On Attaining Buddhahood

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commenting on posts 

and forwarding the link to chantforhappiness.com 

to your fellow members and friends.  

I respond to all emails. I appreciate them all - the questions, the comments and the experiences of victory. 

Yesterday 600 people visited Chantforhappiness.com. Without you forwarding a link to this blog to your friends and fellow members that couldn't be possible. 

The purpose of this blog is to reach and inspire people who are looking for the key to solve their problems and become happy, connect them with the Soka Gakka and President Ikeda, and to inspire them to break through and become happy. This is not an easy practice, but a fully rewarding one. Staying inspired every day definitely leads to a successful life. 
(Visit sgi-usa.org for more information and links to the Soka Gakkai)

Thank you for your heart to help people. 

Helping other people learn to chant, and inspiring others is a key aspect of our own practice. 

I've recently been re-reading one of my favorite books based on the Gosho by Nichiren Daishonin called "On Attaining Buddhahood." This is a Gosho I memorized during my early days of chanting, and read aloud to Aaron when I was carrying him in my womb and chanting a million daimoku for his life. It is a fundamental Gosho explaining the key nature of why chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is so powerful. 

In  Lectures On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, by Daisaku Ikeda, published in 2007 by Soka Gakkai, Malaysia, President Ikeda comments on this famous Gosho Passage:

"If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth, and death you have endured since time without beginning and to attain without fail unsurpassed enlightenment in this lifetime, you must perceive the mystic truth that is originally inherent in all living beings. This truth is Myoho-renge-kyo. Chanting Myoho-renge-kyo will therefore enable you to grasp the the mystic truth innate in all life." (p. 4, On Attaining Buddhahood) 

And on page 6 of the same book he makes this important distinction:

"There are two aspects of the daimoku in Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism: the daimoku of faith and the daimoku of practice. The daimoku of faith refers to the spiritual aspect of our practice. This essentially consists of the struggle we wage in our hearts against our inner delusion or darkness; a battle against the negative and destructive forces within us. It means breaking through the darkness clouding our Buddha nature and bringing forth the life-state of Buddhahood through the power of faith. The daimoku of practice, meanwhile, refers to chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo ourselves and also teaching it to others. It means making efforts in word and deed for the happiness of ourselves and others as evidence of our spiritual struggle against inner negativity and delusion. " (p.6 On attaining Buddhahood in this Lifetime, by daisaku Ikeda, 2007, Soka Gakkai Malaysia) 

Yes. 

Chanting daimoku is key for us to reveal our own Buddha nature and defeat the negative voices I addressed in yesterday's blog post. 

Crucial to our development is also our efforts to help others become happy, or, as Daisaku Ikeda expresses it, the daimoku of practice. Our efforts in this area expand infinitely and bring joy into our lives and the lives of others. 

I am so grateful to all of you as partners in creating Kosen Rufu; a world of happiness and respect for all of life.