Quote: "ultimate goal of Kosen-Rufu is truly "many in body, one in mind".

Yes, many sects misuse the mystic idea of Oneness of mind, for their own purposes. A subjective feeling of being "one with the universe" at times, is completely different than what these sects are trying to do.

They take that concept and pervert it to mean you are supposed to slavishly pattern your THINKING after the leader, in this case Ikeda. That is called Thought Reform, and its a technique to create a cult!

Of course, they sell it as Oneness of Master/Disciple, but that ain't what it is.

As well, in the modern age, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, that is the way to go, or should be. But sadly, the rigid controlled Groupthink seems to be getting more popular, as it seems to make people feel secure.


What did the Buddha say to the hotdog vendor?
Make mine one with everything.

Bobze, Ikeda certainly is paranoid, but I'd consider him more of a narcissist, with a big helping of megalomania tossed in. If you look at the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, is there a symptom that he doesn't have?

[www.narcissism101.com]

Someone with Narcissistic Personality disorder (NPD) has at least 5 of these symptoms:

• has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

• is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

• believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

• requires excessive admiration

• has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

• is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

• lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

• is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

• shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

[en.wikipedia.org]

Megalomania is defined as: [1]

1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.

2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.

Yes, Tsukimoto, you are absolutely right, he has all the symptoms of NPD, so it's going to be even harder for him to deal with his aging process and let go of Ego.

Ho Shavoy:

The real meaning of Kosen Rufu is found in the Lotus Sutra:

“After the Buddha’s extinction,
In the [last] dreadful age,
We will proclaim abroad [this sutra]. — Lotus Sutra Chapter 14

“In the last five hundred years after my extinction, proclaim and spread it
abroad in Jumbudvipa, lest it be lost and Mara the Evil [One], his
Mara-people, gods, dragons, yakshas, kumbhandas,
and others gain their opportunity.” — Lotus Sutra Chapter 23

Nothing about having the same mind as the mentor. More like having the same mind as the Buddha and Nichiren who never thought of any recompense for their good works.

Nichijew

Quote
Nichijew
Ho Shavoy:

The real meaning of Kosen Rufu is found in the Lotus Sutra:

“After the Buddha’s extinction,
In the [last] dreadful age,
We will proclaim abroad [this sutra]. — Lotus Sutra Chapter 14

“In the last five hundred years after my extinction, proclaim and spread it
abroad in Jumbudvipa, lest it be lost and Mara the Evil [One], his
Mara-people, gods, dragons, yakshas, kumbhandas,
and others gain their opportunity.” — Lotus Sutra Chapter 23

Nothing about having the same mind as the mentor. More like having the same mind as the Buddha and Nichiren who never thought of any recompense for their good works.

Nichijew

Nichijew, thank you for passing this along. Nichiren does refer to his disciples in the Gosho, but it never comes across like what's been happening with the SGI, at all.

And The Anti-Cult....Freedom of Thought, Freedom of Conscience--you can't put a price on those rights as a human being.

I have taken the concept of Cause and Effect to heart from the beginning. When the time comes for P.I. to move on from this life, I wonder if he will be able to be satisfied with his causes.

Probably.

Well, well....In last week's WT there was a statement from the SGI-USA CFO...saying that yes, the vast majority of member contributions go to running the joint, i.e. salaries for employees, community centers, and yes, into stock portfolios.

It's the closest I've seen in 25+ years--a "breakdown" of sorts of where the money goes. At least as close as they'll come...

Can anyone post that statement?
Were the statements audited by a 3rd party?

Of course not. Let predict, SGI-USA released a fuzzy faux-statement, with no hard facts, to try and defer from where the money is really going.
Salaries, means large salaries for a few SGI-USA bigwigs, the rest get low pay or work for free at the centers.

Community centers? Sounds like real estate investments.
Stock portfolios, that is where SGI-USA is dumping money into investments, many of which could be involved in selling weapons, and profiting from war.

This is why no one should ever donate even $1 to SGI-USA.
They refuse to account for where the SGI donations go.

Is SGI-USA getting the message, they need to openly post where every single dollar of donation goes, audited, like a real non-profit org?

Never, not while Ikeda is alive. Its against his principles, Ikeda would believe that the money donated his HIS MONEY, to do whatever he wants with.

SGI-USA does not deserve $1 in donations.
No one has any idea of where the money is really going, unless there are audited statements by 3rd parties.

Hundreds of millions and even billions have gone through SGI, and no one knows where it went.

SGI-USA Corporation.

What a gigantic money-making-machine.

SGI will happily take your money, and never tell you where your money is going. You don't have the right to know where they spend your money, its SGI's money, not your money. Not like other reputable organizations, SGI chooses to not tell anyone where the money goes. Its a secret.
[www.sgi-usa.org]

SGI-USA Corp will also happily take your entire Estate, or a nice chunk of it, when you die. [www.sgi-usa.org]
Note how SGI-USA calls this Estate Planning.
Estate Planning is supposed to be something you do with a financial professional. Its not Estate Planning, to give SGI-USA your Estate, after getting persuaded by SGI.
But of course, SGI-USA is ready to help you give them all your money. Why? Where is your money going?
Everything on the SGI website is for sale, the World Tribune is for sale, they are selling everything for profit.
What does SGI-USA need your Estate for?
SGI already has hundreds of millions and billions, why do they need more?
What are they doing with it? Take a wild guess.

------------quote----------
[www.sgi-usa.org]
Estate Planning
Member Resources | Contributions

We are deeply appreciative of members who may choose to leave a bequest to SGI-USA as a part of their estate. For more information about planned giving to SGI-USA, please contact us at estateplanning@sgi-usa.###, or call our general number, 310-260-####, and ask for George Odano.

Thank you very much.
SGI-USA
------------------------

They are the Japanese Borgias and Medicis and Ikeda is the Japanese Pope. Ironically[or not so ironically], their community center in Florence Italy is perhaps the most beautiful Villa of Medici ever built, something like Nichiren's hut who never had nor ever advocated temple building or acquisition. It is totally contrary to the teachings of Buddha and Nichiren, their scam, as the Medicis practices were totally contrary to the teachings of Jesus and St. Francis.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2011 01:47AM by Nichijew.

There is a thread on buddhism.about.com which is almost totally monopolized by The SGI.
Notice how that type of thread is monopolized by members of the SGI, who obviously get direction to go and post there.
Why do none of them post in this thread, when this thread is far higher on the Google ranking?
Because someone from SGI must have told them not to, as they don't want them to read the hundreds of facts about SGI posted in this thread. But they are reading it anyway, as it turns up on the first page of relevant Google searches.


But parts of the thread are interesting. There is some critical SGI info in the thread.
Buying Respect for Ikeda? Barbara O'Brien [buddhism.about.com]

But Barbara O'Brien seems to have a very distorted and primitive concept of the term 'cult'. As in, they are shaved-head robots banging on drums or something. Modern "cults" or sects, or groups, don't operate like that. Its a lot more sophisticated now. Its more invisible, more psychological, more about belief engineering.
What is interesting, is that Barbara O'Brien from buddhism.about.com says she does not think SGI is a "cult", but she is clearly mistaken in that, probably due to the fact she has a distorted concept of modern sects.

But then, the obvious sickening Vanity of Ikeda buying, and get his followers to buy him these plaques all over the world, doesn't make sense to her. So she criticizes that.
Right after that, there is a string of Ikeda-bots, with a thousand excuses to distract from the obvious megalomania Vanity of Ikeda.
Barbara gets so exasperated, that she sees these followers of Ikeda as being blind to reality. Which they are, its a total indoctrination into SGI.
She correctly sees that SGI is a personality cult around Ikeda, but can't see the other psychological operations at play, which SGI-USA uses to indoctrinate their followers, at various degrees.

By looking at the mountain of evidence, there is no question that SGI is a modern cult, or sect.
But its fascinating to see the pressure put on anyone in the Buddhist area to toe the line about Ikeda, if not, the Ikeda-bots come after them.

One thing is for certain, if Barbara O'Brien leaves buddhism.about.com you can bet SGI-USA has that position locked up.

The real question for buddhism.about.com might be, is SGI really Buddhist?