Re: Soka Gakkai International -- SGI
Date: January 14, 2014 02:22PM
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.