I prepared these quotes for the enshrinement ceremony taking place in Ukiah California for my dear friend Julia. She and my friend Danielle sprang like Boddhisatvas out of the earth this fall - both deciding to fully appreciate and embrace this faith...based on seeds I planted when I lived in California over the expanse of many years. When I first shared this practice with them they were not ready to chant...but after seeing the amazing changes and the actual proof within my life...when I visited them this year...they have both been chanting and experiencing huge benefits and changing their suffering into triumphs.
I hope you enjoy these quotes today, January 2nd, 2011.
It is my ichinen for each one of YOU to experience boundless joy from the law this year....and to enter 2012 entirely victorious!!!
Wherever the Gohonzon is enshrined, that place, in a broad sense, takes on the significance of the high sanctuary. The sincere daimoku you chant to that Gohonzon with a concentrated mind free of all extraneous thoughts is instantly received by the Dai Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of True Buddhism. The place where you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is instantly transformed into Eagle Peak. And this is where you attain Buddhahood in your present form (November 23, 1977)
A few other really cool quotes:
From My Dear Friends in America, a collection of Daisaku Ikeda's essays in America 1990-1996...just the greatest book - I remember cherishing each of these essays as they came out in the World Tribune...
"Faith is light 
The hearts of those with strong faith are filled with light. A radiance envelops their lives. People with unshakable conviction in faith enjoy a happiness that is as luminous as the full moon on a dark night, as dazzling as the sun on a clear day."
And you'll love this...from the essay in the same book called "Worshipping the Gohonzon Opens Your Life":
Nichiren Daishonin's basic object of devotion, (the Gohonzon) however, consists of writing, of words. Rather than a graphic image, the Daishonin made the written expression of the world of the intellect - the object of high reverence.
Words are mysterious, they have tremendous power....
When you worship the Gohonzon, the door to your microcosm is opened to the entire universe, the macrocosm, and you experience a great, boundless joy, as if you were looking out over the entire cosmos. You feel great satisfaction and rejoicing, a great wisdom --as if you held the entire universe in your palm. The microcosm enfolded by the macrocosm reaches out to enfold the macrocosm in its own embrace.
Just as we might look down on a bright, clear scene of the world below from a lofty mountain's highest peak, we can climb the peak of the mountain of wisdom (supreme enlightenment). We can attain a state of eternal bliss, experiencing the infinite expanse and depth of life moment after moment, as if we were flying through the universe and gazing at blazing comets, the brilliantly shining Milky Way and all of the beautiful stars.
And one last quote from the incredible essay "Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite." in the same book:
"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 single 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.
All my love!
Jamie
No comments:
Post a Comment