Quote
sushigrl
I sincerely hope that someone will do a book review on the titles put out by this SGI Fortune Baby Press. Gads!!! I'm sincerely hoping that a discerning public will see through the candy sweetness and ask, who is this schmuck Daisaku Ikeda anyway? I wonder if they publish all of his fake degrees on the book jacket....

well its possible to do that on amazon is it not? thats if the book is sold on amazon too

tsuki - there is a picture of Castro on the bottom right hand corner of the collage...just poking fun...I can't believe they included him. Maybe they wan't to set up shop in Cuba?

I told two family friends yesterday that I have left SGI. One was silent and had nothing to say, which is very unusual for her. The other told me I had devlish functions working toward my demise. I think I'm gonna lose more friends than I thought.

Gonna stay strong!

Hi evergreen

oh dear sounds that you told your parents then ... how does your partner feel about it.
i still wonder if rumours are true and the number of members leaving is growing ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2010 05:03AM by Rothaus.

I wish there were a family support group for you Evergreen, where people in a similar situation could find ways to ease the tension and smooth the transition if there is such a thing. When I left SGI, I had a few friends who were "doubters and backsliders" who nonetheless stayed with the org just for appearances sake. They were easy to talk to, no trash about Ikea of course, but they appreciated me as a human being.

I hope things go well for you. :)

Evergreen, it sounds difficult. The "devilish functions" remark just shows how SGI has indoctrinated its members with fear. They hang onto members by making them feel that horrible things will happen to them if they leave SGI. It's not true, of course, but people believe it.

You may lose some of these people; you may not. I lost all but two of my so-called SGI friends. I look at it as, I didn't lose the real friends. Like someone else said, they were really just people that I did things with. It's hard, but it can open up space in your life for more like-minded people and for pursuing interests that you didn't have time for before, when you were so busy with SGI.

Why so much publicity about meeting with Fidel Castro? I think Ikeda just likes associating himself with the famous and powerful, just like some women are irresistibly drawn to famous (or notorious) men. Doesn't matter whether they're heroic like Mandela or tyrants like Noriega and Ceaucescu, the important thing is that they're powerful.


I've read that Ikeda despises President Clinton because Clinton would not meet with him in 1991. The Clintons weren't going to be snapshots in the Book of Ikeda.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2010 06:14AM by tsukimoto.

@ Evergreen

Keep going, you'll be fine.
Im going through the whole SGI "friendship" thing atm myself too.
I think, given your own circumstances, you are being amazing.
Trust your reactions and instincts as to what feels wrong or right, NOT what gets used to manipulate your heart-strings.

Im no fan of Facebook. Im weak, and I use it nevertheless, its an occaisional passtime where I can semi-blog and collect vids on my own page.
What I have never got, is the shallow obsession with "collecting" friends.
I mean, come on, how can any one individual call 600 people true friends?
So Im not bothered by having only a handleful of trusted folk on my page in this way.
One of my recent purging actions was to delete all SGI contacts - the whole networking systems allows everyone to feed into you and your private life and acquaintances. A few of the SGIers have tried to get back in. Ive finally lost it, and started to tell them to get lost. Im hoping a refusal offends now, because they can then go away and hold their heads high safe in the knowledge that this is why its so important to chant. Im obviously acting this way because of my devilish functions. If they keep it up, I can be highly imaginative and creative with my insults. This all sounds so awful, I know. But what do you have to do to get people so blinkered and arrogant to go away? I personally find the whole disrespect of my own right to freedom of thought, privacy and ideology infinately more insulting on a deep level than anything else.

I heard one of these people, trying to hold onto who I was in SGI, her daughter soon found it all very off-putting. She recieved Gohonzon, but just couldnt bring herself to enshrine it. I find that encouraging, that other youth in the UK find the whole SGI community plain wierd and freaky.

Evergreen, its hard, but you CAN choose your friends. Personally, Ive come to realise that my SGI "buddies" were never really good friends at all.
A real friend would support you, love you for being yourself, no matter what.
I wish there was an org that could provide support for you, and me, for that matter, because its hard to understand it all unless you've been there.
Maybe start a new thread. Im beginning to think its really needed. a thread that just deals with supporting people ensnared in SGI specifically.
I think this thread is great, though. Its secure, (from SGI) and theres some great expose stuff revealled.
But I come to see how a group talking about their trials in progress could be of real help, in abscence of any other help avail. , because its so hard to even begin talking when you are deep in the clutches of the Soka Spirit b#llsh#t.
I dont think I have the skills to do this alas. All help welcome though.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2010 01:12PM by wayfarerfree.

I have to agree with wayfarerfree. I too have family members in SGI (not my partents though). What used to be a close family relationship became somewhat distanced. It hurts incerdibly to come to realise that, but on the other hand I had to admit that the sorrow over loosing that closeness was holding on to something that was not the close bound that I thought it was to begin with. Just as it was pointed out I now ask myself if I as a person was appreciated at all. Can they look at me without the SGI-filter? The answer is no. BUT this is not my fault and its not yours either evergreen. Everything I now may say in any context (these family discussions) is frowned at. The thing though is its not frowned at by principle, but rather it seems that in their mind I can not be right on anything since I am not with SGI anymore. A long time ago I started a discussion about Nichiren and they just could not abmit that they were ignorant to many aspects. These days I simply do not mention SGI at all, which just makes it even clearer that there is not much to talk about anyway - how could there be if ones life begins and ends with an organisation?
Since I was 20 years in the organisation I lost a lot of my friends too, but just as wayfarerfree pointed out - they were no real friends anyway.
So in a way evergreen, you ARE already getting stronger since you allow yourself to be who you are. So many aspects of our personality were handed over to the organistaion - our ablitiy to judge, to read what we have an interest in, to listen to people who have a differnt faith - not trying to convince them wrong, to realise that our doubts are not devilish functions but common sense. Its a bit like the tale of the Emperors new clothes - you/we are the child pointing out what we see.
In the end evergreen I do feel sorry for some in SGI as their lives are actually quite empty, their personality reduced to fit the SGI mold and a sign of utter dependence. SGI is their "raison d'etre". In the end Evergreen, just do not close the door (I am sure you won't do that anyway) to them and after a while they will eventually step inside. Its just quite frightening whats left of a person when you take the SGI-aspect away from the way you look at them. It seems you have your own family too, so I think you will show your childreen how to think for themself - its not always easy and one does not always make friends, but YOU are true to yourself.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2010 05:22PM by Rothaus.

I threw my Soka jacket in the bin yesterday.
A couple of years ago, I found a really cool range of clothing from an Australian surf company, whose designs were really unique but cheap too.
Once, when I was due to do Soka at the national centre, I forgot my SGI-space monkey uniform jacket (as us youth have here in the UK), and in the breaks I was allowed I felt the chill and had to wear item of said surf attire to stay warmer. This isnt going to end with me being criticised for being out of uniform or anything like that. But the name of the clothes brand was "Cult".
Life does try and give you these lil messages.
I bought the entire range.

One more lil snapshot.
I went into a shop yesterday, a crystal/alternative therapy shop. Got chatting to the guy working there that day. Noticed that I was feeling really anxious, and that I get that a lot these days. I had a bit of an epithany though yesterday. I realised that Soka Vision was there, in the back of my psyche, creating its barrier of judgement/should I shakabuku etc. And the anxiety was coming from my ignoring the SGI stances that had become automatic, even though, and this is the sick part, I dont believe in any of it. This is the after effects of subtle mental programming. Whether its intentional or just a common feature of any insular organised religious (Im no fan of any of them now) group, I do not know. But this is what it feels like to wake up one day with a mind thinking thoughts that are not your own. I do find it unlikely that SGI leaders are unaware that they are making decsions about influencing the way the "lower members" think and act in their districts. Very unlikely indeed. They get around this, by using different words for it. That is the process, in a nutshell. Its not that clever, its been done before, but they still get away with it, because we let them (past tense for me, thankfully). Its exactly like an abusive relationship. The happy slave. Or unhappy, screaming silently inside.
I walked out of the shop, happier, though because I know that once something filters into your awareness, especially something thats a real, clear decisive insight into your own inner workings, its there for good:
My SGI "training" (or whatever you want to call it) had replaced my normal manner of just talking to people and accepting them for who they are with this pushy, lil devil on my shoulder that didnt like being muzzled. The guy in the shop was a nice chap for gods sake.
So "devilish functions" - my skinny white backside!
I feel one step further away from these social perverts and I feel like Im winning.
Im intent on getting that SGI devil on a leash and muzzling the mongrel for good.
Sorry to rant, but Ive taken the gloves off on them now, and its war.
The more time goes by the angrier I feel about being used by them, so its either fight back or let it drain my energy by hitching a lift on my life.

I have been out of the org for a while now, but still feel vestiges of that good ol' Gakkai training. Like scolding myself unnecessarily or doing an "attitude check" when I'm facing a problem. I did lose alot of contacts in the SGI, but some people, as I mentioned before, made it through the sieve as they are good quality human beings. It takes time, but things will settle down.

I think this forum is designed for ex- SGI members and their families, and if there is archived information, it's the better for it. I hope it continues because it is the top one mentioned when a person does a search for info on the SGI antics. There isn't any professional deprogramming here, but there are people who are discovering themselves after having been molded by SGI's devilish nature. I mean really, who would be more devilish, a person in tune with their intuition and self worth or a giant org bent on world domination. Really now.

Yay Evergreen, Wayfarer, Rothaus and everyone!!!

thank you so much everyone for your heartfelt and honest advice.

"I forgot my SGI-space monkey uniform jacket" (wayfarerfree)

LMAO