CULT OF THE MASTER
Memoirs of a Texas Buddhist
by: Spartacus the Rebel
copyright 2012 All rights reserved
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Recently, I ran across a web site with a forum encouraging open discussion and offering support for individuals who are considering leaving, or have already left the SGI-USA (formerly NSA). A religious cult with $$$billions in assets, this Japanese Buddhist lay organization with it’s own political party was ex-communicated by their former temple, Nichiren Shoshu. I was mesmerized for an entire day as I read through postings of current and former SGI/NSA members caught in the trap of this insidious personality cult that centers around “president” (not elected) Ikeda Taisaku. As I read along on the website, the words jumped off the screen at me. I found scores of experiences, so similar to my own, reflected in stories and tidbits again and again. I laughed, I choked up with tears, but I couldn’t stop reading for two whole days. Like an addict, I couldn’t stop devouring hundreds of posts from current and former members of SGI-NSA. Suddenly, after forty years, I didn’t felt quite so alone and isolated with my long cult experience. My tumultuous and chaotic times as a senior leader and general member with the SGI/NSA cult were much more universal than I had ever contemplated. Tens of thousands have left the cult, some almost immediately and some only after years or even decades of cult control. As I read on and on, innumerable memories continued flooding back to me. I couldn’t sleep – I was fascinated by all the stories and experiences that so closely mirrored my own. Then unexpectedly, I felt an incredible urge to record my whole story, the good and the bad, the entire saga of my spiritual journey.
My spiritual identity has been heavily influenced through my ongoing practice of three key disciplines: music, Buddhism, and martial arts. Although I am addressing the issue of a large cult in this story, I have frequently found remarkable parallels of cult behavior on multiple levels among these three forms of culturally influenced practices.
Nichiren Buddhism is like a golden thread, intertwined with the very fabric of my being for four decades. Keeping a seeking mind for the Law, I have opened my eyes and built my spiritual foundations upon Buddhism’s deep-rooted philosophy of life. Regardless of the times when I was to various degrees accepting or rejecting the NSA / SGI-USA organization and it’s personality cult, I have continuously both thought of, and proclaimed myself as a Buddhist and always will. As a disciple of Nichiren (not Ikeda), studying and practicing the teachings of Nichiren and Shakamuni have strengthened and sustained me, and I never once abandoned Buddhism in my heart. Along my path, I have discovered the hard way (there is seldom any other) to follow the Law (teachings), and not the person (leaders/organizations). However, it required three separate painful and agonizing struggles with myself over the course of three decades of my life before I could completely and successfully eliminate the clutches and controls of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist cult that had ensnared and addicted my heart and mind again and again. Now I am forever free at last!
For the convenience and awareness of the reader I have italicized important cult speak words and phrases that relate to cult concepts, activities, and techniques. Control freak cults and individuals both impose depraved predatory sociopath behavior upon the weak and suffering, commonly employing mind numbing and emotional enslavement. Although there are many “hooks” used to subvert and brainwash an individual, the substitute father figure is perhaps one of the most sinister and subtle of all cult techniques: “Now you must accept our leader (father figure) as your Master in Life! ” Mentor and disciple is nothing more than just a nice sounding euphemism for master and slave.