https://www.sgi-usa.org/memberresources/leaders/manuals.php
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].
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.
"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?!?
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.)
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
~Katie
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
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
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
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.
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.