Beating the Holiday Blues with Daimoku

It is the holidays here in the states and in many places around the world. Sometimes during this time we really miss a loved one who has died. Daisaku Ikeda offers us these wise words: 

"The experience of losing a loved one impels us toward a deeper understanding of life. Everyone fears and is saddened by death. That is natural. But by struggling to overcome the pain and sadness that accompanies death, we become sharply aware of the dignity and preciousness of life and develop the compassion to share the sufferings of others as our own."
Daisaku Ikeda Ikedaquotes.org

Four years ago my Mom died right before the holidays in November. Some of you have been reading this blog since that time. And, at least in the case of my Mom, it is true that time and my daimoku has healed most of the wounds. 

To heal the wounds I had to challenge my own negativity. I had a recurrent thought that would wake me up in the middle of the night. I thought "What if we could have done more to keep her alive? What if we gave up too soon?" And then I talk to my sister or another family member and they recount her last days and I am reassured, once again, that we did the right thing. And I recognize that the voice asking those questions is my own inner darkness, tailor-made to bring me down. 

That's the thing about our fundamental darkness - it knows our weaknesses - it knows just how to get us. And that's why, sometimes we don't even see it for what it it - fundamental darkness - and we just think we are somehow BAD. Thank goodness we can chant every day and be returned to the Buddha we are. That's our opportunity every single day...we can be restored as Buddhas...and build our own awareness of our Buddha Nature. I often recommend we chant to raise our life condition. With a raised life condition our problems seem small...are small...and are easier for us to conquer. 

If we are complaining, not smiling, and feeling down we know our life condition is low. And what's often happens is the environment, of course, zings us just at this time because it is a reflection of our life condition. 

But we have the solution to any problem. All we have to do is recognize once again that we are capable of generating resilience and strength through our own Daimoku. When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo we are having a dialogue with our own lives. The question is "Who is BOSS?" is it your fundamental darkness or is it US? We can SHOW our life condition who is boss when we chant. We can tell our life to wake up! We are so fortunate. We can chant every day like this. 

Write me at chantforhappiness@gmail.com with any questions or comments. I'm thinking of you all this holiday season.