18 Types of Fortune and 3 Ways to Build it for Ourselves!

Sunday Night's Sunset from my window

Lately I am getting a lot of emails asking how to get money  ~ and asking "Is it ok to chant for money? First I would would like to say to chant for exactly what you want. If you need money chant for money~! 

If you need a job, chant for the BEST job for Kosen Rufu, where you can be the happiest, and make your life shine as a beacon for other's happiness. 

You deserve to have what you need. There are many, many examples of people chanting for money and getting it.  

AND underlying the need for money, there is a deeper and more exciting benefit that we can access within our lives. We can access and build TRUE FORTUNE into our lives. 

What is FORTUNE? How do we build it for ourselves?

First of all, fortune is self made. We can BUILD it with this practice, and change any negative karma we may have. 

No matter what our levels of fortune may be before we begin practicing Buddhism, once we begin chanting the name of the Law of Cause and Effect, the Mystic Law itself, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, our lives begin to move in the direction of fortune. 

With our Daimoku (chanting) we begin "changing from the inside out", the ONLY way to affect true and lasting change. 

And with each passing day of chanting, studying, encouraging others and introducing people to this practice our fortune grows and grows.

Fortune :

Daisaku Ikeda states: 
"Governments come and go, 
economies rise and fall, 
and society changes constantly. 
Only the good fortune 
we accumulate during our lives 
lasts forever. 
True victors are those 
who cultivate the tree of Buddhahood 
in the vast earth of their lives 
while achieving success 
both in society and in their personal lives 
through true faith and a true way of living. 
(Faith in Action page 110)

18 Types of Fortune 
Accumulated by chanting the name of the Mystic Law itself, 
the title of the Lotus Sutra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo: 
By Jamie Lee Silver from Chantforhappiness.com 

Fortune is being in rhythm so that we KNOW what to do, and have the spirit, conviction and courage to make the best possible causes at all times. 

Fortune is being in the right place at the right time. 

Fortune is Happiness and the ability to overcome any suffering and turn poison into medicine.

Fortune is strength and resiliency. 

Fortune is getting a call from an associate about a job opportunity that happens to be perfect for you. 

Fortune is having the courage and wisdom to say what must be said and do what must be done at the crucial moment. 

Fortune is always having what you need when you need it. 

Fortune is having the time to chant to our heart's content and encourage others, too. 

Fortune is being able to join harmoniously with our fellow SGI members creating a new kind of family for us all. 

Fortune is being born at the same time as Daisaku Ikeda and learning how to engrave the mentor disciple relationship into our lives so that it is a living, powerful source of energy and wisdom in our lives.  

Fortune is finding solace and peace even when we have lost a loved one. 

Fortune is experiencing the true depth of friendship... knowing how to be a friend, attracting, keeping and appreciating quality people in our lives.  

Fortune is experiencing how to love and be loved in return. 

Fortune is the freedom to live our lives as we want...traveling freely and happily. 

Fortune is health. 

Fortune is the ability to laugh.  

Fortune is the ability to sit in front or our Gohonzons and carry out a meaningful dialogue within our own lives that makes the impossible possible,and brings happiness to ourselves and our families, friends and world.

Fortune is being accident free.

There is much more to fortune.
You can add to this list...send me your ideas of fortune at chantforhappiness@gmail.com 

How do we build fortune for ourselves?

1. First we must build a strong practice.  
The more "work" we put into building our practice...the less "work" we have to put into our lives...the less struggling we have to do. We can use all the resources at our disposal to CREATE the discipline to be able to chant twice a day every day and participate in activities. Being a part of the SGI is crucial. Click on the link to the right or send me an email if you need help finding your local organization. If you don't live by any other SGI members, you can do shakubuku and create a group right where you are. In the meantime we can support each other in chanting. 
Having the wisdom to ask for assistance is crucial. Having a seeking mind to understand how and why the Mystic law can have such a profound effect on our lives is important. Studying our SGI publications is important. We call this having a seeking spirit. Chanting at least an hour a day is the fuel most people need to get the motor of their lives started. 

Fortune Comes from Having the spirit and the prayer: 

"I will WIN because my life is important. I will use my life as a shining example that this practice works!! My winning will be a real "win/win" because I will inspire others to the greatness of their own lives! And I will help them bring out the Buddhahood in their own lives by introducing them to chantingI will win for kosen-rufu. I will win over my own negativity. I will absolutely do this!" 

2. Determine and believe we DESERVE what we want fuels our fortune. Every action we take all day long is a cause for our happiness. What do we want? Why do we want it? What can we do to fuel that desire? 
Remember the Buddhist concept Hon Nim Myo - "from this moment forth". Every time we chant we begin life anew. From this moment forth I will win. From this moment forth is EVERY MOMENT. We have the power to change. NOW. We chant the MYSTIC LAW underlying all of life. Wow. We are filled with fortune!

3. Chant for what we want, and Chant for STRENGTH of practice and strength of mind and heart! If we want money, we chant for money. If we want to NEVER WORRY ABOUT MONEY AGAIN - we chant with this in mind. If we want a job we chant for it. The world is OURS. We chant for exactly what we want!

What does fortune mean for you? Write me at chantforhappiness@gmail.com with your experiences and comments! 

7 Keys to Vanquishing Recurring Karma Once and For All!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Strength is Happiness. 
Strength is itself victory. 
In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness. 
When you wage a struggle, 
you might win or you might lose. 
But regardless of the short-term outcome, 
the very fact of your continuing to struggle 
is proof of your victory as a human being. 
A strong spirit, strong faith and strong prayer - 
developing these is victory 
and the world of Buddhahood."

Daisaku Ikeda, For Today and Tomorrow, page 50 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all have it. That karmic pattern that we've chanted to end forever...and somehow, it ends for a bit then resurfaces in a different time and place. 

For some people it's a financial challenge, for others it might be within relationships, but at the core of it all, it's OUR karma and we need to keep our determination to change it. And for me, it usually involves some kind of courageous conversation, and drawing some resource from within my own life using wisdom to overcome, not cower from it. 

I picture our lives and karma like a spiral going upwards, and as I come around a bend, the karma resurfaces in some way...and it's up to me once again to write the story of my life. 

At a study meeting the other day, a leader reminded me: "Whenever I encounter a trouble I remind myself I WRITE THE STORY OF MY LIFE. I'm the protagonist and the author. I'm sure I wrote a happy ending!" I loved that. It made me laugh! Of course, we made a happy ending. And right here, right now...we are building that happiness. We can vanquish recurring karma once and for all. 

How do we do this?

7 KEYS to Vanquishing Recurring Karma Once and for ALL

By Jamie Lee Silver of ChantforHappiness.com

1. Have a strong determination to prove the power of this faith through your own life so you can encourage others. We practice to change ourselves and to change the world. Keep reminding yourself of your brilliant mission. 
You are a Buddha!!! Always! Eternally and at every moment! 

2. Keep going to meetings! 

3. Keep studying! 

4. Encourage others!

5. Take good care of yourself! 
Get enough sleep, eat well, exercise.
Appreciate yourself. Appreciate everything

6. Be open to new resources. 
Our powerful Daimoku leads us to resources that help us. 

7. Keep chanting! 
Every morning and evening and every morning and evening! You can do it! 

GO Buddha Go! 

I've been spending much of my time promoting Ben's Memorial Mile. This event will honor Ben's life, bring the community together, and raise money for a cure for Schizophrenia. It's June 11th in Downers Grove Illinois. You are all invited! There will be races for all age groups of varying lengths. This is incredibly hard for me...but I am persevering! For more info go to BensMemorialMile.com

STRENGTH! 
STRENGTH!
STRENGTH! 

Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite by Daisaku Ikeda

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Here is my favorite essay by Daisaku Ikeda that I have engraved in my heart. 
You can translate it using the translate button to the right. 

Enjoy!

Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite: 

"I would like to take the opportunity provided by today’s training session of the youth division to present a succinct and easily comprehensible discussion of the significance of gongyo. Because of the limitations of time I cannot pursue the subject in all its details, so I would like all of you to consider and explore this topic on your own afterwards as well. 

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 to the microcosm of each person’s existence with the universe, based on the Gohonzon. 

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 are round, 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 major joints signify 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 as 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. 
Buddhist scriptures discuss in detail these correspondences i
ncluding each of the internal organs, 
teaching that our body is indeed a universe in miniature. 

There are clouds in the heavens. The wind blows, the stars twinkle. There are oceans on earth. The rivers flow. Volcanoes erupt. And great quantities of metals and minerals — gold, silver, copper, potassium, calcium — lie in the earth’s depths. 

The activities and qualities of all these materials are also incorporated in our bodies. 

The infinite elementary particles of the cosmos — atoms, protons, photons, electrons, neutrons, and all the rest — microscopic animals such as bacteria, the activities of good and evil, and the laws of gravity, the conservation of mass and energy, and all other laws of the universe also apply in almost the same fashion to the microcosm of our bodies. 

A look at the operation of our bodies suggests that they are great pharmaceutical plants. They have the capability to produce the drugs we need to preserve our health. They take in food and transform it into nourishment and energy. 

The human brain has the capability of a giant computer — even though we may not always be able to use it! 

The sixty trillion cells of our bodies work together 
in their established order in a perfect biorhythm. This is the original order of things. 

The Great Law That Pervades Individual Existence and the Universe 
Our existence is the universe, and its life processes are sublime. A slight change in the 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 the slightest degree, all living things would be threatened with extinction. 

That is how subtle the natural order is. And further, a firm and irrevocable law of the universe exists. This holds true for the microcosm as well. 

It is science that pursues this invisible but truly existent law, and technology is the invention of machines and other devices based on the fruits of scientific research. 

Nichiren Daishonin discovered and awoke to the great law of all existence that underlies all the partial laws governing all spiritual and physical phenomena, and it was he who revealed that 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 this Mystic Law. 

Under certain circumstances, an invisible law takes form as a visible existence. The individual human existence, for example, emerges out of its state of fusion with the rest of the universe by taking shape in the womb and being born in the world. 

A ship can be regarded as a tangible representation of the law of buoyancy, just as an airplane is a representation of the laws of aerodynamics, a radio or television program a representation of the law of electromagnetic waves. All of these objects give shape to invisible laws. 

The fundamental law of the universe and individual existence is also invisible. The Daishonin inscribed the Gohonzon as a visual representation of that Mystic Law for the people of the world. The Lotus Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures are the instruction manuals for the Gohonzon. 

Josei Toda, my teacher and the second president of the Soka Gakkai, explained the Gohonzon in an easily comprehensible way as "a machine to produce happiness." 

When we practice gongyo and chant daimoku before the Gohonzon, our individual existence is perfectly harmonized with the universe. 

Both the universe and our individual existence are the concrete manifestation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as is the Gohonzon. That is why when we practice gongyo and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the Gohonzon, our existence and the universe mesh as perfectly as two gears, and with an initial creak begin to work together. 

The single life-moment (ichinen) of the individual becomes one with the three thousand (sanzen) factors and realms of the universe and begins to produce great value. This is the concrete practice of ichinen sanzen. 

Through that practice we can acquire wisdom and good fortune, 
and glow with the energy to overcome any obstacle throughout the four seasons, 
three hundred sixty-five days a year; 
we can enter the way to the eternal happiness 
and attain eternity, joy, true self and purity (jo raku ga jo). 

Gongyo is a practice 
which calls forth and activates 
the infinite power that the microcosm 
inherently possesses. 
It transforms your fate, 
breaks through any apparent dead end 
and converts sufferings into happiness. 
It creates a transformation, 
a revolution of the microcosm. 
It is a diagram in miniature of kosen-rufu 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. 

The Practice of Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Which Leads to Eternal Happiness 
If you let an automobile or any other machine fall into disuse, it will rust and stop working correctly. You have to use it and maintain it regularly and properly. Why, the same thing is even true of the hair on our heads: If we don’t wash it regularly we’ll be encrusted with dandruff! 

Gongyo and chanting daimoku 
are like starting the automobile’s engine every day 
and driving in the direction of happiness and truth. 

By doing so day after day, you will gradually attain perfect unity with the universe and the Law. That state is the state of the Buddha. 

Once that has happened, you will be able to enjoy yourself with complete freedom for all eternity. Your existence will be a diamond that will never perish throughout the three existences. 

To attain Buddhahood in this life, the Daishonin warns us with firm concern that we must never retreat in our practice. 

Even though we may experience a period of sadness 
or depression, 
the principle that earthly desires are enlightenment 
teaches us that great sufferings 
are bound to be transformed 
into equally great joy, progress and value. 
There is nothing to fear, 
since the Gohonzon possesses 
the infinite power of the Law and the Buddha. 

We often say that strong faith, valiant and untiring practice and courageous acts are important. This is an expression of the truth that without a strong will and courageous practice it is impossible to achieve great things. 

You will not be able to communicate in a discussion with another unless you are clear and direct. If you lack the courage of your convictions and mumble vague things, you won’t make any impression on your listener. Nor can you strike a chord in his heart. And of course you will not be able to move or convince him. To do that you need to be very determined and sure.

Isn’t the same thing true of love? 

It’s certainly true in a job interview. Unless you present your thoughts clearly and forcefully, you won’t make any impression on the interviewer. In other words, mental determination and courageous actions can change any situation and they possess a critical capability to produce happiness. 

The Victory Song of Life Is to Be Found in Action 
To fly, a plane needs the extra push it gets by acceleration down a runway. To get good grades in school, you need the extra push of study before a test. 

Whatever you do, to achieve something better, to reach a higher level, you need a push. 

Buddhism teaches practice for oneself and practice for others. If either one is lacking, you cannot practice properly. 

The Gohonzon is the concrete manifestation of the very existence of Nichiren Daishonin, who taught kosen-rufu. Because of that, if you only practice gongyo and chant the daimoku and don’t take any other action for the sake of kosen rufu or improving your own life, the Gohonzon will not have its true, full effect. 

If, however, you take actions to achieve kosen-rufu, they will serve as that extra push for your own life and help you leap to higher and higher states of mind in your gongyo and chanting as well. 

And it is only natural that the energy you acquire through the gongyo practice for yourself will be channeled back into your activities for others, for kosen-rufu. 

The fact is that the practice of gongyo and your actions in service of kosen-rufu will become one, and together they will unlock the infinite power of the Mystic Law in your life. 

In Buddhism, practice is faith. That means action is faith, and without action there can be no true faith. The action I speak of is the way of practice for oneself and for others that is taught in Nichiren Daishonin’s writings. 

Action is the source of blessings and merits. In propagating the teachings, for example, whether the person you are presenting the teachings to arouses faith or not is his problem. The effects of our action of propagating will vary, depending on the person’s capacities and other conditions. 

There is no need at all to rejoice or lament over each effect. You can be proud that you have practiced the truest, most wonderful law of life in the universe to the best of your ability and go forward with your head held high. One who has acted for the sake of kosen-rufu is already a great victor in life. 

The words "the heads of those who cause affliction will be split in seven pieces" are written on the Gohonzon. 

This is a warning that it is wrong to seek to harm this law of your own being. 

Abandoning the teachings or slandering them are self-destructive actions that are bound to split you apart. 

We also find the words "those who make offerings will acquire blessings surpassing the Buddha’s ten names." 
This forceful statement tells us that the merits of one who make offerings to the Gohonzon and spreads the teaching will be far greater than the magnificent merits of the one who makes offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a promise that our personal microcosm will absorb the nourishment of all the blessings in the macrocosm, the whole universe, and be elevated to a state of existence of the highest happiness itself. 

Thus we know that the children of the Buddha who strive for kosen-rufu are each guaranteed to attain the ultimate degree of happiness. There is no one who will be more blessed. 

Faith in Present and Future 
"For both the present and the future" is also written on the Gohonzon. For present and future. That is what faith is for, what the Buddhist Law is for. 

When we worship the Gohonzon, the eternal life of time without beginning wells up within us. Our faith is that every day, every instant begins from time without beginning. 

We are 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."  

This essay is from the collected speeches of Daisaku Ikeda in "To My Young American Friends" 

Chant for What YOU Want. Exactly what you want.

I get letters frequently from readers who are wondering why their prayer is not being answered as fast as they would like it to be, and asking me if they should switch to some other prayer. This is a great question. 

My answer is always the same. 
Chant for what you want. 
Chant for exactly what you want. 
Only YOU can have your desires. 
Write them down. 
Clarify them for yourself.

I am familiar with relationship problems, as many of you know. And the pain of wanting someone who does not want you runs deep. I know. I know. And beneath that prayer you have a deeper prayer. You have a prayer for the deepest fulfillment in love. It is FINE to chant specifically for one person to become yours. I did it for a long time. And my prayer was answered. It was answered long enough for me to see that even beyond that person I wanted more for my life...a complete union in happiness. And I've written every word of what that means for me. And I chant for it. I am totally at peace about the process, and the whole realm of dating is changing for me. There's just no suffering involved. Wow.

Underneath all our prayers there is the deeper prayer of how we want to feel and what we want to experience. Chanting works no matter what. Chant just for what you want. Just for what you want. What would really make you happy?

You deserve the best and most exquisite happiness in THIS lifetime. CHANT to be HAPPY! Chant to be fulfilled! Chant for your most radiant self to shine through.

And as President

Ikeda says, chant naturally what is in your heart. If you are hurt or troubled...chant naturally. There is no need for pretext in front of the Gohonzon. you are the Gohonzon and the Gohonzon is YOU.

Don't give up on your dreams!!! Keep chanting, going to meetings, doing shakubuku, studying and encouraging others...what a wonderful formula for complete success!