The late Howie Grunthal (revised)

Howard Grunthal was one of my best friends. He was born in 1956. In retrospect, physically, he looked like Nichiren Daishonin, round face, large bodhisattva ears and even slight oriental eye folds although he was German-jew through and through. I introduced him to the SGI. He had many mental and emotional problems and an IQ around 160. I remember the day he got his Gohonzon in Long Island City. He was so happy for the first and only time in his life. He became a YMD (young men's division) in the SGI who tried his very best to live up to the expectations of his leaders and to introduce as many people as he could into the SGI. He would pick up all the young men in his 1969 Mercury Comet and we were stuffed in there like sardines.

We had some good times, swimming at his apartment complex swimming pool and going down to Downey's Irish Tavern after chanting and "shakabukuing" every one we could, smoking a little weed, and downing twenty cent Schaeffer beers. We were after all 19 years old.

Howie wasn't very good with the women. He was quite engaging, talking to the ladies for hours but because of his mental condition, trichotillomania, alopecia and looking like Nichiren Daishonin, he was quite frustrated. Also, despite his enormous IQ, he wasn't a very good student. He couldn't concentrate very well. We went to Lehman College together and he really helped me with with my first wife, another student, encouraging her to go out with me. I think he had a secret crush on Dolores but was too much of a gentleman and friend to let on.

He really tried his best to overcome his problems through the SGI. Seeking guidance dozens of times as he was prescribed by his leaders. But they were very tough on Howie who was both a gentle and tortured soul and they knew nothing about abnormal psychology but acted as if they knew the causes and conditions of Howie's problems better than his psychotherapist. They often told Howie that he no longer needed his psychotherapist or meds because all he needed was the Daimoku, President Ikeda's guidance, and more YMD activities. He was so sincere that despite his disabilities he became a YMD group chief and his leaders pushed Howie to do more activities.

Then one day, Howie accidently severely damaged his Gohonzon. He was doing spring cleaning in his room and he removed it from the butsudan (altar box) to clean the butsudan and it accidently fell into the detergent pail. He brought it to his leaders who weren't very sympathetic. They told him he would have to chant for at least a year to get another Gohonzon. If he was tortured before he damaged his Gohonzon, after he damaged it, and with all the SGI stories about what happens to those who lose or damage their Gohonzons, he really decompensated. And his leaders, despite his continued monumental effort with the practice, were never the same towards Howie.

Shortly thereafter, Howie took his butsudan and threw it out his 14th story window and he followed it to the ground. The SGI is an evil organization made up of people who maintain they have attained what they have not. The snot-nosed leaders who can barely get their own lives together run around teaching other people how to overcome their problems with not an ounce of real life training and preparation and not an ounce of compassion. Everything is for Ikeda and the SGI at the expense of the individual.