Quote
goldenwords1
I personally love chanting and practicing with the people in the SGI.

You're in the wrong forum, then. This group is made up of former SGI members and other disaffected people. In SGI speak, you should probably take your dialogue elsewhere.

@ goldenwords1

Many of the people who write here also love to chant.

As far as practicing with SGI, there are old friends that I really loved. I miss them! It was great to practice with them. The other night, my husband got "home visited" by someone who just dropped by unannounced. We both really liked him and his wife. It was good to see him. It's not that we (and probably many others here) don't like to practice with the people in SGI, instead it's the dogma and politics of SGI that are unacceptable.

SGI has more and more become a cult that was affecting my life in a bad way.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2010 01:45AM by quiet one.

@ quiet one

Quote
quiet one
Many of the people who write here also love to chant.

As far as practicing with SGI, there are old friends that I really loved. I miss them! It was great to practice with them. The other night, my husband got "home visited" by someone who just dropped by unannounced. We both really liked him and his wife. It was good to see him. It's not that we (and probably many others here) don't like to practice with the people in SGI, instead it's the dogma and politics of SGI that are unacceptable.

SGI has more and more become a cult that was affecting my life in a bad way.

no worries its like if we were a forum on alcoholism and somebody writing in 'but I like the taste of Gin'. :-)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2010 02:21AM by Rothaus.

Quote
quiet one
@ goldenwords1

Many of the people who write here also love to chant.

As far as practicing with SGI, there are old friends that I really loved. I miss them! It was great to practice with them. The other night, my husband got "home visited" by someone who just dropped by unannounced. We both really liked him and his wife. It was good to see him. It's not that we (and probably many others here) don't like to practice with the people in SGI, instead it's the dogma and politics of SGI that are unacceptable.

SGI has more and more become a cult that was affecting my life in a bad way.

@Quiet one, this echoes my sentiments exactly, I literally grew up in the SGI so to say so many of my friends and loved ones are members is not an exaggeration, there is nothing wrong with having appreciation for who started us out on our paths to Buddhism (assuming that is the same for you), but that last sentence, you stated is so true, it makes me sad but it was starting to affect my life in a very bad was also. Thanks for stating it so eloquently.

P. Morgaine.

@goldenwords1

I echo Morgaine on this one. The issue here is not whether or not chanting is good, bad, pleasurable or painful. The issues being discussed here fall into the categories of :

(1) What has SGI morphed into for the past 20+ years, especially after being ex-communicated by the temple and producing it's own Xerox gohonzons.

(2) Where does all the money go that they are so fastidious in collecting from the loyal membership

(3) Is SGI living up to the trust that members have invested into it?

(4) Has the leadership taken SGI further and further away from True Buddhism in their march to brand themselves and their Sensei?

(5) Is the american organization of SGI dwindling away (for all of the above reasons)

(6) What is Ikea's legitimacy as the "Master" component of the Master/Disciple equation - what has he done noteworthy to cause him to be compared to Martin Luther King or Ghandi?

Wakatta

For sure – SGI has gone off the deep end after the split – I noticed that the leaders relied more and more on the organization and Ikeda and less on gosho and the lotus sutra some would even place Ikeda guidance above all else – every time I would bring up this topic I got chatter from the leadership and Sr. members – it was all about group think and the Master that they served. My concerned is with the youth both of my kids caught on to this programming and opted out. Now they talked to other YD and try to get them to think on what they are saying about Ikeda but most are just like Ikedabots and think that my kids are the ones that are crazy! For sure this is out of control -

@ cyclops

You must have some great kids that they have the guts to speak their mind at this age. I joined as as a YMD and can still sense the atmosphere, its not easy at all to convince others to use their brain at this age one is easily impressed. You must have done a great job raising them so that they develop that sort of backbone. It will serve them well also in other areas of life thats ahead of them. Well done !!!
You gave them a ground to develop a higher kind oy loyality and thats really impressive!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2010 01:04AM by Rothaus.

Hi!
Haven't written in a while. I enjoy reading everyones' experiences with the Soka Gakkai. I thought I would share some of my feelings and experiences in here as well.

I have been in counseling since April, and it is the greatest blessing I have given myself. It is nice to be able to talk to someone professionally about my low self esteem and anxiety. I use to chant in front of the Gohonzon about it, but it felt lonely particularly when co-leaders didn't have any experience with some of the things I was going through.

I happily didn't go to RTE, and I feel fine about it. I have no regrets. I am also learning how good it feels to reconnect with old non-SGI friends. Here is the thing, if someone from the SGI called me to invite me to go to the beach, or hiking, I wouldn't have a problem. I miss non-SGI activities. My social life during my SGI years consisted of chanting, being home-visited, going to activities just like probably everyone here.

I do get calls from my sponsor, and we talk about other things that are interesting. I don't mind if she wants to stay friends, but I will get annoyed if her reason for calling me is to chant. She does say at the end of our phonecall that she wants to chant with me. I feel very strongly that I don't want to do that. I am so happy about being in counseling. I am making strides in ways that wouldn't have been possible with the SGI.

I told some people in SGI about counseling, and they said my counseling would go better if I would chant in addition to my counseling. I just laugh, and say: whatever.

I want to take my butsudan down, and my Gohonzon. Who has done this? Can you please give me tips on how to do this respectfully? Where do you store it? Not sure if I want to give it back or not.

I was thinking that my life turned very sour after getting my Gohonzon. One month after getting Gohonzon, I moved to a neighborhood that is dangerous, dirty, and has made me feel miserable. I have tried my best to live here and survive, but it has seriously made my life worse. I don't mean to sound like a cry baby, but I feel like a neighborhood can make a difference in how you feel.

Also, after I started chanting, I got into a car accident. No one was hurt, but it made me terrified to drive since it was handled by the insurance companies in a terrible way. It made me phobic to drive. Perhaps someone might argue that this would be my karma without Gohonzon, but I have to tell you that my life was better before Gohonzon.

I feel like I want to blame the Gohonzon for my yucky neighborhood and my fear of driving. So picture me living in a bad neighborhood and feeling afraid to drive to get out of it.

I am actually looking forward to taking down the representation of the practice in my home. Please let me know any comments you have about what I wrote. I also hope I haven't offended anyone.

@ Findingmywaytoday

First of al congrats on what you have achieved so far. I think it would be most interesting, especially to those who just follow the conversation, to learn if your counselling also touched on the subject of you being in a cult. It would be interesting to hear what professionals have to say on that.

In terms of your Butsudan. I still have mine set up as I do chant but rolled up the script role. The bottom line is to do whatever you do with respect. I think you are closing a chapter of your life that you came out of on top actually. And if you feel ready just bring the Gohonzon back to where you got it from – for this I would wait though until you feel 100% ready to face up to the talking you out of leaving by SGI that's bound to take place. As SGI gives no guideline doing those things (would be a bit strange if they did) its entirely up to you on how to proceed. At least that's how I look at it.

Thank you Rothaus for your kind words - things to remember - for sure my kids got turned off when they went to meetings and we told to take Ikeda as their mentor - they said that their mentors were their parents - and to follow the law and not the person! Of course they were told that only Ikeda could be their true mentor in life and my kids came home after a few of these meetings and said that they were done with the SGI! I am sure the leadership knew how we felt about this mentor mentality so I called a Sr. Leader and expressed my view point on this and I felt I made my point on this Ikedaism of the YD! Of course the SGI machine is on a course of no return with this crazy mentor and disciple chatter.