Monday, August 31, 2009

Quote from Daisaku Ikeda


"There are no hardships or sufferings in life
that we cannot overcome,
and there is no way
we will fail to become happy."
Daisaku Ikeda

Who or what are you Chanting "to"?

A wise friend of mine once asked me this...
Who or what am I chanting to?

I told him this:

When you chant, you are chanting to the ALL, your highest self, the universe, the law that exists within your own life and within all of life...you are accessing your OWN Buddhahood.

You don't have to be reborn lifetime after lifetime to realize your Buddhahood. Chanting right now brings it right out of your own life!

That may sound like gobledygook to you, and that's ok.
Chanting is experiential...you don't know until you try!
It's hard to explain. The only way to really feel it is to chant!

See for yourself.

My friend Amos started chanting to prove to his wife that she was wasting her time chanting.
He chanted to PROVE it didn't work.
40 years later he is still chanting! And he's one of the most inspiring people I know!
It doesn't matter if you "believe it".
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is a law.
It doesn't have opinions.
Remember it means "I fuse my life with the mystic (unfathomable) law of cause and effect sutra (or through sound vibration)."
Give yourself a number of days to try it...100 is good, and chant every morning and evening, and look up your city in the SGI website (the link is on this blog) and go to a meetings...then write me and let me know what happens!


Friday, August 28, 2009

Human Revolution Day 33!

It's day 33 of my million daimoku campaign and I continue to chant two hours every day...whether I want to or not! This morning I chanted an hour and 45 minutes before I went in to work...and had a really great conversation with Melissa mid day. Both of us are chanting 2 hours a day and are about to enter year 25 of our practice....both of us are using this practice to do our Human Revolution. It helps so much that we can encourage each other!
What do we mean by Human Revolution?
It means that through our own transformation our world and the greater world will be transformed. REAL change is effected by our own courage to grow. I sit in front of the Gohonzon and pray to change in any way necessary to make the sadness I feel be gone forever, and to experience ongoing happiness and serenity.
I know of many Buddhists who have experienced just this sort of "revolution" in their lives.
I'm a work in progress. There's a term we use called "Esho Funi" it is the oneness of life and its environment. It LOOKS like me and my environment are two different things, In actuality we are connected in every way. When I make a fundamental change by chanting daimoku my environment HAS to change to reflect it.
As an example: when I chanted for a house in San Francisco, I didn't just chant for a house. I chanted for a house to do Kosen Rufu (world peace) in...I chanted for a house to show the proof of this practice. When the movers took my furniture and boxes out of the tiny apartment on "lower Nob Hill" and brought them to our beautiful new home with a view on the top of Excelsior Heights, they could not believe their eyes. I was showing actual proof of this practice. That's why I like to call this practice PRACTICAL BUDDHISM. It works! It doesn't matter if you believe in it or not!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Successful Speech !

What's it like to chant two hours of daimoku a day? It's amazing how much time I actually have in a day. Chanting makes every thing overall take less time, because I'm in RHYTHM with the universe. It's almost counterintuitive...I have doubled the amount I'm chanting, but I have more time. I also need less sleep!

This week I gave my speech called "Change Your Words, Change Your Life" to a very important audience. I was able to give continuing education credits to the participants. That was an achievement I've been working towards for quite some time!
It went so well. I felt confident, the audience was into the message I give.
I talk about the importance of the language we use...and how it frames our experience. We can either be "Overwhelmed" or "In Demand". If we are overwhelmed we are helpless victims. If we are in demand we are important. The truth is ~ it's up to us...how do we want to frame our experience? It is entirely up to us and the language we choose to use!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Some great results!

This weekend we went to a Bar Mitzva in LA. It was incredible. I continued chanting two hours a day and found myself so calm and happy all the time. I didn't stress about timing...I knew everything would be in rhythm,,,and it was!

My prayer for each day was to appreciate every moment and every person there. It was wonderful!

We spent one day at a beautiful and spiritual Bar Mitzva. They are such great ceremonies. I would like to develop a a cool coming of age ceremony for all young adults!
My nephew prepared for more than six months for the ceremony...learning Hebrew and how to read the Torah. He gave a really moving speech and so did both of his parents. It was so loving and profound.
I love learning about Judaism. I'm always learning more. This time I learned that they read a different part of the Torah every day...and this day marked the beginning of personal preparations for the new year coming next month.

I love to prepare for the new year myself. I always take inventory of the year and make a new list of determinations. New Years brings great Buddhist gatherings at Culture Centers around the country. The daimoku is off the charts with energy! One year my list had more than 200 things on it. That was the year Danny Nagashima was the leader in San Francisco. He has such enthusiasm ~ it's contagious. He's now the national SGI-USA leader, along with Linda Johnson, a VERY inspiring person! If you get a chance to hear either of these people speak GO! Remember, in this practice all of us are equal...all of us are Buddhas. There is no one holier than you and me. Our leaders exist for our encouragement alone. They help us refresh our faith!

On the trip...I felt the effects of all my daimoku the whole time I was away...really appreciating everything and everyone. I got to chant for two hours at the Burbank Culture Center with my dear friend Kate. She introduced me to this practice 25 years ago...and it was her 32nd Gohonzon birthday! (Anniversary of the day she received the Gohonzon) We encourage and inspire each other!
That's another great thing about this practice...we all chant together...we need each other to grow, learn and study!

On Sunday the whole family went to Zuma beach and watched the incredibly high surf. It was Sunny...Warm...Perfect!
When it was time to leave we were flying out over the ocean and I saw a huge pod of what looked like dolphins jumping out of the water. I could actually see them jumping through the waves. It was so beautiful!

The Hard Part!

OK, I'm not going to try and make this seem any easier than it is. Sometimes chanting is so darn hard. There have been times over the last week that I've just had to force myself to sit down and chant.

Why is it hard? Because I'm getting at the core suffering of my life. I am getting down to the real basis of sthe pain to bring it out and release it forever.

I don't even know why it's there...sure I can say it comes from this thought, or that thought...or a certain thing going on in my life, but really I know it is deeper than that. Buddhism calls it fundamental darkness and everyone has it, I may have mentioned it in this blog before, but it deserves to be repeated. We all come into this world with karma...both good and bad...and when we chant a lot we get to come face to face with it.

So this last week there were many days I just made myself sit and chant and I didn't even worry or think about the thoughts in my head...I just chanted. My prayer wasn't even important at that moment...but I knew I was connecting and changing something deep in my life. I persevered!

Once I moved through that really hard part I was able to resume my prayers for my friends, and for our leaders - I chant for them to have wisdom. I chant again and again from the bottom of my heart to be able to change in any way necessary for me to be happy and to be an example that this practice works...to break through the hard shell of the lesser self and reveal who I REALLY am in all my Buddha glory!

I am moving my life onward and upward!