Diary of a Chapter Leader

Thank you Andy, Byrd, Bruce and Hard for your comments and experiences. FWP is great!

When I started to go to meetings in 1967, they were held in an old Post Office in Los Angeles. George Williams was quite accessible, and I took advance all I could, not being a star struck person. I think the more you can talk to the leaders, the people in charge, the more the group becomes not a group but a family for you. Anyway, more and more I made friendships with others and we were "fighting for world peace" 7 nights a week, 2 or 3 meetings a night. They were wild times, fun times, no one was fighting for positions (Steve Gore and Scott Lawton were banging heads) but everyone else ignored it.

My friends were Mike Raymond, Bob Griswold, Steve Oplatka and others. We were in the San Fernando Valley. At night, I would take topanga road, and check out the progression of the new HQ on the beach. Doing shakubuku, finding beautiful women in Santa Monica the benefits were great. The HQ is finished, and I go for my first guidance authorized by my District Chief Steve Gore. I show up 12:30pm because our meetings ended late, I open the front glass doors and walk in with my honcho Steve Oplatka.. Barbara Parker looks startled, and says,, how did you get in? Front door, Impossible she says, it is locked, she goes over and shows us, I tell her we didn't walk through walls, but we just opened the door! So, she brings me to a Japanese speaking Sr Leader, and I tell him, I am a musician, I write music, yada yada, and he tells me that all musicians are lazy and I should find a normal job, and I tell him, I am sorry I have to leave, but at 2am I am due at Elvis Presley's home in Beverly Hills, and he looks at me very odd.

Later Larry Shaw moves in to a house a few doors down from the HQ, and I think, what a dork, and even though he likes Elvis, I want that house. Steve Gore calls me a week later, says Larry is moving and wants to know if I want to move in with him, Steve Oplatka also becomes our roommate.

I wasted no time making the HQ mine. I would wake up, and walk through emptying trash cans, fixing up desks, helping out using whatever my talents were. Elvis Presley came in disguise one time, no one recognized him, but he subscribed to the World Tribune. Soon, I was a familiar face, I was not a threat, I saw George Williams walking around in his robe, and would complain about my new members, I would complain about Steve Gore, and ask all the questions I could. Then go to the gift shop, and straighten out what I could. It was fun, I knew what the truth was. I saw the ticker tapes come in from Japan and what they said. The Japanese leaders in Japan had a strong bias of Williams, because he was Korean, we spoke of this privately, but he never ever mentioned this in public. At least, I never heard it. But those were fun days, and I was chanting maybe 3 or 5 hours a day, and going to meetings.

Cut to the chase, when they bought the property in Malibu and they started to build the property there everything changed. It was like, who were these people I thought I knew. All of a sudden they were looking like professional religionists. Back biting, jealousy, complaining, nothing sinister, but it was not fun anymore. I refused to change with them, they all wanted to be 007, I wanted a good job, a girl friend, a normal life.

At the Malibu opening, when Ikeda came for the first time, there were many intimate meetings with him. I am not sure how it looks now, but there was a small hut below the house where all the young men stayed, and Ikeda would come down and chant and talk. He handed me a pack of cigarettes I took one, and passed it around, and he didn't have one, so I gave him the one I took, and he laughed. Later he gave me a couple cartons of cigarettes, but i never have smoked in my life. I also had a chance to speak to him several other times during that Malibu trip.

Things changed so much after that, so much so, I didn't recognize the NSA anymore. It had become something different. Even Steve Gore was not the same, my friend was not my friend, people had changed, and not for the better. I had to make a decision, and I stood my ground to use my moral judgment, yet stay in the NSA but not be brainwashed by the campaigns, etc. I would refuse to participate in any min-on, or shows, but instead just do shakubuku and chant. I could not curse the effect and nurse the cause anymore and I left in January 1975.

I think my experience is not like those that quit now. Of course I left out tons and tons of details, including the name of the girl that got me to join. I looked into her eyes, and was just hypnotized, and later she was HQ Staff, beautiful person inside and out, I miss her today, she introduced me to my wife, and we will be married 30 years this Aug.

Phew... Maltz

Nancy, I appreciate this point of view, and agree with it actually. I know quite a few folks who have similar reasons for sticking with the org, and that's all good. There is certainly (contrary to Rogow's rantings) no harm, and nothing negative in the way you approach these issues. Thanks for posting this.

For Rogow, you fool, if you read what Nancy wrote, you'll see that she neither mentioned nor alluded to "enlightenment." You are an ass (again).

Cheers!

Andy

Dear nancy and Hardtotrack:

Mistaking the rapture of your fellow SGI members to enlightenment "is mistaking a reflection for the actual object. It has the color and shape of the object but not the reality".(Nichiren) How do I know this? Because the SGI teachings are not the teachings of the Lotus Sutra that lead to enlightenment. The teachings of the SGI mirrors the life condition of the members. The sGI teachings are the color and the shape of the Lotus Sutra but not the reality.

Mark

I think I'm in much the same bag as you are, Nancy, except I don't have a spouse.

I also think our experiences may differ in that you have a "leadership" post (whatever that means), and I am a "general member".

I went to a memorial service this past Saturday, and really enjoyed seeing all the people, and hearing about their lives. That's what I like best about the Gakkai, too - the people.

I really look forward to your posts, Nancy - keep 'em coming!

Best, Wahzoh

I joined NSA 1968, but started going to meetings in 1967, I lived in Santa Monica, lived almost next door to the Main HQ on the beach. I left Jan. 1975. It was still NSA. I didn't leave out of anger, or hate, or "Oh you ruined my life". Quite the contrary, I loved the NSA.

I left because i was not Buddhism. During the building of the Malibu Center in 1972 it was quite apparent, that everything was shifting, and it was the Ikeda Club. At the Center, Daisaku Ikeda told me in person, looking into my eyes that he was the reincarnation of Nichiren, OK, but I hung on because of my friends until January 1975.

Thats why I left.
Maltz

Yes, I agree with everything you said. And yes what keeps me in the organization is watching and enjoying other people growing.

Where did you plug in to get the VOV movement going.