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Monday, March 28, 2016

SGI USA leadership manual with brief commentary

http://www.sgi-usa.org/memberresources/leaders/docs/SGI-USA_Leadership_Manual_Complete.pdf

All from Group Leader to Zone Leader must contribute within one year. All leaders must subscribe [buy] publications.

Higher level leaders receive donations [salaries from the contributions of members and lower level leaders]. 

15 comments:

  1. I'm loving the $20 "processing fee" (selling price) for the standard Gohonzon but that someone also has to stump up another $30 for a world tribute subscription, which would then be $50.

    But then if you want a bigger model, the "processing fee" (they'll sell it to you for) $100, because of course that extra inch of scroll area all round involves an extra $50 worth of "processing" (fair's fair now, we don't want to incur a cost to the SGI now do we.

    And of course they're not selling you anything (coz that wouldn't be right now), just "processing", covering their costs, which handily means that if you "voluntarily" (you say goodbye to the org or "involuntarily" (they kick you out) leave the SGI, although you have to give your Gohonzon back, you won't get a refund. Hmm...

    I'll give the UK org their due, I never had to pay anything to have any of the mandala's "processed" apart from the first which was given by the priesthood. That was a reasonable cost and a fair contribution towards the air fare of someone who bothered to come to half way round the world to give it to me personally in a hall that got rented from an outside org. I don't know if that's the same now. But then I guess its what the market will bear, the UK is very different. They'd have had no members here if they'd tried to rip people off "processing" their mandalas.

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  2. Oh I wonder if anyone mentioned this to the "mentor" or the rest if the SGI leadership?

    "Refrain from using religious activities to involve the organisation or it'd members in religious activities" page 63.

    The "mentor" is on record stating his involvement in such (Chanting Millions BBC - You Tube it) and then of course he got (unfairly boo hoo) locked up for electoral fraud ( for a few hours b but was being persecuted for his faith (eh?!?). Oh and Komeito Party was established by SGI...him, he'll have to be involuntarily exited I think and the mandala has to be returned too remember. No refund either...

    How do the leaders who read this manual not notice the glaring inconsistencies?!?

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  3. Oh and my absolute favourite (a whooping double bind if ever there was) "Study and apply the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin and guidance of President Ikeda to deepen my faith and understanding of Nichiren Buddhism." (Also page 63). Good luck with that then, since they teach different things poor SGI members have been set an impossible task and when there's the inevitable conflict between what Nichiren and the Gosho teach and what the "Mentor" teaches, who they gonna side with? Not Nichiren for sure, they'll go for the "Mentor's" apparently superior understanding, doubt their own understanding and faculties and deviate from Nichiren 's path and the Lotus Sutra, suffering in the process. And they will be expected to side with the "Mentor" and doubt their understanding of they will be "involuntarily exited", especially if they question too loudly (because that would disrupt the harmony of the org and "faith" (in the "Mentor") they are paying for the privilege of having - an "involuntarily exitable" offence. (No refunds and give the mandala back).

    Thank heavens I left (lool and resisted the "encouragement" to stay - apparently I'm gonna miss them - I don't, nice as the local folks were and still are - the Org. though - nope.)

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  4. Having regained your power of critical thinking, you have emerged from the earth and gained that which you least expected. Congratulations!

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  5. In Sept. 2012, the SGI-USA Boston "Region Personnel Committee" issued me a letter, sent, by Registered mail- citing me for "violations" "SGI USA Charter"
    Chapter 11,
    "Article 72, Article 73
    Paragraph b:"Conduct intended to either 1)damage the reputation of SGI-USA or 2) harm or undermine the interests of SGI-USA

    ~Katie

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  6. I had sent a few emails to local leaders questioning various practices and behaviors . My notice of *disciplinary action* official letter was signed by three leaders I barely knew. None of the leaders I had emailed had responded after 4-5 months. I had let the matters drop-- was not attending meetings anyway
    ~Katie

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  7. The response I wrote and mailed to every member of the Boston Region Board was ignored-- I was left assuming that my *suspended membership* has, in fact, been terminated.
    This was a blessing-- to be booted out (for the third time in Boston) reaffirmed to me that I had indeed been practicing with *slanders* of the True Teaching.
    4 years journey to this web site-- and my purified altar-- and a deep sense of appreciation, has lead me to believe that rebuking this slander and caring deeply for those who are being harmed by SGI, is absolutely part of correct practice.
    ~Katie

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  8. P.S. Questioning the leaders themselves about the behavior or the practices of any leader in SGI USA is *grounds* for disciplinary action--

    THIS is SGI USA a decade after Andy and the IRG engaged top leaders on vital points regarding democratizing SGI USA as per Pres IKEDA'S guidance (for crying out loud)
    Please note: There was no *due process* involved in my Final notice. In 1998, my district was disbanded by the same Board- citing my *insubordination*
    I have written letters to the top leaders, even Daisaku Ikeda regarding these issues-- no response directly to me was ever issued.
    I do not *disparage* any of these leaders, but with regard to Pres. Ikeda, he is absolutely incorrect in assigning *sacred* status o SGI. Whenever I read his declarations in that vein, I cringe.
    ~Katie

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  9. hi Katie. I disparage every single SGI leader above Group Chief but reserve special disparagement for the double-tongued mentor and his top lietenants.

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  10. Is disparagement "ok" in the latter day of the Law practice of shakubuku, then?

    I have been criticized for noting that although Fukyo was pelted with tiles for bowing to everyone as he recited a verse of the Lotus Sutra, no one would likely be attacked, much less persecuted for bowing to "everyone" in this day and age.-- So, I have suggested that the bowing to everyone thing is not correct in our time.

    Nichiren seems to use Bodhisattva Never Disparaging as a point of comparison to his own practice --which to me, has meant that if you propagate the True Law as it is taught, you will be attacked, persecuted-- NOT that their practices were the same.

    Again and again I have been admonished for *disparaging* remarks about leaders--BY leaders who claim I am not "getting the point of Nichiren's references to Fukyo" ---

    P.S. I never made it about "Unit chief"-- a short- lived experience at that.

    ~Katie

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  11. SGI never teaches that those who persecuted Fukyo: For a thousand kalpas underwent great suffering in the Avici Hell. After they had finished paying for their offenses, they once again encountered the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging and attained Enlightenment. What do you think? Is not passing 1000 kalpas in the Avici Hell a form of strict shakubuku.

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    1. SGI also never teaches that Fukyo's practice accorded with a different time. Aligning themselves with corrupt secular institutions, securing personal reward and significant monetary gain is an example of the benefit of SGI leaders "peaceful practices".

      Admonishing members for minor infractions amounts to maintaining a status quo, superficially peaceful organization that serves the personal interests of top leaders.

      Strict shakubuku is completely left out of SGI's philosophical agenda. It is common to hear the term, shakubuku, in reference to introducing someone to the practice and SGI. When, in fact, the method was shoju, laced with promise of treasures of the storehouse, mind and body, that persuaded the *new member* to join SGI.

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  12. When a person’s offense is minor, admonishment is sometimes called for, but at other times it may be unnecessary, for there are those who may correct themselves without being told. Reprove a person for slander when necessary, so that you can forestall for both of you the consequences of an offense. Then, you should forgive that person. The point is that even minor slanders may lead to serious ones, and then the effects one must suffer would be far worse. This is [what Chang-an means when he writes], “One who rids the offender of evil is acting as his parent.”

    Many such examples of slander are also found among Nichiren’s disciples and lay believers. I am sure that you have heard about the lay priest Ichinosawa. Privately he is considered one of Nichiren’s followers, but publicly he still remains in the Nembutsu school. What should be done about his next life? Nevertheless, I have presented him with the ten volumes of the Lotus Sutra.

    SGI members fall into the category of those who continuously slander the Law and thus are to be continuously reproved. They pretend to be foremost in upholding the precepts and I continuously point out how they break the precepts [of preserving the Law and doctrines of Nichiren].. I do this for their sake. I will forgive them when they correct their mistakes. The strange thing is that they overlook major slander through their interfaith initiatives and strictly admonish their own members for the most minor of infractions.

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    Replies
    1. In pursuit of minor good, they commit great evil...

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