it was taken over and controlled by ikeda from the moment Toda died
Ikeda wants us to all believe that the Soka Gakkai members were on their knees, begging him to become the 3rd president!
Annual fund raising drives pull in around $2 billion ikeda and his SGI HQ minions are rolling in money
Yeah, but that money isn't coming from the members. It's dirty, organized crime (yakuza) mob money.
The poor and the sick were the original members of the Gakkai. They had been abandoned by society, doctors and fortune, but they were saved by the Gakkai. They worked hard and chanted hard. They have achieved great results, moving from the poorest to the richest within Japanese society. - from SGI-USA leaders' guidance distributed before Ikeda's 1990 visit ("clear mirror guidance" event)
Well, if that's the case, it wasn't through the magic chant! And why did the magic chant apparently work its charms that way over in Japan, but not here? Look around you, SGI members. Do you see people moving from poor to wealthy? I've known members, especially "pioneer" "war bride" members - despite chanting over 50 years, they remain poor. Why doesn't it work for THEM? Does it only work in Japan?? "It's magic" isn't the "reason and common sense" SGI trumpets, you know.
In President Toda’s day, virtually all Soka Gakkai members were poor. But Mr. Toda, with great persistence, repeatedly taught these people, who were widely derided as a “gathering of the poor and sick”: “You yourselves are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth whom the Lotus Sutra describes.” He praised the members as “emissaries of the Buddha” and even “emanations of the Daishonin.” “Aren’t ordinary people most worthy of respect?” he proclaimed. “Aren’t you and I, the members of the Soka Gakkai, the most noble personages of all?” Again, Mr. Toda instructed us, saying, “One must absolutely not carry out Buddhist practice in order to acquire fame and fortune or for the sake of one’s ambition." - "True Aspect of All Phenomenon" - Gosho for October Presenter's Packet
Here in the US, wherever there is a congregation of the poor and sick, only their leaders grow wealthy.
Komeito is a well organized political machine supported by a massive army of volunteer canvassers. It legislators claim they are not followers of Soka Gakkai (Komeito and Soka Gakkai formally broke formal ties in 1970) but nearly all them were practitioners of the religion before they were elected.
We're seeing the same thing with the administrators of Soka University in CA, where it is widely known that they're all SGI members, but numerous sources have claimed they're not.
SGI reportedly had hidden connections to Aum Shinrikyo, and may have had direct involvement in the attack
Reportedly, Ikeda's name was on their death list. What a perfect way to alibi yourself! "No, I couldn't have been involved - see? They wanted to kill me, too!!"
And I think this is from that same article:
A former member of Soka Gakkai, one of Japan 's largest sects, told Time, "As Japan entered an era of high economic growth, people moved from rural areas to industrial centers. They were lonely, poor and cut off. Soka Gakkai offered companionship, easy loans and an ideology to fill the gap."
That fits with what we know of Toda being a loan shark, Ikeda being his collections enforcer, and isn't that a perfect way to get people on the hook for life??
There are a few typos:
Soka Gakkai is organized like a corporation
political power was the best way to protect Soka Gakkai