If you have to keep TELLING people something, that shows it's not true

We've remarked before on the superficial, unsatisfying, conditional friendships that are all that's available through SGI. If you're at the same place at the same time, that makes you friends! BEST FRIENDS! It's like that Seinfeld sketch O_O

Even when I was a dedicated SGI cultie, I found statements like these odd and creepy:

All fellow members who sincerely practice faith are good friends to one another. The Soka Gakkai is the fore-most gathering of good friends. Ikeda

Really. Yeah, that's why none of them wanted to be friends with us after we left, because we were all such "good friends" O_O

Evil friends are self-centered and egoistic. For these reasons, such people will speak and act differently, depending on the situation. Ikeda

Oh, you mean how SGI members act friendly when they regard you as a fellow cult member in good standing and when they want you to do something, but not when you leave?? Hmmm...

By seeing through the disguises of such individuals and defeating them, you will be able to open up a vast, cheerful, sunny green field of happiness for all members. Ikeda

Here we are! As Rumi put it:

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about." Rumi

Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet" and the "best selling poet" in the United States.

Ha. Daisaku Ikeda couldn't even get close, though it was what he wanted bad enough to BUY the "World Congress of Poets" just so he could award himself the 'World Poet Laureate" title. Loser.

It's like Ikeda thinks that saying it's so makes things real. That buying the company that issues World Poet Laureate awards so that he can issue one to himself makes him a great poet. Nope - nobody cares. They just shake their heads in pity - if they've even heard of him at all.

The SGI is a cluster of relationships of the very best kind. - Ikeda

He keeps saying that...so why do 95% of everyone who ever tries it leave???

Good friends in Faith are eternal treasures of the heart. And the beauty of it all is this: If you don't have good friends in faith you can chant to have them. - Ikeda

Yeah, that's right - your "friendships" in SGI will be so unsatisfying that you must delude yourself into thinking they're better than they are! Self-hypnosis machine AWAAAAY!!!

...a significantly higher percentage of Soka Gakkai members than nonmembers in our survey reported that they had "no friends."

During my last years practicing regularly with Das Org, I would go through regular "I hate all my friends" cycles.

By that point, ALL my friends were fellow SGI members - I didn't have any non-SGI friends, and this is actually the SGI cult ideal. Just look at the tone of all the Ikeda quotes in this post - it's all about how "people who are your fellow cult members are your best friends", meaning that those outside the cult are NOT your best friends. They can't be - only your fellow cult members understand O_O

Every 4 months, about. I would butt up against the fact that I was not getting my social needs met. So then I'd chant balls to the wall for better friends, and convince myself that things were getting better - for a few months. And then it was back to the "I hate all my friends" point. Source

But supposedly eternal friends!! But what of the Buddhist concepts of impermanence, emptiness, anatta/anatman, and dependent origination?? There's no "eternal" within REAL Buddhism. Ikeda's trying to sell people Christianity in drag.

The Soka Gakkai is the fore-most gathering of good friends. Ikeda

If you say it enough, that makes it true!

FAITH is the greatest joy there is. The 'Buddhism of joy' enables us to live each day with excitement, as though we were on an enjoyable journey, arm in arm with dear friends. Ikeda

...and that's why most everybody who has ever tried it has ditched!

The Soka Gakkai is the ally and friend of the common people, a friend to the unhappy. Ikeda

Oh, THAT's rich! Yeah, Ikeda's cult will exploit everyone and profit off anyone - they're not picky. That's about the only sense that anyone can claim that the SGI is pretty egalitarian - they exploit everyone indiscriminately.

....Good Friends In Faith....By Daisaku Ikeda

Hate to break it to y'allz, but "good friends" doesn't mean what you think it does O_O

Not when it's Ikeda using the term. 'Good friends' to Ikeda means "whatever is most expedient and useful FOR ME."

All fellow members who sincerely practice faith are good friends to one another. The Soka Gakkai is the fore-most gathering of good friends. Our lives are determined by the relationships we form. And the SGI is a cluster of relationships of the very best kind. In a society pervaded with cruel relationships, where many people delight in others' misfortunes, we find the greatest solidarity and peace of mind with our fellow members. We have to resolutely protect the noble gathering of SGI members. Ikeda

See? Notice also the emphasis that it is only within the cult that people can experience "the greatest solidarity and peace of mind". Also, the "besieged" mentality that is so prevalent within cults:

We have to resolutely protect the noble gathering of SGI members.

From whom? Nobody cares. It's a fringe cult with so few members that most people aren't even aware it exists. Where's our enemy, folks??

If you ask me who our best friend in Japan is, who 'gets it,' it is Ikeda. Source

My best friend! My best friend who doesn't know I exist!! My best friend I've never met! Or only met once, maybe, when he was using me for a photo op to raise his own profile!

Should you have to tell people they're best friends? Shouldn't they know?? If you are defining people as "best friends" simply because of their membership in a specific group, then honey, you don't have the slightest understanding of friendship...