Where is the Budddhism?

"SGI is a business that sells illusions, with a thin veneer of Buddhism to make it more marketable"

"Re: Soka Gakkai International -- SGI

Posted by: tsukimoto ()

Date: June 07, 2012 11:47PM

SGI is based on lies. If we all made a list of the lies that we have been told by SGI -- it would be long! Some of the biggest and most common: 

--Ikeda is a great man. 

--Your leaders are wise, and can give you good guidance for resolving any problem. 

--SGI cares about your happiness. 

--If you chant enough, you can get anything you want. (Except when you can't.) 

--You must accept Ikeda as your mentor to reach enlightenment. 

--Your life will go to hell in a handbasket if you leave, or criticize SGI. 

--SGI can bring about world peace. 

--SGI actually cares about world peace. 

--If you give your last dollar to SGI, you will have great financial fortune. 

--If your life isn't going well, it's because you are not chanting enough, and doing enough for SGI. 

And the biggest lie: SGI is a Buddhist organization. 

No way! Where is the Buddhism? SGI is a business that sells illusions, with a thin veneer of Buddhism to make it more marketable. I did not realize this while I was in, or even right after I left -- but I always did wonder about two things. 

1. One leader that I knew at the beginning of my practice was very devoted to study. He made us read lots of Gosho, and also taught us about the life of Nichiren Daishonin, the differences between various schools of Buddhism, Shakyamuni Buddha, Tien Tai, and more. I assumed that everyone in SGI studied this much. Then I moved -- and found out that they didn't. I was stunned to find long-term members and even leaders who knew NONE of this. I wondered why so many SGI members were so uneducated, and uninformed about Buddhism. Why didn't they want to learn more, and why didn't SGI educate its members better? Then I started realizing that many leaders didn't even think that you should study much. They kept saying "Substitute faith for wisdom." Members who actually thought about and questioned things, made them nervous. And why did so few leaders have anything intelligent to say? Ask them a question, and all they could do is spout the usual cliches. 

As Hitch put it: 

"Can't have the members outthinking the "leaders." I was pretty young at the time, but one of the times I confronted Goon Gelbaum with critical thinking, he looked just like a deer caught in some headlights and after a pause, pathetically tried to redirect the conversation. Up until that point, I had never fully realized just how stupid he really was. Was also able to immediately see through the con job. Twas not a pretty sight (literally and metaphorically)."

2. I also wondered why SGI did not seem to care that it was losing members as quickly as it got them. Why didn't they change their top-down policies and demands for more, more, more that were driving good members out? 

After doing more reading about cults, I finally figured out the answers to my questions. 

1. SGI does not care if its members know anything about Buddhism, because the point of SGI is not Buddhism -- it's money and glory for Ikeda. 

2. Members who are too interested in really studying and practicing Buddhism correctly wouldn't be focused enough on SGI's true mission -- money and glory for Ikeda. They're not interested in making roller-skating pyramids, nor for chanting for the destruction of another sect. They will have no Soka Spirit, and will have zero interest in Rocking the Era. 

3. Members who actually know something about Buddhism would make most SGI leaders look awfully stupid by comparison. 

4. SGI does not want to change its ways to keep members who think and question. As Anticult put it, SGI is happier to just let the thinkers and questioners walk, and just recruit more members -- the odds being that a certain percentage of these new shakabukus will toe the line and not question the status quo. 

Anticult: " But again, SGI is very diabolically smart. They know its a numbers game, its a meat market. Bring in the numbers, and a certain % of those people will join. That is how SGI makes the millions and billions. Pump and dump, they just churn people through." 

Shakabuku -- feed the SGI beast.