This is something I've seen on various other platforms, so I thought I'd make my own specifically for SGI-related trauma/experiences, so here goes.

Put a finger down if:

1. You've been verbally abused by an SGI member at any point
2. You've been pressured to give money to the SGI when you didn't want to or couldn't
3. You have at any point been afraid of what might happen if you didn't chant enough or the "right" way
4. You have been told by SGI members that this is the "one true practice" or the only way to attain enlightenment
5. You have been contacted multiple times by leaders or other members after trying to cut contact
6. You have lost touch with family or friends who are in the SGI after cutting contact
7. You have been told that doubting or questioning "The Mystic Law" is wrong
8. You have been encouraged or forced to lie about your own experiences when sharing them at meetings to make them sound "better"
9. You have struggled with or do struggle with the idea of leaving, even if you wanted to
10. You have been guilt tripped by SGI members for ever feeling low or sad, or for talking about "negative" feelings

>When my oldest daughter was in high school, she did occasionally hang out with the kids of the members that we practiced with. There were two other kids that were exactly her age and were in the same high school as her, and there were some other kids that were close in age. Sometimes they did socialize. SGI sponsored a beach party and a few other events for them that they enjoyed. But after high school they all went their separate ways and I don't think my daughter has seen them since that time.

>The high school and college age children of SGI members? As with the older members, the low numbers affect activities. Around here, there's only a handful of teens whose families are SGI. So any youth group is going to be very small -- and have a large age spread. The eighteen-year old probably doesn't want to -- and shouldn't -- hang out with the thirteen and fourteen year old. And the thirteen and fourteen year old may not like eachother anyway. The great majority of their friends from school and the neighborhood are not Buddhist -- and as a teenager, you hate to be different. So, many of the members' kids resist doing anything with SGI at all, and don't even want their friends to know that their family practices Buddhism. ("Mom, PLEASE, PLEASE don't chant when my friends are here!") Some kids even ask to go to Christian services with their grandparents or their best friend's family. The college students might come to SGI meetings now and then, especially if we served decent snacks, but they were not about to set up an altar and chant in their dormitory room. I don't think I would have at that age either. Source

>Gotta teach the kids to love Ikeda while they're young! Source

I've had this thing for years, finally booted it up and hooked up an RS232 cable, but it's only spitting out a few hex bytes and not responding in any way that makes any sense to me. So I'm looking for some information on how to get it at least communicating, and it seems like there's almost nothing online in the way of manuals or specifications for it.

This is a real battlestation!

http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16729886

I rescued this SGI Challenge DM off craigslist a few years ago, but I don't have a place to keep it any more.

It's really a decorative item--the boards are missing. Perfect if you wanted to turn it into a fridge or just use it as an end table that once cost six figures!

Located in Signal Hill, CA 90755, and easily moved in a pickup truck or SUV/van.

Sorry for the morbid question, I am trying to consider hypothetical scenarios which may require advance planning, due to some difficult family dynamics.

My wife’s father is a very nice man, but he is very old-school and protective/secretive about finances. To the point that his wife (my wife’s mother) does not even have access to their bank account, no bank card, does not even know how much money is in there, and she just gets some cash from him every month for various expenses. We do not agree with this arrangement, but there is nothing we can do about it.

He is also 75 years old, and we have to consider that he may pass away sometime in the next 10 years or so. He also continues to drive, and is in our opinion a sub-par driver, but not the type to ever face that. They are from an immigrant community, and these kinds of things are not easily spoken about.

I was considering the very real possibility that he may get it is serious car accidents which could take his life. He has a relatively newer car, which is probably their most expensive asset after their house, and I was wondering if the car was a right off and he died in the accident, with fly wife’s mom be able to inherit the car at that point, and make the claim to the auto insurance (SGI in this case), so that she could collect the payout?

I am well aware there are many other challenges she would face, currently without even knowing how to access their bank account. It is possible both the bank account as well as the car are only in his name, so I am trying to hypothesize about what might happen in this scenario.

And yes obviously a completely different arrangement and much better normal contemporary communication would be the better approach here, but unfortunately I do not see that happening anytime soon.

Thanks for any advice.

Do your worst!

I was only part of SGI for a couple of months ( but in Nichiren Buddhism a little while longer by a couple of months) and one of the strangest things that made me really question SGI was how little interest they truly were at reading the lotus sutra.

The LOTUS SUTRA.

Like, the very source of their faith

The FOUNDATION of which a monk and his followers literally busted their asses for and this branch is like “naw we don’t need to”

Like what sense does that fucking make?! Say what you will about other religions but at least they are not so corrupt that they will encourage you from reading it.

Prime examples? Here’s some from my spiritual journey

Christianity:

My first faith. We all know these guys are NOTORIOUS for not reading their own damn scripture,BUT, as misguided as they are, they support reading the Bible and try to understand it. If anything, laziness is what rules these people

Hinduism- isckon/vaishnavism

This is a harder faith system to pinpoint since there isn’t really an authoritative scripture of one kind for this troupe of faith system. but Bhagavad Gita is definitely number one here and is RECOMMENDED to read in order to get some spiritual insight. Iskcon is, of course, a cult.or at least “culty”at best since Hinduism does indulge in guru worship and shows a high level of respect for them. In other words, it’s kind of expected to treat your spiritual guide as your divine teacher. They even make it a big deal to read ONLY the translated commentary made by the guru itself. Which hey you know what? Whatever floats your boat because you want to understand the pov of your guru anyway especially if you respect them as your teacher right?

From these two examples you are, in a way, allowed even encouraged to read the very scriptures your world is centered around. And then there’s SGI

As far as I understand it, SGI does in fact have their own translation of the lotus sutra that was put together by a burton Watson under SGI’s watch. Outside of this translation there are multiple volumes and a smaller version of the commentary of the lotus sutra written (supposedly) by Daisaku Ikeda.

When it comes to me I’m the type, in any religion I’ve been in, that likes to be thorough. Wikipedia, primary sources, scriptures, I’m the type that, at the very least, reviews and look into the major scriptures of any of the faiths I decide to adopt. I did the same with sgi reading Nichiren’s letters and so I decided to do the same with the lotus sutra.

Now, t

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

They're always describing conditions with very favorable prognoses as "life or death". I guess their lives are so dull that they feel they just HAVE to increase the draaamaaa somehow or they're failing Scamsei or something...

Here's one from back in the day:

>a death sentence of cancer

Hodgkin's lymphoma. Here's what his doctor told him:

>"He tried to encourage me by acknowledging that the treatment now used for Hodgkin’s Disease had been very successful even for patients with advanced cases like mine."

Oh gee. NOT a "death sentence" after all. But that won't stop this career SGI member from CLAIMING it was! He'd been in the SGI some 50 years as well - apparently that many decades of Ikedaism really creates some profound brain abnormalities. Like the inability to accept reality, especially if it means having to drop a false narrative of life-and-death struggle.

Here's what the Internet says about his cancer:

>Hodgkin's lymphoma is treatable, especially in its early stages. The one-year survival rate for all patients diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma is about 92 percent. The five-year survival rate is about 86 percent. For people with stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma, the survival rate is lower.

Gee. Such high survival rates! Means survival in terms of Hodgkin's lymphoma is COMMONPLACE!

Means they can't claim faith-healing "miracles", and SGI loonies love doing that most of all!

Here's another example:

>I don't regret my days in NSA-SGI doing all those activities because through it all I developed an amazing life state. I became capable of doing amazing things, impossible things including curing an incurable disease I once had, and chanting a dying child out of a comatose state. Source

Sure, Jan

ALL the religious zealots in these hate-filled intolerant religions make "faith-healing miracle" claims - they use them as advertising! But studies have not shown ANY group of religionists who live longer or come down with fewer illnesses or recover faster or more often from serious ailments. They don't live longer; quite the opposite, in fact! If it's just a matter of a group making known harmful products like cigarettes and a

They’re on standbi

If society isn't already messed up enough with looking down on people who struggle with depression and mental health, "SGI Whistleblowers" has decided to promote this attitude on their platform.

They claim that proof that this practice doesn't work is if you struggle with mental health. Wow, what message are they sending young people around the world? That if you struggle with mental health you're a failure?

It's disturbing to see other people on "SGI Whistleblowers" not stand up to this type of toxic rhetoric. But I guess they may feel the same way.

As a chapter leader, I am visiting more and more young people who really struggle with mental health. We encourage them to seek professional care and chant for the best doctor or medicine to address their very real challenges. The LAST thing we do is pressure someone into feeling like since they struggle with mental health they're not winning in life.

That's NOT this Buddhism! This Buddhism is for the purpose of helping people become happy. "SGI Whistleblowers" are creating their own distorted philosophy rooted in fear and devaluing people's lives. What a horrible life to live that way.

There haven’t been many notable posts over at SGIWhistleblowers, but a couple illustrate the misunderstandings and dishonesty on which the entire sub is based.

Qigong90 asks why, if SGI Buddhism is so great, we have to tell people about it?

Okay. Do wonderful products advertise? Or does everyone just sees immediately what the best products are?

Qigong also says that if people saw our great fortune, hey would jump to ask “What’s different about you?” and then we could tell them about Buddhism.

Is that how people behave? Any instances of crowds of people asking J.D. Rockefeller what religion he practiced that led him to accumulate his wealth?

I (and other SGI members) have been asked about life condition. But not many have related my material fortune, such as it is, to my religion. That’s why I tell them about it and share experiences.

One also wonders where SGIWhistleblowers got their ideas about what benefit in Buddhism is “supposed” to be? “Never ending cash flow”?? All illnesses cured??? No problems whatsoever, ever?? Who told them that? Certainly not the SGI. Certainly not the Gosho (which assumes sufferings are “Facts of life”).

Did they just decide “This is what we want it to be, and if it’s not, it’s their fault and they’re evil”??? Kind of seems that way, since they keep inventing SGI doctrines that don’t exist, and then challenging them.

There’s another dip by Ms. Fromage into the pool of “I’m disconnected and don’t know what’s happening but believe what I think instead of what you see with your own eyes.” (Whew – that’s quite a name for a little pool!)

Taking 3,711 words to do so (Virginia Woolf took exactly 2,001 fewer words to beautifully evoke love, loss commitment and appreciation in “A Haunted house”; Mark Twain 1,080 fewer words in The Celebrated Jumping Frog. . .”), Ms. Fromage wants to fool us into thinking “SGI will only make family estrangement issues WORSE.”

Well, maybe she couldn’t manage to overcome family problems, but that doesn’t mean it’s the SGI’s fault, or that no one can overcome family problems. In fact, discussion meetings and publications are full of experiences of people doing just that – even alleviating abusive relationships.

Isn’t she aware of that? Maybe she is aware of it, but it’s her job to say bad things about the SGI regardless of what’s real and true, so she makes things up?

Typical, at SGIWhistleblowers.

Pilot on me!!

If this isn't your first online rodeo, you've no doubt run across people pretending to be other people, people pretending to be more people, who fancy themselves "masters of disguise" but who have such distinctive modes of expression that it's just glaringly obvious that they're simply pretending?

Is it laziness? Incompetence? Unskilled writers routinely fail in creating other identities because they are too caught up in their own narcissism. So when they feel they need more voices to shore up their arguments, more of a crowd to agree with their points, they'll create their own entourage to agree with them - but they all sound the SAME! Typically, such a person will have a distinctive word, noise, or phrase that ALL their sockpuppets use, even though this word, noise, or phrase is extremely uncommon otherwise. It functions as a "tell" that identifies who it is.

>A tell in poker is a change in a player's behavior or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player's assessment of their hand. A player gains an advantage if they observe and understand the meaning of another player's tell, particularly if the tell is unconscious and reliable. Source

Is it ever!

Early in SGIWhistleblowers' existence, there were several IDs who all started using the same odd expression: "Bwaaa!" They all belonged to this one guy who would have conversations with himself, and he got too comfortable, apparently. Got sloppy. So we had a private conversation with him and that was the end of those extra IDs. WE don't need to be all fakey-fake and pretend we have more people here the way SGI does, and I won't tolerate that (except on Halloween!!).

Well, we have a longtime SGI member (Marilynnnn, who happens to be in her 70s) doing that, and her "tells" are particularly distinctive. She frequently comes across as hysterical and she uses triplets. I'll show you what I mean. (I'm not counting all [the times she's posted under the wrong ID](https://www.reddit.com/r/sgiwhistleblowers/comments/qga

I gave Andinio a severe dressing-down here for his obvious lies and apparent participating in academic dishonesty and cheating. He tried to deflect with some vagueness about how maaaybe "Guy" had mental difficulties and thus needed everyone to do his assignments FOR him:

>As far as academic honesty is concerned, as a professor I would take a case-by-case posture according to the course, the assignment, and the student's history. We all know that students with disabilities are afforded significant constitutional rights to accommodations. I have always enjoyed teaching at colleges that have large proportions of students with disabilities, academic histories of attending second-rate K-12 schools, and students whose primary languages are other than English. I devote a part of my first class to an honest discussion about privilege in American K-12 education and we discuss accommodations. #LevelThePlayingField! Source

Har har har.

The unfortunate reality is that Andinio, despite a career hoping to make it in academia, has only managed the backwater of Adult Ed Extension, where people who never completed high school go to learn to read and get a GED and stuff like that. All very important, don't get me wrong, but "Guy" SAID he was going to Empire State College in NY, a legitimate institution of higher ed where students earn meaningful degrees, not some sheltered workshop for the academically deficient. Just like this former national SGI-USA leader, all Andinio's grandiose dreams of achievement and influence simply evaporated, turned out to be of no more substance than a soap bubble. This is extremely commonplace in SGI - young SGI members who have grand ambitions and beautiful dreams end up achieving less than their peers who AREN'T SGI members.

And no, there's nothing about not having a FOOT that means you need other people doing your assignments for you! Complete HOGWASH! He's supposedly working a JOB, filling out paperwork, filing permits - it's not a problem with writing (that wasn't his writing foot, in other words) or with meeting deadlines or anything like tha

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

Those ridiculous "essays" for Guy's supposed college class at Empire State College [ESC] (an actual educational institution)? They're pretty much ALL the product of blatant cheating!

ESC's Academic Honesty Policy & Procedures includes the following:

>Academic dishonesty – includes cheating, plagiarism, forgery, fabrication or misrepresentation, such as the following:

• having someone else write or create all or part of the content of your assignments

>Serious Acts of Dishonesty

>Serious acts of dishonesty include but are not limited to plagiarism, stealing, selling, or buying of an examination or paper; the presentation of the work of another as one’s own, copying examination answers from another source or individual, having someone else do your work either on or off-line, and repeated acts of plagiarism, cheating, misrepresentation and misappropriation.

>The penalties range from an Academic Warning to Academic Dismissal.

Well, what is THIS?

>This article, co-written with JulieSingerSongwriter and TrueReconciliation, is the fourth and final part of my 9th submission for a college course, "The Expository Essay." Source

DISCLOSING that you're cheating doesn't make it NOT cheating!

>With the permission of my instructor, I am co-writing the article with my wife u/JulieSingerSongwriter." https://archive.is/20ko8#selection-1427.83-1431.2

NO professor would EVER give "permission" to cheat - that's an academic violation. That's like saying a police officer can give you "permission" to rob that bank. NO!

There is no rule in higher education that disclosing the cheating makes it a-OK but sneaky cheating is grounds for expulsion. ALL cheating is grounds for expulsion! Read the ESC Academic Honesty Policy! It's the stupid cheaters who TELL their professor they're cheating who are the FIRST to be expelled in the real world! SGI:RV is taking a giant SHIT right on the entire concept of higher education. If "Julie" wants credit, let her enroll in her own class and submit her own work. This "collaboration" scenario is insultingly stupid and obviously the work of a very stupid person who knows nothing about higher education or academia. Marilynnnn identifies ESC by name several times and is so appallingly narcissistic and self-involved that it apparently never even occurs to her th

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

When I got home, they were still there.

Hello Popheads!!! Welcome to the 70s Soul Classics Rate. We're your hosts-- darjeelingdarkroast and FlavaSavaVandal! And we have 4 classic albums for you to listen to from four legends of soul music.

Introduction

The early 70s were a tense time for the good ol’ U. S. of A. America was stuck in a war that a lot of people no longer want to be a part of, sending young men to risk their lives in South East Asia despite promise from several administrations that involvement in the war was decreasing; racial inequality is still a huge problem for black Americans who are still not afforded the same opportunities as white people; anti-war protests expose the realities of police brutality; and the Watergate Scandal was happening.

There was also a golden age of excellent socially conscious music that came out as a response to these issues. This was especially true in soul music, where many artists of that time were evolving soul into a more album-orientated genre, incorporating gospel, jazz, R&B, pop, psychedelia and progressive elements. This period of music has become influential on future genres such as hip-hop, contemporary R&B and neo-soul and has received much critical acclaim. The four albums featured in this rate led the charge in this evolution of soul and shocked critics who had underestimated their talents. Each album has stood the test of time in terms of critical acclaim, and were all commercially successful in giving the world a decent amount of hit singles, and strong album sales. These albums paved the way for other black artists to be more politically explicit in their music.

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Spotify | Apple Music | Youtube

A child prodigy who had been signed to Motown since he was 11 and had already given the world enduring hits throughout the 1960's, whether they were of his own catalogue or his label mates'. Wonder's contract was soon to expire in the early 70's when he turned 21 and was about to use his star power to sign a new deal with them, which gave him greater control over the music he was making. Shortly afterwards Stevie entered what is widely regarded as his classic peri

Buenosdillas

I won't be doing that today!

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

This is from an anonymous communiqué:

>The Buddhists of African Descent started meeting 30 years ago in Minneapolis. It started because Black members wanted to practice not only with the general members, but fellow members.

This is normal and natural - any minority group will have its own interests and concerns that can best be addressed and investigated within their own ranks, by people who share their experiences and outlook. The problem with SGI is that they want everybody to be the same, to "Become Shin'ichi Yamamoto" and to have no particular interests or perspective outside the SGI-issued ones. The SGI's pre-eminent virtue, "unity", actually means "conformity".

SGI insists on controlling the discourse; we see SGI members and low-level leaders wanting to impose this kind of coercion on everyone else, insisting that only THEY have the right to choose topics for discussion and everyone else must "stay on topic" and "stay in your lane", and establishing rules that are only enforced against everyone else. And somehow, they think this approach is going to make their discussions popular! 😄

For people in minority groups, they already find their own perspective and concerns marginalized and ignored by the larger majority; they have to advocate for themselves or they will be ignored. This is a fact whether we're talking an ethnic minority, LGBTQIAA individuals, military veterans, the disabled, the artists, teaching professionals, etc. The fact that awareness of these groups' lack of acceptance and even lack of basic rights has so often only come to the public awareness through violent confrontations (Watts Riots, [Stonewall Riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall

What do you think when you catch someone lying, nail them to the wall with proof, they admit it - and then they continue right on with the lying without a hiccup? Knowing that you know it's all fake?

That's really unhealthy behavior, isn't it?

It's like when the dog is taking a big dump right in the middle of the carpet while STARING AT YOU or dragging its ass across the rug right in front of you. "Don't mind me..."

It's like what someone was describing to me once:

>But at certain point all of it just reminds me all of my friend with meth-induced mania spinning yarns about how he bio-hacked healing a partially collapsed lung, cracked rib and broken back while drinking heavily he cured his type 2 diabetes.

Yeah, #ThatHappened

>Or maybe it's not meth induced, it's just something else. I don't know but when you see it you see it and there is no mistaking it as something else when you see or hear something isn't right.

It's not your JOB to figure out what someone else's malfunction is; it's enough to recognize when they've got a serious malfunction - because then you need to decide whether interacting with that person is a healthy choice for you or not.

>Or mistaking might be wrong word I am looking for but its that something when someone is communicating something that doesn't sound or seem right, seems off almost illogical or not quite right in the telling of it but sometimes it's hard to completely be for sure about at same time.

I'm not accustomed to this kind of behavior - I'm used to dealing with rational people whose grip on reality is solid and who find their presence in it adequate, who are content with who they are and the facts of their lives - there is no reason to make shit up just to try and make themselves feel different. When you haven't been around this kind of foundational dishonesty and manipulation (it's always about making THEM sound more impressive), it can be an unsettling experience - it's so weird that it feels like it knocks you off balance a bit.

Once you realize what's going on, you can often see the problem - yeah, that person's got a known meth problem and is having drug-induced hallucinations, perhaps. But what of someone who routinely lies - and lies lazily and sloppily so it's OBVIOUS they're lying?

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

This is an Open Letter from April 2020 to the SGI, from the Buddhists of African Descent (BAD) Group:

>To: Leaders and Members of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and SGI-USA

>We, the Buddhists of African Descent (BAD), are a collective of varying members who identify as people of African descent in the state of Minnesota (USA). We have steadfastly struggled for several decades against the disregard and the rigid dictates of SGI in response to our attempts to engage our Buddhist practice through a cultural lens. This is a formal public declaration of our dissent and resistance to the authoritarian posturing of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) organization, specifically SGI-USA.

Recall that the Internal Reassessment Group (IRG) likewise took responsibility for effecting change, but in the context of an SGI-USA-approved process of concensus that produced recommendations - that SGI-USA unceremoniously slapped down. And there was an earlier rebellion of sorts in the mid-1970s:

>Since 1976 NSA leaders have been less insistent on proselytizing activities. This is due to two interrelated factors: the fruitlessness of proselytizing among total strangers during the late 1970s，and the desire of members to spend less time in proselytizing and more in religious studies. Source

SGI just won't learn! It's intent on promoting those unnecessary and unwanted Japanese cultural norms to the exclusion of all else, and seems quite astonished that people in the West won't submit, knuckle under, acknowledge Japanese supremacy, conform to Japanese cultural norms, and do as they're told! I'm reminded of this paper, "Rise and Decline of Sokagakkai Japan and the United States" (1976), which includes these observations:

>*The analysis of sects in John Snook's "Going Further" suggests that unconventional religions are at the edges of cultures. He points out, "the things that are happening at opposit

After all his first name is No-vac

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap