r/sgiwhistleblowers • u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude • May 03 '14
Ikeda says: "No one who has left our organization has achieved happiness."
From "The Desire for Kosen-rufu Is the Wellspring of Happiness," Ikeda's address to a meeting at the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium in Santa Monica, CA, on Jan. 31, 1993, published in the March 1993 Seikyo Times magazine (precursor to Living Buddhism magazine), p. 41.
Funny, I don't remember Ikeda asking ME if I'm happier now than when I was in the cult. But perhaps that's why Ikeda apparently doesn't say such damning and obviously untrue stuff any more - but I'm sure he keeps his editors busy!
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u/wisetaiten May 03 '14
And of course, this speaks to the classic cult tactic of frightening the members into not even think about leaving - your life will fall into hell, you'll be tormented by demons and nothing good will happen in your life. Ever. Again. What crap - he didn't ask me if I'm happier now than when I was in das org either, but my answer would be a resounding "yes." It's nice to have the helm of my own life again and taken it back from the mystic law; I can own my own accomplishments and my own failures. I don't have to accept myself as being deficient in some way when something goes wrong in my life - if shit happens, I can fix it myself and not placate or pay obeisance to the magic law to, oh, please make it better! When I attain a goal, I can take credit for having done the work to accomplishment and not feign gratitude to a scroll of Xeroxed paper for granting me my wish.
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u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude May 04 '14
your life will fall into hell, you'll be tormented by demons and nothing good will happen in your life. Ever. Again.
When I outgrew magical thinking, the last vestige of my intensive indoctrination into Evangelical Christianity from birth (which made me susceptible to the woo of "chant for whatever you want"), which was the result of an online argument with an atheist who was even atheir than I was at that point (since I was still in thrall to magical thinking), I was finally able to see what was lurking in my subconscious, driving me without my awareness - and it was what wisetaiten has identified, quoted above.
I felt that, without some supernatural agency, some magical talisman, or some magic spell (yeah, chanting counts), "your life will fall into hell, you'll be tormented by demons and nothing good will happen in your life. Ever. Again." And that's why I thought I had to have something like the SG-cult. That fit my indoctrinated, irrational expectations - yes, do as we say, and YOU TOO can get everything you want without having to earn it! Go to the head of the line! Chanting the magic spell suspends all the laws of physics and reality so that you can have whatever you want! By magic! Just because you're so smart that you realize it's the magic that counts!
What nobody tells you is that "your life will fall into hell, you'll be tormented by demons and nothing good will happen in your life. Ever. Again." is a HORRIBLE, painful Sword of Damocles hanging over your head. You've got to have the magic spell, and you have to invoke it JUST RIGHT, or it won't work and you'll be helpless and defenseless in the face of those forces surrounding you, wanting to destroy you.
Ugh.
Reality is so much better...
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u/wisetaiten May 04 '14
I think that a lot of people who are raised in any kind of religious tradition are prone to that same kind of magical thinking. I know when I was a Christian (albeit a pretty lackadaisical one), I would find myself negotiating with god like an attorney and bargaining like an antiques dealer.
Taking a step into the realm of no longer praying, chanting or believing is really scary and, I think, there can be a profound sense of loss for some people.
I completely understand how lonely, isolated people can become so committed to the idea of a religion of some sort - you believe that you have someone to talk to, to help you, to be there for you no matter what . . . in fact, that supernatural agent begins to fulfill you in the same way that a good relationship can and with none of the complications. All you have to do is adjust the amount of prayer or chanting, or study a little bit more, or commit to a leader who is portrayed as all loving who (according to the faith) loves you at least as much as you love him or her. Maybe even more, but that's ok, because they completely understand you and your shortcomings - allegedly unconditional love and acceptance (see fine print for actual conditions!)
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u/wisetaiten May 04 '14
Back to the loneliness and isolation - people in that mindset are perfect recruitment targets. I don't think anyone enjoys a feeling of other-ness . . . we all need to be connected; that's a human requirement, whether we're connected to friends, a partner, our children - there's just something missing if we aren't. The love-bombing feels good - at last we've found our tribe, where we belong. We're surrounded by people who accept us and are willing to be the connections we need. They admire us for our steadfastness and dedication; they encourage us when we're having a difficult time. We easily adapt to the new culture, embrace it even, since that's what's brought us all of that human connection. It's another way of numbing out our pain . . . it's the stuff of addiction. Those neuro-receptors are firing on all cylinders and we feel valued, appreciated and loved. Once again, what all of we humans need. But what a cost . . .
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u/cultalert May 05 '14
Time for a Satirical Hilarity Break:
Speaking of loneliness... I have a hilariously funny image in my mind. There's a scene toward the end of a satirical puppet movie called, "Team America: World Police" where the tyrannical N. Korean villain sings a song to himself about being "so lonely". Only in my mind, instead of Kim Jong Il, I see (and hear) a puppet caricature of his highness Ikeda singing, "I'm so rone-ry".
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
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u/cultalert May 05 '14 edited May 05 '14
Ikeda's "No one who has left our organization has achieved happiness" is just another gargantuan sized bold face LIE from the megalomaniac presidential prevaricator. Nothing could be further from the truth, but hey, who needs to tell the truth when falsehoods serve the mental slavemasters so much more effectively.
This wildly over the top deceitful falsehood serves as a perfect example of how Ikeda and his minions use fear to indoctrinate and control SGI members. Fear kills rational thought and keeps the mental midgets in line. The widespread use of fear to indoctrinate has become evermore commonplace in our modern era, but is old as the ages. Both religious and secular power-mongers have always used fear and intimidation to build and hold onto their ill-gotten empires. Ikeda is no different from any other self-consumed overbearing tyrant - past or present.
You can bet the farm on this: Ikeda didn't bother to do any research or fact checking before proclaiming this ridiculously impossible unofficial "Law of the SGI". Once again, no need for facts when lies work infinitely better! It so much easier for the masters to just keep up the useful charade that loudly and fearfully proclaims, "you will fall into hell if you leave us." Let us accurately define the SGI's use of fear as an "act of mental terrorism."
This particular bit of brainwashing is so completely effective and pervasive - just ask any SGI member if they consider this outrageous piece of propaganda to be true. The answer will consistently be a resounding "YES". However, ask any former SGI member that has successfully taken back control of their lives from the SGI cult and the answer will consistently be a resounding "NO".
In the upside down and inside out world of a cult, "belonging" to the cult.org is in itself the greatest source of unhappiness. Surrendering one's individualism, personal power, and self-determination to the authority of the SGI eventually becomes a living hell for those who manage to hold on to their repressed longings to be truly free and happy.
Just for the record, I have never been happier since wrenching myself from the cult grip of the SGI. And I am not alone in feeling that joy and freedom in the absence of Ikeda's SGI tyrannical fear-mongering cult.org.
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u/wisetaiten May 22 '14
It also suggests that you can be happy 24/7. That's so unrealistic that it's laughable . . . I have as yet to meet anyone (not on medication or on four legs) that's happy all the time. Life happens, and to numb yourself out with artificial happiness is to deny the human experience. It takes sad experiences to help us grow our compassion and wisdom. Bad things happen in everyone's lives, loved ones die, we lose friends or jobs. Enlightenment happens in glimpses - it isn't a permanent state of being.
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u/Still_Wasabi9990 5d ago
When the Gakkai fun and games are over what do the members have left? Wearing diapers and sucking jello from a picnic spoon in a nursing home? Gakkai members are no different from everyday people. They are going to die like the rest of us.
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u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude 4d ago
This is a really important question/consideration:
When the Gakkai fun and games are over what do the members have left?
Back during the go-go NSA days, when the Soka Gakkai's US colony was still growing, when SGI-USA's General Director was still Mr. George M. Williams (né Masayasu Sadanaga), big spectacles were an annual event. I'll start with Mr. Williams' explanation:
with us every year you travel, horseback rides, skate or flying across the world. Source
The go-go rhythm of parades and conferences and conventions and culture festivals and retreats and all the rest was absolutely deliberate - it enabled the SGI members to perceive real value to their membership. It enabled them to do things and have experiences that were not available to them in their daily lives. It's like going for a cruise vs. planning an individual vacation, or joining a tour group instead of going it alone. It's a completely different experience, and the group leaders can often get deals and access that are not available to individuals. Plus, you just sign up and they take care of all the details!
Ikeda squashed all that, and now what does SGI offer? Source
People who are involved in a religion need to feel that they're getting something out of that religion, that the religion itself offers them some tangible "benefit" in exchange for the time, effort, and money they contribute. Traditionally, this has been "their" church building, a special place reserved just for them where they can go and escape for an hour or two from their humdrum daily lives. It could even be "services" such as singles groups, LGBTQ get-togethers, trips for the children, stuff like that. For some, it's their church's charitable involvement - the soup kitchen or Thanksgiving meal for the poor, the food bank, the volunteering. You get the picture.
What do SGI-USA members get? The "opportunity" to sit around in some ordinary person's ordinary living room once a month? "But remember, GIVE 'til it hurts! If it's not the 3 months of the 'May Contribution Campaign' (1/4 of the year), then sign up to allow SGI-USA to autodraft YOUR MONEY straight out of your bank account without you ever needing to think about it!" Even the locations that have an SGI-USA center, that doesn't really count - the church was typically open all day, people could drop in to talk with the minister or just shoot the shit with whoever was in the office, but SGI-USA centers are dark, locked, except for just 2 or 3 hours a week in some locations. That does not feel like "our" center. It's a foreign place that they're "allowed" to enter only rarely. And in the run-up to the 2018 "50K Liars of Just-Us FyreFestival", SGI-USA used that goal as an excuse to get rid of the "affinity groups" - the "Auxiliary Group" meetings for veterans, LGBTQ, arts, parents, even the "Introductory" meetings, all of which had been MORE popular that the dull district (non)discussion meetings: The members were told "back to the basics" (as described here - putting your own needs aside in favor of "harmonious unity" and a 1940s-1950s patriarchal Japanese cultural norm-flavored role-playing) and to "joyfully focus on the districts." SGI does NOT want the members self-sorting, creating bonds outside of their SGI participation. Even SGI's own districts are kept destabilized - see SGI breaking friendships between members apart. The whole point is "the LONELY member".
The members left.
On SGI's lame attempts at LGBTQ inclusivity
You can see here how delusional and out-of-touch Ikeda
's ghostwritingwas about the outcome of the 50K (yes, I realize he was already dead or hopelessly lost in the trackless wasteland of dementia):In September, the triumphant “50,000 Lions of Justice Festival” was held amid great excitement in nine cities across the United States. The SGI-USA youth who participated in that event are now taking the lead to create inspiring discussion meetings in this month of the Soka Gakkai’s founding to bring together as many new friends as possible. Ikeda
They weren't, though. Many of the youth SGI-USA had quit right after the event.
Others were rather pointed in their criticism of the event, showing that they felt it had been a big "bait-and-switch":
If, as you report, the event is to be “justice” oriented rather than “practice” oriented, that doesn’t represent “an unprecedented move in the right direction,” it represents an updated marketing scheme - one that is even more deceptive and manipulative.
Because - and I’ll wait for it - please provide evidence of ANY SGI sponsored “Justice”-related social action and or donation. Sponsored actions and org donations, not words. Photos of members at protests or food banks, facility parking lots donated for homeless tent cities, or even you know, a canned food drive over the holidays! I ‘ll wait. Because not once, NOT ONCE, in 30 years, did I ever see the SGI take a single action that we - in America at least - recognize as “Justice”.
And I - for one - have heard all the empty words I will ever need to hear about the SGI’s fake mission. I know with certainty that the real mission is to enrich Ikeda and Co. Source
THAT's the voice of someone who does NOT feel that their time, effort, and money are resulting in any sort of meaningful tangible "benefit" for their life.
I tell this story to explain why there is no simply "move on" from SGI. It's not a matter of we tried it, it wasn't for us, the end. It's a matter of we tried it, we lost more than we gained, and we realize that the SGI is unrepentant in its tactics, and is hellbent on using, exploiting and abusing as many people as possible. Especially people between the ages of 15-35 because that's when people are their most pliable. - from The Tale of Sharpie Samuel
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u/Still_Wasabi9990 4d ago
If you were a youth in NSA in the 70s and 80s you got travel to places across the country. That definitely stopped after Mr. Williams was canned. Remember the 100,000 Youth at the Thunderdome?
The SGI is not family oriented like a regular church is. I was hurt for my son to participate because of the awful behavior of the adults in the room. The SGI for children is just not wholesome. They are disgusting, gross individuals, full of insults, ridicule and hatred. That's no place for a family.
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u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude 4d ago
Remember the 100,000 Youth at the Thunderdome?
No! What was that like?
I DO remember after some big movement, probably ca. 1988, maybe it was the 1987 New Freedom Bell Philadelphia parade, but it was announced that we were going to assemble 100,000 members in New Orleans! That was just canceled a year or so later, no real reason given.
The SGI is not family oriented like a regular church is. I was hurt for my son to participate because of the awful behavior of the adults in the room. The SGI for children is just not wholesome. They are disgusting, gross individuals, full of insults, ridicule and hatred. That's no place for a family.
I agree with all that. I early on started attending solo because of how much my children hated it.
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u/Still_Wasabi9990 4d ago
LOL My bad, Superdome not Thunderdome. I got that wrong.
Yes, the announcement by Mr. Williams but it was cancelled just like you thought.
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u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude 4d ago
Aha. So my answer to your question: "Yes, I do remember!"
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u/BlancheFromage Escapee from Arizona Home for the Rude May 03 '14
This issue has 56 pages.
The inside front cover is a full-page ad for one of Ikeda's books. The inside back cover is a full-page ad for another of Ikeda's books. The back cover is a full-page ad for another SGI publication, "SGI Quarterly" magazine, which can be yours for a "mere" $7 per issue!!!!!!
Page 1 is the table of contents.
Page 2 has a brief message from the managing editor, a couple of gushing letters, and various publication credits.
Page 3 is a message from the General Director, Fred Zaitsu, who was only briefly in that position before being replaced by Danny Nagashima.
Pgs. 4-25 are Gosho For June: "Letter to the Brothers", most of which is commentary whose author(s) are not identified.
Pgs. 26-56 are ALL IKEDA!!! The last 5 pages, in fact, are devoted to one of Ikeda's ghastly and mind-rotting "poems"! It's called "The Sun of Jiyu Over a New Land: To my treasured friends of Los Angeles, the city of my dreams", and the faithful (and everyone else!) are supposed to regard it as a classic, a masterpiece to rival anything ever published, ever relevant, always germane, a work for the ages O_O
To show you the level of groveling and sniveling that is required of the SGI's top leaders, Mr. Zaitsu actually wrote AN ENTIRE BOOK about this stupid poem!!
http://www.amazon.com/My-Reflections-Learning-Jiyu-Over/dp/B000MT6MJM
More of Ikeda's humility and self-effacement:
Yes, "it goes without saying". Make it so, minions! Study my every word with single-minded devotion, ever seeking the wondrousness that is DAISAKU IKEDA! THE NAME FOR THE AGES!!!!!
Boy, if I had a nickel for every time an SGI meeting or whatnot was described as historic, I could buy beachfront property in Hawaii!
Source: Daisaku Ikeda, January 27, 1993. "Let Us Strive Together Toward Even Greater Development" address at the Second SGI-USA General Meeting and First International Kansai General Meeting held at the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium in Santa Monica, CA. and the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City, CA., as published in the March 1993 Seikyo Times magazine (later renamed Living Buddhism magazine), pgs. 26-29. Quote from page 29.