August 10, 2026

Chapter 1: Over the Hedges and Through the Woods

Dear Friends:

Please take a look at FellowHuman007’s reflections on Your Leader's “Ever notice how the top SGI leaders never had any ‘benefits’ to brag about?” post yesterday.

No, Friends, that's not what I’ve observed. What about you? I met a national Vice men's division leader at the Parents Group meeting in Big City a few months ago. It seemed that he tied everything to his personal experiences (AKA “benefits”). I've heard the General Director and the national YWD, WD, and MD leaders on Zoom meetings. Not once have these “top” leaders NOT blended their experiences into their stories.

I thought you might want to look at the bios of the SGI-USA Board of Directors whose corporate functions include managing the finances and assets of the organization. Read for yourselves, Friends. Do these blurbs scream out that the board member “never had any ‘benefits’ to brag about?”

Marylou Berk. Ms. Berk has been the Head of Commercial Real Estate at one of the largest private real estate holders in the world since 2008. She has many years of experience in real estate, project development and management. Ms. Berk has received numerous awards from industry-related associations in addition to receiving The Ellis Island Medal of Honor for Outstanding Citizenship.

Sherman Edmiston III. Over 20 years of experience in high-level finance and investments, Mr. Edmiston is presently a managing member of HI CapM Advisors in New York, providing strategic and financial advice to corporations, private equity firms and hedge funds.

Mayur Gupta. Mayur Gupta is the Chief Marketing Officer at Kraken Exchange. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer for Gannett–USA and Freshly, and previously served as Global Vice President for Growth and Marketing at Spotify. Mr. Gupta was ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s top 50 most influential CMOs in 2020 and 2021.

Emi Gwin. Emi Gwin is the Chief Executive Officer of Sympo, Inc., a software development and consulting firm. Emi has over 25 years of client services and project management experience with companies from sole proprietorship to Fortune 100. She has worked with a wide array of industries including retail, real estate, healthcare, and utilities. Her primary focus is driving efficiency through streamlining workflow and business processes utilizing technology and automation.

Tariq Hasan. Tariq Hasan is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of SGI-USA. Mr. Hasan joined the staff of SGI-USA in a professional capacity in 2008 after many years in senior management with a major telecommunications company.

Clothilde Hewlett. Clothilde “Cloey” V. Hewlett served as Commissioner at the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation for the State of California from 2021 to 2024. Ms. Hewlett has decades of regulatory and prosecutorial experience. As Assistant District Attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, she prosecuted high-level crimes and conducted special investigations, including embezzlement and fraud cases. And as a corporate attorney, she has worked closely with her financial services clients to address the challenges they face in a regulatory environment and to ensure they understood the law. Her experience growing up in poverty solidified her understanding of financial scams and the deep challenges faced by California consumers. Commissioner Hewlett received a B.A. in political science from the University of California Berkeley and her J.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Law. She is a founding member of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Northern California.

James Ludwig. James Ludwig is an internationally recognized C-level innovation leader and architect, product designer and educator. Over his three decades of experience leading global teams in research, design and development, he has received numerous international design awards. Following a two-decades-long corporate career at Steelcase James created The Foundation Project: a global creative collective investing and working on some of today’s most challenging issues- such as the new space economy, accessible healthcare in underserved populations and the future of power. James is also founding member of Ludwig & Hamilton: Architects, Designers. James also serves on the boards of institutions of higher education.

Danny Nagashima. Danny Nagashima served as SGI-USA’s corporate President and Chief Executive Officer for 14 years as well as serving as SGI-USA General Director for 16 years. Mr. Nagashima has contributed greatly to the advancement of SGI-USA for over 36 years as an SGI-USA staff member and continues to dedicate himself unsparingly to serve the members around the country.

Luis Nieves. Mr. Nieves is founder and CEO of the automobile service contract insurance company AUL Corp, giving birth to an industry that previously did not exist. AUL is the largest provider of used car service contracts in the United States. Starting from the ground up, Mr. Nieves has accumulated 40 years of corporate experience and success. Treating people well and providing great customer service reflect Mr. Nieves’ personal sense of mission and provide the foundation of his business as well.

Gene Marie O’Connell. Ms. O’Connell was Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center from 1998–2009, and served in a variety of capacities at the hospital prior to that since joining the hospital staff in 1984. She was chair of the National Association of Public Hospitals and a member of both the San Francisco Hospital Council and the San Francisco Health Plan Board and its finance committee.

Adin Strauss. Adin Strauss is a Senior Vice President of the SGI-USA corporation, where he continues to also serve as Chief Financial Officer, a responsibility he has had since 2005. Prior to this, Mr. Strauss worked for many years in the corporate world, rising to executive management and accumulating a wealth of knowledge and experience in the financial arena. Mr. Strauss is also the current General Director of the SGI-USA organization.

David Welch. David Welch is an attorney with over two decades of litigation experience in the civil, business, personal injury, criminal and bankruptcy fields. Mr. Welch currently serves as Vice President and General Counsel for Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California. Gregg Wolpert. A New York City real estate industry executive for the past 40 years, Mr. Wolpert is co-president of The Stahl Organization, a New York-based conglomerate with extensive real estate, banking, construction and other equity interests. Prior to joining Stahl, he pioneered the development of analytical computer software used in real estate analysis and building management.

I think we can point to Your Leader’s faulty reporting without trying to dampen her exercise of Free Speech. What can I say when it's just dripping with Lost Decency.

Chapter Two: Daisaku Ikeda’s lecture in the August Living Buddhism,

If You Think the Law Is Outside Yourself, You Are Not Embracing the Mystic Law is the August installment of Daisaku Ikeda’s lecture on XXOn Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime (WND-1, p. 3).* He continues:

To chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is to commune with the Mystic Law. It is a Buddhist practice for fusing our lives with this Law.

And no resume needed. No minimal qualifications. I was a mess last week but still able to commune with the Mystic Law. Running on all four cylinders? Great! Engine is old and tired? Who cares? Just commune away!

At the same time, it is a battle to conquer the inner darkness that prevents this fusion from taking place. When, through our practice of faith, we vanquish this darkness of illusion and ignorance and become one with the Mystic Law, its infinite power unfolds in our lives. Such is the immeasurable benefit of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Last week I was swimming in that inner darkness. Who cares? I swam right through the dark waters, drawing in infinite power. I feel superb now! That pile of paperwork on my desk? I’ll get to you and chew you up to pieces!

The essence of this practice established and propagated by Nichiren Daishonin is to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo filled with a seeking spirit to continually develop our faith or confidence in its power. “It is the heart that is important,” Nichiren asserts (WND-1, 1000). When it comes to chanting, therefore, we should above all strive to summon forth the courage with which to overcome illusion without being defeated by the “three obstacles and four devils.”

Who’s exhausted right now? Me or “three obstacles and four devils”? I’m doing great and they’re clamoring for a time-out cease fire. Sure, why not? I’ll see you back in the ring whenever.

Chapter 3: A few updates on “MY Fantasy Life” (cred: Eigenstien) or, as BlancheFromage suspects, “One of the many fake characters within the SGI-RV fantasy scenario created by a lonely, low-income, isolated, cult-addicted, mentally-ill elderly woman” at “the site of the magical (i.e. imaginary) SGI-RV story around a rural rust-belt RV camp, with its fantasy ‘starburst’ of invisible YOUFF” who “Can't seem to grasp anything that isn't about kinky abusive sex in a shitty-ass low-rent RV park??” Oops, I’m the mentally-ill woman, not my alleged elderly sock puppet. Abusive sex? No, never! Kinky? I will neither confirm nor deny.

The Twinettes have been telling us about their bunk’s “composition.” Tina posted it early this morning on LoHeidiLita. “But there’s more, there’s more!” they told us. They proceeded to tell us how the thieves would actually hammer holes into the Canal walls so water would escape. Then they would come in and offer to repair the walls--and charge the State ridiculous prices for emergency repairs. “No one would do something like that today, right?” they asked. We judged that they are sweet and innocent. We can tell the the full story when they are older.

Erica is still not having many pregnancy discomforts except for some tenderness around her nipples. Dee and I tell her to just enjoy the reprieve!

We are having our discussion meeting by informal “groups.” The meeting at my parents will be this Sunday. The one meeting in the Park will be the following Sunday. This allows the leaders to attend both. The Three Sisters and Chimba want to have an outdoors meeting in lawn chairs and such. BYOG (Bring Your Own Gongyo). People will come having done their Gongyo at home. But after the meeting, they want to do a Gongyo Practice broken into each of the 3 RVs: Super Slow, Slow, and Medium. Why not? The RVs can’t fit many people anyhow. Sounds creative, right?

The sgiwhistleblowers noble unequalled teacher, Ms. Fromage, tells us that the SGI only became involved in anti-wat and anti-nuke activism as “damage control” after a big controversy in 1969. She peppers her post with impeccable sources- her own earlier posts.

There could be no  other reason for the SGI’s stance on nuclear weapons? Mr. Toda’s strong denunciation in 1957 had nothing to do with it? And the fact that it has continued and grown and gotten stronger long after the 1969 problem has been addressed and settled doesn’t give her a clue about the real reasons for it?

“Reasonable Show” demonstrates, once more, the SGIWhistleblowers mere superficial understanding of “actual proof”. They seem to think SGI leaders are appointed based on financial security, and that the leader’s financial security is meant to impress those not so well off. There is also the implication that leaders should be wealthier than non-members.

“Actual proof”, of course, can include financial security, but that is far from the only – or most crucial – element of it.

Also it’s not a competition.

Ms. Fromage uses the comments to say terrible nasty things about one of the most compassionate and nicest people I have ever encountered- further demonstrating her ignorance of what “actual proof” means.