Hey ST&P. Yeah , I saw all of that crap you got from that ass at Reddit as it came down. I tried to point his totally incorrect idea that you were a former member of NST (not NSA). A real idiot alright - but then you have to expect that caliber person to be the first line defenders of Daisucku and his fatass-worshipping cult. I'm totally surprised that this diehard buttlicker has not shown up even once to comment on any of the posts that I have made there.

When the announcement of the split with the priesthood happened, one of the first things that bothered me was how NSA (SGI_USA) was literally cutting off its nose in spite of its face. Senseless Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai chose to pick the fight that lead to a disconnection from the very group (NST - the priesthood) that had provided them with an air of legitimacy. In retrospect, I beleive that I would not have been as quick to join NSA without the cult.org's pretext of legitimacy lent to it by the priesthood.

Let me relate an old experience of mine. Back around 1972-73 after I had first joined NSA, an NST priest from the NST Myoho-ji Temple in California was scheduled for a local (Texas) Gojukai ceremony. It was my job as a new TCD chief to pick up the priest at the airport and transport him to a hotel and the meeting site. I asked my senior leader if could request "guidance" from the priest (because I was always hearing from NSA leadership about the importance of getting guidance from our seniors in faith). I was shocked and surprised when she answered, "Absolutely NOT! We don't get guidance from any priests! We only get guidance from NSA leaders like Williams or Ikeda". I could sense the vitriol in her tone when she said "priest", so I quickly dropped the subject in fear of raising her ire any further. Instead of speaking up, I conveniently buried the wrongness of the matter in my mind, creating a cognitive dissonance that served to quicken my journey into a fabricated reality.

But deep down, I knew there was something very wrong about the NSA leadership being so negative and condescending toward the priesthood. I couldn't understand why the leaders would promote all the members to come to the meeting (ceremony) with the priest, while simultaneously creating a deception to hide their totally faked air of respect to the priesthood. OF course, now I see the hypocrisy of it. From this experience, one can easily see that NSA/Gakkai leadership had a very negative attitude toward the priesthood long before the excommunication occurred.

Those were also the days when "master" was commonly used. "My master" rolled off the tongues of every NSA leader, major or minor with incredible frequency. Wannabe-a-big-leader ladder climbers were often heard emotionally exclaiming,"I would give my life for Sensei", uttered in hope of proving their complete surrender to the cult. I naively accepted it all as normal, and emulated the behavior and attitude of my leaders, only to later pay a heavy price for accepting such fallacious ideas. It was several years later before I began to wake up and question all the in-congruent ideals that I had bought into in order to further my rapid dvancement up the leadership ladder of the animalistic world of NSAcult.

I'm pretty sure that fatty fat could pull down his pants and drop a huge stinking pile if shit right in the middle of the table, and the brainwashed members would all smile and happily exclaim, "oh look! daimoku turds! Isn't our mentor wonderful? - he really cares about us!" (but its not a cult or idol worship, right?).

I sure do wish I did know how to contact Hitch. I miss his great input and his links to videos that reveal the true nature of the SGIcult beast. Too bad he didn't make it over here after the big "crash of '13" (and the loss of several years of posts). You would think that the site moderators/owners would have, at the very least, sent out an email notification to all the site members with clear information about where to find the site after the move to it's new web addy, but that didn't happen. I had to nose around on my own for a while before I finally figured out what the new forum addy was, so I was just lucky to have made it over at all.

Hey, I thought Watchtower was a great handle (never heard about the JW booklet before) If anything, wise ex-members should know to keep their watchtower fully manned around the clock against any further invasions into their lives by the cult.org (or any other cults as well).

I didn't realize you were on reddit at that time. I thought it was just me and meh.

"In retrospect, I beleive that I would not have been as quick to join NSA without the cult.org's pretext of legitimacy lent to it by the priesthood."

Ditto.

That's why it was such a kick in the teeth when I heard about the excommunication. Our leaders had always made such a point of the unity of priesthood and believer and how it was because of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood carefully transmitting the true teachings and intent of Nichiren, along with the all-important Dai-Gohonzon (without which worldwide kosen rufu could not happen), that we were able to practice the One True Law here in Mappo, the Evil Latter Day of the Law!

And then all of a sudden, it's an about-face: "Oh, the priests are so evil! Corrupt! Ignorant! Base! Greedy! Grasping! Trying to destroy the One True Law!"

It turned into a supersession free-for-all, with the SGI claiming that now it was the SGI that was the TRUE priesthood, and it was the SGI that had inherited the Ultimate Law of Life (or whatever the hell their fancy blahblah was for that), with the priesthood now *OUT* of the loop - forever! That's how Christianity regards itself as replacing the Jews as their god's "chosen people" - perhaps you've heard of that. Supersession.

Dai-Gohonzon? What's that? Who remembers that?? Silly old piece of wood!

"I quickly dropped the subject in fear of raising her ire any further. Instead of speaking up, I conveniently buried the wrongness of the matter in my mind, creating a cognitive dissonance that served to quicken my journey into a fabricated reality. "

Oh, been there, done that! A LOT!!

Say, over the holiday, I read Daniel Dennett's book "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon." At one point, he says that the most successful religions have incomprehensible terminology, which, because it can't be understood, must be repeated verbatim. No one can paraphrase (and, thus, potentially degrade the transmission of the concepts) - it's rote learning, a successful if little appreciated form of pedagogy. We're all about the critical thinking now, you know, but memorization is a powerful means of transmitting information from person to person. Also, speaking and repeating publicly facilitates memorization. So you have concepts like "ichinen" which most members will describe as "determination" but which actually means "life moment", which is meaningless blahblah. That's why so many Japanese terms remain in use - we are told that they don't translate directly, so we repeat the term. I've got a gunny sackful over here, and I know you do, too! "Three realms of life in a single life moment", anyone? Utter twaddle! But you condition people to regard these *sounds* as sacred, and, through repeated "handling," people can easily be trained to produce a specific emotional reaction to those *sounds*.

It's diabolical O_O



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 02:08PM by StillTaitenAndProud.

"Let me relate an old experience of mine. Back around 1972-73 after I had first joined NSA, an NST priest from the NST Myoho-ji Temple in California was scheduled for a local (Texas) Gojukai ceremony. It was my job as a new TCD chief to pick up the priest at the airport and transport him to a hotel and the meeting site. I asked my senior leader if could request "guidance" from the priest (because I was always hearing from NSA leadership about the importance of getting guidance from our seniors in faith). I was shocked and surprised when she answered, "Absolutely NOT! We don't get guidance from any priests! We only get guidance from NSA leaders like Williams or Ikeda". I could sense the vitriol in her tone when she said "priest", so I quickly dropped the subject in fear of raising her ire any further. Instead of speaking up, I conveniently buried the wrongness of the matter in my mind, creating a cognitive dissonance that served to quicken my journey into a fabricated reality. "

Interesting. We had just one fujin bucho up in Minnesota, and the nearest Jt Terr was Chicago, an 8 or 10 hr drive away. So we weren't going there very often! Still, we were regaled with tales of the "pioneers" making the drive "every weekend" because it was "so important to connect with the jt terr!" Ugh.

Anyhow, she kept up a good front about the priesthood - when a priest would come visit for a gojukai or when we would go to Chicago and visit a temple there or somehow otherwise have contact with a priest, she would remind us all to make our contributions to the priest. It wasn't until the year before the excommunication that she stopped reminding us, and I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't pointed it out to me right after the excommunication.

I remember her talking about a big meeting at Taiseki-Ji, where the High Priest was seated on a raised dias and Pres. Ikeda was sitting there, too, right next to him, and a beautiful full moon rose right behind them. Such was the unity of priesthood and believer, you see!

Also, before 1990, she frequently gave experiences in her broken Engrish. After Pres. Ikeda's 1990 visit, where he ordered once a month discussion meetings rather than once a week, etc., she no longer gave experiences. I heard that it had been decreed that the pioneers should fade into the background so that the "next generation" of leaders could shine or something equally silly. But she really didn't need to be "on stage" so much. I could tell she was hurt/resentful at that slight - surely she, as the sole local pioneer, SHOULD have been admired and cherished, right?

You know, and I'm sure this illustrates something about Japanese culture that I've never been able to grasp, when I married my husband, I had a civil ceremony in a judge's chambers and then a Buddhist wedding at the community center (because no more priests). This pioneer offered to do the san san kudo ceremony for me. I told her I'd already chosen one of my YWD, someone I was trying to "raise in the faith". So then she said that, if I didn't choose her, I couldn't use her special san san kudo pedestal cups! I said, "That's fine." I ended up buying an antique little sake bottle and cute little cups to use. I don't think the fujin bucho spoke to me again, and she didn't attend my wedding! And she certainly didn't give me a wedding present!!

Japanese people are weird O_O

OMG! A mod over at reddit removed this post!

"Hi, Spartacus! I, too, was an SGI-USA member and leader. In fact, I went as high as a YWD Headquarters leader. What I want to add is that it was emphasized to me that anyone who takes on leadership positions gets proportionally more benefit than members who remain members. So that's what I focused on. I did whatever it took to gain leadership positions (which meant doing everything my leaders told me I needed to do and being the perfect patsy) because I wanted MORE BENEFIT for myself. I want to stress that this was presented as "the formula", even as the older Japanese "pioneer" members (fujin bucho) sneered privately (I was witness to this myself) at the American members, who always wanted to know what "the formula" was.

For example, we were told that how high on the wall we mounted our butsudan corresponded to what our income would be. If you wanted a big raise, raise your butsudan, in other words! I remember one poverty-level, drug-challenged single mother on the poor side of town, who mounted her cheap starter butsudan with its top pressed against her apartment ceiling! She didn't get rich, in case you were wondering.

The more you "connected" with the SGI organization, the more benefit you would receive. The more you tried to internalize that fat bastard Daisaku Ikeda's "spirit", the more benefit you would receive. The bait was very clearly held out for the needy and vulnerable to take, and those were, of course, their targets.
No one wakes up one morning and says to himself, "You know what? Just for kicks, I think I'll join a cult today!" No, cult members (who are told that converting new members will gain them enormous benefits) are always on the lookout for "marks", those who are at a low in their lives and will thus be receptive to the cult sell. It's an absolutely predatory process.

To show you just how determined I was to get that "benefit" at all costs, during one Study Exam cycle (it was held at a certain time each year, so we leaders were expected to do lots of visits leading up to the exam to "encourage" the members to take the exam), I drove 3 hrs with some other leaders to an outlying district. An inactive former YWD was kind enough to let us use her apartment for meeting with the members of the district there. When we were done, we wanted to do gongyo before starting the 3-hr drive home. We asked the young woman if she wanted to do gongyo with us, and she said yes. We all did gongyo together.
Upon arriving home, my leaders asked me to write up my "experience" of the visit to present to the members at kosen rufu gongyo, you know, to promote the upcoming Study Exam. So I wrote it up and submitted it for HQ leader approval, per protocol. It was returned to me with a significant change - my HQ Men's Division leader had changed one sentence, from "We asked if she would like to do gongyo with us before we left" to "She asked US if we would do gongyo WITH HER before we left"! That's HUGE! And hugely dishonest.

To my eternal shame and embarrassment, I went along with the HQ Men's Div. leader's fictional scenario, and told the local members that she had asked us if we would do gongyo with her. As if she'd begged us. If she had heard that I had done that, I knew it would probably mean that she would have nothing further to do with SGI-USA - would you?? Surely that HQ Men's Division leader saw that risk as well - BUT HE DIDN'T CARE! The "estranged member begging for the organization" narrative was all he cared about, and he didn't care who had to lie to promote it. No concern for the person he's demanding to misrepresent the situation. Imagine.
After that, I was nominated to a HQ YWD leadership position. I did a lot of good there, but let's be candid - I only sought the position because I believed what I'd been told, that I'd receive IMMENSE benefits for my efforts.

Years later, I was at a Soka Spirit meeting up in LA, where Melanie Merians was going to be a speaker. My fellow leaders were all agog - former YWD National Leader Melanie Merians!! She opened her remarks by telling us that she'd helped/shakubukued (convinced to join the organization) over 400 people to get their gohonzons!! wild applause

"Do you know how many are still practicing? TWO," she concluded. awkward silence

Any organization that relies on misrepresentation and selling people on the idea that, by chanting magic words or thinking special thoughts, they can receive unearned favor is doomed to failure. IT. DOESN'T. WORK. And people will eventually realize that. May they realize sooner rather than later."

I shouldn't have used your real name, but I'm surprised the mod deleted it - he's been really nice to me in the past.

Here's what he said:

"You post started out alright but quickly degenerated. Removed."

WTH!! As far as I can see, it's all relevant. I guess the Ikedabot effect is starting...

Edit: No, wait, I found the post - it's down at the bottom now. Hm. Do you have any idea which post was deleted? I had a window left open from last night or earlier today that included that thread, and it was *MY* post, the one above that is now at the bottom of the thread, that was where the deleted one is now. Ima gonna go see if I've been shadow-banned again...*goes to check*

Nope, all my posts seem to be there, though the post I copied above ^ is now at the *end* of the thread instead of where it used to be, where a post has apparently been deleted. Do you suppose he deleted it and then had second thoughts??

Edit edit: Oh, I think it might have been that I called Ikeda a "fat bastard" that might have caused him to say it "degenerated" *snork*



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 02:31PM by StillTaitenAndProud.

Yes, I do remember all the hoopla over making pilgrimages half way round the world to see the Daigohonzon? It just vanished into thin air. Used to be a visit to see the daiG was THE thing to do. Now it looks like that has morphed into seeing Daisucku on some form of medium (pics & vids), but not in person,considering no one has seen his decrepit carcass for a while.

Remember all the money that SGcult spent to equip all CCs with satellite equipment? We were supposed to get to see Senseless every month, but that didn't pan out did it? I think they got paranoid about the sat signal getting hacked, but claimed that they couldn't "afford" sat mtgs anymore (after investing in all that hardware- hmmmm)

As I pointed out elsewhere, I think it's highly likely that the little twerp over on reddit got into a little trouble over his posts; I was in a couple of private-message conversations with the moderator there, and he implied that that was the case. I suspect that he may have been threatened that if he kept it up, he would lose his moderator position on another couple of threads.

Speculation of course, but I find it kind of curious that he buttoned his lip at that point; it couldn't be that holding his position as moderator was more important to him than defending sgi, could it? Oh, ye of little faith . . .

A couple of the posts here explained an odd situation I came across in Las Cruces. There are a lot of pioneer members in NM and west TX and, being a good little zombie at the time, I felt a deep sense of respect for them. We were always hearing about their personal sacrifices yada-yada, and I thought it would be a great idea to compile their experiences into a video-book. I got guidance from my local leaders who also thought it was a great idea. My big motivation, other than getting their stories out there while they were still around to tell them, was to give younger members (and newer members like myself) an idea of what these women went through to make sgi grow as it had here in the us . . . essentially a history of sgi in the us.

As luck would have it, my sponsor was Monica Soto Ouichi's brother-in-law (she's the editor of the Weird Tribune), and I was friends with her family in Albuquerque. I was also familiar with her through another connection, so it seemed like a good idea to contact her with this proposal - it was going to be a fairly expensive project (from my perspective, anyway) and I thought if I could get WT behind me then maybe they could offer some financial support for it. I emailed Monica, and she was very excited about the whole thing. We exchanged a few emails on the topic, and at one point she said that she would present it to the powers that be. The last I heard was basically - gee, thanks, but the WT is starting a similar series. Which it never did.

From reading the above posts, I think that they just didn't want to show-case the pioneers because they were so old-school and still had an emotional foot in NS-land.

I always thought it was a shame - however I feel about sgi, I think those women were incredibly brave and suffered a lot of hardships, all for what they believed was a sacrifice-worthy cause. There still was a certain amount of veneration for them, at least in the SW . . . they were always treated with a certain amount of deference. Of course, most of them were pretty old.

As for cultural differences, even on a personal-relationship level, there are plenty. I found some of them to be charming and sweet - I found the custom of always showing up at a member's house for a meeting with a gift of a couple of apples, oranges or some kind of snack very thoughtful. Not all of them did that, but it was a nice gesture.

What I didn't find so charming and sweet was somebody lifting a couple of special (but worthless) coins from my altar during a meeting and leaving with them. I have no idea who did it, but I'm sure they were very disappointed when they got them home and examined them.

Just a reminder - please remember to "upvote" posts that you agree with on reddit . . . if there are more downvotes than up, the sub may run into trouble.

This statement is worth writing in gold.

"I could sense the vitriol in her tone when she said "priest", so I quickly dropped the subject in fear of raising her ire any further.

"Instead of speaking up, I conveniently buried the wrongness of the matter in my mind, creating a cognitive dissonance that served to quicken my journey into a fabricated reality."

Thats one of those lines, which when crossed, become almost invisible, because by ignoring that 'wrongness' ones critical thinking is ever so slightly impaired making it difficult to reflect upon that situation.

Its like frostbite, where the numbness makes onset easy to ignore.

Ive done this same thing too many times in my life.

An analogy:

Years ago, one of our room-mates brought home a cat who went on to have kittens. For various reasons, she didnt pay attention when the kittens kept peeing in a corner of the living room.

I'd never lived with cats and didnt know how important it was to insist on proper litterbox training--immediately.

Upshot: that multitude of little pisses in the corner meant the kittens got in the habit of going there.

And it cost us 200 USD to get the entire thing de-odorized after this gal moved out.

Never tolerate that first piss in the corner -- whether its our living room -- or into our minds!

Corboy! So good to see you!

I like the piss analogy . . . and with cats, it always encourages more and more of them to make their "statements" in that same corner. And if you ignore it long enough, the odor grows so gradually that you don't notice it. It also destroys the carpet and eats into the subfloor.

Nothing quite like having someone mark you as their territory.