There is Light at the End of EVERY Tunnel! YOU are that light!

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"There is no way of life more desolate or more pitiful 
then one of ignorance of the fundamental joy
that issues from the struggle 
to generate and regenerate one's own life from within. 
To be human is much more 
than the biological facts of standing erect 
and exercising reasoning and intelligence. 
The full and genuine meaning of our humanity 
is found in tapping the creative fonts of life itself."

Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhism Day by Day, Wisdom for Modern Life, page 67

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Whatever you do - just don't give up! 

I just updated this blog title because reader Brian Mann reminded me that WE are the lights in the tunnel. Of course! Thank you Brian!

These last couple of months have been so challenging for me. I've been sad about my son, restless about my life, and, above all, longing for the sunshine. There have been days where I've thought "What can I tell my precious blog readers? I am having a hard time seeing the hope in my life - how can I help them?" 

And then, because I kept up my practice, kept studying, introducing others, and deepening my prayer, I cracked opened the power within my life, I am witnessing a new sun starting to shine within my life and in my environment. 

It is just as Daisaku Ikeda says over and over. A new day will dawn. Just don't give up!

As I was going through this darkness I bolstered myself by thinking "Jamie, you are going to have so much more compassion for people who are suffering, because of this. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel even though you can't see it. Now you've experienced loneliness, you've experienced grieving, you've written poem after poem and opened your heart in a new way...one day you will appreciate this, even this, dark time." 

And I kept in mind something a leader said recently: "YOU wrote the story of your life, and for sure, you write it every day. You've got to know you wrote a happy ending!" 

And it's the truth. And, as my friend Mark Lutnes just reminded me, "It's not just the ending that's happy!" 

Today the sun is shining. Yesterday it came out for a while, but so did 70 mile per hour winds. Woosh! 

I have, as always a full schedule. I'm working hard on Ben's Memorial Mile which will be held her in Downers Grove, Illinois, at Downers Grove North High School, about 25 miles west of Chicago on June 11th, 2016. It will bring the community together to honor Ben's life, raise money to end schizophrenia, and provide runs, walks and a really fun time for all ages. You are invited! Come one, come all!

And I'm heading down to the Florida Keys for a few days next weekend. I've always wanted to visit the keys. I love the peninsulas of this world (although the keys are actually islands, connected to Florida by long bridges) ....San Francisco, Provincetown...they attract artists and music and people who do not conform to the rest of the world, but make the world their own. I'd wanted to go, and suddenly some doors opened and I just stepped right through them. 

Whatever you are going through - JUST KEEP GOING and you will get to the other side! 

Join Us as We Chant A Million Daimoku by the end of the Year

This is a momentous year for the SGI. On November 18th the new world headquarters will be completed in Tokyo. Many of us have big goals that we intend to complete by that time. You can set goals to achieve by then as well. 

Yesterday I decided that I was facing a lot of challenges, and that NOW was a great time to begin a Daimoku Campaign. I thought about having it end by November 18th, but that would mean chanting three hours a day, and I just can't commit to that at this point. So I decided to aim my Daimoku chart for the end of the year - or sooner, and chant at least an hour and a half a day. Would you like to join me? 

If you begin with us now, you will have chanted a million daimoku (Nam-myoho-renge-kyo) by the end of the year. You can download a free daimoku chart, buy one at your local SGI center for about a dollar or make your own. One million Daimoku equals 300 hours. I'm not sure who first figured that out, but it's the formula everyone uses. To reach that total by the end of the year we each have to chant an hour and a half ~ are you up for the challenge?

Already many of you have emailed and said "YES~! I'm IN!" and some of you have also sent your goals for the campaign. 

How do you launch a Daimoku Campaign? 

First, DECIDE to do it. Find a way to track. I like the Daimoku chart I got at the SGI Center because it has little circles to fill in for every 15 minutes I chant. 
(It has 4 circles for every hour so 4 x 300 hours means there are 1200 little circles)
I always write in the date after I fill in the circles so I don't lose track. It makes chanting even more fun, I think, because every day you have a goal and track it. And on the chart, or on the back of the chart you write all your goals. 

I remember chanting a million daimoku towards the birth of my first child. I wasn't even pregnant before I started the chart. I chanted for the maturity to be a good mother, I chanted for a house to raise my child, to have a great relationship with my husband, for the child to be healthy, to have a safe delivery, and a good income to take care of everything. I found a job where I earned sales commissions that went up and up and up, and only worked three days a week. We bought a beautiful house on the top of a hill in San Francisco and I started having SGI meetings. And I poured Daimoku into the child that was coming to me. I chanted that this child's karma would be totally affected by all my daimoku and that this child would not have to suffer from all the things I did as a child. I chanted so hard for this child, and every one of my goals came true. 

Will all your goals manifest with one Daimoku Chart? That I can't tell you. But I can tell you you'll be a lot closer to them for having made a strong determination and completed it. And if you still have things you want to accomplish - well then, you start another million daimoku campaign! I have done many in my life and I feel the effects of them every day. 

If you have questions, or if you want to let me know you are joining us please email me at chantforhappiness@gmail.com. You can even send your picture and your determinations. Maybe I will share some of them on this site (never without your permission, of course!). And I look forward to sharing all our successes!