What's a Gohonzon Birthday you ask?
It's the anniversary of the date I received the scroll originally inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin depicting the highest possible Life Condition.
It's the day that I decided to devote my life to practicing the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration...and chant every day, twice a day.
From the beginning I was committed. I really was.
I had so much hope in my heart...that this was it....this was what I had searched my whole life to find...something that I could put my energy into...that would come back channelled any direction I wanted it to go. I was born knowing that this sort of practice existed...that I could truly find a way to overcome the suffering I was experiencing. I was born with what we call in Buddhism "a seeking spirit".
I searched high and low for this practice. Mostly I found practices that said "Your attachments to your desire are the CAUSE of your suffering" and I thought "forget THAT!" I will keep my attachment to my desires, thank you...they are part of who I am.
So I kept searching for the practical means to increase my level of happiness and channel my energy.
In the fall of 1985 I met Kate Randolph through the "Great Peace March Across America" you probably never heard of it...but it was a really big deal at the time. A man had a vision of a traveling tent city of regular people who would walk across America from LA to Washington. A lot of celebrities got behind it, and it excited my imagination. I called LA and asked how I could help. I was living in San Francisco at the time...looking for a job and in a deep depression. I'd been laid off from my job working for Werner Erhard and Associates and was really bummed about my life and my future. I was 25 and deeply confused and scared.
Through the Great Peace March, I met Kate Randolph and she spent an entire day talking to me about chanting. She told me this one story that stays so vividly in my mind. She said she had to work with celebrities and she'd gotten all tongue tied around Paul Newman. He was a superstar...not just a star...and a great humanitarian as well. She said she chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for an hour and could then just talk to him like a normal person. She had a solution to her problems. That's just what I was looking for! So I found a wonderful local Buddhist Mentor, Dolores Hepburn, and was raised as a baby Buddhist by so many wise and loving Buddhist "parents". Kate remains my lifeline to wisdom and strength to this day!
And here I am....having raised two delightful Buddha boys...having had a great career...having had so many wonderful experiences fueled by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo...and with so many more to come. And I have so much to look forward to. Every day is a delightful unfolding of revealing my own Buddha nature and making a difference with every breath I take!
Remember to view EVERY challenge as a benefit!!!! Every single one! You can turn each one of them into magic by chanting about them!!! Don't give up! Find a Buddhist parent in your neighborhood! And if you need extra help ask me....just DON"T GIVE UP and your life can be brilliant and sparkly and beautiful...and you can overcome ALL of your problems! I promise!!!
It's the anniversary of the date I received the scroll originally inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin depicting the highest possible Life Condition.
It's the day that I decided to devote my life to practicing the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration...and chant every day, twice a day.
From the beginning I was committed. I really was.
I had so much hope in my heart...that this was it....this was what I had searched my whole life to find...something that I could put my energy into...that would come back channelled any direction I wanted it to go. I was born knowing that this sort of practice existed...that I could truly find a way to overcome the suffering I was experiencing. I was born with what we call in Buddhism "a seeking spirit".
I searched high and low for this practice. Mostly I found practices that said "Your attachments to your desire are the CAUSE of your suffering" and I thought "forget THAT!" I will keep my attachment to my desires, thank you...they are part of who I am.
So I kept searching for the practical means to increase my level of happiness and channel my energy.
In the fall of 1985 I met Kate Randolph through the "Great Peace March Across America" you probably never heard of it...but it was a really big deal at the time. A man had a vision of a traveling tent city of regular people who would walk across America from LA to Washington. A lot of celebrities got behind it, and it excited my imagination. I called LA and asked how I could help. I was living in San Francisco at the time...looking for a job and in a deep depression. I'd been laid off from my job working for Werner Erhard and Associates and was really bummed about my life and my future. I was 25 and deeply confused and scared.
Through the Great Peace March, I met Kate Randolph and she spent an entire day talking to me about chanting. She told me this one story that stays so vividly in my mind. She said she had to work with celebrities and she'd gotten all tongue tied around Paul Newman. He was a superstar...not just a star...and a great humanitarian as well. She said she chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for an hour and could then just talk to him like a normal person. She had a solution to her problems. That's just what I was looking for! So I found a wonderful local Buddhist Mentor, Dolores Hepburn, and was raised as a baby Buddhist by so many wise and loving Buddhist "parents". Kate remains my lifeline to wisdom and strength to this day!
And here I am....having raised two delightful Buddha boys...having had a great career...having had so many wonderful experiences fueled by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo...and with so many more to come. And I have so much to look forward to. Every day is a delightful unfolding of revealing my own Buddha nature and making a difference with every breath I take!
Remember to view EVERY challenge as a benefit!!!! Every single one! You can turn each one of them into magic by chanting about them!!! Don't give up! Find a Buddhist parent in your neighborhood! And if you need extra help ask me....just DON"T GIVE UP and your life can be brilliant and sparkly and beautiful...and you can overcome ALL of your problems! I promise!!!
Hi dear
ReplyDeleteI have a question that what is enlightenment & once we are enlightened how do we come to know? & if once we are enlightened can we again go to lower worlds or we continue always with that supreme life state?
Thanks