Nichijew, I SO love reading your responses to my posts. I wish I could go out for coffee with you(relax, not trying to hook up) and trade SGI stories--and learn about the Gosho, since you appear to know it well. I suspect I would be greatly entertained and enlightened. My experiences are not as dramatic because I never went the whole nine yards doing YMD activities. However, I have a feeling that
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Does anyone know if there's a reliable way I can get another Gohonzon, besides the temple? I want to give mine back eventually because I want my name taken off their membership rolls and I know returning it is the ONLY way they ever do that. I am holding off still because I know it will hurt a few people in the organization who have seem me through some bad times. Yet, I know they will get o
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Oh Nichijew, your experience as a YMD driving around Manhatten in a truck; wearing white shirt/pants on weekends; giving your last dime for activities; being underslept; being pushy with friends and family who could not see your enlightenment as something they wanted to emulate; and the clincher--not studying the Gosho much or at all. Fortunately I can only relate to some of this but I have known
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Hey all, thanks for your encouragement(oops that's Gakkai-speak). Last night I broke down and told my mother about my problems with the SGI. Not surprisingly, she had many of the same reservations. In fact, she was also aware of the shaming, superstitious techniques her district tried to use on her when she relinquished her leadership role. They kept telling her that position would enable he
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@tsukimoto I loved reading how your health problem enabled you to awaken from your delusions about SGI. I also agree that the SGI mentality is very childlike, full of grand world-saving talk and dreams but ultimately too lazy or self-absorbed to realize any of those lofty goals. The word compassion gets thrown around the organization so much that it has lost its meaning. If fact, the Christian
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Years ago I attended an informational meeting on the Gandhi, King, Ikeda exhibit at my community center. I was STUNNED when everyone who spoke said that Ikeda is greater than the other two men. When I consider how much Gandhi and King sacificed to advance civil rights for oppressed people and then I remember Ikeda's smug, high handed behavior during those horrible videos congratulating himse
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@Nichijew, quiet one, Rothaus, and Blue Lady Thank you all for being my desperately-needed support system. As you all know, it is quite difficult to talk to people who have never been involved in anything like SGI to get it when I explain my concerns and imminent departure. Most do not understand the layers of experiences and Gakkai-speak that permeate my perspective. It's not as easy as so
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Okay everyone you all have to help me, please. I attended a study meeting in my district last night where the central figure had not even read or studied the material in advance and blatantly relied on me(the district leader) and another leader to "help" her out. Then came a Rock the Era pitch, then a teleconference with a couple of testimonials concerning May contribution culminating i
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lthomas, thank you for your empathy. You are right in pointing out that when I did what I did to guests, members, co-workers, and family members I thought I was sincere and right. It is true that hindsight is 20/20. Furthermore, I don't believe that most SGI leaders and members intend to harm. They simply do not think critically. Like other people, they have a need to believe in someone and
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Does anyone feel like this? Sometimes I am so disgusted by my own behavior over the past 2o years that I want to take down my Gohonzon and get one not issued by the SGI.When I recall harassing uninterested members; trying so hard to hook the guests; building resentments toward guests I would bring who clearly didn't want to come back(Oh boy I did that--can anyone here relate?); trying to get
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Thank you so much for that. I am so enjoying this forum. It has become an addiction. I will be talking to some leaders about my concerns, probably during the emergency meeting Thursday, scheduled no doubt to deal with the lack of participation in May contribution. I am on my way out, definitely.
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Hey Wakatta, this forum has opened my eyes a lot. FNCC is probably another well-executed plan coming out of SGI. The payoff is that members typically enjoy it; they do see it largely as a gift from Ikeda, and they go back and tell people all about it which excites interest. Nevertheless, I have never heard of anyone being pressured to contribute financially to it. However, throughout the years th
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Hey Nichijew, OMG I am starting to sound like an SGI apologist. I DEFINITELY am not. But FNCC is a good thing. In fact, I did take several hardhitting questions about the organization's materialism, mentor-discip obsession, lack of doctrinal resources etc to the last study conference. I wrote them all down and submitted them. All the the top study leaders were there and they took turns answe
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey Wakatta, given that I am on my way out of SGI I have no reason to misrepresent FNCC. Members are ecouraged to contribute when they leave, but no big deal is made about it. There are some envelopes on a table near an exit, but no one is there monitoring anything. I never gave and never saw anyone giving anything either. It is no different than what is found at other retreat centers.
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Okay Anti-Cult, I have been posting my raging disenchantment with SGI for the last week, but in all fairness, FNCC is an excellent thing. I have been there 4 times: 3 Mens Div Conferences and 1 Study Conf. Believe it or not, FNCC is an excellent way for SGI members at any level of commitment to the organization to spend 3 days. It is comprised mostly of small sessions where you study the Gosho, a
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Hey SGBye, I agree with everything you said here. I have been a member for over 20 years and hate the whole mentor-disciple fixation. How could any organization find it appropriate to mention the same person's name ad nauseum in EVERY article, on every page, and out of every leader's mouth. I recently told a co-leader that everytime I hear ment/disc I think CULT. He was quite upset that
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey Blue Lady, I knew this would happen. I have had it with SGI's dishonest stats. As a district leader I have watched them inflate their numbers with infants, uninterested, and inactive members despite my repeated attempts to clean up the membership lists. They always tell me it's my lack of compassion for those inactive members driving my willingness to respect their wishes NOT to be
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Thank you so much for reminding me how Nichiren fits into the context of Buddhism. I do love the practice and his ideas. I do understand why SGI thinks its militant, our-way-or the wrong way stance is patterned after Nichiren. However, he was extremely well versed in Buddhism. Most SGI members are not.
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Hey David M, I do feel like this forum has become my community. I know this will be hard; it is already. Letting go of the SGI superstitious-magical-reward/punishment thinking may take a very long time, or who knows. I feel remarkably liberated by all of this, perhaps because I am identifying with so many people here. To think I was going to make a bigger contribution in a few weeks and go to FNC
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Hey lthomas, please chant by all means. I may be increasingly fed up with the organization after reading this forum (almost obsessively) but the actual practice is fantastic. I hope I will never stop doing it. Even some, just some of the activities were beneficial--mostly the fact that I was encouraged to have a consistent daily practice replete with plenty of daimoku. That continues to be my fou
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Rothaus, in all fairness no one and nothing in SGI has ever encouraged me to be straight or chant to be straight or fake it. I am in a tricky situation because my heart has just about left the organization but I am yet unwilling to openly leave. Truthfully, even when I have voiced my problems to the national leaders, they have been remarkably accepting of my struggles. Perhaps this is why I have
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I am still a district leader, and I probably shall remain so, but I will not do anything to encourage a frenzied skakubuku campaign for the sake of Rock the Era. In fact, I am afraid of what that event will look like when it finally arrives. First of all, it will be empty (here at least). Second, I can just see leaders suddenly encouraging EVERYONE to attend, with guests--all to listen to what? S
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Speaking of The Human Revolution, I am SO glad I never read more than a page of it, and only since brief excerpts occasionally appeared as the discussion material at Mens meetings. I knew from the beginning, 22 years ago when I joined, that only a cult would put out a series of books like that. How preposterous, members sitting around reading a fictionalized account of SGI and Ikeda's rise t
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Hey Rothaus, thank you so much for your sympathy. I really need it along with a lot of compassion. Reading the posts continues to open my eyes. I was always bothered by somethings in SGI and felt I had nowhere to go to vent my complaints. For now writing here is helping a lot. But 22 years of practice and having introduced my mom 20 years ago. It's a lot of responsibility. I may have to go i
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Hey Blue Lady, thank you for your comment about Rock the Era. SGI can forget it if they think they are going to get me to run around "supporting" the Youth Division to fill up this venue here that holds 8000. That place will be conspicuously not full. Furthermore, I agree that there are MUCH more important things to chant about and show up for than this event for an organization that d
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Thanks so much for stating that "SGI members are not evil or bad people -- not at all" and that "person who told you about chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and invited you to a SGI meeting is probably sincere, well-meaning and genuinely wants you to be happy." I need so much to remember that this is how I feel as I slowly divest myself of 22 years of active participation. My bigge
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Time and time again guests come to meetings and never return. Some of mine have told me plainly that SGI is too worldly and too materialistic. I have taken this to heart over the years and I have raised this concern with others, leaders included. Often, even hardcore members have no new "experiences" to share at the discussion meetings, probably because a Buddhist practice is not suppos
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Reading the posts on this site is becoming an obsession for me. I have been an SGI member for over 20 years, a district leader for about 6. I have always had reservations about many things in the organization, including Master-Disciple which later became Mentor-Disciple. I joined because I was searching for a dynamic spiritual experience among progressive people( I was openly gay), but I wanted i
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Hey overthetop, you wrote, "it does seem like the SGI is full of dysfunctional folks. Maybe I happen to feel that way because I am one of those people myself, and I can spot it a mile away! Lonely people looking for a place to turn to give them hope in their life.People looking for refuge in a group. People looking for stability, friendship, anything at all. When I encountered the SGI, I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@shellyleigh You were right to quit SGI. Nevertheless, most members are not mentally ill. Many have allowed themselves to be brainwashed. Most are decent, generally nice people in fact. As an active member of over 20 years, I feel qualified to say this. Chanting(not Gakkai activities) has been a great force in my life. I have tried a few other things but have yet to encounter anything as power
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families