QuoteFindingmywaytodayQuotewakatta1 As a Chapter Chief I enshrined and unenshrined Gohonzons, and the rules were to keep it upright when you rolled it up, don't breathe on it when you do, and place it in it's envelope and perhaps even wrap the package in a scarf against the possibility of it being handled by soiled hands. That is what I did with my big Gohonzon when I returned it to
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewDear Wakatta: From the perspective of the Nichiren Shoshu you are absolutely correct. From the perspective of the Kempon Hokke, their Gohonzons are invalid because all Nichiren Shoshu Gohonzons are invalid. snip(...) Nichijew Mark, After many years of dealing with one form or another of the NSA/SGI drama, as well as copung with their many internal and external detrac
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewDear Wakatta: The ceremony to open the eyes of Gohonzon is Kaigen not Kaimoku. Otherwise excellent posts. TY Mark Thanks Mark, the memory grows fuzzier with age. Just to reiterate the point I was making for Kittyluv (I'm sure some folks are scratching their heads on this) If you use the principles that SGI was supposedly based upon (and from which it's "l
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteKittyLuvQuoteDavidM As far as taking down your gohonzon and butsudan, I would forget about any 'superstitious ideas'. In my experience SGI leaders always said 'if you're taking your gohonzon down to move house, move it to another room etc then you must have a group of leaders come to your house so that it will be respectful'. I never believed any of that, I moved h
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@evergreen: The Japanese world-view casts a long shadow over NSA/SGI. Talk to anyone in the far east about who is the most Xenophobic of all the people there and you will usually hear that it is the Japanese. To a Japanese, cultural diversity is something they are resigned to but not something they have to like. Their DNA which tells them to work out ways to "get along" permits th
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@SGBye: "Well, to be fair, Ikeda did go through some suffering, but it happened ages ago. I'm talking about the war, his tuberculosis, and how he helped his mentor Toda when his business was in financial ruin. It's been very easy for me to remember all of this because he only mentioned it in every single frickin' speech he ever gave in his life! And, here, I have the q
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@tsukimoto: "Can anyone please explain to me how Ikeda has been persecuted -- or has ever sacrificed much of anything?" Actually, it is a pretty clever ploy. It plays to the fact that since "Sensei" is unreachable and remote the member (who buys the proposition) feels he or she is playing an important role in protecting the organization (tribe?) from the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@lthomas: You said: "The other day a hardcore member came into my job and I actually froze up and thought that she had found out that I quit practicing. As a result of this thought all kinds of irrational thoughts began to enter my mind and I actually got scared that I would never be happy without the SGI in my life.." Just a little Buddhist thought here... happiness is an interna
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@Rothaus: There is one thing I realy must say. A big thank you to all of you who joined this forum. Your experiences are of so much help to many out there who are having second thoughts on SGI. --- Remember back to when you were shakubuku'ed. Remember the assurances of those oh-so-friendly people? Sure made you want to join the organization and experience such a wonderful teaching th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@quiet one I can relate to your husband's plight, you are sort of describing how things were for me during one phase of my practice and the leadership. I felt like a hamster on a wheel. Every day pushing harder and harder, overcoming "obstacles" and slamming into problems that I considered unnecessary (created by leader's arrogance in some instances) I think I am safe in
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@lthomas - Based upon what I saw during my tenure with the "cult", your story isn't that unique. The YWD and YMD seemed to be the sandbox where the leaders enjoyed playing mind games. Of course the drama levels depended upon the individuals, I recall as a district chief, my chikutan (Japanese WD district chief) just loved to meddle in the lives of the other women. Some droppe
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

PS - doing the right thing for yourself often is not easy nor easily put behind you. Cults impact a person on many levels so getting clear of them takes a long time if you've had major involvement. Nevertheless, if a person strongly feels that "something is definitely wrong", it makes a lot of sense not to dismiss that and instead try to understand it and find out what is trigger
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Joined the Gakkai in the late 60's in Japan while with the Military. At the same time met my wife and learned to speak passable Japanese. Returned to the US in the early 70's and began doing activities with the Chicago Kaikan group. Spent time as a Hancho, a District chief and finally as a chapter chief spread across more than 20 years. I began to become disenchanted with NSA in t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultByron Katie has numerous Stories about getting robbed at gunpoint. Those are all layered metaphors, in nested loops, stories within stories. They are designed to make people feel passive when they think of being robbed. That is called priming the pump, for when the seminar leader, or cult leader, robs you blind by asking you to empty out your bank account and hand it over. The
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas ad happy new year to all here. I've been following this thread and every day I'm thankful I got out of that Cult when I did. Glad I wasn't the only one who was having problems with it too! Wakatta
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotetsukimoto (snippety snip...) --Certainly, SGI is extremely wealthy, but they have not been able to meet their targets for membership. Someone, sorry I don't remember who, posted in this thread about membership cards. It seems that Japan was angry about the low membership numbers in the USA, so SGI-USA had members fill out cards. Essentially everyone in a member's househ
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Interesting discussion. Let me put in my $0.02. To some extent there is a bit of complicity on the part of the leaders. Most have been practicing for a long time, and in that course of time they have become "indoctrinated" into the way of thinking of SGI. Take the money handling issue for example, to a very senior member the level of trust of the higher-ups is so great that they m
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotetsukimotoFrom agoravox.com: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I couldn't believe it when I read this article on agoravox! SGI has an exhibit comparing President Ikeda to Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Honestly, do these guys just follow the same manual? Ikeda at least doesn't
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Tsukimoto, Heh! 1. The Guru is always right. 2. You are always wrong. And if you dispute #2, then go back to #1 :^) Wakatta
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi Rothaus, Yes, I believe you are right. The entire set of "unique" aspects of Taiseki-Ji's claims to fame now seems circumstantial to me. The claims of Kechimyaku is at the core of it. Nikko was one of the junior priests and I think the claims to his legitimacy revolved around his situation. Then the "DaiGohonzon" which in the early days of SGI was revered to u
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families