currently leaders are encouraging everyone to sing Forever Sensei at every meeting. If you look at the World Tribune you will see that this song is part of many articles - things like "the meeting ended with a rousing rendition of Forever Sensei." I always had a problem singing these songs, playing these songs on my flute. When I was asked to sing this song it felt like someone was putting the finaly nail on my coffin. I could chant and "hang" so long as we didn't talk about Ikeda so much. The more I tried to run, the more they wrote about, sang about, spoke about Ikeda. I don't know if and when more of these happy crappy songs are going to be reintroduced.

In all seriousness, can someone who speaks Japanese tell me whether SGI language is a poor translation of Japanese (i.e. has no proper English equivalent)? I am struggling to find the reason for the way that I was taught to speak. Does anyone else understand what I am getting at? If you look at the lyrics and the current experiences/articles in SGI publications they are all so strange to me! I didn't think this language was strange as a kid, but I'm now I'm embarassed by it.

Do you mean the jargon used? It's a whole other topic the way they use language and sayings over and over again!

Dear evergreen:

I thought nothing about doing all sorts of non-Buddhist activities as a YMD member and leader. I wanted to attain Buddhahood and I was willing to do whatever my seniors said I needed to do, in order to do so: Stand from 2 - 4 am guarding a metal plaque of Toda in the middle of nowhere; directing traffic in freezing rain for hours even though there were so many signs a blind man could have found the parking lot; guarding a doorway for hours where not one person entered or left; cleaning community center toilets until they shined; endless marching; trying to memorize To My Young American Friends; meetings nearly every night and on the weekends for weeks and months on end; driving a large truck with manual transmission, all over Manhattan even though I had never driven a manual transmission; wearing white T-shirts and white pants and running around union square park every Saturday for nearly a year, sometimes with those white Japanese beanie hats and taking the subway there looking like an idiot; chanting to pictures of Daisaku Ikeda; doing street shakabuku in the worst neighborhoods in the south bronx and making home visits to tenements; missing work and school for the sake of activities; strained family relations because they wouldn't chant or couldn't see how enlightened I was from doing all these activities or them criticizing Ikeda; trying to sleep in warehouses, either on the floor, a bench, or on a thin mat and with the lights on for many days on end; practically begging people to get the Gohonzon, paying for them to get one, shaming them into getting one, breaking off relationships because they wouldn't get one; giving my last dollar to attend retreats and having to eat spaghetti and butter and canned peas and ketchup for weeks and grubbing cigarettes because I had no money left; severe lack of sleep while doing strenuous labor, marching, and running for days on end.

The problem was, I didn't study the Lotus Sutra and all the writings of Nichiren Daishonin. I followed persons rather than the Law. Nichiren taught that the only requirement for a lay practitioner is to chant Namu Myo ho renge kyo, support the priests who do shakabuku [forceful conversions] and tell other to chant Namu Myoho renge kyo according to one's strength. In other words, a simple straightforward faith and practice. As I think Sushi said, they didn't want you to study in depth, then you would question almost everything about the Soka Gakkai faith and practice. That is why their study materials always are carefully structured, pre-prep lectures and the like, and they study the same thing for year after year. One would have thought that the entirety of Nichiren Daishonin's teachings was the Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life writing. I know someone here remembers studying Ikeda's lectures on this one writing, every week for several years. Then they lie that you only need to learn one concept of the Gosho to understand all there is about Buddhism. They take the phrase from the writings, "To practice and ponder one phrase" which refers to Namu Myoho renge kyo and shoehorn it to mean that any phrase Ikeda picks out from the writings, is enough to understand the entirety of Buddhism. Trust me, I can go on. Suffice it to say i am extrmely joyful to have found an authentic sangha in which to practice with other likeminded individuals, who really try and have the same faith and practice as Nichiren Daishonin.

Wow Nichijew, I forgot how hard the YMD had it. I'm sure it was the same all over! The YWD were babied a little bit (although I had to guard a live allbeit sleepy) lion in a cage in St Louis for hours. Poor thing it was drugged. The drugged SGI lion king. A sleepy Byakuren guarding a sleepy lion. The sleep deprivation was bore, wasn't it! I also did shakubuku in some really dangerous neighborhoods. I also sat in an abandoned warehouse "guarding" it for the art department for hours...all it had in it was pigeons!

The worst memory though was of having a severely abused woman receive Gohonzon, and my HQ (japanese) leader visit her and tell her that if she would chant and be a better wife, she wouldn't get beaten.

Needless to say, the woman wised up and left the offender and moved into her mother's house...she gave her Gohonzon back. Her eye was black and her arm dislocated at the shoulder, two young children, and this jerk telling her to stay and be a better wife...she may not have lived!! This leader had the amazing quality of disappearing from meetings for a while when something bad did happen to a member... I felt like such a fool for introducing her to buddhism, dragging her to gojukai, only to have him say this to her. I was so wrong to have tried to shakubuku her, she should have been shuttled to a shelter!! But, it had the effect of finally driving me away from the org, so I guess it served a purpose after all.

There is some incredible information coming out in this thread.
The Ex-SGI folks are helping hundreds of people right now who are reading this thread, and reflecting carefully and thoughtfully on the techniques used by SGI-USA and SGI.

Not enough time right now to summarize everything, but a HUGE CHUNK of the SGI system has been exposed in the last few pages. That is the kind of key information we need, the SPECIFIC tasks and behaviors SGI people are assigned and told to do.
All of those things, like staying up all night "guarding" signs, and the rest of it are part of the SGI system.

As well, there is important information at how incredibly intense SGI us at getting new bodies into the SGI meetings. (other groups call that fresh-meat).

About the SGI songs, those are part of the larger SGI system of indoctrination of course. They create emotional group cohesion, and groupthink. The fact the lyrics are infantile is good for SGI. It regresses people to a school-age mentality, they are easy to remember, and they become like a mind-virus in the brain, they keep playing over and over. And the "message" of a song like Forever Sensei is very powerful, when repeated thousands of times over a few years.
Every organization of group control and persuasion (modern brainwashing) uses SONGS as part of their program.

Ikeda is diabolically brilliant in this area of mass persuasion. The part where he is telling SGI people they might only get a little rice out of a bowl if they are lucky, and have to learn to live in the wilderness like a guerrilla fighter is a very clever psychological tactic by Ikeda. Ikeda of course knows this is utter nonsense, as he has billions and billions of dollars invested all over the world.
Ikeda is sending a message, an old school propaganda message to his ground troops, that they have to SACRIFICE EVERYTHING for Ikeda and SGI.
You have to sacrifice everything for him, even your life, and starve yourself and live on wild rice and beetles. The message is to sacrfice your life for Ikeda and SGI.

The utter laughability of this is beyond absurdity.
Again, President Ikeda has billions and billions and billions of real dollars, invested all over the world, and billions in real estate globally. The guys who run SGI literally live like feudal kings and popes.
And they are telling the SGI serfs that they are lucky to be allowed to eat bugs and grass.
That exposes the SGI mentality of Ikeda and his cronies at the top.

Ikeda gives himself away with his comment of how SGI members may have to eat and live off GRASS as they will be persecuted.
That reminds one of the phrase...let them eat cake.

But for SGI and Ikeda its..."let them eat grass".

Ikeda knows that humans CANNOT digest grass. Cows can, as they have various stomachs, but humans cannot digest or live off grass, of course. So Ikeda knows some of his more indoctrinated are going to probably try to live off the land like a guerrilla fighter, and eat grass and bugs, for the sake of SGI.
But again, Ikeda knows 100% that humans cannot do that.
Its another deliberately impossible task, that is designed to make people fail, like so much of SGI.
Its also meant to create the extreme psychology of a guerrilla and group paranoia. To organize people under a leader you need to make them AFRAID. These SGI leaders use FEAR to organize people under them.

The most important thing said a few pages back is about the SGI "training".
That is it.
When SGI says "training" that is code for the specific SGI tactics designed to influence and control your emotions, thinking, and behaviors. That is the SGI Thought Reform, and behavior reform system.
The SGI Training, is literally the various aspects of the SGI group persuasion, mass influence, cultic mind control, and "modern brainwashing". That is what brainwashing is, its an advanced form of directed "training" with covert methods and objectives. Its not some bizarre process, like on a bad TV show. So brainwashing is a bad word as it has false images attached to it, yet its a powerful word that carries a clear message.

SGI Training = SGI brainwashing.
Again, some of it is very advanced and appears to be Voluntary, much of it is crude and old-school and very effective.
But whenever someone in SGI talks about TRAINING, that means SGI-brainwashing, mass influence, or whatever you want to call it.
Perhaps, SGI-Programming.
SGI is programming people very carefully with their deliberate systems of "training".
Its not training, its programming, its SGI brainwashing. That's what is going on.

By the way, one could spend many hours carefully analyzing the SGI-USA website. It is very very cleverly put together, to lure people in.
For example..they target brand new people here, who's minds are full of doubt's about SGI and religion in general.

Is it OK to try the practice even if I’m not sure I believe in it?
[www.sgi-usa.org]

I hope people can see how brilliant that is. This is modern advanced persuasion.
They have targeted the doubting mind.
They turn everything upside down and inside out. They reframe so-called "blind faith", and tell you to listen to their Testimonials to start, which is the same thing!
SGI is deliberately setting out to create a Confirmation Bias [www.skepdic.com] in peoples minds, its deliberate.

SGI then sets out their program for CHANGING YOUR BELIEFS. Its right there in the text.
"documentary proof, theoretical proof and actual proof.".
The "documentary" are the Testimonials and stories, like an infomerical.
Theoretical, that is meant to bamboozle people with the twisted SGI ideas. (beliefs are theories in the mind)
And the so-called actual proof, is at best the confirmation bias [www.skepdic.com] and often self-delusion.

But guess what, that is exactly how you change human beliefs.
Change expectations, change the stories in their minds, change their philosophies and theories, and change their perception of their experiences.
Modern SGI has carefully studied these methods, and just on one page for the SGI newbie, its jam packed with their techniques of completely changing your belief systems.

They target a skeptical mind, and lure in those people who don't have extensive experience in critical thinking.
The SGI alleged documentary Stories are bogus, many of them are fabricated, they are contrived advertising testimonials.
The SGI Theories are false, and go against actual logic and reason, and against real Buddhism!!
The SGI experiences (so-called actual proof) are the confirmation bias, and often severe distortions of reality, and more fabrications.

Real "proof" would be real university backed studies, that studied "chanting" with a double-blind control group, with placebo controls, done in many different ways. That could measure life results, or the lack thereof.
SGI offers nothing, just their own Stories, false SGI theories, and distorted perceptions of reality.
Guess what, its all intentional by SGI. They know that.

SGI doesn't chant with its billions in investments and wealth, SGI pays professional (non-SGI) money managers millions a year to manage the money for Ikeda. And they watch them like hawks.

The material below shows how there are those in SGI who have carefully studied the most current advanced methods of belief re-engineering, and have inserted them into the SGI system. That is what SGI is doing.
That is far less than 1% of the tip of the SGI iceberg.
SGI makes all these other sects and cults look like mom and pop operations.



_____________QUOTE_______________________
[www.sgi-usa.org]
Is it OK to try the practice even if I’m not sure I believe in it?

Many people are wary of how some religions tend to emphasize belief without any evidence of how they work. They basically ask for your blind faith. Nichiren Buddhism is different. It is a philosophy and practice of actual proof—belief, or faith, arises from the positive impact the practice has on people’s lives, from how it leads to happiness here and now.

Of course, if you are very new to chanting Nam-myoho-rengekyo, you might not have experienced any conspicuous actual proof yet. But at SGI-USA activities, you have no doubt heard members’ experiences of having received benefit as well as explanations of how the practice works. This can be your starting point—instead of blind faith, you can begin with an expectation that the practice works and therefore be willing to try it.

Nichiren Daishonin established the criteria of “three proofs” that people should apply to determine the validity of a religious practice: documentary proof, theoretical proof and actual proof. Documentary proof means that the teaching should accord with the Buddhist sutras, considered the collective and comprehensive body of wisdom at the time. Nichiren explains in his writings how chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and sharing it with others actualizes the Lotus Sutra, the highest teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Theoretical proof means that the teaching must accord with reason and logic. Nichiren Buddhism is profoundly based on the principle of cause and effect, of which all phenomena in the universe are an expression. We are not expected to believe in anything that cannot ultimately be explained in light of this principle.

Actual proof means that the teaching actually changes people’s lives for the better, that there is undeniable improvement that anyone can see. Nichiren argued that actual proof is the most important of the three: “In judging the relative merit of Buddhist doctrines, I, Nichiren, believe that the best standards are those of reason and documentary proof. And even more valuable than reason and documentary proof is the proof of actual fact” (“Three Tripitaka Masters Pray for Rain,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 599).

As Nichiren Buddhists, we develop ever-deepening faith through our own experience rather than simply accepting our beliefs from others. Ours is a philosophy of proof, and new members can expect to see actual proof from their practice soon after starting.
____________________________



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2009 02:07AM by The Anticult.

Anticult, I believe you're right. As we were always told "don't dwell on the past" and "don't harbor ill feelings" toward members or the org, we were never allowed to process the various wrongs experienced in our "glorious Youth Division Days". No matter what it was, we could always say "we changed so much poison into medicine" or alleviated the negative effects of our karma etc etc. No matter how dangerous or ludicrous or stupid our activities were, or how many mistakes the leaders made that put us in jeopardy, it would all be for cousin rufus "world peace". I won't dignify it with Kosen Rufu any more, such an empty mindless term.

It sounds like they are still towing the line however. The leaders that had us up and running in the 70s and eighties barely exist anymore, fresh new Japanese faces and some american "fortune babies" have taken over the helm. The organization constantly whitewashes anything negative or flat out dangerous in it's past. It would be great to see one leader stand up and say " We have done wrong to the members, hidden their contributions, falsified information and engaged in harmful and sometimes shameful techniques", and then be arrested or to turn himself in to authorities for jail time, as has happened in many other "religions".

I saw organizationally subsidized leaders driving up to the kaikan in luxury cars and furs. Gorgeous outfits and suits I observe as I was serving them tea and cleaning their commodes; common members were harassed for anything they could give for the zaimu.

When I was younger,my chapter sponsored a garage sale for the sho hond oluxury dwelling for the Dai Gohonzon. I sold my most precious and sometimes not inexpensive items for a few dollars to "contribute to Kosen Rufu", to a building that got torn down.Donating these things, sometimes items bought by my leaders for pennies, later put a very sour taste in my mouth. Why would they have us do this???

I was too pure hearted for my own good. Yes nothing can turn back the hands of time, but SGI needs to stop encouraging people to donate when they can't even pay their own bills, and cleaning when they can't even keep their own homes clean, and spending time with members when they can't even take care of their own children properly (oh the stories about that!!!)

The hypocrite leaders foisting their judgments and criticisms of others' lives while their lives own fall apart at the seams HAS to be some sort of actual proof in itself that the organization is wrong. I know that later into the 80s and 90s more emphasis was placed on personal lives being patched up and showing "actual proof" at work, but I still remember toward the end of my stay that a member was told to chant overnight for the success of something, when she had to be at work the next day!! Things like that are sure to be going on...the blaming of a member for not having the "guts" to challenge their karma!

My mother was dying of cancer, I was chanting like a maniac and visiting her and eventually had her receive Gohonzon . After she died, members accused me of not having enough faith for her to change her karma and live. The concern stopped, no service offered, not much in the way of condolences because everyone was working for "Kosen Rufu".

I once confided in a senior leader that I hoped she would die a peaceful death and he screamed at me saying that I was not cherishing human life and that even one moment lived as a human, even with excruciating pain, was better than death. GOSH! I was the only one in my family taking care of my mother besides my father, exhausted and in emotional turmoil, and he says something like that. Yes human life is precious, but wasn't dying a peaceful death part of the Buddhist dream? Ok, so much for my memoires for now.

I'm worried that I'm sounding like a "disgruntled" ex member with a personal agenda of exposing minor flaws in the org. Do you think this is how my memories will be taken? I hope not. I hope my words will serve as a warning to anyone thinking of devoting time, energy or money to SGI. We need transparency from anything or anyone that we donate to. The organization does not deserve so much loving volunteerism!!!! It needs to be upfront and honest about its dealings with money, also with the lives of its members. Stay out of people's lives when the leaders have no expertise or professional credentials and advise their members to chant through their problems. I was watching youtube with some members "refuting" concrete criticisms of Ikeda and the SGI. They sound exactly like I did!! They did not have anything new or fresh, just the same old "we're perfect cause we're dedicated to World Peace" and Ikeda is our "enlightened mentor who loves us". Sad, just plain sad. It's almost like I never left. Nothing has changed.

Dear Sushigril

no, you are not alone. I felt like that too, but as a Nichiren Shu priest told be its the phases of detox in a way. In this forum it does not matter if you want to have a fresh look at Nichiren or not – that is entirely up to you.
Looking at all the messages the money SGI accumulates I thought of my first time round as a Keibi in the European “training grounds” in Trets in the South of France. (similar to what you guys have in Florida)
I was rather astonished at the time that they only had mattresses on the floor for us, one room in the basement, no propper beds and that for a week of service there.
At the time I had my second thoughts … these days I say SHAME ON YOU.

Rothaus,thanks for that. There is real emotional damage done to participating members. Some members I know currently "practicing" have serious denial about the source of their unhappiness and confusion about life. Their experiences don't add up to what the SGI says they are supposed to be experiencing after having chanted so many years. They have a measurable level of misery because they berate themselves for not having shown "actual proof" and are defensive when another person's good fortune is mentioned after having left the SGI. That's the thing that is most aggravating.. something good happening in our lives when chanting is of course a BENEFIT from practice, but when something good happens in the life of an ex member it is of course a temporary illusion as that person is doomed to failure having left the practice.

I lost the ability to connect to other people on an honest level, as I automatically separated myself from others because I was a special "bodhisattva of the earth" and they weren't; I had something to give them that nothing and nobody else could. What a load of crap!!!!! Yes it's mind control, but it's also control of emotion, perception, action and reaction. It's taken me years to admit that and apologize to myself and my family members for having acted like this, even at my mother's grave. Sheesh! Yes anger is emerging at the bullshit fed to me that chanting in the SGI creates value. People will continue to chant for hours and look for any signs of benefit that they can. Anything to validate what they are doing. Even inventing things so that they will not feel or look like fools. And then one day voila! they get a raise, they find a job, someone lives, someone dies. All because they chant. It's funny that when beginning to chant, we are told that our life is like a muddy swamp, that we can't see the shit but it is there, and that we need to chant to overcome our "obstacles", when really we create our own obstacles by chanting!!! WE cannot always view everything in life as obstacle or benefit. It's too dramatic and time consuming. But heh, without that concept, what would the SGI have?