The Key to Happiness - Experiencing Life as a Buddha

Here I am cruising the Caribbean with my son. Our first day. It was great...starting at 4:00am Sunday and now it’s 1:00am on Monday morning. And I am so content. I love my life. I am happy in so many ways. I know that it is through chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo that I am this happy, and I have true peace of mind. I don’t worry about anything. I am no longer in hell in the world of hunger. I am in the world of Buddhahood in the world of hunger.  

Let me explain. I lived in the world of hunger, the hellish world of hunger, from earliest memory. It seemed that all I truly longed for was just beyond my reach. I thought I was either too  fat or not smart enough, or I didn’t have the right clothes, or I just couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t have enough friends and I was always longing for more. I lived in the world of “just beyond my reach.” And I agonized over it. I thought “If only I could lose those 50 pounds... or If only I could get that boy to like me...or if only I could get better grades and have better clothes.” and those thought HURT. 

There are some things I still want in life...I have many goals I intend to reach, but there is nothing I am hungering for that brings me pain. I have chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo to rise above the world of hunger, to raise my life condition and live as a Buddha, and that is my daily experience.

If you are ever wondering “What should I chant about today?” Chant to raise your life condition and experience life as a Buddha. Chant to realize with your life that you are a Buddha. Chant to see the golden diamond shining forth from your heart and chant to praise your life. 

Chanting this way will bring you to the world of contentment...peace of mind...true indestructible happiness. 

 Today I focus on the members on my SGI district, my family and all of the readers of this blog. I think about you, and chant to say the right words at the right time to light your enthusiasm and have you sit down in front of your Gohonzon totally refreshed and with new determination. 

I want you, and everyone else who is searching for happiness to know that is all of our birthrights to be happy. We can be completely and unshakably happy through our own determination and chanting of the name of the rhythm of life itself. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 

And each person who becomes happy has a profound effect on all those around them. This is the very essence of Human Revolution. Through my own transformation shall the world be transformed. 

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Chanting is a Grand and Noble Rite

In the early 1990s Daisaku Ikeda wrote a series of incredible articles that perfectly explain the profundity of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 


I'd like to share a few quotes with you today. 


I will never forget the first time I read the essay called 
"Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite." It was written when Daisaku Ikeda was in Calabasas, California on February 19, 1990. 


The word "Gongyo" refers to our twice daily recitation of the lotus sutra, and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. The best place to learn to recite Gongyo is in your local SGI meeting. And I plan on releasing a video and audio helping you to learn. It's fun to recite once you know it. It's like singing. Learning it can be a little challenging, but I have a way of teaching it that makes it easy. If you are only chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo at this point, you can still feel that this essay is for you, because chanting Daimoku is a grand and noble rite too!


"Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism teaches that our existence is identical to the universe as a whole, and the universe as a whole is identical to our existence. Each individual human life is a microcosm."


"The practice of gongyo is a grand and noble rite to achieve the vital communication of the microcosm of each person's existence with the universe, based on the Gohonzon."
 (The Gohonzon is the scroll that we focus on when we chant...I will write more about the Gohonzon later)


This part is really cool:


"The correspondence of each part of our bodies to parts of the universe is proof that our existence is a microcosm. Our heads are round like the heavens above us, and our eyes are like the sun and the moon. We close them and open them, like day and night. our hair shines like the sparkling stars. Our eyebrows are like the seven stars of the big dipper. Our breath is the wind, and the quiet breathing from our nostrils is like the still air of the valleys and dales. There are some 360 joints in the human body, and they stand for the days of the year. The twelve months. The warm, front side of our body  - our abdomen and stomach - is spring and summer. The cold, hard back is fall and winter. Our blood vessels and arteries are streams and rivers. When we suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, it is if a dam or dike has burst. Our bones are stones, and our skin and muscle are like the earth. Our body hair is a forest."


He goes on to further elucidate the correspondences of each part of the universe and how they are all governed under one law ~


"A slight change int he heat of the sun will enormously affect not only the earth but all the other planets. If the Earth's rotation were to stop for the briefest instant, or if its axis were to tilt to the slightest degree, all living things would be threatened with extinction. That is how subtle the natural order is. Furthermore an irrevocable Law of the Universe exists. This hold true for the microcosm as well...
"Nichiren Daishonin discovered and awoke to the great law of all existence that underlies all the partial laws governing spiritual and physical phenomena, and it was he who revealed the Law to humanity as Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This Mystic Law applies equally to the universe as a whole and to each and every individual human existence. The universe and the individual are one in the mystic law."


"When we practice Gongyo and chant Daimoku (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo before the Gohonzon, our individual existence is perfectly harmonized with the universe."


"Through this practice we can acquire wisdom and good fortune and glow with the energy to overcome any obstacle throughout the four seasons, 365 days a year, we can enter the way to eternal happiness and attain eternity, joy, true self and purity."


"Gongyo is a grand and noble rite that calls forth and activates the infinite power that the microcosm inherently possesses. It transforms your fate, breaks through any apparent dead end and converts suffering into happiness. It creates transformation, a revolution of the microcosm. It is a diagram of Kosen Rufu (World Peace) in our lives."


"The Kosen Rufu that is our aim is a movement to transform the universe, the earth and human society into a world of peace, comfort and harmony in accord with the rhythm of the Mystic Law."


However, he also stresses that the actions we take for ourselves and others is very important. If all we do is sit and chant and do nothing to help others, and take no action to improve our lives our practice will not have the full effect. 


He ends with this message:


"Our faith is that every day, every instant begins from time without beginning. 
We re always setting out, full of hope, from today to the future, from this moment to eternal happiness. We are always young, always beginning. My message to you is that you must be absolutely certain of this and live your wonderful lives without regret, with joy and brightness, always moving forward."


Thank you President Ikeda. Thank you. 

Living a Victorious Life!

I'm just sitting here, greeting the day on my patio. I finished my 40 minute walk around the neighborhood and have some time to write to you. 


I'm thinking about what a happy life I have, and how I want every one of you to experience this happiness. 


I feel totally unafraid, fulfilled, happy about the present and looking forward to the future. 
I know that each part of my life is moving toward more and more happiness at every minute.  
I'm becoming healthier and more fit without dieting and messing up my metabolism, I'm wearing beautiful clothes and feel confident. 
I'm progressing at work, and I'm just about to launch a series of really cool products that will benefit you and the people I have yet to meet. 
I have fun and playful and warm relationships with so many people and I make more friends everyday. 
The vision I have written for my life is here, right now!


Some of you have been reading this blog since the beginning in 2009. You might remember ~ I was very much under the sway of intense emotions. I've had strong mood swings and depression and sadness most of my life. And every day I have faced the Gohonzon and told my life I WILL BE HAPPY! No matter how much the sadness and hopelessness comes to claim me...I WILL WIN!!! I MUST be happy so I can show others how it is done! 


And here I am...clear...free. Sitting on my patio, feeding the baby ducks, facing a day of fulfilling work and an evening at the pool with my sweet son...smiling at the beginning of each day...having beautiful dreams when I sleep...and greeting the next day with enthusiasm and happiness! 


And I greet each day with an hour of Daimoku. 


Each day I roar like a lion. 


Each day I CLAIM my happiness, I CLAIM my results, I CLAIM my life. 


I tell the Gohonzon (which is inside my life and IS my life) that I am praising my life and loving my own self. 
I have always known that real love comes from within, blah, blah blah, haven't we heard that our whole lives? And now, I am generating that love and feeling that love. 


I chant to PRAISE MY LIFE! 


I chant to live a sparkling life of happiness so that each one of you, and all my district members, and everyone I am meeting now, and will meet in the future will say 
"Hey! ~ This woman has something special. She has an inner glow. Maybe she can tell me how I can get that for myself!" And of course, nothing makes me happier than introducing people to this practice...and happiness for the rest of their lives! 


And YOU can be happier than you ever dreamed possible. Don't wait for it. If you are in a bad situation GET OUT OF IT! And keep chanting. Remember that this is not a practice of passive acceptance. It is a practice of ACTION! There is no need to suffer. Change what you do not like about your life! Chant for everyone and everything involved. Chant to KNOW the right action to take. Chant to be decisive and wise. 
And take action...starting with strong daimoku in the morning and in the evening. You have your Soka Gakkai district and friends for support. And if you're not yet a part of this wonderful organization full of warm hearts and shining eyes please JOIN US! We are here wanting to give you a hand into a happy life. We are all examples of victory! Go to the Soka Gakkai website and call the center closest to you. You will claim your new family. 


Write to me and share your experiences!! Let me know if I can share them with the readers. 
Be victorious! Happiness lies at the end of your determinations! Don't give up. ROAR like the LION YOU ARE! Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!!!!