This week has been a challenging and fulfilling week for me. My son Ben got his wisdom teeth out and has been staying with me. He's also been facing some disappointment, so I have been chanting up a storm for him. When our children aren't happy it's hard for us to be entirely happy, isn't that true? Well, let's just say this has been a tough year for Ben who just finished his second year of college in these challenging times.
One of the things he has discovered about himself is he gets great joy that comes from playing with children, so he is planning on becoming a teacher. He's been volunteering at The Sudbury School, a democratic free school where children are trusted, age levels are mixed, and the children decide what they will learn and when. If you're interested in knowing more you can look at the Sudbury Valley School on Facebook or the web. Sudbury Valley is the original school and the success of the students is well-documented in the book Free to Learn by Peter Gray.
Today, on this quiet Saturday, I arose to write something very exciting. This fall I will be leading a workshop in Bali, Indonesia called:
Explore, Enhance and Expand Your Inner Buddha...
As soon as I have all the details for reserving your place, I will post them here. I can tell you now that it's set for November 16th-22nd in Bali, Indonesia and the cost will be $1599 including accommodations, activities and most meals. I'll be doing this through Love Your Spirit Tours.
Here is the first write-up for the event. You get first peek at this exciting event!
Jamie Lee Silver
Write up for Bali,
From earliest memory, Jamie Lee Silver was searching for a practical solution to her problems. She knew that she could not have been born into a lifetime of debilitating depression, the constant urge to eat anything not nailed down, constant longing for love amidst self-loathing, and the curse of living life in America as a fat person without a higher reason. and greater purpose to help people. She had an intense yearning to revolutionize her life from within and to use her victory to help others who were suffering.
She did her best to appreciate her life, using the songs of John Denver as her spiritual support, and exploring every avenue of relief including religion, literature, metaphysics, mysticism, psychology, yoga, est, poetry, alcohol and various mind-enhancing drugs and meditations. In each of these, she found nuggets that were helpful, but her depression persisted and she kept searching for the real, karma changing solution.
In 1985 she was living in San Francisco and hit an all-time low after being laid off when she met Kate Randolph, a Nichiren Buddhist, who would become her mentor for life. Kate introduced her to a form of Buddhism that said that by chanting the words Nam-myoho-renge-kyo (the title of the Lotus Sutra and the name of the rhythm of life itself) and simultaneously focusing on your desires (not clearing your mind of desires), you can change ANYTHING in life from poison to medicine, create lasting karmic change for yourself and countless others, and actually make your dreams come true. Kate told her the power of this chant was its ability to grant the practitioner access to the entire power of the universe within each life.
Yes. According to this practice, everyone is a Buddha and this chant makes the Buddha burst forth generating the highest life state of fulfillment and happiness.
Immediately, Jamie began a twice-a-day practice of Practical Buddhism and embarked on a new life of Buddhist study. She immediately proved the power of this prayer by raising herself from the depths, finding a job and crawling out of her emotional hole. She knew she’d begun a life-long process of converting her own suffering, and helping anyone who was suffering find out about this practice.
Over the next 28 years she proved the power of this chant over and over in her life by vowing to use her struggles to encourage others. In her first few years of practice she took District leadership in the Soka Gakkai, otherwise known as the SGI, or “value creating society”, the lay organization that promotes peace, culture and education through individual and collective happiness. She has hosted meetings in her own home every week ever since then. One of her first benefits from chanting was writing a Power Prayer and manifesting her “House for World Peace” on a high hill overlooking San Francisco.
Since then, Jamie has chosen to move back to her roots in the Western Suburbs of Illinois to raise her two children, and has continued to devote her life to inspiring others by using her sparkling life as an example.
She has absolutely and completely conquered depression, lost 70 pounds and kept it off for years. Jamie has had a wonderful and multi-faceted career in the world of sales and marketing, winning countless awards and honors. She has raised two “Buddha Boys” who started chanting to vanquish bad dreams at the age of two, and have used this practice in various powerful ways throughout their lives. Jamie has gone from being friendless and unhappy to a woman of high self-worth with countless friends and students. As the writer of the blog ChantforHappiness.com she inspires over 20,000 people a month to keep chanting, never give up, and realize their dreams.
As of this writing, Jamie is finishing up her first book The Buddha Zone, PowerPrayers for Chanting Your Way to Absolute Happiness and cannot wait to hold it in her hands and give it to the world!
In Explore, Enhance and Expand Your Inner Buddha you will learn everything you need to know to experience plugging into your own power source through chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
We’ll be chanting every morning and evening together, learning the intellectual meaning of the chant itself and revealing its power in our lives.
We’ll begin with Jamie’s process that enables you to tap into your current desires, and the hopes and dream you may have forgotten, or given up on along the way. We’ll do an inspired writing process to bring these dreams to the surface and feel anew the power of the flame of desire itself. In this practice “Desires Are Enlightenment, and give us the fuel to set fire to our chanting.
In our workshops we”ll learn the origins of this “new” form of Buddhism whose roots go back to the Buddha’s original intent and purpose. And we’ll explore and learn powerful Buddhist concepts and apply them to everyday life. You’ll feel the energy of the chant, and be in the perfect place to delve into its meaning in your life, and how you can use it to over overcome any challenges you might be facing, and to build on it to springboard your life into previously untouched realms of self-fulfillment and happiness.
Each day we’ll chant together and study crucial concepts that help you understand why and how chanting is in complete accord with science and common sense. You’ll learn and experience “The oneness of self and environment, many in body, one in mind, the power of the mentor disciple relationship, and more. You’ll learn the essential components of a PowerPrayer, and how to write your own personal PowerPrayers that will clarify your determination and propel you in the direction of your dreams.
The lush and indescribably beautiful setting of Bali will make your new study of Buddhism that much more resonant and meaningful during our precious time together. We’ll explore the sights, sounds and tastes of this magnificent land as we bring forth our own most delicious, savory hopes, dreams and desires and begin the process of turning them from the impossible to the possible.
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