No good cause is ever wasted! Planted seeds are sprouting!

I've been telling you about my old friend ~ the one I knew since she was a child. Well I received this from her yesterday:

"I can remember Jamie chanting when I was a little girl. I did not understand it at the time. And as a teenager, I had too many hardships distracting me... from focusing on anything positive. I've grown up a lot since then. Jamie's heart has always been big and optimistic. At times, I wondered how someone could be so positive and happy, in a world of such pain and suffering? Now that I've been able to chant.... I've begun to see a different way of looking at things. When I chant I feel at peace. The vibration begins to calm my mind and relax my soul. I am so proud of you, Jamie. Thank you for introducing me to chanting at the young age of 5. I know 15 mins is not a lot. But it DOES make a difference. It grounds me. Reading your blog today made me cry. All Happiness. All love. I wish you peace and health and all the best,

That little girl...

Nikki

xox "

If you could only imagine how happy this makes me!!! I've known Nikki since I FIRST began chanting. The first time she heard me chanting was when I lived in a tiny apartment on Bush street in San Francisco. She had been recently adopted by my new and lifelong friend Joan. 


I chanted for her from the very beginning. In fact, I distinctly remember having her over when she was five and chanting that the seed of Buddhism would sprout in her life. Through her hardest years I chanted for her soooo much, and maybe one time I'll share the story of how her mother and I, and then her mother and her, chanted together and reset the course of her life. It only took 5 minutes to cause a great impact. 

Don't disregard ANY good cause you make. Tell people about the incredible source of power in your life and the tool you use to access it...and don't worry if they chant today, tomorrow...or...

Just by telling them, you have made a profound cause! 


A year and a half ago two dear friends I've known for more than 20 years embraced this practice wholeheartedly! After 20 years!!! 

What a great life I lead!!!What a great life you lead! Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!!! 

Just keep moving forward! 
And Nikki! You go girl! When you're ready,  I can help introduce you to Buddhists in your neighborhood...you have a new family waiting to meet you, right around the corner!!!

A Message from one of you

 I received this response to my last post to my lovelorn friends:

Hi Jamie,

Thanks so much for responding to my comment/freakout with such an understanding and wise heart. I know that I can be/am happy without this man's love - because this practice is teaching me to love myself! 

nmrk! 

Isn't that beautiful! It is YOU my readers who have such open and warm hearts! Thank you so much for letting me and this practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo encourage you! YES you can use every challenge to become happier!

As the Gosho quote says: "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo will be useless in the hands of a coward!" It takes guts to chant! It takes guts to determine to rise above your own familiar unhappiness! It takes GUTS to dig into your karma by chanting...uncover what might not feel so good some of the time...and move forward, more determined than ever to create value and happiness in your life and in the lives of many others. 

THIS is the life of the Boddhisatva! This is the life you choose if you chant these words every day. And I can tell you from personal experience that the happiness that comes from chanting these words makes it all worth it. 

I've been hearing recently from a dear friend I've known since she was 5 years old. She emailed me to say she was reading my blog, and remembers hearing me chant when she was so young. I chanted a lot of daimoku for this young girl...and she faced many karmic challenges in her life, and was never able to embrace this practice. She writes me now to tell me she is reading this blog every day and chanting 15 minutes every day! I am so thrilled!!! She will be able to tap into the universe of wonder that lies within her and create the life of her dreams...as long as she can courageously move forwards! And I know she can!!! 

For my lovelorn friends

First of all, I want you to know that I know just how you feel. I KNOW what if feels like  - when you have such an intense longing to be with someone...it feels as if your heart is walking outside of your body in someone else's body, and that there is no hope for you until that person's heart returns to your own. Please believe me, with every fiber of my being, when I say I know just how you feel. 
You write to tell me "I've been chanting for him to come back into my life...why hasn't it happened?" and I think "I know...oh how I know...I know." 
And I can tell you to USE THIS PAIN to GROW YOUR LIFE. I mean, what else can you do really? If he is not coming back to you today....you MUST use this feeling to create value. You are a Buddha!!! 


Chant harder than ever to become happy, and to raise your life condition...and change your karma. Make this vow in your life. Chant with this vow in your mind. Always remember you are not imploring some outside force to help you....you are connecting to the power inside your life with your vow.


Remember that there are two kinds of benefits...the first is the kind you can see at this moment...conspicuous benefit. 


The second is very deep....it forms at the core of your life and grows and grown until one day you realize that a fundamental suffering is gone, gone, gone, and a deeper level of happiness has taken its place. 


You can use the suffering you are now feeling like logs on the fire to FUEL your growth....FUEL your happiness. One day, I promise you, you will be grateful for this pain, because your chanting will have a huge impact in your life in ways you probably can't see now.

Realize that this longing is the experiencing of living in the world of hunger...wanting...craving. And you, with the power of this practice,  can elevate your life condition PERMANENTLY so you no longer experience a life of craving. 


I understand. And I chant to raise my life condition. And I have many moments of serenity and happiness, and much fewer moments of the intense kind of longing you write me about. 


If I can elevate my life condition you can too! It starts with your determination and vow to be happy. It is something you have to BUILD for yourself, within your OWN LIFE. 


Today I chanted more than four hours to feel the kind of happiness that I can't even imagine...to somehow blow my life open in ways I can't imagine right now...and to fuser my prayer with Daisaku Ikeda's vow for the happiness of all people. I chant my prayer to reach suffering people everywhere and let them know there is another way. There is another way. Just chant...start there....chant and chant and chant and you will see!

WOW! Life Changes quickly, doesn't it!

Hello!


I have a huge new challenge and opportunity. I found out some news about my job on Monday that might have devastated a person who doesn't chant! It might have been a real blow to me except I have chanted sooo much Daimoku that I just know this is a benefit somehow. I'm now going to interview for a different position at the same company AND take a real leap of faith in another area. 


I have been reading and rereading an experience from a recent world tribune. In this expreience, the musician is chanting and struggling and calls up the agent of a huge club and says he wants to perform for the club. This is a huge leap of faith for him...and through each stage of his experience he chants to open his life more and more in front of the Gohonzon and to deepen the mentor disciple relationship so he can further the cause of Kosen Rufu. He gets the gig...finds the other performers...records the show using his credit card blank checks and the whole thing goes golden. Thirteen CDs later he has been having the career of his dreams and living out his goal of showing actual proof of this practice. 


Well, I decided to take a similar leap. Last week I was focusing my chanting once more on writing and publishing books that will reach many people to tell them about this wonderful practice. 


There are so many books and ebooks I want to write...and speeches I look forward to making and shows I want to be interviewed on and conferences I'd love to be invited to...oh the list goes on...all for Kosen Rufu and to help people be HAPPY!  


While chanting,  I was inspired to google "Agents looking for transformational authors" and I found out about a conference next week in New York city where writers will be able to pitch their book ideas to 60 agents during a three hour period...and after the changes at my workplace occurred I decided "The Time is Now~!!!!" And I'm going to New York!!!! 


I will be chanting and preparing and bolstering my confidence in every way between now and then. I am certain that the time for Kosen Rufu is NOW...and that people are ready to hear about this great practice. My goal is to connect people to the Soka Gakkai and President Ikeda and help them to achieve their happiness...just as I and so many of you wonderful readers, and members all over the world are realizing theirs...and help others to become happy...and FIRE UP Kosen Rufu! Woohoo!!!


And my word for you today is STUDY!!!! Read the World Tribune, or your local SGI paper....absorb President Ikeda's words with your life. Read the Gosho with your life. Feel as if Nichiren Daishonin is addressing each letter to YOU personally...because he is! Study....open your life more and more and more and chant chant chant chant!!!!!

A LOT of Daimoku sure pays off! Creating FORTUNE in your life!

If there's one thing you learn from me it's this: JUST CHANT!!!


Over the last few weeks I've had some real emotional challenges and I've also been fortunate enough (?!)
to have a cold that kept me at home so I could chant chant chant chant. 


I chanted many hours last week, and this week...3 hours Monday, and 4 1/2 on Wednesday and I am really feeling the happiness I was chanting for. As you know, it is my determination to be happy from within, to be happy based on my own strong life force, not on outside circumstances. As you may also know (if you've been reading this blog for awhile) I have some fundamental darkness that I am in the process of overcoming...that sometimes causes me great pain. 


Well, getting sick and being unhappy creates a great opportunity to chant chant chant chant!!!! 


So today I went back to work and had a wonderful day...then I stopped at a store on the way home and got great deals on fun clothes and feel really thin. 


What I'm really talking about here is fortune. Not luck. The fortune that you build from BEING Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and manifesting it in your life! It comes from chanting, making good causes, studying and CHANTING!!!! I know I said it twice! I really mean it!


When you are in rhythm with the universe the things you need and desire just come to you...you barely have to work for them. Sure, chanting can be work, but it's soooo worth it when it makes the rest of your life go so much easier! 


If you haven't poured a ton of daimoku into your life recently I suggest you give it a try! It's easy to chant a lot when you are suffering about something...that really does fuel those prayers!!! 


And WOW, I enjoy reaping the benefits, and I find that the more I chant, the easier it is to chant...and the more I want to chant MORE! I've got momentum! And you can too!!! Just go for it! Wooooooooohooooooo!!!!

Great Gosho Quotes to Live By

As many of you know, the Gosho are the letters that Nichiren Daishonin wrote to his followers encouraging them. Each one of these contains gems of wisdom that you can use to navigate through life. 


"Your faith alone will determine all these things. A sword will be useless in the hands of a coward."


From Reply to Kyo'o


And from one of my favorite Goshos:


If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death you have endured though eternity and attain supreme enlightenment in this lifetime, you must awaken to the mystic truth which has always been within your life. This truth is Myoho renge kyo. Chanting Myoho renge kyo will therefor enable you to grasp the mystic truth within you...


It is called the mystic law because it explains the mutually inclusive relationship of life and all phenomenon...


When you chant the mystic law and recite the Lotus Sutra, you must summon up deep conviction that Myoho Renge Kyo is your life itself. 


Above quotes are from the Gosho "On Attaining Buddhahood"


"One who hears even a sentence or phrase of the Lotus Sutra and cherishes it deep in his heart may be likened to a ship which navigates the sea of suffering. The Great Teacher Miao-lo stated, Even a single phrase cherished deep in one's heart will without fail help him reach the opposite shore. To ponder one phrase and practice it is to exercise navigation..." 


From "A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering"

Powerful Determinations!!!!

Hello! Hello!


I finished three hours of Daimoku today, and feel as if I could go on chanting for a week....there is so much yet to uncover and change and grow and expand in my life....for the sake of my readers and for the sake of my family...district...students...everyone! 


In a few moments I'll be at the Gohonzon enshrining ceremony for the Ali family...


But I wanted to take a moment to talk about determinations. 


Determinations are NOT resolutions...they are NOT plaintive requests for something outside of yourself to deliver some "blessing" to you. 


Determinations are a VOW...a ROAR of the lion within you! A Roar for your life to respond to! 


Who are you making the determination to? 


YOURSELF!!! YOUR LIFE!!! ALL OF LIFE!!!


You make the vow! 
Then you chant...chant...chant to MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!


I will give you some examples of my determinations...


I am determined to raise my life condition and do my own human revolution...I am determined to live a life of satisfaction and fulfillment in all areas of my life...in my love life...my work life...my relationship with my body...
And I make these determinations because I know my life...and every life...is paving the way for the rest of humanity to be happy and to achieve these goals. We are all interconnected in the web of life...when I raise my life condition it is a CAUSE for all of humanity's life condition to raise!
Likewise, I am determined to praise my life with the internal dialogue inside my head. I am determined to live each moment in gratitude for my health, my happiness, my family, my fellow members and blog readers, and all those who love me. 
I am determined to inspire millions of people through my blog and the books I write and the talks I want to give on Buddhism. I am determined to publish at least one book this year!
I am determined that I will live my life in a way that inspires every single person I meet to try this incredible practice for themselves!


These are my vows. These are determinations! 


Please make some for yourself and remember one of the secrets to true happiness that is unchanging and always works is this: 


Whenever you have a problem with anyone...anyone at all...the best and only way to solve the problem is to chant for their happiness! Picture them with a great big smile on their face and chant sincerely for their happiness. Even if you don't feel sincerity at first, THAT WILL CHANGE...just keep chanting. 


Soon you will absolutely change the situation. I guarantee this. It always works! 
How about making a major change in one of  your relationships by chanting for their happiness starting RIGHT NOW!!!! That's a great determination!!!!


Happy New Year!!!