERNED THAT IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH SGI WOULD BE ABLE TO BREAK INTO MY WILL AND TAKE MY INHERITANCE INSTEAD OF MY FAMILY GETTING ANYTHING??
Thanks for reading.