Would you be interested in knowing that chanting only five minutes has the power to turn your whole life around?
I know, I know...it sounds too good to be true, but I have seen it happen!
The first 5 minute experience happened with a dear friend when I lived in San Francisco. Her daughter had been going through numerous challenges ever since she was quite young. Now she was a troubled teenager. She couldn't seem to fit in anywhere...she couldn't seem to save herself and my friend was really at a loss.
My friend is an intellectual...sometimes the smartest people have the hardest time chanting! Their brains just won't stop telling them that they are too smart for all of this! They want to figure it all out...but you can't figure this out...it's experiential! You have to do it!
However...this one time...at the end of her rope...my friend chanted.
Her daughter was in jail...again...and my friend came over. I said "what do you have to lose?" and she chanted FIVE minutes with me. She was chanting for her daughter to be allowed back into the place she had just been. I'll never forget chanting with her.
After that, she went to visit her daughter in jail and they chanted 20 minutes together!! OMG!
The daughter did not get back into the place they had hoped for...she ended up in a much better place...a place that saved her life. It was a place in Colorado that WOULD NOT kick her out if she ran away...and they had a beauty school, something my friend's daughter really wanted to learn. It set her on the right course. It was life changing.
It all started with 5 minutes.
Whenever you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo it's as if you are reciting the entire Lotus Sutra. You are, in a way...speaking the words of the Buddha that you REALLY are...and accessing the power that has always been yours!
Chanting is a tool to access your own Buddhahood.
Rock and roll!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Buddhist Meetings
Soka Gakkai Buddhist Meetings are so cool.
Many are held just in normal people's homes. Some are held at the many culture centers throughout the world. They are all conducted by lay people like myself. All of us are equals and there are no priests.
They take many forms...discussion meetings...study meetings...tozos (chanting meetings) and other types of lectures etc.
I love hosting them at my house.
They usually last an hour and a half. In a discussion meeting half an hour is chanting, then the rest of the time is made up of study and experiences.
There is also a time where we discuss some aspects of the practice...an overview for guests.
We talk about why we started practicing...and what we have achieved.
Then someone gives an experience. Experiences detail a challenge someone has had...how they've chanted about it...and how they've overcome it and triumphed.
If one of my readers wants to share an experience let me know! I would love to include you in this blog.
Have you aver attended an event that fundamentally changed your life forever? Your eyes were opened and you never saw things the same way again? That's how I chant for every attendee at my meetings.
I chant for the success of the meeting...for every single person to be a different person as they leave the meeting...more inspired than ever...seeing themselves in a whole different light...Ready to take on each adn every challenge they're facing...I chant for each and every person to never be the same after a meeting! In an awe inspiring way. And I chant for all my Buddhist friends and all people chanting every where to really GET how awesome the power is in their own lives!
Remember : Dream Big...chanting is to make the impossible come true!
Many are held just in normal people's homes. Some are held at the many culture centers throughout the world. They are all conducted by lay people like myself. All of us are equals and there are no priests.
They take many forms...discussion meetings...study meetings...tozos (chanting meetings) and other types of lectures etc.
I love hosting them at my house.
They usually last an hour and a half. In a discussion meeting half an hour is chanting, then the rest of the time is made up of study and experiences.
There is also a time where we discuss some aspects of the practice...an overview for guests.
We talk about why we started practicing...and what we have achieved.
Then someone gives an experience. Experiences detail a challenge someone has had...how they've chanted about it...and how they've overcome it and triumphed.
If one of my readers wants to share an experience let me know! I would love to include you in this blog.
Have you aver attended an event that fundamentally changed your life forever? Your eyes were opened and you never saw things the same way again? That's how I chant for every attendee at my meetings.
I chant for the success of the meeting...for every single person to be a different person as they leave the meeting...more inspired than ever...seeing themselves in a whole different light...Ready to take on each adn every challenge they're facing...I chant for each and every person to never be the same after a meeting! In an awe inspiring way. And I chant for all my Buddhist friends and all people chanting every where to really GET how awesome the power is in their own lives!
Remember : Dream Big...chanting is to make the impossible come true!
Great Weekend
What a weekend!
I've had a cold since Friday, but have had some fun this weekend anyway. The weather has been perfect weather for me...bright sun...warm! Yaaay!
Yesterday was such a highlight!
My son Ben ran in the Lake Park meet. I picked up my Mom from her Assisted Living (OPH she calls it "Old People's Home"!) and brought her up to Lake Park by the Medinah Country Club to watch Ben's Cross Country meet. It was an amazing day. There were over 1100 high school runners there, both boys and girls. Ben ran in first place for the entire race...until they came onto the track and he ended up coming in second...but it was still such a victory for him. He PR'd at 13:48 for the three mile race and was in great shape at the end of the race...(not gasping for air or lying on the ground!) he was interviewed by the Daily Herald. It was so exciting!
After dropping my Mom back off in Bolingbrook I stopped at the library and found a fabulous book that I have already finished today. It's called Foreign Tongue...A Novel of Life and Love in Paris and it's written in the first person (my absolute favorite style) about a woman who was raised in LA and in Paris. In the book she moves back to Paris to cure her broken heart and ends up translating a French romantic novel. It had everything, romance, humor, and the fascinating study of words in two languages. I love the idea of untranslatable concepts...it opens a whole world of how Americans and other cultures think. Loved it! Vanina Marsot is the author and it's her first book. Thank you Vanina! You made a weekend with a bad cold fly by! And it brought me back to my french roots. Both my grandparents were French Canadian on my mother's side. I love the language.
I also took out all the CD's of Vaughn Williams, my favorite composer. His music has the power to transport me to magical lands...I am so looking forward to listening...over and over!
Even though I've been sick I've still managed to chant.
Tomorrow night is the first Buddhist meeting at my house in a long time.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
I've had a cold since Friday, but have had some fun this weekend anyway. The weather has been perfect weather for me...bright sun...warm! Yaaay!
Yesterday was such a highlight!
My son Ben ran in the Lake Park meet. I picked up my Mom from her Assisted Living (OPH she calls it "Old People's Home"!) and brought her up to Lake Park by the Medinah Country Club to watch Ben's Cross Country meet. It was an amazing day. There were over 1100 high school runners there, both boys and girls. Ben ran in first place for the entire race...until they came onto the track and he ended up coming in second...but it was still such a victory for him. He PR'd at 13:48 for the three mile race and was in great shape at the end of the race...(not gasping for air or lying on the ground!) he was interviewed by the Daily Herald. It was so exciting!
After dropping my Mom back off in Bolingbrook I stopped at the library and found a fabulous book that I have already finished today. It's called Foreign Tongue...A Novel of Life and Love in Paris and it's written in the first person (my absolute favorite style) about a woman who was raised in LA and in Paris. In the book she moves back to Paris to cure her broken heart and ends up translating a French romantic novel. It had everything, romance, humor, and the fascinating study of words in two languages. I love the idea of untranslatable concepts...it opens a whole world of how Americans and other cultures think. Loved it! Vanina Marsot is the author and it's her first book. Thank you Vanina! You made a weekend with a bad cold fly by! And it brought me back to my french roots. Both my grandparents were French Canadian on my mother's side. I love the language.
I also took out all the CD's of Vaughn Williams, my favorite composer. His music has the power to transport me to magical lands...I am so looking forward to listening...over and over!
Even though I've been sick I've still managed to chant.
Tomorrow night is the first Buddhist meeting at my house in a long time.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Quote from Daisaku Ikeda
Nothing can match the strength
of those whose lives have been shaped and forged
through challenging and overcoming hardships.
Such people fear nothing.
The purpose of our Buddhist practice
is to develop such strength and fortitude.
To cultivate such an invincible core
is in itself a victory.
It is also the greatest benefit.
Those who can succeed in this endeavor
will savor unsurpassed happiness;
they can manifest the state of Buddhahood.
Daisaku Ikeda
For Today and Tomorrow
of those whose lives have been shaped and forged
through challenging and overcoming hardships.
Such people fear nothing.
The purpose of our Buddhist practice
is to develop such strength and fortitude.
To cultivate such an invincible core
is in itself a victory.
It is also the greatest benefit.
Those who can succeed in this endeavor
will savor unsurpassed happiness;
they can manifest the state of Buddhahood.
Daisaku Ikeda
For Today and Tomorrow
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Human Revolution
I have told you exactly what I'm chanting for...to free my life from the undercurrent of suffering that has always been within my life and awaken to my true Buddha nature.
I am chanting two hours every day, I am chanting with my friends and encouraging them...I am making every cause every day to have this break through in my life.
What does is feel like?
It feels like the center of my life is some hot volcano...it underlies everything...sometimes it's dormant...sometimes I can quiet it with food or other diversions...and sometimes it just boils up and over!
I'll just bet you know what I mean. I really think we all have this in some form...and all find ways to tamp it down...deal with it...ignore it...and it's probably at the heart of illness itself.
Yesterday I awakened into the reality of the pain all fresh and new.
Now, I know I can summon happiness from within my life...I KNOW this intellectually, and I KNOW the only real love comes from within. Of course, of course.
But the knowledge of this doesn't help when I wake up with tears already in my eyes and a longing and regret that won't just be pushed away. I was thinking about how long I've had this pain...this longing...this insatiable hunger. I've attributed it to many things...in High School it was "caused" by my longing for a boy I couldn't have, in college it was just general sadness, and since then it's been longing for one thing or person after another...just a sense of never having enough.
Don't get me wrong, I have a great life, I have a wonderful career, I have an inspiring and dedicated family, I have many dear, dear friends, and feel great appreciation much of the time...but there has been this sadness under it forever. Probably for many lifetimes.
And among my Buddhist friends there are so many excellent roll models who have conquered their sadness and overcome great obstacles...I know that I can too.
So, I called my friend Kate Randolph, the incredibly talented actress, producer and director...and also the person who introduced me to this practice 25 years ago. She has had this breakthrough for herself. Here is what she said:
First she said that my victory is assured.
I will experience the happiness that comes from accessing my own Buddhahood.
I will bring the love I wish to feel from within my life. I will stop looking for it to come from somewhere else. I will accomplish my goal. I am chanting two hours a day, I am focusing on my happiness and the happiness of others. I am joined in heart with my mentor Daisaku Ikeda.
And I must go through it to the end. As it says in the Gosho "the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat." She said I must realize that I am turning around years...lifetimes...of devaluing my life. I must praise it instead!
I must realize that I'm waging this battle not only for myself, and see it for the noble fight it is. Face it, MOST people think their happiness and suffering lie OUTSIDE of themselves.
That's the world we live in.
If I can break through that illusion in my own life, I can raise the vibration of the whole planet. That is what we mean by the Term Human Revolution...any real change on the planet is affected by each of us being strong and brave enough to do what it takes to break through.
Since we are all interconnected to everything else...all part of the web of life...human revolution MUST effect everything in the environment.
She said Kosen Rufu (world peace) means having a planet that fundamentally dignifies life. Imagine that!
We Buddhas, all of us, everyone, can be deeply, profoundly, limitlessly happy right now, right where we are, just as we are.
Bring it on!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!!!
I am chanting two hours every day, I am chanting with my friends and encouraging them...I am making every cause every day to have this break through in my life.
What does is feel like?
It feels like the center of my life is some hot volcano...it underlies everything...sometimes it's dormant...sometimes I can quiet it with food or other diversions...and sometimes it just boils up and over!
I'll just bet you know what I mean. I really think we all have this in some form...and all find ways to tamp it down...deal with it...ignore it...and it's probably at the heart of illness itself.
Yesterday I awakened into the reality of the pain all fresh and new.
Now, I know I can summon happiness from within my life...I KNOW this intellectually, and I KNOW the only real love comes from within. Of course, of course.
But the knowledge of this doesn't help when I wake up with tears already in my eyes and a longing and regret that won't just be pushed away. I was thinking about how long I've had this pain...this longing...this insatiable hunger. I've attributed it to many things...in High School it was "caused" by my longing for a boy I couldn't have, in college it was just general sadness, and since then it's been longing for one thing or person after another...just a sense of never having enough.
Don't get me wrong, I have a great life, I have a wonderful career, I have an inspiring and dedicated family, I have many dear, dear friends, and feel great appreciation much of the time...but there has been this sadness under it forever. Probably for many lifetimes.
And among my Buddhist friends there are so many excellent roll models who have conquered their sadness and overcome great obstacles...I know that I can too.
So, I called my friend Kate Randolph, the incredibly talented actress, producer and director...and also the person who introduced me to this practice 25 years ago. She has had this breakthrough for herself. Here is what she said:
First she said that my victory is assured.
I will experience the happiness that comes from accessing my own Buddhahood.
I will bring the love I wish to feel from within my life. I will stop looking for it to come from somewhere else. I will accomplish my goal. I am chanting two hours a day, I am focusing on my happiness and the happiness of others. I am joined in heart with my mentor Daisaku Ikeda.
And I must go through it to the end. As it says in the Gosho "the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat." She said I must realize that I am turning around years...lifetimes...of devaluing my life. I must praise it instead!
I must realize that I'm waging this battle not only for myself, and see it for the noble fight it is. Face it, MOST people think their happiness and suffering lie OUTSIDE of themselves.
That's the world we live in.
If I can break through that illusion in my own life, I can raise the vibration of the whole planet. That is what we mean by the Term Human Revolution...any real change on the planet is affected by each of us being strong and brave enough to do what it takes to break through.
Since we are all interconnected to everything else...all part of the web of life...human revolution MUST effect everything in the environment.
She said Kosen Rufu (world peace) means having a planet that fundamentally dignifies life. Imagine that!
We Buddhas, all of us, everyone, can be deeply, profoundly, limitlessly happy right now, right where we are, just as we are.
Bring it on!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!!!
Monday, September 7, 2009
What does Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Mean?
So glad you asked!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo means:
"I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration".
I like to think of it as "I am one with the flow of life" because that's what it does...it puts you right in rhythm with your own life and everything around you.
It's a law. It works whether you believe in it or not.
People all over the world chant this phrase with the Sokka Gakkai International. The Website link is sgi-usa.org. I've posted it next to the copy of this blog. I encourage you to go there. Call the center nearest you and get the name of someone who practices near you. It doesn't cost anything...you don't have to "do" anything to chant. Just try!
It's truly a practice for anyone...no rules...no dues...no eating restrictions...just chant!
And practice. Chant every morning and evening...then you'll be writing me to tell me your results! Remember...dream big...go for the impossible!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo means:
"I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration".
I like to think of it as "I am one with the flow of life" because that's what it does...it puts you right in rhythm with your own life and everything around you.
It's a law. It works whether you believe in it or not.
People all over the world chant this phrase with the Sokka Gakkai International. The Website link is sgi-usa.org. I've posted it next to the copy of this blog. I encourage you to go there. Call the center nearest you and get the name of someone who practices near you. It doesn't cost anything...you don't have to "do" anything to chant. Just try!
It's truly a practice for anyone...no rules...no dues...no eating restrictions...just chant!
And practice. Chant every morning and evening...then you'll be writing me to tell me your results! Remember...dream big...go for the impossible!
The Three Proofs in Buddhism
Sunday's two hour tozo (chanting two hours) at the center was really challenging! I lead the chanting (the microphone was given to me, so I set the pace and the rhythm) from 8:30 until 9:00 am and it seemed like a very long time! Time is so funny, isn't it...sometimes I can chant a whole two hours or more and barely look at the clock, other times a half hour feels like forever!
When I first started chanting I was determined to chant 5 minutes every morning and evening. Sometimes that 5 minutes seemed like an eternity. I'm sure I stopped at 4 and 1/2 minutes sometimes! But the effort was worth it...I started to see results so soon. I started to feel lighter, I got a job, I met John Denver for the first time...so many things began to happen when I started chanting.
Now, I am digging so deep in my prayer. I am determined to rid my life of the underlying suffering that has always been in my life. I am determined to be aware of my own Buddha nature, to feel it, see it, appreciate it all the time...or as much as possible! I want to feel the love that is all around me all the time. I want to access an even deeper love for my own self...I know this transformation is possible.
And as I mentioned a few blogs ago, I am also chanting to get these thoughts of regret and sadness OUT of my brain!
I am chanting for so many people. I keep pictures of everyone up on my wall by my altar, and chant for them!
I am also chanting to know which foods are best for my body, to actually want to eat healthy foods and to be more beautiful, more radiant, more healthy than ever before! I am chanting to be an example, and to show actual proof of the power of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I am chanting to inspire people...many people to try chanting to see for themselves!
There are three proofs in Buddhism:
1) Is the practice rooted in original Buddhist doctrine?
The answer is YES, this practice goes back to the Lotus Sutra, expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha.
2) Does it accord with common sense?
The answer is YES, and that's one of the best things about this practice. It all just makes sense. OF COURSE you are the universe! OF COURSE you don't need a priest or interpreter to access that power. What you need is a tool. That tool is chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
3) Is there actual proof of this practice? ~ Does it work? Does it get results? This is the most important of the three proofs.
The answer is YES, but please don't take my word for it!
I hope you'll prove to yourself that the answer is YES. It is purely experiential. I dare you to have the courage it takes to chant and see for yourself! Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
When I first started chanting I was determined to chant 5 minutes every morning and evening. Sometimes that 5 minutes seemed like an eternity. I'm sure I stopped at 4 and 1/2 minutes sometimes! But the effort was worth it...I started to see results so soon. I started to feel lighter, I got a job, I met John Denver for the first time...so many things began to happen when I started chanting.
Now, I am digging so deep in my prayer. I am determined to rid my life of the underlying suffering that has always been in my life. I am determined to be aware of my own Buddha nature, to feel it, see it, appreciate it all the time...or as much as possible! I want to feel the love that is all around me all the time. I want to access an even deeper love for my own self...I know this transformation is possible.
And as I mentioned a few blogs ago, I am also chanting to get these thoughts of regret and sadness OUT of my brain!
I am chanting for so many people. I keep pictures of everyone up on my wall by my altar, and chant for them!
I am also chanting to know which foods are best for my body, to actually want to eat healthy foods and to be more beautiful, more radiant, more healthy than ever before! I am chanting to be an example, and to show actual proof of the power of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I am chanting to inspire people...many people to try chanting to see for themselves!
There are three proofs in Buddhism:
1) Is the practice rooted in original Buddhist doctrine?
The answer is YES, this practice goes back to the Lotus Sutra, expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha.
2) Does it accord with common sense?
The answer is YES, and that's one of the best things about this practice. It all just makes sense. OF COURSE you are the universe! OF COURSE you don't need a priest or interpreter to access that power. What you need is a tool. That tool is chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
3) Is there actual proof of this practice? ~ Does it work? Does it get results? This is the most important of the three proofs.
The answer is YES, but please don't take my word for it!
I hope you'll prove to yourself that the answer is YES. It is purely experiential. I dare you to have the courage it takes to chant and see for yourself! Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
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