QuoteTaitenAndProud So I was relieved when I finally stopped attending activities - I'd never liked them, I'd never wanted to go - it always felt like a chore - and I never got anything out of them. Certainly not enough to make up for the pain in my ass of going and spending my time there! And when I stopped feeling like I should be getting some social payoff from my investment of t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitch Re: The Toda scene I remember sitting on the edge of my seat, as they built up to it, "The meaning of NMRK, is, .... is, ....", "The meaning *IS* ....." .... Pause .... wait for it ..... NMRK = "Life!" Then, I sat back into my seat, deflated and said to myself, "Oh brother." Even at that young age, the kool-aid wasn't going
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From what I can recall the UK became more Ikeda-orientated after the late 90s. Before this time there was a Reassessment group formed of members and some leaders who wanted to look at the way SGI-UK was organised, with a view to making it more democratic. A report about this can be found at although it is difficult to determine if it is the original source. However, it is the only on
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QuoteHitchThat's a great classic article that says so much. This is one of my favorite parts from it: "Back in England, I telephoned a few people round the world who had been visited by Ikeda. There was a certain amount of discomfort at being asked, and an admission by several that they felt they had been drawn into endorsing him. A silken web is easily woven, a photograph taken
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QuotesixtysevenQuoteleeduffieldHitch-those songs would be hilarious if not for the fact they were really sung. SGI USA is like something out of Monty Python from this forum. Over here we had songs written and performed by members but no group songs as such. I agree with you leeduffield. We had not such group songs, but when I compare the videos posted by Hitch from the FNCC there is no diffrenc
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QuoteHitch Currently, I believe the big manufactured cult org. goal is 2030. 2030 will come, be anti-climactic, and go, then there will be another. Repeat, endlessly. - Hitch Yes, indeed 2030 - I've heard about this one. By making it so far into the future they have given themselves an opportunity to hype this one to the skies and to keep people practising despite not seeing the res
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QuoteHitch Next on the agenda, ridiculous amateur cult member performances. This is bonding time for the retreat attendees, where everyone makes a fool of themselves in order to regress (control) your behavior and influence your emotions. Perform, be silly and be mindlessly obedient. From the 3:36 min. mark. - Hitch Lol, I can so relate to this. When I first started to practice I was h
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Quoteopendoorholly__golightly-- so sorry for what you went through in the YWD and so happy that you have managed to get out of SGI. I know many others, (myself included) who have had similar experiences. The whole thing of meeting the Mentor's expectations (replying to the Mentor) is about the most un-Buddhist idea one could possibly dream up. As I have been learning about REAL Buddhism
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitch I was constantly sleep-deprived thru my high school years (and not from horsing around, either). It was all because of gakkai cult activities. I was departing "YOUTH!" activities that ended after 10 p.m. (sometimes, 11 or 11:30) and then had to drive home for more than an hour after that. This was a twice a weeknight thing, too. I'd get home around midnight or late
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QuoteNichijewSGI NEWSLETTER / AUGUST 1995 Page 74 Extract of a speech by Daisaku Ikeda, 3rd July 1995. "Those who abandoned their faith and betrayed their fellow members were people who exploited the organization for their own ends while avoiding any real hard work themselves. They never truly exerted themselves strenuously in propagation, in activities for kosen-r
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotesixtyseven I too have noticed the growing phenomena of young women loving Ikeda especially on facebook. A lot of Ikeda photos are posted by women on facebook and an unbelievable mass -hysteria - likes and shares and comments and blinking hearts. That is so so disgusting, how can these attractive, intelligent young women(from all over the world) love an old and ugly man in Japan? Is it
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QuoteTaitenAndProud Hey, remember how every August used to be Shakubuku Month, and we'd be expected to state a numerical goal for how many people we planned to "help get gohonzon"? I always hated that - referred to it as "body count." How could I possibly know whether this practice would fit someone else's life or not?? One time, my YWD Chapter Chief came over w
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For me I found that the best way was to say nothing, or as little as possible. It's difficult because I still have members of my family practising and I know I am perceived as a 'failure' with the people I am still in touch (or someone that has 'lost their way'). But I agree with Hitch that there is nothing that I can ever say that will make them understand so there i
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QuoteWaywardBuddhistWomanI am new to this forum. I have pracaticed with the SGI for 35 years. I stopped chanting a month ago. I have spent the past two weeks reading every post here. It has proved to confirm my growing suspicions and concerns that my involvement with this group needs to end. I look forward to sharing my saga of cult behavior and organizational abuse that I both witnessed and
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Am enjoying this discussion of Soka Gakkai cliches. What used to confuse/frustrate me was the SGI's 'theme' for each year. This year I see it is 'Year of Developing a Youthful SGI'. But hold on - doesn't that sound a bit similar to 2010 - 'The Year of the Total Victory of Soka and the Dynamic Development of Youth.' And if they had managed to develop t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I have to say that the longer I am away from it the more I realise how distorted my thinking was when I was in the organisation. Hitch - it's true what you say, if one has invested so much of their life in this belief system it is so difficult to admit that they were wrong. I think I was lucky in that I got to a stage where I could clearly see that my practice was having absolutely no po
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QuoteShavoy @holly_golightly...still spinning over reading that whole Human Revolution stuff you went through. When it came up that it was more than likely ghost-written, he still had approval over the final product. So that he, as the Hero, comes across, like you said, 'incredibly boastful and false', doesn't seem to bother him one iota. Did anyone ever try to challenge the con
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QuoteShavoy Whoa, holly....what you went through was nuts! How the heck can you "understand Sensei's heart"?? Be his "arms and legs"? "Chant to be Sensei's disciple", "Chant to fulfill Sensei's expectations of you"....Jeesh. All this for a man whom the majority have/will never have a one-on-one encounter with, let alone conversation, or
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteShavoy holly, were you encouraged at the time to reevaluate your 'mentor-disciple' relationship, in regards to the turmoil you felt? I certainly was. And I remember on every course I went on after that time, the whole emphasis was on the mentor-disciple relationship - it was the key to changing everything. I decided to take this on board wholeheartedly (in a desperate bid to
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QuoteShavoy Did any of these leaders, who were giving encouragement to "use your heart", "say yes no matter what", etc. etc....ever reveal that they were experiencing Enlightenment, or Buddhahood--in other words, were they finally in that state of Unshakable Happiness?....(Probably not that they would truly reveal their Life Condition...) Good question Shavoy. I didn
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QuoteNichijew Hi Holly! You weren't one of the chosen few who are exhorted to forego activities for the sake of their personal development? What you were, was merely a worker bee leader, a tasty orange who, once consumed, would have been discarded like a useless peel . Some fifteen years after leaving the Gakkai, I enjoy a state of life unimagined by me during my many years within the org
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Thanks ScoobyDooby and Nichijew When reading what you have to say some examples of being told what to think spring to mind ........... Being told as a leader that when you are exhausted and really feel that you have to devote a bit of time to yourself, then that is exactly the time you should 'dig deeper' and 'open your heart to others' - i.e try and do more home visits
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Thank you for the welcome, bobze39 and Hitch. Yes, for many years I remember being told that shakabuku is not about getting members, it's about revealing someone's buddhahood. I think that's where the doublethink comes in. Deep down I felt a great pressure to 'inspire' more people to practice. However I suppressed the negative and awkward feelings about that as be
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Hello to everyone on this thread. I have been following it for some time and can relate to a lot of what is being said. I have been out of the organisation for a short time (a month) but when I was part of it I was totally immersed. I was a leader for quite a few years and always felt like nothing I could do was good enough. The more I tried (and failed) the worse I felt. I went to every cour
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families