Sandra and Dick Geaur [the parents of SGI-USA Youth Division leader Nathan Geaur] were top SGI leaders. They were always giving guidance about how to sustain healthy relationships. You guessed it, they divorced after 20 years. The rumors were flying and not one word of contrition from either one for citing themselves as perfect examples of matrimonial bliss thanks to the SGI teachings. Since there is no moral compass in the Soka Gakkai [their reliance on expedient means and the ends to justify the means], actually there is more adultery and abuse [especially psychological abuse] in the Soka Gakkai than in the general population.

Another reason for the failed marriages in the Soka Gakkai is the incessant activities and the divisional system which forces husband and wife apart. The kids too suffer tremendously and in my experience, SGI families are, for the most part, dysfunctional. Many SGI children have clinical depression and a problem with addiction.

Nichijew

They fail to follow Nichiren who teaches that faith in the Lotus Sutra is first and foremost. It is enough to chant until one feels happy, usually fifteen or twenty minutes. Of course, there are those exceptional times when one might want to chant more, for example, the recent death of a loved one. Not finding a mate right now or the perfect job, is not a life and death situation. They have turned a religion into a cult. The incessant chanting of Daimoku makes one highly suggestible while a deep and abiding faith makes one stong and self assured. in fact, all the chanting is the opposite of a strong faith. Since the Law is supreme, teaches Nichiren, one should expect expeditious results. If one fails to gain benefit by doing the morning and evening practice, it is because one's faith is warped, not because one is chanting insufficient Daimoku. The Lotus Sutra also teaches that one moment of faith and joy is enough. If they were to actually study the writings, they would see that what i am telling them is true.

Nichijew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2012 03:00AM by Nichijew.

and if a person wants a better job, or a better relationship, they might consider getting off their butt and doing some work.
The more people chant excessively, the WORSE their life is going to get.
Its just basic reality.

You have a job, and instead of working your tail off to do a great job, and spending extra time preparing for the job, and going above the call of duty, so you are more valuable....

SGI tells you to do the opposite and chant.
What if chanting is simply a superstition? What if?
Then the person is just wasting their time.

Ikeda knows all this of course, he didn't make billions by chanting. Ikeda doesn't chant.
Ikeda worked his tail off figuring out ways to control the masses with propaganda cult tech and take their money.

Knowing SGI people, they shoot themselves in the foot.
On a job, instead of WORKING at the job, they are instead HASSLING people with SGI brochures and bogus Karma stories to try and convert them, to the point they make themselves a laughingstock and nuisance to other non-SGI people, who joke about the "SGI cult" behind their back.
That hurts their work prospects.
So SGI hurts their job.

And it hurts relationships too, as they try to shove their SGI cult down everyone's throats.

Chanting might be superstition, it might create some relaxation. Who knows.
But anything more than a few minutes a day of chanting is a WASTE OF LIFE.

Ikeda knows this, and has turned SGI-chanting into a cult brainwashing technique.
No normal person can chant 5 hours a day, that is SEVERE cultic brainwashing.
(unless you are a monk in solitary confinement).

But SGI wants their people to fall into the chanting trap, as it locks them into SGI with a vicious circle.

Imagine if they spent 5 hours a day upgrading their job skills? Then they would be in demand.
But no, SGI wants them to waste their lives, trying to chant 5 hours a day, to lock them into the cult.

Quote
Nichijew
Another reason for the failed marriages in the Soka Gakkai is the incessant activities and the divisional system which forces husband and wife apart. The kids too suffer tremendously and in my experience, SGI families are, for the most part, dysfunctional.

Parents who practice excessively are themselves dysfunctional and will often use the same cult threat tactics to manipulate their children and play with their minds. The practice does indeed take its toll on entire families. I know of cases on both sides, where the kids got out and rejected the cult, and others where the cult has ensnared one or more of the siblings and latched onto their minds. It's like a spider's web, some get caught and can't climb out, yet some do manage to make it out.

Quote
The Anticult
Chanting might be superstition, it might create some relaxation. Who knows.
But anything more than a few minutes a day of chanting is a WASTE OF LIFE.

Ikeda knows this, and has turned SGI-chanting into a cult brainwashing technique.
No normal person can chant 5 hours a day, that is SEVERE cultic brainwashing.
(unless you are a monk in solitary confinement).

But SGI wants their people to fall into the chanting trap, as it locks them into SGI with a vicious circle.

Imagine if they spent 5 hours a day upgrading their job skills? Then they would be in demand.
But no, SGI wants them to waste their lives, trying to chant 5 hours a day, to lock them into the cult.

IMO it's magical thinking, mystical, superstitious nonsense that is a waste of time. I've spent many hours chanting in the org. and participated in countless 24-48 hour daimoku tosos (cult speak for group chanting marathons). The demands of the practice (especially morning gongyo, with 5 prayers that would take on average about 30 minutes everyday) were completely unreasonable, unrealistic and burdensomely excessive. Tack on the 20-30 minutes extra daimoku (NMRK) that you were officially "encouraged" add on (cult speak = "challenge your weak and lazy nature") and you have a full hour, every morning, every single day of your life, before work, etc., to adhere to. If not, cue in the guilt, either self-inflicted or thrown on to you by the "leaders."

Some of the typical probing questions whenever one was having "difficulties" in the practice, in a "deadlock", or having trouble making a "breakthrough" in life were: "are you doing morning and evening gongyo everyday, without fail?" "Not missing even a single time?" What about daimoku, specifically how much are your chanting everyday or on average every week?" "Are you focusing when you chant?" "How's your posture and your attitude when doing it?" "Are you looking around or focusing on the critical portion of the gohonzon (mandala) when chanting?" Et cetera.

So, even if you are doing several hours a day, they still find others areas of manufactured defects that your are guilty of to explain away your lack of tangible results. It's absolutely a vicious psychologically addicting, dependance rendering, cult manipulation tactic.

The unreasonable demands of the practice were perfectly suited for monasticism, but not your average "Joe." The cult org. knew this too and this is why it was changed and simplified, after the split with the priesthood. How convenient (because it was causing membership loss). Even though gongyo was simplified, the hours of chanting is still there as one of their main tools of control --> faith = don't think or question, practice = do morning & evening gongyo with "abundant" daimoku everyday, and study = go to meetings, study the dear leader's guidance, The Human Revolution, . . . . . blah, blah, blah.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2012 06:08AM by Hitch.

They toned down some of the rhetoric and non stop activity schedule after the split with the priesthood probably due to people leaving in droves. I was looking at the sgi-usa website and mens division guidelines. Hold weekly chanting sessions, grab the dear leaders heart and spirit. They want mens division studying "my dear freinds in america" from 1990. (Anyone remember that one. I sure do). Raise one mens division to devote themselves to the org, study the human revolution. Same old crap being recycled. Nothing I haven't been there and done that.

24-48 hr group SGI-chanting marathons...that is very severe cultic activity.

When you look at dozens and hundreds and hundreds of cults, very few take it that far, only the most extreme.

Alot of folks have made the error that SGI is not as bad as the other cults, in fact, its pretty much worse.
SGI-USA tried to tone it down a bit, but its still very bad for those more involved.

And SGI-Japan, with the SGI-blackshirts following people around, that is off the charts.
SGI is a dangerous sect, there is no doubt.

What tricks people, is that in the west, there is the SGI intro-level, where people meet once a week, chant as a group, and give money to SGI, and chant everyday at home. But that is not the REAL SGI.
That is just the entry level position of SGI designed by Ikeda to collect money in the USA. SGI could not care less if those folks come or go, as long as the dues keep coming in.

The real SGI starts just above that level, where they pick people to run their offices for no pay, and seems to end in SGI-Japan with the SGI blackshirts.
SGI is a fanatical sect, and is dangerous.

Whoever is running SGI will probably decide to just focus on making money, or on power.
That remains to be seen, and SGI is so secret, the only way to monitor their activities is by carefully observing SGI over a period of time.
SGI is a highly sophisticated global cult, and it might be the richest cult in the world, with all of the wealth controlled by the Ikeda family mafia.


What if SGI International was really just some type of complex private family financial corporation to wash-money and slosh it around the world to make profits from real estate and investments in the guise of a religion tax-free?

I've brought this up before. There are the chosen few on whom the organization depends on, the very intelligent, talented, or very well connected few who are given guidance to concentrate on their studies, work, etc., "don't chant excessively, don't go to too many meetings now, your time will come", for example SGI brain surgeons or high earners. Everyone else is a grunt for the SGI. Deplorable.

Nichijew



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2012 11:00AM by Nichijew.

"What if SGI International was really just some type of complex private family financial corporation to wash-money and slosh it around the world to make profits from real estate and investments in the guise of a religion tax-free?" -- Anticult

Exactly. That is what it is but even some of those controlling the empire start to believe their own BS. They start to believe that since they are spreading Ikedaism, Nam Myoho renge kyo, and world peace, they are entitled to spend the members donations on themselves in the form of exorbitant salaries. Shakyamuni Buddha had two robes and a bowl and Nichiren had not much more. Their patrons and believers all spread the word for free and their true priests lived a humble life, satisfied with and desiring little. Trust me Anticult, there is a revolution going on within Nichiren's Buddhism and the status quo, the so-called pigs of the Dharma, will not remain in the seat of authority for long.

Nichijew

Quote
coolshyone
They toned down some of the rhetoric and non stop activity schedule after the split with the priesthood probably due to people leaving in droves. I was looking at the sgi-usa website and mens division guidelines. Hold weekly chanting sessions, grab the dear leaders heart and spirit. They want mens division studying "my dear freinds in america" from 1990. (Anyone remember that one. I sure do). Raise one mens division to devote themselves to the org, study the human revolution. Same old crap being recycled. Nothing I haven't been there and done that.

I feel exactly the same. There isn't anything coming out of the cult org. that is even slightly different from the same old tired formulas that they've been using from the past. It even holds true to the way the general director talks, emotes, the canned speeches, right on down all the way to the smallest stereotypical mannerisms and gestures of the leaders. A bunch of mindless robots who are just mimicking the same behavioral programs of those that came before them.

Quote
The Anticult
And SGI-Japan, with the SGI-blackshirts following people around, that is off the charts.
SGI is a dangerous sect, there is no doubt.

Lots of the International membership is unaware, but the org. in Japan is the cult on steroids in comparison to other countries. (Case in point: There's another thread "Are SGI members sane?" on this mb, where a fairly new member from the U.K. states there is nothing ""sinister about the org. That kind of a statement reflects abject ignorance about the true nature of soka gakkai in Japan.)