What is it about fall...such a wonderful feeling is fall...time of change...time of remembering. I have been spending time in my lovely arboretum. It's a wonderful park-like area with roads and paths. There's a part of the Arboretum that turns all golden..like this:
And there is gold on the ground and gold in the trees...so lovely...
I have been reading and re-reading the Gosho from the October Living Buddhism magazine about repaying ones debts of gratitude. "The Four Virtues and the Four Debts of Gratitude".
Do you know it says that all of us beings...ALL of us beings, have lived so many times that we have all been related to each other at one time or another? I think I have always known this, and it is why I write this blog...to reach out to all of my family members...YOU.. and all of the future readers of this blog.
I am chanting for the growth of this blog...that it reach more and more and more people.... not because I want fame or fortune...just because I want to reach all who are suffering, or longing for the secret to happiness to come to them.
You and I, and all those who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo share a great secret. We KNOW that the rhythm of the universe is within US...and accessible to us.
We can strengthen our lives at every moment through chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, and raise the vibrational level of our lives, and everyone on the planet...and the entire universe through our chanting. We can fulfill our dreams and live lives of happiness, not fearing death...not fearing ANYTHING. All humans long for this.
It is our honor and birthright to share it with ALL. It is our way of repaying our debt of gratitude to all living beings.
Thank you for joining me and all of us in this mission!
Thank you so much for attaching the link to this blog to your facebook pages, and your emails. Thank you so much for joining with me to help all people become happy.
Becoming happy, and spreading happiness is the greatest joy.
I have decided to write my book along with Julia, my incredible friend in Ukiah California. She is a published author, a therapist, and has an incredible grasp of this practice. We are both chanting for the fulfillment of our shared dream of Kosen Rufu through each person's happiness. She has a unique voice that is a bit different from mine...more scholarly. Our goal is to reach everyone in their own way and in their own place.
Here is some wonderful guidance from President Ikeda sent through a new friend in the UK:
The way to practise is to have the attitude while we are chanting that we are in no way different or separate from the eternal Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, or the Buddhas who are enlightened to that Law. The key is to praise one’s inherent Buddhahood and then go out into the world and practise as a bodhisattva, treasuring others, encouraging them to experience their Buddhahood too.
This is a gradual process. When we practise to the Gohonzon, Nichiren Daishonin said we are simultaneously in the state of Buddhahood or enlightenment, but we cannot easily discern that life condition with our minds; therefore we do not always act accordingly. However, through our constant relationship with the Gohonzon, we gradually challenge and overcome the influence of negativity arising from our karma. As we open up our hearts we can begin to experience all those qualities of Buddhahood working naturally and vibrantly inside us and affecting everything that we think and say and do.
President Ikeda has recently described the process as this: ‘When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo while practising for ourselves and others, with the Gohonzon of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo manifested by the Buddha as our clear mirror, and with deep confidence in the Gohonzon existing in our own lives, Myoho-renge-kyo within us resonates with the Myoho-renge-kyo outside us, and the world of Buddhahood emerges within us.’ [World of Nichiren Daishonin's Writings Part 12].
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