YOU are the Hero of Your Own Life!

"It is important to have a long-range view. No great achievement is accomplished overnight or without difficulty. Should benefit be obtained easily, without our making serious efforts in our Buddhist practice, we'd probably easily abandon our faith and end up miserable. "

Daisaku Ikeda, Faith in Action page 145, under perseverance.

Yes, even though we might not like this, it is true. We do need to have a long range view. Yesterday I wrote about my overcoming my suffering where men were concerned. I talked about a certain 4 hour tozo where I yanked the karma of suffering over men out of my life by its very roots. This whole process did not happen overnight. I had to suffer for quite some time until I finally got to the point where I could pray THAT deeply...I had to go through the pain until I was absolutely DONE with that pain. It gave me the power to pray as if I were making fire from a stone. I had to build my life to the point of RESOLVE. Pure RESOLVE. 

Each of us can get to that point in our lives. But it is a building process. I love this quote:

"Buddhism teaches us that the individual writes and performs the script for his or her own life. Neither chance nor a divine being writes the script for us. We write it, and we are the actors who play it. This is an extremely positive philosophy, inherent in the teaching of 3,000 realms in a single moment of life. You are the author and the hero. To perform your play well, it is important to pound the script into your head so thoroughly that you can see it vividly before your eyes. You may need to rehearse in your mind. Sometimes it helps to write down your goals, copying them over and over and over until they are inscribed within your heart. 
Daisaku Ikeda, Faith in Action, page 35, under Goals. 

So we need to persevere and trust our process. 

Sensei says:
'Because life is long, you should not be impatient. What matters most is that you embrace the Gohonzon throughout your life. It is vitally important to continually challenge yourself to chant even a little more daimoku and to pray before the Gohonzon for the fulfillment of your desires."
Faith in Action page 145. 

Our daily practice provides the building blocks and the foundation for us to be strong in difficult times. As I have mentioned I have a difficult time going on right now, as do many of you. The important thing is for us all to keep persevering, keep studying, keep encouraging others and keep taking action in our lives! 

Last night we had a wonderful hour tozo (chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo) at my house and spent some time in discussion of our benefits and challenges. How I love my Gakkai family. I hope each of you are etablishing loving Gakkai families in your lives. You can click on the SGI portal on the right to be connected, or email me at chantforhappiness@gmail.com and I will do all I can to help.