Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Experience! And do you have an experience to share?

I received a request from a reader to post some more experiences. My pleasure! 
I will post some of mine, and 
I would love to share YOUR experiences. 
Please send them - and send a picture if you can. 

Experience finding a job ~ and of changing career karma!:


As some of you know I have been practicing since 1985. I was living in San Francisco. I had a BA in Creative Writing from Drake University and a flair for communication, but other than that, no real job skills. One of my first prayers was to get a job. Within a few weeks of chanting I got a job I enjoyed, and over the next few years experimented with several different kinds of jobs. Then I got a job in a great location with what looked like nice people and it turned out the owner was kind of a monster. He constantly yelled at the lovely saleswoman, who was also his live-in girlfriend. It was truly a bizarre situation. He'd swear at her really abusively, using words I'd never heard anyone say out loud.


I realized I had a profound opportunity to change my karma. I knew that the only reason this was manifesting in my life was because of my own karma. I didn't try to analyse it...I just chanted a full hour every morning and poured my energy into doing shakubuku, going to meetings, helping new members learn to chant, studying about Buddhism and chanting strongly to to change this bad-boss karma forever. I also began  contributing financially to the Soka Gakkai as a way of showing my appreciation and a cause for building financial fortune. 


I chanted with determination that I was drawing a line in the sand...and NEVER AGAIN would bad-boss karma appear in my life. I chanted to show actual proof to everyone I knew that this practice works...and to have a tremendous breakthrough....and day after day he was still yelling and I was still chanting. It did not change overnight, but my determination remained rock solid. I knew I could change this karma because I had the ultimate tool to make it happen. I chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!


And gradually I summoned the courage to confront this man and tell him how destructive his behavior was. There were a few moments where we were alone and I quietly told him his behavior really disturbed me and the others in the small office. And there were a few times I actually stopped him in the middle of his ranting. Gradually he stopped yelling.


I stayed there a few more months then left to get the best job I'd ever had. All the fortune I'd built by chanting to break this karma, and chanting for the happiness of all the people in the office manifested in my new job!


In July of 1987 I began working for the Bay Guardian Newspaper in San Francisco. I discovered that my "flair for communication" could bring in great financial fortune as I sold ad after ad after ad. I loved this job and bought my first house because my income kept increasing and increasing! When I decided to have my first child, I arranged to work only three days a week while earning the same high income (because I earned so much on commission) and I kept this job for many years. Both my boys were born while I had this job and worked only three days a week making a great living. 


I am certain that all the daimoku I chanted while on the job with the nasty boss went deep into my life to give me good job karma forever. Taking responsibility for what befalls us and chanting to cut it out at the roots is they key of this practice! That is how you change your karma!


Since then I've had many jobs I've loved. I moved back to Chicago to raise my Buddha Boys. I worked for the Chamber of Commerce and started the first Women in Business Roundtable group in the Western Suburbs. I decided I wanted to work with seniors and easily networked myself into a job with Sunrise Senior Living. Then I was recruited by another senior living community for three times what I was making at Sunrise. 


When the economy hit the senior living field I was laid off and went to California to visit my friends for almost a month. I returned to confront the fact that the pain in my leg was not going away by any of the healing techniques I had been trying for several years, and I had surgery. When I was ready to work again I had an explosive experience in finding a new one. 


On January 15th of 2010 I decided I would determine to get a job by February 27th, the Women's Victory Meetings. I chanted to the Gohonzon that I HAD to show actual proof to my blog readers, my district, my friends and my family. I had also decided to switch careers and work in the field of education...not easy to do in good times, much less in a recession. But I had Nam Myoho Renge Kyo! I began interviewing for several jobs in senior living I really didn't want...but I thought "this is a cause for my new job" and I kept chanting. 


On the weekend before the women's victory meeting my prayer rose to new heights. 


have always been inspired by the Gosho "On the Buddha's Behavior" where Nichiren Daishonin is being taken off to be beheaded and he stops at the statue of Hachiman and literally yells at the God. He tells him "YOU vowed to protect me! If I am beheaded I will report you when I die!" It is so powerful. 
So I chanted and I yelled in my head ~ to my life! To the Buddhist Gods on the Gohonzon which are in my life! I Chanted: 
'I MUST GET A JOB FOR KOSEN RUFU!!! YOU MUST RISE TO THE OCCASION AND SUPPORT ME IN MY EFFORTS. I AM A NOBLE VOTARY OF THE LOYUS SUTRA AND I HAVE MANY PEOPLE WATCHING MY EFFORTS. I HAVE TO GET A JOB BY THE 27TH And YOU (MY LIFE!) MUST DELIVER THAT JOB NOW!!!!) 
It was the roar of the lion. It had to happen. 


That Monday I got an email from the woman who had eventually replaced me at my last position. Ironic. I know! It was for a job representing a health college in community outreach. Shazammm!!! I knew this was it! I had to jump through many hoops and design a presentation (which was a snap because I'd bought myself a sleek new Macbook Air). 


At the women's Victory meeting I reported my victory and I've enjoyed working for this system of colleges ever since. I have a wonderful boss. And I've had great bosses for many years...


You CAN change your karma! You just have to realize that it is yours to change and wield the great sword of your prayer!!!!


Nothign is more powerful than chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!



3 comments:

  1. Hi Jaime,
    I emaile you a while ago, asking for some guidance regarding my noisey, chain smoking neighbors and possibly chanting for them to sell & move out. Well I've been chanting twice a day for about an hour a day, I have along commute. Although they have not moved, (I keep chanting that they find their happiness and move elsewhere) yesterday around 11: 30 they had music on and the smell of smoke was there but I heard you in my head saying to chant myself to sleep and ask for a restful night. I did and I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in a while. I guess although it's a small experience I just wanted to share. As always thank you for your blog, I love that it's daily now!! Thank you for your insight and inspiration!! looking forward to tomorrow's blog. :)

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  2. Hi Jaime,
    I emaile you a while ago, asking for some guidance regarding my noisey, chain smoking neighbors and possibly chanting for them to sell & move out. Well I've been chanting twice a day for about an hour a day, I have along commute. Although they have not moved, (I keep chanting that they find their happiness and move elsewhere) yesterday around 11: 30 they had music on and the smell of smoke was there but I heard you in my head saying to chant myself to sleep and ask for a restful night. I did and I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in a while. I guess although it's a small experience I just wanted to share. As always thank you for your blog, I love that it's daily now!! Thank you for your insight and inspiration!! looking forward to tomorrow's blog. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will post my experiences:
    I had almost zero communication with my family and that is when i was suddenly introduced to nam myoho renge kyo last june. Within a week I was talking again to everyone and the relationship somehow solved and healed itself (when i thought impossible!). I also had travelled for a job and before i travelled, exactly a few days before i had received a surprise 5,000$ check. This check hit my account literally as i landed in the country (staying for few months). Besides that check I received a surprise approved money transfer off of a commission, 2,000$. Later this money came to protect me as the job fell through. I also had kind people that protected me. I have many stories of being protected and surprise gifts. For example my phone screen broke and was replaced by someone generous who had his friend let me borrow an extra phone until i left the country. When i left the country i had to use my broken screen phone again but surprise, the screen began working again! but several months after when my screen officially stopped working, the next day literally a phone showed up at my door. These are just knick knack examples out of the many. I had been in financial trouble many times and was miraculously saved all those time. And every moment was in 'perfect' time. Incredible, the universe looks after you. Please look after the universe as well. You are never alone. There is an energy out there always with you, watching over you, you will not be abandoned. That is harmony, that is the balance of nature, the harmony of life. Nam myoho renge kyo is eradicating the ego that is the obstacle to harmonizing your life with nature. Once it begins to hamronize (chanting nam myoho renge kyo), you will naturally be protected. Wishing you all the Best and I hope my little examples inspire you, although i have much much more and bigger examples too - A.A.A.

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