I received a letter from a reader recently. She wrote that she chants consistently for one week, and then stops chanting for a week and her anxiety and depression immediately comes back. Every other week she forces herself to chant again, and then stops. This is a very difficult way to practice. It is much easier to establish a twice a day practice and stick with it. But how do we do this? And what are the benefits if we accomplish a consistent practice?
How can we reinforce our determination to practice twice a day every day, strengthen our lives and create unshakable benefit?
3 Benefits of Consistent Practice
(Doing morning and evening gongyo and chanting daimoku consistently)
By Jamie Lee Silver of Chantforhappiness.com I share this as a fellow practicing SGI Nichiren Buddhist
1. It's easier. Once you establish the practice you just greet your life twice a day in front of the Gohonzon without having to force yourself to do it. It just becomes part of your life.
2. Benefits flow more consistently,
3. It WORKS! We change your karma, embrace our challenges and win over any challenges we face. We get what you want and so much more. I like to think of all my problems as a great wall in front of me. When my practice is consistent I rise higher and higher in life condition and look down on that wall - it has now become a tiny little thing. Nothing is impossible! The only way to experience this is to chant consistently.
As Daisaku Ikeda says:
"A stone wall that seems infinitely high when seen from the ground, is no more than a slightly raised boundary line when viewed from an airplane. Similarly (by earnestly chanting), if your life-condition changes for the better, so will the way you view and respond to things. You'll find yourself surmounting every adversity with composure and thoroughly enjoying the drama of life."
New Human Revolution, Volume 7, page 103
4 Dynamic ways
to establish a consistent practice
1. Determine that you want to use this practice to the best of your ability and STUDY. Remake your list of what you want in your life. Read the Gosho or President Ikeda's guidance every day. Chant to understand the magnificence OF your life WITH your life! Chanting consistently means winning the battle over your lesser self. Make your list of determinations and goals. What have you decided is impossible in your life? We chant to make the impossible possible. Why no really go for it?
2. Embrace your friends in the SGI. (You can click on the SGI Portal to the right to find your local SGI, if you're not connected yet. Remember there are no dues or rules or priests. The SGI is an organization of people working together for their own happiness and the sake of others.)
3. Establish a "Chanting Buddy" to chant with you.
Our friends in the SGI are our friends in faith. When I was first chanting 28 years ago my mentor came to my house every morning for a few weeks to help me generate Activation Energy for my practice. Today I still have several chanting buddies, and Oh! How it helps!
4. Establish a Tele-Toso Chanting Buddy
If you can't chant together in person you can do it by telephone, or by text. Just establish a time and contact each other before and after. If you want, you can keep the telephone connection while you chant. (It's better if one person turns the volume down.) Or you can just call or text before and after.
A Dynamic Experience in Chanting Consistently:
Chanting consistently must be experienced to be understood.
My dear "Baby Buddha" (the nickname she chose for herself) heard me tell her for two years to chant every morning and evening, and she replied that she doesn't do ANYTHING consistently and wasn't going to do this. No way. I kept chanting for her and inviting her to chant. And one day, she just made the decision to try chanting twice a day to see how it felt. She couldn't believe how different she felt. She also realized a deep desire and began to chant for it to happen. Now she lives in Colorado - and loves it! - she got what she was chanting for! THIS is why we practice. Our desires are worth chanting for!
You may have other ways of creating and maintaining your consistent practice. Please share them with me and I'll share them with the other readers of this blog. Email me at chantforhappiness.com with your ideas, questions, suggestions, victories and challenges.
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