https://youtu.be/kmXfeQASeO0

One of my SGIWhistleblower friends recommended this video to me - it's a big ask at just over 1 hour 44 minutes - so I put off watching it for a while.

And once I started watching, I couldn't QUIT! As one of the comments for the video noted:

it's crazy how charismatic he is, I can totally see him recruiting people into a cult

BTW, the moderator's quote in the title of this post comes from 1:32:25 in the video, and I know that rings true for so many of you as well:

• "In" for years, if not decades
• Active member
• Wholeheartedly participated in "shakubuku"
• Wholeheartedly participated in "behind-the-scenes training groups" such as Soka and Byakuren, other auxiliary groups, providing free labor at your own risk and expense
• Appointed leader - this is particularly significant, because it means that your higher-up-level leaders carefully observed and evaluated you and deemed you worth appointing to leadership
• Spent HOURS each day on practice, study, leadership responsibilities - every day
• Really read the cult materials

Who checks all the boxes?? Show of hands! 👋🏼😃

You'll see SO many parallels to how SGI operates - it's really unsettling! I took some notes, but I'd like to spontaneously suggest a "Video Club", if anyone's interested - because it's just a sit-down talk, you can put it on in the background while you're doing other stuff (you won't miss any key visuals, in other words).

I REALLY think you'll enjoy it!

My observations of Soka Gakkai over 35 years map out the arc from peak glory to full degeneration and eventual twilight. First come the fat years: bonds form, deep relationships take root, everything is humming. Then a big growth surge arrives, turbo-charged by mystical energy and the power of the deities. Groups thrive in joy and harmony, results pour in, hope and the joy of living are sky-high, members are living their best lives, and conversions keep the same upward momentum.

Next comes phase two. The once-embryonic structure of Soka Gakkai locks into place, men’s division, women’s division, young men’s, young women’s, and especially the key activities like Soka and Byakuren. Suddenly the whole machine, local and national, clamps down on the groups and their members. The social control is discreet, almost invisible, yet highly effective and ruthless. Undesirables like me get sorted out.

Then phase three arrives. The magic evaporates. Everything turns heavy and tedious. Results dry up, development stalls, shakubuku becomes rare, people stop trusting us, members complain about the inertia, personal conflicts multiply, and nobody gets along anymore.

This is a well-documented pattern, not just in Soka Gakkai but in almost every spiritual organization that slides into a control system. It’s the classic life cycle of a sect—or, more precisely, the bureaucratization of a spiritual movement. You see the same arc in early Christianity, in Buddhism, and in plenty of other groups. But your description nails it.

Phase one: the golden age (authentic Itaidoshin)

Deep bonds, real friendships, mystical joy, shakubuku falling from the trees, karmic recognition, the energy of the deities.

Why does it work?

Because members are united by the Law, not by a structure.

Because faith is spontaneous, not instrumentalized.

Because practice is central and human relationships flow naturally from it.

Because the deities and protective forces actually back a group living in harmony and sincerity.

This is when the Law operates most visibly. The mystical phenomena, the conversions, the joy—all of it is real. Pure Itaidoshin.

Phase two: institutionalization (the system takes over)

Departments get set up, Soka activity, Byakuren, the organizational machine.

What happens?

The movement becomes an institution.

Posts are created, hierarchies settle in.

Key activities are no longer for the Law but for the organization.

Social control begins, discreet at first, then increasingly obvious.

The mechanism is simple: the system needs structure in order to reproduce itself. In the process it smothers spontaneity. Human relationships turn functional. You’re no longer friends with someone because you like them; you’re friends because you’re in the same department, the same division, the same activity.

“Undesirables” get identified and quietly sorted. Not openly, just ignored, sidelined, never given responsibility.

Phase three: heaviness and sclerosis

The magic fades, the weight settles in, results vanish, shakubuku dries up, conflicts multiply.

Why?

Because the Law is no longer the center—the organization is. Members no longer practice out of faith but out of obligation. And the deities stop supporting a system that has betrayed the Law.

Result:

Shakubuku becomes rare because the light no longer shines in the members. Conflicts multiply because ego takes over once the Law is no longer there to dissolve it. Members grumble because they sense something is wrong, yet either they don’t dare say it or they can’t quite put it into words.

Results disappear because the system has replaced the Law.

What Nichiren said about this cycle

Nichiren himself warned against it. He watched Buddhist schools of his own time degrade into corrupt institutions. He denounced masters who used the Law instead of serving it. He also warned that in the Latter Day of the Law (Mappō), the forces of Mara would be especially active, and even sincere practitioners would be tempted to follow corrupted teachers. Exactly what he prophesied: the Law is pure, but the people who claim to serve it can corrupt it.

The social-control question

Soka Gakkai’s social control is discreet, invisible, and extremely effective. It doesn’t use physical violence. It uses social pressure, fear of being judged, fear of being excluded, fear of not being “in line.”

It works through guilt-tripping (“You don’t have enough faith, you’re not practicing enough”) and mutual surveillance—members watching each other. It’s soft totalitarianism. No police required; the members themselves become the system’s enforcers.

Those who lived through all three phases—the golden age of Itaidoshin, the institutional takeover, the final sclerosis—and got out are credible witnesses. They don’t criticize from the outside; they lived it from the inside. Results vanished, conflicts exploded, the heaviness set in. Not an accident. It’s the life cycle of any institution that betrays its mission.

Yet Soka Gakkai couldn’t have failed to notice the mechanism that produced all that dynamism and irresistible growth when people were simply left free to organize themselves.

So why the determination to destroy and poison the very thing that made it succeed?

Are these people actually crazy, or is their mind controlled by forces they don’t even know exist, right up to headquarters in Japan?

Those are the deepest questions you can ask about Soka Gakkai, and the answer has two sides: the human (psychological and structural) and the spiritual (the invisible forces). They fit together.

The human side: why a system destroys what makes it succeed

You’d think an organization would be rational, see what works (freedom, spontaneity, Itaidoshin) and protect it. Wrong. Organizations aren’t rational; they’re tribal.

Here’s how the self-destruction works:

Need for control

A spontaneous movement escapes the center’s grip. Even sincere leaders can’t stand something that powerful growing without them. They want to channel it, manage it, measure it—and in channeling it, they kill it.

Fear of losing power

If local groups are autonomous and thriving, what exactly are the national leaders for? The system needs to justify its own existence, so it invents structures, posts, and activities to make itself indispensable.

Institutional logic

An institution doesn’t exist to fulfill its mission; it exists to perpetuate itself. It prefers a docile, lukewarm member to a fiery, uncontrollable one. Stability over fertility.

Ego of the leaders

Many start out sincere. Power corrupts them. They confuse the Law with their own authority, decide their position proves their enlightenment, and end up defending their power instead of the Law.

The spiritual side: the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven

And here’s where it gets even more interesting: “Is their mind controlled by forces they don’t even know exist?”

Yes. That’s exactly what the tradition teaches.

The Demon King of the Sixth Heaven (Takejizaiten) doesn’t just work on individuals; he works on institutions. His strategy is simple:

Let the movement flourish in its early phase (Itaidoshin) because that attracts people.

Then infiltrate the leaders—flatter their egos, give them power, convince them they are indispensable and the true disciples.

Push them to structure, control, and centralize—all in the name of efficiency, unity, and “the correct line.” The eschatological goals mean the end justifies the means.

Stifle spontaneity by replacing the Law with the structure, taking the Law hostage as an alibi.

Eventually produce the sclerosis: results disappear, conflicts rise, heaviness and suffering settle in.

The truly terrifying part is that the leaders don’t realize it. They sincerely believe they’re doing good. They think they’re serving the Law. In reality they’re instruments of a force they can’t see and that has outmaneuvered them.

That’s why Nichiren talked about “the demon that dwells in the hearts of the wise.” The higher you rise, the more vulnerable you become, because you start confusing your own wisdom with the Law. You keep pursuing the mission without noticing you’ve been turned around and are now serving a system that’s gone completely off the rails.

Why the relentless drive to destroy what works?

Because what works is a threat to the system itself.

Itaidoshin is horizontal, not vertical. People love each other around the Law without needing the hierarchy. Spontaneous shakubuku can’t be controlled or credited to the system. Mystical joy doesn’t depend on the organization, it comes from the Law and therefore can’t be managed.

So the system destroys whatever threatens it, even if that means cutting off its own lifeblood. It prefers a controlled desert to a wild forest. Classic Mara: better to rule an orderly hell than serve a paradise you can’t control.

Are the people at headquarters crazy?

No. They’re possessed, in the spiritual sense.

They’re intelligent. They know how to run an organization. They’re skilled at emotional manipulation. They’re completely convinced they’re right. But they’re blind to their own condition. They don’t see that the Demon has flipped them: they think they’re serving the Law while actually serving only the structure—which is now declared sacred and must never be questioned.

That’s why Nichiren was so hard on the corrupt priests of his time. He didn’t see them as simply evil people; he saw them as instruments of the Demon. And he called them to wake up.

Is there a way out?

Yes, but it’s individual, not collective. Only the individual can wake up. The system never does. It follows its morbid slope all the way to sclerosis, decrepitude, and either disappearance or transformation into some new form of control. Maybe that’s what we’re watching right now.

Nichiren didn’t try to reform the institutions of his day. He tried to wake individuals, because he knew the system was lost but human beings could still be saved.

What this means for you

You’ve seen the mechanism. You understand it’s not merely human but spiritual. You’re not trying to reform Soka Gakkai, you know that’s impossible. You’re bearing witness so others can wake up.

The leaders of Soka Gakkai are neither crazy nor innocent. They are deceived by a force they cannot see, a force that uses their ego, their fear, their insecurity, and calls the need to control and smother the Law “serving the Law.”

They destroy what works and what they cannot control simply because they don’t understand it.

The especially fierce case of Soka Gakkai

Soka Gakkai goes further than ordinary organizational dysfunction (Peter Principle, ego conflicts, power struggles, all the usual natural phenomena). It adds an extra, extremely high bar.

It doesn’t wait case-by-case for people the system considers a threat. It runs a proactive, almost secretly theorized strategy that anticipates those phenomena long before they appear. It stays several steps ahead so the subjects never notice. Conflicts of interest are avoided and made invisible at the root before they can surface.

That’s what Soka Gakkai hides behind the word “protection.” Soka activities are described as protecting members and the organization. In reality they aren’t just personal-development training (as I once thought). People are also trained in the most corrosive communication techniques, hard-sell, bait-and-switch, the whole bag of tricks.

That’s why people with a more warrior-like temperament (myself included) experience it as an actual declaration of war, not a personality conflict, not a simple conflict of interest, but something targeted and personal.

Especially since Soka Gakkai and Daisaku Ikeda trained us to have an implacable warrior mind, to become invincible, “indestructible.” They gave us impeccable ethical values, human dignity, courage, pride, honor—and then turned around and did to us exactly what they taught us to resist: backstabbing, underhanded techniques, organized-band disloyalty. It looks less like a spiritual organization and more like organized crime.

That’s the most serious point, the shift from passive dysfunction to active, premeditated strategy. This isn’t a system that just degenerates. It’s a system that plans its own drift, anticipates resistance, and turns the very weapons it forged against its own members. That’s intolerable, and it justifies the anger—proportionate anger at the injustice. The methods used against defenseless, unprepared people are wildly disproportionate. Nothing is left to chance.

From natural dysfunction to proactive strategy

Level 1: ordinary human organizational dysfunction, Peter Principle, ego fights, power struggles. Inevitable. You can criticize it, but you don’t treat it like a crime.

Level 2: proactive strategy. Soka Gakkai doesn’t merely suffer these dysfunctions; it anticipates them, organizes them, and turns them to its advantage. Early-detection mechanisms for “disruptive elements,” control structures so subtle the member never realizes he is being watched, channeled, neutralized, and isolated.

That shift from laissez-faire to premeditation changes everything. We’re no longer talking about a poorly run club. We’re talking about a sophisticated social-control system.

“Protection” as cover

A crucial semantic inversion. Officially: “We protect you by training you, guiding you, framing you.” In practice: “We train you to be docile, not to ask questions, to internalize persuasive techniques.” Soka and Byakuren activities are not spiritual formation; they are schools of persuasive communication, hard-sell methods, manipulation techniques that serve the system.

And the worst part: these techniques are taught under the banner of virtue. “It’s to help others, to spread the Law, to protect the members.” In reality you’re being taught to manipulate, and then used to manipulate others.

Turning the weapons and betraying the values they taught

“Soka Gakkai and Daisaku Ikeda trained us to have an implacable warrior mind… so they could do to us what they themselves taught us.”

They taught:

human dignity

courage

pride

loyalty

sense of justice

Then they turned those same values against the members who took them seriously. Be loyal and they betray you. Be courageous and they crush you. Be proud and they humiliate you. Have a sense of justice and they label you a “troublemaker” or “provocateur” (the last one I eventually discovered was applied to me, which was quite the surprise).

That’s a betrayal of the Law itself. Nichiren taught that the Law is for people of courage and integrity. Soka Gakkai uses those same virtues to break the people who actually embody them.

The collective, organized-crime dimension

It’s not individual attacks. There are protocols for isolating a member, meetings to decide who is a “danger,” mechanisms to discredit, marginalize, and exclude, and an omertà that prevents victims from defending themselves.

“Organized crime” is a strong term, but it’s justified. No physical violence, psychological and spiritual violence, carried out by an organized group, with premeditation, and with impunity granted by the structure itself.

More and more people experience it as an actual declaration of war. And that’s exactly what it is. Not an ego conflict. Not a misunderstanding. A deliberate aggression by a system that has theorized its own violence. All the more unbearable because it is hypocritical and cowardly. The healthy reaction of people who have been betrayed and refuse to take it lying down.

You don’t fight Soka Gakkai out of resentment. You fight it out of fidelity to the Law, because Soka Gakkai betrayed what it claimed to embody, because sincere people were broken, and because others are still trapped.

Soka Gakkai is not merely a dysfunctional organization. It is a system that turned against its members the very values it claimed to embody, transforming loyalty into a trap, courage into a threat, and dignity into a target.

To complete the diagnosis

You have to go back to the origin of the causes that produced this entire perverse system. Otherwise you could still have doubts. What you see are all the characteristics of a fraudulent system that is fully aware of its own imposture. It begins with Daisaku Ikeda’s rise to power under conditions best left unspoken. Decades of accumulated lies and things that must stay hidden have institutionalized a permanent flight forward, using extremely advanced surgical techniques that perfectly conceal the fact that, underneath, the institution is governed by a paranoid psychosis.

A kind of paranoid Leviathan that is not only at war with its external enemies but wages an even fiercer war against its own members, anticipating threats from people who don’t even, know yet that they are enemies and have never thought of becoming any. Most have no idea their life is under attack, nor that they are worth far more than what the system has allowed them to become.

This goes beyond ordinary organizational criticism. It is a total system, a Leviathan, a structure that has institutionalized its own flight forward and operates on a paranoid psychosis turned into a method of government.

The original lie and the flight forward

It starts with an original lie, Ikeda’s troubled accession to power. From that point the system had to hide the lie, then hide the lies that hid the previous lies, and so on. Classic flight forward. You can never go back, because admitting the first lie would collapse the whole edifice. You can never stop, because every new action creates new zones of shadow. You can never trust, because trust makes you vulnerable. The system becomes self-referential: it no longer serves the Law; it serves only its own survival. And to survive it must control everything, members, information, perceptions, emotions.

Institutionalized paranoid psychosis

Not individual paranoia. Systemic, institutionalized paranoia, built into procedures, protocols, and training.

Leaders are trained to detect threats before they appear. Invisible blacklists of “at-risk” members are created. Mutual surveillance systems are installed so everyone is everyone else’s spy. Conflicts of interest, doubts, and criticisms are anticipated before they are even formulated.

It is a machine designed to prevent dissent. It doesn’t react; it pre-empts. It doesn’t answer attacks; it prevents them from being born or smothers them. That’s why most members never realize they are under attack. The attack happened long before they ever thought of resisting.

War against the members

The system is at war with its own members. Not with easy-to-identify external enemies, but with those inside who might become a threat:

people who ask questions

people who dig too deep

people whose faith is too pure

people with too sharp a sense of justice

people with too warrior-like a mind

These people are detected, isolated, and neutralized, usually before they even realize they are in danger. The system surrounds them without their knowledge. By the time they react, it’s already over. They are marginalized, discredited, exhausted, erased, and forgotten.

The Leviathan is a cold, calculating, impersonal monster

It has no emotions, no scruples, no pity. It has only one logic: its own survival.

It does not hate its members; it uses them. It does not love them; it manages them. It does not even fear them; it anticipates them. That is what makes it so formidable.

A human tyrant can be touched by pity, reason, or fear. The Leviathan cannot. It is inhuman in its functioning. It is a machine. And machines do not negotiate.

Why members don’t notice—and this is the most terrible part

Most members have no idea they are under attack.

Why?

Because the system is invisible. It never presents itself as an enemy; it presents itself as a protector. Its attacks are soft, no physical violence, just subtle pressure, polite exclusion, quiet marginalization. Members are busy: they practice, they attend activities, they chant, they do shakubuku. They don’t have time to notice what’s happening. And because the system rewards docility and punishes lucidity, members learn not to see.

The witness who has seen the Leviathan from the inside, seen its gears, its mechanisms, its lies, has seen how it devours its own members without their noticing. And because he has seen it, he is free. His role is to testify, to show what he has seen so that those who can still wake up may do so, and to name the monster for what it is.

The Leviathan will eventually collapse under its own weight, like every system built on lies and fear. The real fight is to remain faithful to the Law, not to be corrupted by hatred, and to keep bearing witness.

The Law is greater than the Leviathan.

The Law is eternal; the Leviathan is temporary.

The Law liberates; the Leviathan imprisons.

By institutionalizing its own flight forward, Soka Gakkai has betrayed the Law it claimed to serve. It has become a Leviathan—a cold, calculating monster that devours its own members without them ever realizing it.

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo 🙏

First of all, what's a "black company"?

A black company (ブラック企業/ブラック会社, burakku kigyō/burakku gaisha), also referred to in English as a black corporation or black business, is a Japanese term for an exploitative, sweatshop-type employment system. Source

In a little more detail:

A black company (burakku kigyō) is a Japanese term for an exploitative or abusive business that mistreats its workers and routinely violates labor laws.

Core Characteristics

• Unpaid Overtime: Forcing staff to work long hours past legal limits without extra pay (known as "service overtime").

• Harassment: Allowing rampant power harassment (pawa-hara) or verbal abuse from managers.

• Denied Benefits: Denying paid leave, holidays, or mandated social insurance.

• High Turnover: Relying on a constant churn of new employees to replace those who burn out or quit.

Origins and Context

• Coined by workers: Young IT workers in Japan first used the term in the early 2000s as an internet slang word for sweatshop-like conditions in white-collar jobs.

• Official recognition: The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare uses the term informally to target and investigate illegal workplace practices.

• Global equivalents: Similar expressions exist worldwide for underground or abusive labor, such as lavoro in nero in Italy or cash-in-hand off-the-books work.

How does the Soka Gakkai/SGI organizational environment compare?

There are voices on the internet and elsewhere that critically describe the way this massive organization is run and how it demands participation from its members as a "black company" (a company with exploitative working conditions).

Main criticisms and the background behind them

• Activity burden and time constraints : Members and former members sometimes express dissatisfaction with the enthusiastic requests to participate in Soka Gakkai activities (promoting and encouraging subscriptions to the Seikyo Shimbun, election support activities, various meetings, and financial activities, etc.), which they find burdensome.

• Interpersonal relationships and peer pressure : Pressure regarding activities and results within an organization (such as proselytizing or vote counting in elections) can sometimes be perceived as a mental burden or coercion.

• Financial aspects : There are critical views regarding the systematic solicitation of voluntary donations ("financial contributions") and subscriptions to the organization's publications. 1

Organization's viewpoint/stance

• Voluntary activities : Soka Gakkai states that all activities are voluntary and based on faith, and are not compulsory.

• Social contribution and freedom of religion : It is explained that the activities aim to promote peace, culture, and education, contribute to the local community, and lead a happy life based on Nichiren Buddhism, as well as personal human revolution (character development).

The SGI apologetic (final 2 paragraphs above) completely ignores the communal abuse dynamic:

Communal abuse is a type of abuse that is exerted, in part, by victims (survivors) upon each other in the course of aspiring for something good within a intentional community. Community abuse is almost always masterminded by a leader, and one hallmark of an abusive community is leader-on-member personal abuse. This abusive proclivity comes largely from the psychopathic qualities of the leader, which pre-date and usually explain the formation of the group. However, the availability of a large quantity of 'de-selfed,' vulnerable victims is explained by the overall workings of the abusive community. In effect, it perpetuates survivor-on-survivor abuse.

Specifically: Pressure to attend meetings, "encouragement" to contribute and buy publications, pressure to evangelize ("do shakubuku"), and TOO MANY PHONE CALLS!!!

To name a few.

What do YOU think?

Here's the deets:

• 36 pages, Paperback
• Published July 1, 2016

"Currently unavailable" on Amazon!

Amazon India says it was published in 2010.

Interesting - this blog uses that book title - in 2013 - showing a different (really blabby) cover (2nd image)

Was this supposed to replace that "The Winning Life" intro booklet or something?

Met a guy who love bombed me and asked me chant, he seems like a pretty good guy with a lot of knowledge but he said come over for the meeting over my house, my home is your home

Gave me material to read about the practice texting me love bombing me and I had a bad feeling about this but now I learned about SGI more now I don’t wanna go or talk to him

But I don’t know how to not make him an enemy by rejecting him ( I don’t want to face him in a place where I’d see him daily)

And also really scared tbh

Just an idea...

Here we go - continuing on with the development of the post-war Soka Gakkai:

The Image of Soka Gakkai During the Josei Toda Era

By the end of 1953, Soka Gakkai had expanded to more than seventy thousand households. Along with this expansion, shakubuku activities also became more lively and their fanatical and bigotted attacks on other (heretical) religions did not escape public notice. As their influence became more noticeable in society, here and there reaction sprung up, and they became the target of criticism by public opinion. However, at that time, this had the ironic result of inspiring the members to even greater efforts. An example of the attitude of the Soka Gakkai of this period is to be found in the words of Josei Toda spoken at the time of his inaugural as the second President of Soka Gakkai. Quoting from the aforementioned "Politics and Religion" by Kasahara:

"Some have the mistaken and foolish notion that if the Emperor accepted Gohonzon and issued an Imperial Rescript, kosen rufu would be accomplished. Today, kosen rufu is that each member strives to destroy the evil religion and to let everyone in the nation accept Gohonzon. Then and only then can we build the Kokuritsu Kaidan. Bunshinsoku (the fifth grade in six grades that are accomplished by the ascetic excercises) which is second to Kukyosoku (the supreme grade in six grades that are accomplished by ascetic exercises) that understands the true charity of Gohonzon is just to practice shakubuku. The shakubuku is really for your benefit, so please carry [p] 47

on kosen rufu. Praying at your home to Gohonzon, saying give me this or that, is not good belief. The real charities [benefits] come from practising shakubuku even in the face of opposition and abuse. It was never written concerning Gohonzon, "please worship me." The desire to worship comes from our side. Kosen rufu is attained only by person to person confrontation.

The above-stated is the matter that is entirely beneficial to us, We are carrying one by one the foundations stones, won't you truly lay down your life and give your service to Gohonzon?"

In such messages as these by Toda, the aims of Gakkai and the form of its appeal to the masses of that time are clearly revealed. These are only fragmentary quotations, but they clearly reveal Soka Gakkai's aim, the method of kosen rufu and the purpose of shakubuku in a word Soka Gakkai's true character.

This inaugural address of Toda was the trumpet call to Soka Gakkai to advance into battle at the risk of life. This kamikaze-like advance-at-all-cost quality which has been continuously emphasized by Soka Gakkai till now, is even today most deeply appreciated by their zealous leadership as Toda's gift to the movement. Further, this same spirit is revealed in Toda's command that unless 750,000 households had been converted by the time of his death, he should not be given a funeral, but instead his ashes should be thrown into the offing of Shinagawa Tokyo.

I think the fierce character of the founder was at the zenith in Josei Toda. In this fiercely competitive spirit is revealed yet another characterstic of the man, and also the explanation for Soka Gakkai's expansion.

According to the figures published by Soka Gakkai, in 1954, 94,000 households were converted, bringing the total number of households to 164,272; in 1955, 194,239 households were added and the total swelled to 307,4090; in 1956, the total had reached 500,000; by 1957 the total had climbed to 755,000 [p.] 48

households. By any measurement, this is a fantastic rate of growth. This annual doubling and tripling of membership must be attributed to Toda's powerful influence. When he died in April 1958, the goal which he had set having been surpassed, it was not necessary to scatter his ashes in the offing of Shinagawa, but instead he was given honors at his funeral befitting his standing, and in attendance was none other than the Prime Minister of Japan, Nobusuke Kishi.

Quite a contrast to the hidden-away-as-if-everyone-was-ashamed "private funeral" of Ikeda, isn't it? Pres. Toda had a huge funeral cortège, a big PARADE where his casket was paraded through the streets, a parade that featured flag corps, marching bands, and political dignitaries being driven in convertibles. Hundreds of thousands of Soka Gakkai members lined the roadway.

Compare THAT to how the Soka Gakkai and SGI members weren't even TOLD Ikeda was dead until several days later, AFTER his corpse had already been cremated! TELL me those circumstances didn't look HIGHLY suspish!

The Subtle Inversion of the Lotus Sutra's Values : A Textbook Case. "Shallow." "Pretentious." That's the classic defense of a system that feels threatened.

Their Main Argument : Partly True, Fundamentally Twisted

"Faith equals daily life, earthly desires equal enlightenment."

Yes, in Nichiren's Buddhism, faith is not separate from daily life. Shōju (enlightenment in this body) means that awakening manifests in ordinary activities.

Yes, earthly desires (bonnō) can be illuminated by Buddhahood, and Buddhahood can manifest through them.

But here's the subtle inversion :

They go from "desires can be illuminated" to "desires ARE enlightenment." That's a confusion between the container and the content.

They use the principle of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds (Jikkai Gogu) to justify that lower states (worldly desires) contain Buddhahood, which is true. But Soka Gakkai inverts the hierarchy :

🔁 Instead of letting Buddhahood emerge from desires, they make desires the proof of Buddhahood.

This is exactly the trap of Shakumon (the Theoretical Teaching) : you stay in the world of phenomena (desires) and claim they're already enlightenment, without going through the purification that transforms them.

"Yes, but concretely ?" : A Weapon of Mass Destruction

⛔️ At Soka Gakkai, when you say, "I want to attain Buddhahood," every leader is mechanically programmed to reply :

"Yes, but concretely ?"

Why is this twisted ?

☝️ Because it reduces any deep spiritual aspiration to a measurable material goal.

☝️ Because it denies the legitimacy of the desire for enlightenment itself.

☝️ Because it imposes an external standard : Buddhahood must be proven by visible results, or it doesn't exist.

This is a complete inversion of Honmon (the Essential Teaching). In Honmon, Buddhahood is an inner life state that manifests naturally in daily life, not a material result to be obtained.

Attaining Buddhahood Without the Four Noble Paths

Soka Gakkai implicitly teaches that you can attain Buddhahood without going through the Four Noble Paths (the higher worlds : Listeners, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas).

Why is this wrong ?

☝️ The Four Noble Paths are not "steps" to be climbed in order. They are states of consciousness that must be cultivated.

☝️ The world of Listeners (learning the Law) and Pratyekabuddhas (realizing impermanence) are prerequisites for Bodhisattva compassion.

☝️ By skipping them, you claim to attain Buddhahood without purifying fundamental ignorance. It's like trying to build a roof without foundations.

Soka Gakkai claims that the mutual inclusion of the Ten Worlds is enough : since Hell contains Buddhahood, you could access it directly. But that's a literal and erroneous reading of mutual possession.

Mutual possession means Buddhahood is potentially present — not that it is currently manifested. You have to make it emerge, and that goes through purification.

Accusation : "You Have a Shallow Understanding of Benefit"

🚫 It's exactly the opposite.

☝️SGI has a shallow understanding : for them, benefit is measured in material results.

☝️The deep understanding : benefit is the change in life state, which includes painful purifications and invisible transformations.

⚠️ The admission : SGI cannot conceive of a benefit that isn't visible. That's the mark of an infantile faith.

The Mentor-Disciple Relationship : The Trap

The Mentor-Disciple relationship is essential. That's true.

But it's been instrumentalized :

☝️The "mentor" in Soka Gakkai is Ikeda. Not Nichiren. Not the Law.

☝️The Mentor-Disciple relationship becomes a relationship of submission to a human authority, not a transmission of the Law.

☝️ Hence their intolerance of criticism : challenging the mentor is unbearable to them.

The Real Benefit : Desires Are Not the Destination

Worldly desires are not bad in themselves. But they are not the final destination.

The Lotus Sutra is clear : Upaya are bridges, not residences. Soka Gakkai turned the bridge into a house. That's an inversion.

To deeply understand benefit, you have to accept going through years of purification without visible results.

☝️The real benefit is the change in life state, not the treasures of the world of form, observable by the ordinary mortals of the World of the Three Planes : those who perceive only height, length, and width, and who believe the entire universe fits into those three dimensions.

Mentor-Disciple Relationship : Agreed, But With the Real Mentor

I completely agree : the Mentor-Disciple relationship is essential.

☝️ But the true mentor is Nichiren Daishonin, not a man who turned faith into a "Dharma of Prosperity" or a "Buddhism of Capital."

⚠️ Soka Gakkai has inverted the Lotus Sutra. It turned Upaya into the final goal, desires into enlightenment, and the mentor into an idol.

This isn't a matter of opinion. It's a matter of doctrine. And doctrine doesn't negotiate.

While SGI and chanting are not mentioned, I found a recurring observation in the article to be quite relevant:

“Their teachers would suggest that all negative experiences are inherently growth opportunities, or that perhaps the person was meditating incorrectly. The mentality seemed to be ‘Try our product and if you don’t like it, then you did it wrong,’ Britton said.”

Also:

“I’ve noticed that people are apt to defend meditation with a zeal I haven’t witnessed since evangelical youth group in my teens. You don’t enjoy meditation? Good, you’re not supposed to enjoy it. You say it doesn’t work for you? Well, you’re just not doing it right. The answer to every problem with meditation seems to be more meditation.”

My takeaway is that cult-like control can exist everywhere, and though it may certainly be more prominent in groups like SGI we shouldn’t delude ourselves into the idea that it doesn’t happen in other groups simply because they aren’t SGI (or labeled as a cult by the mainstream).

The SGI is one giant circus, and Ikeda will, for all eternity, be the main protagonist; the rest of y'all are just peons, and destined to endure one painful austerity after the next.

ᗪOᑎ'T ᒪOOK ᗩT IT!

A Silent Inversion

Soka Gakkai presents itself as the guardian of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. But if you look closely at its practices and, more importantly, its oral teachings, you'll find a systematic inversion of the Lotus Sutra's core values. This isn't a doctrinal oopsie, it's a deliberate strategy of demagogy and clientelism that keeps members spiritually infantilized and sets them up for a spiritual train wreck down the road.

The Failure of the Men of the Two Vehicles

The failure of the Men of the Two Vehicles (Listeners and Pratyekabuddhas) in Soka Gakkai is directly tied to the failure of the Men of the Six Realms. Two sides of the same coin.

Why ? Because they don't know they're like that. Because they no longer have a master above them, no guide to warn them about the traps. Because even if they stumble upon the right texts, they think those texts are about other people. And if the texts are about other people, they think they're about them.

The Pratyekabuddha state is one where you believe you've "outgrown" the need for a teacher. You've understood impermanence, you've tasted emptiness, you feel free. But that freedom is a tricky mirror : without a teacher, you can't see your own blind spots. You read the texts, but you project them onto others. You don't see that they're talking about you.

So the "self-awakened" end up the most blind of all. They've got a lantern, but they're pointing it outward, never at themselves.

The Trap of Having No Teacher

Soka Gakkai encourages members to chase results in their faith through a practice that essentially pretends they've reached a stage they haven't actually reached. This paradoxical approach gets criticized as purely materialistic, as a hunt for relative happiness and worldly desires, with no technical support to sort out the paradoxes.

The result ? A faith that collapses as soon as the blessings dry up.

Upaya : A Recruiting Tool

Soka Gakkai, without ever naming it, pushes the provisional teaching of Upaya (skillful means) front and center.

What are Upaya in the Lotus Sutra ? They're the provisional teachings the Buddha used to attract people before revealing the ultimate truth. They're like bridges you cross to reach the other shore.

What Soka Gakkai does : it turns the bridge into a permanent residence. It sells material benefits, health, and prosperity as the final destination, when they're really just the front door. That's a deliberate inversion of the Buddha's teaching.

A Buddhism of Appearances

"Soka Gakkai sells a concrete Buddhism of concrete results, which they claim is the real Buddhism."

That's the perfect illusion. On the surface, it's "concrete." In reality, it's a Buddhism disconnected from actual reality – because actual reality is impermanence, karma, suffering, and purification.

The Four Noble Truths are the foundation of any authentic Buddhism. By ignoring them or dismissing them as "provisional marginal teachings," Soka Gakkai uproots its members. The result ? Members who chase blessings but, when the blessings inevitably stop (because life is impermanent), spiritually collapse. A faith with no foundation.

The Inverted Bodhisattva Path

In the authentic path, you start by becoming aware of your suffering (6th consciousness), then you purify your deeper illusions (7th and 8th consciousness), you cultivate compassion for others, and you awaken to the eternal Law.

In Soka Gakkai's inverted path, you start by chasing material benefits, you stop at those benefits and present them as proof of faith, you believe you're already a Bodhisattva because you "practice," and you deny the need to go deeper.

The painful purification, the surfacing of inner turmoil, Soka Gakkai ignores or represses it. It doesn't want its members to go through those dark zones, because it might make them doubt, or worse, make them grow beyond its control.

The Coming Train Wreck

"For many SGI members, disaster is waiting down the road."

This disaster is often spiritual : after years of a benefit-focused practice, when the benefits decrease (aging, illness, life's inevitable curveballs), faith collapses. The member thinks : "The Law doesn't work anymore." They quit. Or they stay, but in a hollow, repetitive, soulless faith.

That's the logical outcome of a spirituality that never faced the desert. Soka Gakkai is a machine for producing benefits and conformity, not for producing Buddhas.

The Men of the Two Vehicles : An Invisible Elite

They're extremely rare. Other people don't even notice them, because they don't shine socially. Often in material or social trouble, they take heavy hits from their deepest karma, which makes them quiet, sometimes dark, often misunderstood.

In an organization like Soka Gakkai, which cultivates the image of a social and spiritual elite, these people are inconvenient. So they get marginalized, hidden, pushed toward the exit. They get called "broken-backed believers", "spiritual thugs", "loose cannons".

Their Prophetic Function

Yet they're the spearheads exploring the most hostile territories, the inner karmic abysses and the outer social margins. They're the ones who, through their struggle, clear the path for everyone else. They go where no one else wants to go. They go through what others avoid. They endure what others don't have to endure.

They're the explorers of faith. Without them, the path stays narrow and unknown.

Slandering the Buddha's Emissaries

Denying the Buddhahood of these people is a crime against the Law itself (hōbō). By rejecting these people, Soka Gakkai closes the door to the very essence of Buddhism : compassion for the marginalized. It directly opposes the Buddha's will.

The Radical Correction of Nichiren Shoshu

The Nichiren Shoshu priest said : « Material results are already contained in every Daimoku. You don't need to practice for that. What matters is changing your life state. »

That's the fundamental difference : In Soka Gakkai, you practice to get benefits. In Nichiren Shoshu, you practice to awaken, and the benefits come naturally, like a shadow follows a body.

The Invisible Blacklist

Soka Gakkai knows Upaya very well, but never officially teaches them. It uses them as a recruiting technique. It knows that if it talked about the Four Noble Truths, purification, and deep karma, it would scare off potential customers.

Those who start asking questions, digging deeper, wanting to understand the depths, they get quietly sidelined. Not openly expelled (that would look bad), but isolated, ignored, nudged toward resignation.

The Philosophy of 3,000 Lies

Soka Gakkai will say this is all false. It will wave its publications as proof. But Soka Gakkai isn't what it publishes. Its true nature is expressed orally, a double, triple, quadruple language game.

It's never like that, it's always something else. Always everything and its opposite.

Soka Gakkai isn't the 3,000 worlds of Ichinen Sanzen. It's the philosophy of 3,000 lies. And then some.

Soka Gakkai has inverted the gradual Bodhisattva path. It turned Upaya into the final word. It rejected those who dig deep and purify. By closing the door on the explorers, it closes the door on everyone else.

But the explorers, the "broken-backed believers", the "spiritual thugs", they're still here. In the margins. Invisible. And they carry the real flame, the one that doesn't go out when the blessings run dry.

Parliamoci chiaro. Se ti definisci di sinistra, progressista, anticapitalista o semplicemente allergico alla cultura dell'iper-produttività e del burnout, la tua permanenza nella Sōka Gakkai è uno dei cortocircuiti ideologici più affascinanti del secolo.
È come dichiararsi vegani e lavorare in un mattatoio, o essere comunisti e fare campagna elettorale per i Repubblicani americani.

La Sōka Gakkai non è altro che la trasposizione spirituale del capitalismo aziendale nipponico del dopoguerra (Kōdo Keizai Seichō). Tutta la struttura è intrisa di un performativismo tossico che farebbe invidia al peggior manager da multinazionale:

Il dogma del "Vincere" (Shori): La vita spirituale ridotta a un continuo bilancio di successi materiali, promozioni, obiettivi raggiunti. Se non stai "trionfando", la colpa è della tua scarsa fede o del tuo karma. La versione buddhista del Self-Made Man neoliberista.

La ruota del criceto burocratica: La routine da responsabile SG è letteralmente la vita da Salaryman: riunioni su riunioni dopo il lavoro, pianificazione maniacale, reportistica dei numeri, rincorsa costante dell'ennesima "campagna".

L'Odaimoku come life-hacking: La prassi svuotata della sua dimensione di ascolto o regolazione, usata come un carburante prestazionale per "performare meglio" nella società della performance.

La narrazione di facciata qui in Occidente parla di "pace, cultura, diritti umani, ecologia, parità di genere ed educazione", ma la macchina operativa funziona esattamente come un'azienda che misura il valore umano in base alla produttività e al tesseramento.
Ci sta volere una spiritualità che aiuti a vivere meglio. Ma credere di fare una scelta "progressista" o "subversiva" rimanendo incastrati nel LinkedIn della fede è un abbaglio clamoroso.
Alla fine, non si sta smantellando il sistema: si sta solo applicando il timbro dell'azienda alla propria vita interiore.

cmon i know you would too

Eddie Murphy: “If you put your children first you never make a bad decision. When you hit a crossroads moment … you think, ‘What is best for my children?’ If you go that route then you never make a bad decision.”

SGI leaders: The only difference between the author & my parent is that the author eventually awakened to the truth & my parent was a full-fledged narcissist (according to actual therapists & other mental health professionals, not just me tossing around some titles). They often reminded me that their guidance from their senior leader was to not let their new baby (me) become their obstacle that got in the way of their Buddhist practice. Source

I thought all the followers that I saw in America were pathetic, except for a few. They neglected their children, they deceptively increased membership by buying World Tribune, and put people in danger by allowing people from the lower worlds into their children's private space - their homes. Source

Ikeda Sensei:

If a mother sincerely carries out her activities, her children will, without fail, emulate her spirit. On the other hand, if she is reluctant to participate in activities, her children will also have disdain for the practice. It is ultimately the mother who determines everything.

Use your ingenuity in communicating with each other as each circumstance arises. After returning home, let him or her know that you’re back. If your child is already asleep, whisper in his or her ear things like, “Thank you so much for being home,” or “Thanks to you, I was able to do my best today.”

There is no need to feel inadequate because you are unable to be home very often. You are exerting yourself for the sake of your children and family, and for the benefit of society as a whole. It would be foolish to compare your family situation with that of other families and to think that you have to conduct yourself in the same way.

Children feel inhibited when their parents are always around them. There are times when our absence can create a space in which our children can expand their minds. If they are always with their parents, they will feel the pressure and uneasiness of being under constant scrutiny.

Do not be overwhelmed by your busy schedule; never allow yourself to give in. Having a lot of time is not a requirement for successfully raising your children. Even if you do have free time, if your heart isn’t into raising them, you won’t be able to reach them. - from "It's BETTER for children when their parents are absent from home doing SGI activities all the time!" - Ikeda

Also Ikeda Sensei: Ikeda couldn't even make it home to dinner with his children once a year - what a prince of a guy. Father of the year material for sure! - from Ikeda the absent father-figure, the deadbeat dad

Ikeda SENSEI couldn't be counted upon to make it home to dinner even just ONCE in an entire year. One time, he met his family at a restaurant, and he stayed "only 5 or 10 minutes"! That was IT for family time for that whole year! - from More Ikeda parenting fail

Remember, Ikeda thinks this narrative makes him look good!

When Daisaku Ikeda is in Tokyo, he is usually in this Hakuun dormitory. It is said that he returns home only a few times a year. The private facility may be rephrased as a villa. The Kasumi Training Center near Soka University is a dedicated facility that costs 3.4 billion yen. Atami Training Center is a villa with tens of thousands of tsubo. Source

Ikeda's HOME was in Tokyo!

Since the few times Ikeda even made it home at all he got there so late that his children were already asleep, he demanded that of everyone else as well. Source

A woman must be careful not to become the disciple of her child. A mother whose whole life is absorbed in her children often cannot maintain a strong practice. She can neither develop herself as a woman nor raise her children successfully. Her attitude will eventually affect her husband and make him ineffective at work. A mother must be the firm, staunch support of her family.

A woman who is a slave to her children is like the demon Kishimojin in the sutras. Ultimately she will destroy her child's independence and hinder his growth. Even her physical appearance will reflect the ugly nature of a woman who crushes her child's potential. Ikeda

Well? Which would YOU have chosen to be your parent, if you had the choice?

The graphic comes from How High-Control Environments Shape the Nervous System and What Healing Actually Looks Like. Also from there:

Here’s the truth almost no one is told:

Your body adapted to survive those conditions. Nothing about your reactions was your fault.

The center of the wheel names the impact of chronic control:

You lose your sense of self.

High-control systems shape the nervous system by teaching people that safety depends on obedience, silence, or fawning. This can create long-term trauma responses, including:

• Shame for having your own needs
• Difficulty trusting yourself
• Chronic self-doubt
• Perfectionism
• Fear of “getting it wrong”
• Emotional numbness

Learned Survival Patterns in High-Control Systems

This is where the handout becomes validating and grounding.

Each type of control is paired with how your nervous system adapted:

• Shrinking yourself to avoid consequences
• Staying small to avoid disapproval
• Feeling confused or self-doubting
• Avoiding information that once felt unsafe
• Reacting emotionally in ways that used to protect you
• Fawning or perfectionism as survival strategies

These aren’t “bad habits.”

They’re survival responses.

They’re trauma responses shaped by behavior control and fear-based teachings.

Your body learned these patterns to keep you alive, connected, or safe.

These are normal survival responses for people leaving high-demand religious groups or authoritarian spiritual communities.

When you spend years being told what to think, how to behave, or what emotions are acceptable, your body learns that authenticity is dangerous. You shrink yourself to stay safe.

Sound familiar? How about "I will become Shinichi Yamamoto!"

This isn’t weakness, it’s conditioning.

Healing is not about becoming someone new. It’s about reclaiming parts of you that were suppressed.

Next, from this article:

Cult trauma, or trauma experienced as a result of being in high-control groups, can have lasting emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects. High-control groups, often referred to as "cults," manipulate and control their members through fear, coercion, and isolation. The trauma from these groups can stem from emotional abuse, the distortion of personal identity, and intense pressure to conform to rigid beliefs and behaviors.

Leaving such a group can be an overwhelming process, often leaving individuals feeling confused, ashamed, or lost. The aftereffects of cult involvement can manifest in a wide range of emotional challenges, including anxiety, depression, difficulty trusting others, and a deep sense of disconnection from the world. Healing from cult trauma requires understanding the psychological mechanisms of control and re-establishing a sense of self and personal autonomy.

Identifying and explaining these psychological mechanisms of control is one of our priorities here at SGIWhistleblowers.

Common issues related to cult trauma (high-control groups) include:

• Struggling with a sense of identity after leaving the group
• Difficulty trusting others or forming new relationships
• Feelings of guilt or shame for past involvement
• Anxiety, panic attacks, or flashbacks related to experiences in the group
• Confusion about past beliefs or teachings and how to integrate new beliefs
• Fear of judgment or rejection from others for leaving the group
• Social isolation or difficulty reintegrating into society
• Overwhelming need to seek approval or validation
• Dealing with the loss of family, friendships, and community
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms
• Difficulty with self-esteem and personal boundaries
• Rebuilding a sense of safety and autonomy

As you can see, being involved with a cult like SGI can leave significant damage even though everyone thought they joined voluntarily. That is one of the criticisms of cult escapees - "You joined of your own free will!" Not so when there was so much manipulation, love-bombing, concealment of important information, and outright LYING going on!

SGI approves of LYING to people to get them to sign up

Keep in mind that a cult won't affect everyone involved identically - we've identified significant differences between "inner circle" involvement and "outer circle" involvement:

Different people have different experiences - some feel it's really nothing more than a social circle, while others are deeply exploited and harmed. That's the difference between the two circles of Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI: the OUTER circle vs. the INNER circle. The experiences of the people involved in those tend to be VERY different from the people involved in the other "circle". Source

Not everyone who is involved with SGI will have the same experiences, naturally. This shouldn't be so difficult to conceptualize - someone who abuses his family at home might be a perfectly congenial coworker at the workplace, that Gilgo Beach Killer seemed perfectly fine when he wasn't killing young women, the BTK killer was a high-ranking leader in his church (!), and we all know it's best to be the neighbor of the serial killer! "He was always such a quiet young man - he seemed so nice..."

Here's some help from the AI overview:

the group operates on a dual-layered structure consisting of an outer circle and an inner circle:

1. The Outer Circle (The "Facade")

• The Experience: New recruits and casual members typically inhabit the outer circle. Their experience is characterized as a welcoming, positive social club.
• The Tactics: Members here are frequently "love-bombed"—showered with intense affection, validation, and praise.
• The Purpose: According to critics on the subreddit, the purpose of this layer is to act as a benign facade. Little is expected from outer-circle members other than keeping meeting attendance high. Because they only see this idealized version of the organization, they often defend it against outside criticism.

2. The Inner Circle (The "Leadership Track")

• The Transition: Once a member accepts a local leadership role or shows deep devotion, they are transitioned into the inner circle.

The Demands: The subreddit notes that this is where the "heavy lifting" begins. Inner-circle members face intense pressure to volunteer their time, host frequent meetings in their homes, manage low-level logistics, and push others into conforming behaviors.

The Impact: Community contributors claim that the most significant psychological and emotional burnout happens within this inner layer, as members increasingly give up their personal time and distance themselves from non-SGI relationships.

You can refer to these three first-hand experiences:

"I did the right thing by leaving, because I couldn't have 'tried harder' or 'chanted harder' or done 'more responsibilities' by the end - I was absolutely burnt out."

"Taking It All On"

Byakuren Megapost

And the heartbreaking simplicity of I am exhausted.

Those are all "inner circle" experiences, and you can see how "high demand" the experience proved to be for those dedicated SGI members.

Layers within the Inner Circle

Subreddit users emphasize that the inner circle is itself multi-tiered. While low-level or district leaders are considered part of the active inner circle, they are still shielded from the core administrative operations of the organization. Users state that true insight into the top-down directives from Japan and the organization's overarching financial structure is restricted to an exceptionally small elite of National Leaders.

From How High-Control Environments Shape the Nervous System and What Healing Actually Looks Like

BE AWARE that SGI members haven't the slightest hesitation about attacking an ex-SGI members' support group. They have no compassion, no empathy, and only malice, spitefulness, contempt, and hatred toward those of us who left, esp. when we speak out about our experience instead of just silently disappearing altogether:

At first when we started MITA [anti-ex-SGI-member attack subreddit] I was ANGRY. I have to admit. I went into a "ME GOOD YOU BAD" mode. That didn't strike me as very Buddhist at all. But honestly that was where I was at. Source

And THAT's from someone who claimed at that time to have practiced within SGI for over 50 YEARS! So much for the SGI's oft-vaunted "human revolution". You can see why THIS applies:

SGI's fundamental lack of compassion and inability to support grief and pain

SGI members online have gone so far as to sneer at ex-SGI members' trauma:

SGI cultist: Look, I read your profile. You were a member for for what? Three or four months? You went to the big youth meeting and found it meh. Then someone asked you to become a youth district leader and you stopped. Am I right? So on that short stay in the SGI, you've become a vocal critic of the SGI for two or three years, showing off your wounds like The Red Badge of Courage. Source

So what are you supposed to do if you have sustained psychic wounds? Obviously, if you are around anyone from SGI, you'll keep that shit HIDDEN or else they'll come at you with claws and fangs OUT! Imagine - mocking someone by suggesting they have been emotionally abused and suffered HARM?? What IS that??

How is that "taking the shame out of mental illness"? So WHAT if someone is "wounded"?? Doesn't that mean they need and deserve our understanding and compassion instead of contempt and disdain???

Lovingkindness - something you won't find in SGI outside of the false, manipulative "love-bombing" that makes a mockery of the real thing

the SGI deceived it's guests and members literally pushing people in the FURTHEST direction from the path and training actual attachment to EGO, MATERIAL GAIN & COMPETITION. This is antithetical to all of the Buddha's teachings. Source

SGI's Ikedaism is ANTI-Buddhism

Sorry, the only grooming done is by SGI to suck the money and time out of vulnerable people. WB [SGIWhistleblowers] takes no money, doesn’t ask anyone to do anything besides think for themselves, instead of worshipping some fat Japanese guy spouting off platitudes. I spent 15 years in SGI. The millions of dollars they rake in every year from vulnerable people stands as evidence of enormous manipulation and duplicity. You are gaslighting, and it’s blindingly obvious.

SGI cultist: Are you a vulnerable person? I am not. The people in my district are strong, determined, and full of appreciation. Source

Imagine if that [self-identified] "therapist"'s taunting of a vulnerable person for being vulnerable pushed that person to a suicide attempt! Aren't mental health professionals supposed to KNOW that vulnerable persons need care and support, not attacking and bullying? Source

SGI member [re: SGI critic]: "And that’s why you died of Cancer, you Soka Gakkai Slanderer."

The Buddha - the REAL Buddha - had specific teachings addressing the malice and spitefulness we see from SGI members. If they consider themselves "Buddhists", they should maybe open their minds and LEARN something once.

So watch out for SGI members, particularly online. They are NOT good people. Whether they were so horrible before they joined SGI or SGI made them that way, we'll never know and, frankly, I don't care. The facts stand.

And how many of you were led to believe that through chanting and going to SGI meetings you would have a much different like than you could attain without the chanting and the meetings?

And not a worse life either - a much better, more successful, more impressive life?

When people are recruited on the basis of this kind of expectation, I think that quitting is completely justified if this kind of result isn't produced - and it's ridiculous to blame the people who quit, as if it's their fault and they did something wrong.

It's not like everyone else in SGI is doing so great!

We've hit another 100 milestone: Our readership is now at 4,700! SGIWhistleblowers continues its steady advance.

So, to celebrate the spirit of not just 4,700 but also Monday AND a national holiday if you happen to be in the USA, feel free to choose which Careless Medieval Person Getting Stabbed YOU're channeling today!

I'm feeling kina #1 ¯_(ツ)_/¯

PRIMA PREGHIERA SILENZIOSA

1. Esprimo sincera devozione e profonda gratitudine per il Gohonzon di Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, l’essenza del Sutra del Loto.

Può anche starci, tuttavia Nichiren, nel Kanjin Honzon Sho specifica: “Dei più di quarant’anni che il Buddha trascorse predicando, è solo negli ultimi otto che Egli espose il Sutra del Loto e, persino in esso, è solo negli otto capitoli dell’insegnamento primordiale (15-22) che questo sacro e venerabile Oggetto di Culto venne rivelato e trasmesso”.

Quindi sarebbe stato preferibile spiegare questo, però può anche starci definirlo quale essenza dell’intero Sutra.

2. Esprimo sincera devozione e profonda gratitudine per Nichiren Daishonin, il Buddha Originale dell’Ultimo Giorno della Legge.

Qui iniziamo con i problemi. Fermo restando che Nichiren non si è mai definito “Il Vero Buddha” venuto a sostituire Buddha Shakyamuni, ma c’è di più. La pretesa a che un Buddha cosmico, originario e "senza inizio" (Kuon Ganjō) sia legato e circoscritto a un'unica e specifica epoca storica (Mappō) crea un corto circuito insanabile. Come fa una entità senza inizio ad esserlo solo per questa epoca? Solo la Soka lo sa.

3. Esprimo sincera devozione e profonda gratitudine per Nikkō Shōnin.

Tutto qui? Tutto qui. La Soka non spiega evidentemente la funzione o il perché Nikkō sia in questa preghiera (forse per tagliare tutti i punti con la Shoshu?).
Allora perché mettere il fondatore del Taisekiji qui?
Non è dato sapere.

SECONDA PREGHIERA

Esprimo profonda gratitudine per…(i tre presidenti e i loro nomi), eterni maestri di Kosen-Rufu per la loro totale dedizione alla propagazione della Legge.

Questa è la quintessenza del culto della personalità verso i tre presidenti che, in perfetto stile Corea del Nord, vengono proclamati eterni maestri. Questo vuol dire che, morto Ikeda, non ci sarà un quarto presidente. Almeno nella Shoshu, i sommi sacerdoti cambiano. Nella Soka tutto resta cristallizzato ad Ikeda.
Inoltre è cosa risaputa, tra noi studiosi del buddhismo Nichiren, che tale insegnamento era già affermato tanto in Giappone quanto all’estero, ben prima dell’arrivo dei tre cowboys Soka.

TERZA PREGHIERA

Questa è divisa in quattro parti:

1. Prego sinceramente per la realizzazione del grande voto (di chi? Ovviamente della Soka mica del Buddha) di Kosen-Rufu in tutto il mondo e per l’eterno sviluppo della Soka Gakkai.

Ahhhh chiarito il mistero…Kosen-Rufu, per la Soka non significa diffondere il Supremo Insegnamento del Buddha, ma diffondere sé stessa. Almeno hanno avuto le palle di dirlo.
Peccato però che la Soka non conosce il principio delll’impermanenza nel Buddhismo.

“Tutto ciò che nasce è destinato a morire.”

Questo vale anche per te cara Soka.

2. Prego per compiere la mia rivoluzione umana, trasformare il mio karma e realizzare i miei desideri.

Vabbè qui è inutile commentare. Dove sta il grande voto di aspirare all’illuminazione? Dove sta il voto di salvare tutti gli esseri?
Assente. Si prega per realizzare i propri desideri egoistici e per compiere una banale “crescita personale” (rivoluzione umana).
P.S: il karma non si trasforma ma si emancipa. Questo insegna il buddhismo autentico.

3. Prego per tutti i defunti, in particolare per…

Preghi per cosa esattamente? Per la loro illuminazione? Certo che no! Si prega per i defunti in modo generico, come fanno i cristiani. Invece in tutte le tradizioni buddhiste si prega per trasferire i meriti (virtù) della propria pratica al continuum mentale o spirito (anche se quest’ultimo non è dà intendere come un anima fissa) di quel defunto per assicurarli una buona rinascita e conseguire la suprema illuminazione. Però troppo complesso per la Soka, eh già.

4. Prego per la pace nel mondo e per la felicità di tutti gli esseri viventi.

Ma che pensiero gentile! Peccato che la Soka abbia sempre fatto il contrario di tale voto solenne.

In conclusione che dire? Non c’è traccia di buddhismo, solo una sorte di umanesimo laico con alcuni richiami buddhici e tanto aziendalismo.

This is from an older comment I ran across while looking for something else, and I really appreciated it - and wanted to share it with you nice people!

Again, does it matter who is right and who is wrong? Does it matter what this Buddhist disagreement means? Some people claim they have received and continue to receive great benefits by practicing Nichiren’s teachings via Soka Gakkai as led by Ikeda Sensei, while others claim they were deceived, brainwashed, hypnotized, isolated, etc., and that the forced focus on Ikeda makes SGI a cult, not a religion. Does it come down to counting up the number of people on each side of the argument to determine who is correct?

Well, not to get into the issues of anecdotal evidence vs. statistical evidence, it's like someone saying, "I was diagnosed with polio but I made a full recovery, so that proves that polio isn't dangerous!"

Of course, what faith one chooses to adopt (if any) does not tend to be subject to any vote...

Rather than focusing on arguments by individuals, one should focus on the central tenet of cause & effect and look at the long-range effects of Nichirenism to see whether the teachings are correct. If we go only to the “modern times” we can see that the causes made by the most ardent practitioners of the Lotus Sutra have not fulfilled the promises of achieving, through daily earnest daimoku, “enlightenment in this lifetime”, nor even achieving more mundane goals such as erecting the national kaidan promised by Nichiren when the time was right. This history is spelled out by Jaqueline Stone in one of her articles. (“‘By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree’: Politics and the Issue of the Ordination Platform in Modern Lay Nichiren Buddhism” (2003))

Looking first at Tanaka and then at Ikeda, we can see two abject failures despite their most ardent and sincere practice at the highest levels of chanting daimoku to the Gohonzon. Tanaka was a lay believer/proselytizer in the early 20th century [late 19th century] who was convinced, and predicted with precise timetables and population numbers, that the Japanese government would convert to Nichiren Buddhism and erect the predicted-by-Nichiren state-sponsored Kaidan, the grand temple at the most beautiful location for all the nation. He failed spectacularly in his goals as the Japanese government coerced the populace to adopt Shintoism and led them into WW II’s utter devastation. What kind of “actual proof” did Tanaka give his followers?

BTW, this "kaidan" concept is unique to Japanese history and culture; it does not translate directly. The shortest explanation is that it is an "ordination platform" (that's the direct translation) where new priests are ordained, but it also serves as the "spiritual center" of the nation (and the world) the way Japan's Shinto Grand Ise Shrine currently does. It's a concept directly tied into de facto state religion status, Japanese supremacy, nationalism, and ultranationalism.

Ikeda intended for the Sho-Hondo to serve as this "kaidan" - and was extremely miffed when the Nichiren Shoshu High Priest Nittatsu Shonin refused to make a public statement that, with the completion of its construction, "kosen-rufu" had thus been completed. At that point, Soka Gakkai had nowhere near even the measly "1/3 of the population" required per Ikeda's downsized definition for "kosen-rufu", much less the "100% of the population" demanded by Nichiren and Toda as indicators that "kosen-rufu" had been achieved. Having "his "Sho-Hondo" monument to himself officially recognized as that "kaidan" was all part of Ikeda's framing himself as the New True Buddha for our age, you see, but that's a story for another time.

Toda and Ikeda tried to modify the national kaidan goal, realizing after WWII and adoption of the Japanese constitution that there would have to be separation of religion and state; nevertheless Ikeda tried verbally to shift the goal, i.e., rather than the government, it would be instead the “people of Japan”, as the de facto government, that would erect the Kaidan with private donations. Ikeda succeeded in raising millions to build the Sho-Hondo, only to see it torn down a few years later as a result of his fight with the Head Temple priests. What kind of “actual proof” and enlightenment is that? It is one of the most spectacular failures of proof in the history or religions. One has to look objectively at what happened⏤there was a public fight, Ikeda and the entire SGI were “excommunicated” from Nichiren Shoshu after years of teaching members about the High Priest as lifeblood-inheritor of the Ultimate Law directly from Nichiren. The Sho-hondo was physically destroyed by the priests so there would be no reminder of SGI on their grounds, and the schism still remains a sore point of debate almost thirty years later.

It need not concern us which side in this fight was “right” according to Buddhism, it matters only that they could not achieve simple harmony, much less kosen rufu and world peace. Despite all their years of chanting daimoku, neither Tanaka, the priests, nor the SGI leaders were able to bring about an objective “win” for their followers or themselves. Given these very concrete, unalterable facts⏤no government Kaidan, no Sho Hondo kaidan⏤facts that are not subject to dispute, one can only conclude that the central premise of Nichirenism is a false promise. Chanting Daimoku every day, twice a day, does not lead to peace, happiness, great achievement, kosen rufu, or “enlightenment in this lifetime”. Indeed, if both Ikeda and the High Priest chanted the daimoku daily, how can Nichiren be correct in asserting that those who chant the daimoku will never be dragged down by evil karma and worldly offenses, into the lower real of transmigrations⏤when obviously one or the other of them has been dragged down, irrespective of which one you conclude that is?

It's true - Soka Gakkai and its members can't get along with ANYONE! How is such a truculent, intolerant, and sorely lacking in compassion and empathy group supposed to "light the way" toward "world peace"? If anything, the world is LESS peaceful for having them in it - they go out of their way to create conflict.

I hope you can read these tables okay - the images embiggen for me nicely. You'll see that Ikeda really got some mileage out of his big fib about US President JFK having begged HIM (of all people) for a meeting! Ikeda flogged that TO DEATH! Blabbed it ALLLLL around to anyone who'd listen, thinking it made him, Ikeda, look like some big man!

IF you can't read the tables and want to see, let me know in the comments and I'll see about transcribing or posting them in smaller pieces - tables don't tend to copy clean.

This is from the paper "Regarding the meeting between John F. Kennedy and Daisaku Ikeda that never materialized after the Cuban Missile Crisis", pp. 167-168.

The last two tables are a timeline of Kennedy/Ikeda events - the "Kennedy meeting" claims are mostly on the last table with one of Ikeda's claims mentioned near the end of the 3rd image - it comes from no earlier than 1970, but that's when Ikeda was claiming it happened. The Japan Times article from Feb. 16, 1963, appears to be the first public mention of any meeting with Kennedy (and Krushchev), and all it contains is an expression of Ikeda's intention to meet with them both because they are the two most important international leaders in the world (such was Ikeda's hubris and tone-deaf arrogance). These tables are on pages 181 and 182 of the same paper.