Financial Extortion Justified by Various Spiritual Reasons

C. Financial extortion justified by various spiritual reasons (i.e. donation of 10% of one’s income to receive True Light, courses, etc.)

Now, we all know that it’s quite an expense to join Sukyo Mahikari. Most churches simply allow you to join, but in order to join Mahikari you must first meet the approval of the Kanbu…(IE: You must be devoted and you must be willing to keep up with the fees.) Nowadays it’s getting harder and harder to join Mahikari…Kanbu are not above telling someone that they need to spend more time receiving okiyome and studying the teachings before they become members. Kanbu will tell you that the reason behind this is to ensure that the person is spiritually mature enough to become a Kumite.

However, we former members have a theory of our own…spiritually mature could translate into brainwashed enough to believe everything they are going to throw at you in Primary Kenshu. Once you are ready…to take the Primary course (in the US) you pay $100-$120…that in itself is steep for a lot of people. I knew a man once who wanted to join, but his income would not allow it. He was living off of roughly $1200 a month. Kanbu worked with him…they allowed him to make payments (anything to get the money). Once you join there is a 10% tie you are supposed to reach monthly…however, that’s not uncommon…Christian religions suggest the same thing in order to maintain the church. The difference is that Christian religions don’t make God out to be a money hungry tyrant who demands that you pay or He cuts you off. Christian religions teach that you give what you can.

My husband has just recently stopped making donations to Mahikari…I guess he decided that Keishu probably has enough to take care of herself for the rest of her life. Anyways, the Doshi approached him last monthly ceremony and asked him if he wanted to make a donation. He said he had noticed it had been a while since my husband had offered “gratitude”, monthly or just to receive okiyome. My husband told him that he didn’t want to give a donation and he told me later that I should have seen the look on the Doshi’s face. He said it was priceless. The point I am trying to make is that Mahikari teachings don’t just talk about offering money, the Kanbu is not above blatantly asking for it. It’s like the Sheriff of Nottingham coming after the villagers for their taxes…goodness…I bet Mahikari members could use Robin Hood right about now.

Okay…after you join you make a donation whenever you visit the dojo…which is roughly between $1-$10…depending on the person. Then if you want to move up to secondary levels, you pay $700-$740. Tertiary is the steepest because have to travel to Japan for the classes, but the cost is $1000-$1200. In the end…someone who joins and move up to tertiary levels has paid roughly $1800…that doesn’t include donations…say a person donates $5 every time they visit the dojo…now say that person visits the dojo every day (which many do) that means $35 a week…by the end of the year they would have spent $1825. Now, say they stay in Mahikari for approximately seven years…that’s about how long it takes most to move up to a tertiary level…in those seven years in donations they would have spent $12,775. Now add that together with the cost of taking all the Kenshu classes and you have $14,575…that’s a lot of money.

Granted, we would have to subtract money for when the person is ill or goes out of town…but as you can see the amount is still staggering.

And how about that 10% tie? Well let’s play a game shall we? My father makes approximately $2500 a month. $2500 multiplied by .10 is equal to $250…that means someone like my dad (who makes a pretty average living) would have to pay $250 a month to maintain a monthly membership in Mahikari. That’s $125 bi-weekly and $8.93 a day. Now…$8.93 a day multiplied by 365 days in a year is equal to $3259.45. So if my father was at the tertiary level in Mahikari, donated $5 a day for okiyome, and paid his monthly membership fee…annually he would pay $17,834.25.

Now…total, in a year my father makes $30,000…with Mahikari fees it ends up being over half of his pay. Is it extortion? Many people would say no because the people involved give willingly, but again…they would be cut off from God if they didn’t, right? Not only that, but they are donating to a cause that has so much shrouded truth hidden in it’s depths…you have to ask would they be donating this money if they knew the truth? Probably not…so yes, I think extortion is the appropriate word to use.