So I just picked up this rider for Lyft, a young guy who tells me he's here for grad school. He notices the lotus flower sticker I have on my window, which was given to me by one of my SGI friends when I was still practicing. He asks me about it and I had a feeling that he probably was a member so I very carefully told him that I had the sticker because it was a flower that I had associated with Buddhism and that I liked Buddhism. He then goes on to tell me what a coincidence it is because he practices Buddhism too! He tells me he does chanting with a group called SGI. Oh boy...

Well, I wasn't about to tell him that his religion was a cult or not actually Buddhism haha. He told me he has been practicing for 14 years because of his parents and that he likes it. I tell him I practiced for 3 years and just left a year ago. He was really surprised. I told him that I don't like organized religion, that there's too much corruption and too many agendas. I also told him I did not agree with the sgi's focus on recruitment. We kept it very brief and respectful as I did not want to offend him, plus he is paying me to drive him, not to tear down his religious beliefs. We basically ended the conversation agreeing that different beliefs are for different people.

Though he did say something that was so SGI brainwashy, it sort of made me laugh. He said that he just really wants to "connect with the members." Cringe He seems like a somewhat awkward dude and I can only imagine how hard he tries to "connect with the members." From what I know of SGI brainwashing, he will spend his entire life trying to "connect with the members" only to find that he never really does. And that's not even a bad thing because not everyone can connect with every person they meet but SGI teaches its members that it's their responsibility to somehow become friends with every person they come across.

I wish I would have told him to check out the SGI whistleblowers sub if he was curious about my perspective but I felt like that might have been going too far. Oh well.