SGI members...needy for authoritarian religion

"In response to the first portion of your post – the SGI is regarded as a cult by the media. Take a look at the articles that Time and Forbes put out a few years ago. I recently said bye-bye to the org after almost choking on my own vomit at a district meeting. I just couldn’t stomach the M/D talk any longer. The district leader had told us that the Daimoku chanted with Sensei in our hearts was so much more powerful than just chanting. This comment forced me to swallow my own vomit. Someone made a reference to Lisa Jones. I always suspected that she was being harassed with a lawsuit into silence. The SGI is an absolutely vile organization. I am so very glad I left and I can’t understand how anyone exposed to the teachings of Shakyamuni and Nichiren (away from the SGI publications) can stay in the org unless they are either very arrogant and turned-on by the Ikeda love fest or very needy for authoritarian religion." -- Aaron

"President Ikeda is always transmitting"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat

9-15-00 World Tribune study material:

"As the American poet and author Robert Bly says in Iron John, we search for a "second father" or "a second king..." "We can each ask ourselves: Is there anyone we know or have heard of who possesses true greatness? If so, we should leave with him or her". Early in my youth I faced a huge test in my relationship with President Ikeda. I loved him from the first and considered myself his disciple. But I was very young and had no clue about the obstacles that I would face in the future.

After a particularly severe set back in my life, I felt that I had failed as a disciple. Before I realized it, I was overcome with negativity. "I have failed him;' I thought. And my heart broke.

I had to think deeply about what he really meant to me. What is a disciple? What does a mentor think about a disciple? I came to understand that I had a very shallow view of the mentor- disciple relationship. When I realized that President Ikeda's belief in me, his belief in my potential, was unconditional, I was able to pull myself out of the depths of that hell..

I heard the mentor disciple relationship explained once as the mentor being like a transmitter and the disciples like receivers. President Ikeda is always transmitting. It is up to us to receive the message. Several months ago I heard a young woman describe her struggle with the mentor-disciple relationship. She was devoted to her practice, to kosen rufli and her members. She was acting as a person of the same mind as the mentor. But although she respected President Ikeda and thought he was "a great guy" as she put it; her heart was closed to him. And this troubled her. She was frustrated by the fact that she "just didn't get it." This was some thing she pondered through many prayers. Then one night as she was standing alone out under the stars at the Florida Nature and Culture Center, she had an awakening, a realization. It was a matter of trust It wasn't President Ikeda; it was her ability to open her heart to him. Her father had been a very respected professional, but behind closed doors he was an abuser feared by the family. She realized that this was the "wall" between herself and President Ikeda. All of her chanting and prayers had led her to see this and suddenly she "got it" and tears began to flow down her cheeks. Her receiver was turned on."

Greg Romero takes on Tim Janakos

"I am the Buddha from time without beginning" --  Tim Janakos-Kobayashi ["Energetic Emotional Healer"], SGI Senior Leader and graduate of Soka University of America

"Healer, my question to you was what makes you think you are a buddha from time without beginning. i did not ask you about the potential to become a buddha. there is reality and then there is fantasy. tientai and nichiren concur that the true entity is one, but like everything else in this universe it has two potentials. they say; if the true entity encounters bad or evil influences, instead of manifesting enlightenment, it will instead manifest a deeper delusion. however, if it encounters good influences it will manifest enlightenment. here we are talking about the real world, not a fantasy or a potential to be realized someday. sgi turns its back on this passage and actually many more. nichiren, self-described, leader of the bodhisattvas of the earth and follower of the eternal shakyamuni said the good influences are namu myoho renge kyo (the essence of the lotus sutra), shakyamuni, and his teachings as well as those having the same mind as nichiren. the evil influences are those that go against or teach something other than what they taught. "rely on the law and not the person". both sgi and nst go completely against this. what made nichiren's enlightenment was who he followed (shakyamuni) and that he lived at the risk of his very life, believed in, and taught the lotus sutra 24/7. he didn't teach somebody else's version of the lotus sutra. nichiren says many times in his writings, "the correct teachings". as you may know, buddhism is faith, practice and study. not just any faith, correct faith. not just any practice, correct practice. not just any study, the study of real buddhism and not someone else's version. nichiren also says, "there is correct wisdom and there is perverse wisdom". correct wisdom is reality and is good , perverse wisdom is fantasy and is not good. nichiren taught; there is only one distinction in any persons daimoku. that distinction is whether one chants with correct faith or chants while cherishing something different in ones heart. this shows that it is not just the words but the faith. this is the nst and sgi which includes you as you seem to be attracted to them. today, both nst and sgi have turned their backs on what the lotus sutra and nichiren actually taught in favor of something else. most likely for profit and selfish gain. healer, what you have put forth is a potential that all life has, however, it takes a correct faith, practice and study to make it a reality. like many sgi, i'm sure you will pay no attention to what i say. those who won't listen to nichiren also won't listen to me. this i know. my hope for you is that you will leave the sgi, begin a real buddhist practice and enjoy the promise of the lotus sutra and nichiren. cheers." -- Greg Romero

"The people are sovereign" -- SGI pie in the sky doctrine

Myoho-Nameless writes: "The market decides who our leaders are too, its not a perfect system but its the only one that can possibly work for us anymore. The authoritarian system has holes in it too. But we live in a secular and pluralistic society, the spiritual market will decide whether we want it to or not."

We will have to agree to disagree. The Laws, regulations, standards of conduct, etc. are, for the most part, composed and enforced from the top down, here and everywhere. "Enlightened" compassionate leaders create an harmonious and peaceful society while unenlightened brutal despots bring ruin to the people. In China, for example, those in power promote the leader without market forces coming into play, at least, until after the leader is chosen. Then, if the standard of living of the people declines and the people become too restless, the leader's rule may be of short duration. Here, you are right, the market decides. But if the market is corrupt, so will be the leader. It might take thousands of years to convert enough people to wisely choose an enlightened leader. An enlightened leader can move a billion people in a positive direction. We don't have thousands of years. Therefore, the SGI teaching that the people are sovereign is, at best, pie in the sky and, at worst, a cause to decelerate the establishment of a peaceful society. It might only take an hour, a day, a week, or a month, to convert one wheel turning king such as Obama, Putin, or Xi. It will take thousands of years to convert the entire populace.

"HAIL TO THE SCRIPTURE OF THE LOTUS OF THE WONDERFUL DHARMA!"

"What's dat?" -- SGI leader

Lying Pedro Ramos states I'm taking a vacation on other people's dime

For the record, in the 10 years since I've been blogging and preaching the Lotus Sutra Buddhism of Nichiren, I've received one donation for twenty dollars from Phillip Brett [despite my protestations]. I have distributed several thousand Sutra books and almost a hundred Tradition of Nichiren Doctrine books for free, and bought 41 beautiful acres in the Adirondacks for the future Renge Kyo temple.

Namu Myoho renge kyo not the mentor nor High Priest is this magic moment

SGI USA

As American as stinky salty fish candy....YUM

"Fun, fun, fun", no not SGI statistic meetings

Thanks to Shakyamuni Buddha Nichiren discovered the Three Great Secret Laws (three important things).

"As for these three important things, it is not that Nichiren said it. It was the spirit of the Tathagata Shakyamuni that entered my body and filled it with a joy far greater than what it deserved. This is the important teaching of the Lotus Sutra called 'one thought is three thousand realms.' The scripture says, 'All existence has such a form ...' What does this mean? Because 'appearance', the first of the Ten Suchnesses, is the most important, the Buddha appeared in the world. The beginning of Nichiren's believing in the Lotus Sutra is like one drop of one atom in the country of Japan. If two people, three people, ten people, and millions and billions of people recite the Lotus Sutra, then it would become the Mt. Sumeru of Subtle Enlightenment or a great ocean of Nirvana. One should not look for any other way for becoming a Buddha." -- Senji Sho (An Essay on the Selection of the Proper Time)

"Widely proclaiming and diffusing" the Lotus Sutra [not the mentor, Human Revolution, nor High Priest].

"I, Nichiren, too, by reciting these compilations of texts and making prayers and vows to the Buddha and the gods every day since the first day I began to believe, though I have encountered all sorts of great hardships, because the meritorious power of the Lotus Sutra and the Golden Words of Lord Shakya which are profound and serious, up to now, I have been saved. With regard to that, if the Practitioners of the Lotus Sutra have no backsliding in the mind of faith or false affection in their person, but leave themselves to the Lotus Sutra in all things and practice in accordance with the Golden Words, they will for certain, even in this life not to speak of the afterlife, end disasters and extend their lifespan, obtain the reward of the Superior Sublime Great Effect and accomplish the Great Vow of "widely proclaiming and diffusing." [kosen rufu] -- Kitokyo sojo (Cover Letter to the Sutra for Prayers)

Nichiren on Shakyamuni Buddha as proper object of devotion

"How can anyone put faith in such teachers as these, men who slander the Law, and still hope in their next existence to avoid falling into the hell of incessant suffering? On the other hand, ignorant people of the present age, so long as they acknowledge Shakyamuni Buddha as their proper object of devotion, will automatically escape any accusation of unfilial conduct; so long as they put their faith in the Lotus Sutra, though that may not have been what they had in mind, they will be cleared of any fault of slandering the Law." -- Nichiren's writing, On Shan-wu-wei

Nichiren on the error of making one's mind teacher

"The people of our time-- whether clerics or lay believers, nobles or commoners -- all revere persons and do not value the Law. They make their own mind the teacher and do not rely on the sutras."

How many SGI have even read the Lotus Sutra? The Gosho from beginning to end?

"I want our young people to study doctrine." --Daisaku Ikeda

Ironically, if they do, they will come to the same conclusions as we of the Eagle Peak blog. They will abandon the doctrines of the Soka Gakkai for those of Nichiren.

I never met one

" What I desire above all is to raise leaders who are well equipped with the power of intellect" -- Daisaku Ikeda [1990]

Danny Nagashima? No

Adin Straus? No

Akemie Bailey Haynie? No

Josh Joffee?  No

Ian McIlraith? No

Vinessa Shaw? No

Cliff Sawyer? No

Fred Zaitsu? No

SGI crucifies Nichiren Daishonin

Catholicism and Soka Gakkai: Interreligiosity and Conversion

"Awakening to the need of mutual support for moral praxis."

http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1894

Who are the Jumonryu?

That be us

Nichiren demolishes SGI's superficial view of Actual Proof

"Whether they are correct or incorrect in their views is to be judged SOLELY on the basis of the doctrines they expound. It is not to be decided on the basis of whether or not they have keen capacity or can display supernatural powers."

We were taught in SGI

We were taught in SGI that since our SGI philosophy is superior to all others, we could never lose a debate. Here on the Eagle Peak Blog is my offer to prove this SGI teaching correct. I assert that I can overturn your arguments and doctrines as easily as a hot knife slices through butter or as easily as a shotgun explodes a watermelon. Thanks for listening.

Nichiren on increasing the karma that will keep them bound to the sufferings of birth and death

"But the cause that impels them to leave life as a human being and to sink down into the evil realms is not always the same in all cases. Some do so because of their pity and fondness for their wives and children or their other household members; some because of the grave karma they have created by killing living beings or committing other evil deeds; some because, having become rulers of a nation, they fail to heed or understand the afflictions of the populace; some because they do not distinguish between the correct doctrine and one that is erroneous; and some because they put their trust in evil teachers.

Among these various causes, those that pertain to the rights and wrongs of everyday behavior are readily apparent, and even a foolish person can judge what is proper conduct. But when it comes to determining what is correct or incorrect in matters of Buddhist doctrine or distinguishing between good teachers and evil ones, even a sage who has gained enlightenment as a result of extended religious practice will be at a loss, and how much more so an ordinary person in this latter age!

Moreover, since the Buddha, like the sun, has sunk from sight beyond the western hills, leaving his last rays to shine upon those of us in the eastern regions, the torch of wisdom held up for us by the four ranks of sages has grown daily dimmer, and the doctrinal teachings of the Tripitaka masters have become more corrupt with each passing month. Scholars, confused in their understanding of the true teaching, interpose themselves like clouds before the moon of Truth, and translators of sacred scriptures who are dedicated to the provisional sutras smash to pieces the jewels of the true sutras and reduce them to the rubble of provisional sutras.

Furthermore, there can hardly fail to be errors in the doctrinal principles expounded by the Buddhist teachers of the various schools of China, and it is even more likely that, among the latter-day scholars in this far-off land of Japan, mistakes are manifold and the truth seldom to be found. As a result of all this, though the persons who devote themselves to the study of the teachings are more numerous than the scales of a dragon, those who truly attain the way are rarer than the horn of a ch’i-lin.

Some persons err because they rely upon the provisional teachings, some because they rely on teachings that do not accord with the time or the capacities of the persons addressed. Some go astray because they fail to distinguish between the teachings of sages and those of mere ordinary mortals, some because they fail to distinguish between the provisional teachings and the true teaching, some because they mistake provisional teachings for the true teaching, and some because they do not understand the level of the persons to whom the teachings are directed. Thus these various types of persons in their capacity as ordinary mortals seek the Buddhist teachings but instead only increase the karma that will keep them bound to the sufferings of birth and death, but the exact cause in each case is not necessarily the same." -- Nichiren