Hm, very smart people DO get brainwashed. I know a couple of PhD guys that got suckered into cults. They are smart, well-informed and otherwise sane people but once you mention their beliefs their eyes get glazed over and mumbo-jumbo is the reply.
Posted 2/6/2012 12:44 am
Another thing Nichren types want you to forget is that it was the most fanatical and militant brand of Buddhism during in WWII, due to its special tradition of devotion to the emporor and some essays Nichiren wrote about the importance of protecting Japan. Nichiren lived during the Mongol era and did a bunch of rituals for warding off the attack, which was thwarted by heavy typhoons that saved Japan (the origin of the term "divine wind" or "Kamikaze"). Of course Nichiren's followers took credit for the invasion. There has always been a hard, fanatical, far-right streak to the Nichiren schools.
As a former Hare Krishna "middle manager" I can assure you that "brainwashing" works on the very smart and the very stupid, rather more effectively than it works on people nearer the middle of the bell curve.
Smart folks have lots of mental energy they can expend in rationalization of the wacky beliefs. If the beliefs fill an emotional need, very smart people can find the mental justification to accept them.
During the 1200s-1400s, Japan was in a lot of turmoil and the older, more refined and scholastic forms of Buddhism decayed. People needed something simpler, for rougher and more violent times. Nichiren and Amida-centered forms of Buddhism were chanting-based, and Zen was based on silent meditation. All these grew popular around these times because they did not involve as much delicate, arcane philosophizing as earlier schools. They were simple, direct, almost anti-intellectual, and could be practiced by the side of a road rather than in a Monestary.
Posted 2/6/2012 1:05 am : Edited 2/6/2012 1:05 am
The only thing I know about them is that, towards the end, 2008 or so, they started showing up as the first result in google, for SGI, instead of Silicon Graphics.
That's pretty good, especially compared to the anti-Catholic bias on google. When I search for RC, I get remote controlled cars and I get cola, for page after page. In fact, the first religious link I get is for a Protestant pastor, not the Roman Catholic Church.
What about RCC, you might ask? Still nothing. All I get are a shitload of community colleges. Google Juice must really hate the Pope!
SGI staged a sort of comeback. For awhile I remember their website just being a notice that they'd gone bankrupt. They probably weren't too hot in the Google rankings at that point.
President Ikeda WANTS YOU TO THINK there has been a comeback. In truth, the Hokkeko (the lay group of believers that support the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood) has siphoned off all the serious practitioners formerly with SGI. Nowadays, SGI is sort of a demented cross between a MLM scheme and a personality cult. Only the stupidest people are able to thrive there, and if you aren't stupid when you start, continuing with the current SGI cult sure as kosen-rufu will MAKE you stupid.
