Throwing the Windows Of Our Lives Wide Open!

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Six years ago today, July 30th, 2009,  I made the determination to root sadness and depression out of my life by chanting 2 hours a day. I joined with my dear friend Melissa Bradford, and made a pact to chant 2 hours a day together by texting when we started and ended, called each other frequently, and chanted together in person as often as possible.

During the first hour of Daimoku, I thought about how long I searched to find this practice...how I spent years in bookstores, only finding books on Buddhism that said the cause of my suffering was my desire...and thinking "Buddhism really sounds good on so many levels, but I don't think I want to separate from my desires!" and I kept looking for the practice I KNEW had to exist. 
I moved to California searching for this practice, found it in 1985, (Thank you, Kate Randolph! Delores Hepburn, Gene O'Connell, Amos Snell, Diane Douglass and countless others who raised me!) and have gratefully embraced my daily practice ever since. 

As I was chanting that first hour of my campaign in 2009, I thought "YES! I WILL alleviate my lifelong depression, AND I will take the world with me and spend the rest of my life proving the validity of this practice through my own life." I envisioned people all over the world sitting down at their computers thinking "Happiness has to be in here somewhere!" and I wanted to help each one find it! So I called the blog Chantforhappiness.com. 

Since then I have permanently changed my emotional karma. I have a full range of emotions, I am happy, sad, thoughtful, you name it, but I no longer wake up with a veil of depression blanketing me and thinking "Oh no, I just have to get through this day." (As I had so many days in my life - and I am certain my mother also felt) I have changed this karma by constantly challenging it in front of the Gohonzon and roaring "NOT AGAIN! NOT TODAY! With this Daimoku right now I'M FOREVER VANQUISHING THIS FEELING!" every time it resurfaced. Boom. 

And of course, so many things have happened in these six years, great life changes, including a much-needed divorce that has been so amicable it has inspired people to chant, honing my skills as a public speaker and writer, and challenging my life at every moment. Including when my dear son Ben became sick two years ago. Ben began his next journey four weeks ago today. On a full moon. 
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo Ben! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

Nothing can stop me now. My worst fear has happened, and I am still living, more determined to create value with my life ~  to live my life as an example that anything is possible through chanting the name of the Mystic law, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with my mentor in life, Daisaku Ikeda, and the glorious SGI at my side. 

And YOU, my precious friends, have been with me, comrades in faith! At first one, then ten, then many have come along to read this blog and be inspired to become happy. Your communications have lighted my way as much as my blogs have lighted yours. Together, along with our mentor we care changing the world through our own Human Revolution. You are now 60,000 strong a month and growing. Thank you for sharing this blog and your heart with the world, and with me! 

In the July 3rd World Tribune, Daisaku Ikeda states:

"The Buddhist principle 
of three thousand realms in a single moment of life 
teaches us that 
each moment contains possibilities as vast as the universe. Nichiren Daishonin writes, 
"As life does not go beyond the moment, 
the Buddha expounded the blessings 
that come from a single moment of rejoicing 
[on hearing the Lotus Sutra]" 
("Embracing the Lotus Sutra" The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol.1, p. 62). 

Don't let the present moment slip by. 
Like throwing the windows wide open, 
open your lives to the fullest, 
and manifest the joy-filled 
wisdom and power 
of the Buddha. 
Faith in the Mystic Law enables us to do this. 
Every moment is a challenge, 
every moment is a win-or-lose struggle. 
It's a waste to limit your potential 
by locking yourself away 
and letting yourself be ruled by fear, 
Challenge yourself 
with an eager and optimistic spirit. 

When things are tough, 
warmly encourage one another as good friends in faith, 
and move resolutely toward victory 
by bringing forth 
the invincible power of the Buddha and the Law 
through the dynamic power of faith and practice." 

From the Essay "July 3rd and the Spirit of mentor and Disciple" by President Ikeda, in the July 3rd, 2015 World Tribune, page 4

Here is my first post: 

Join me!
I chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (pronounced Nahm Meeyoho Raingay Kyo)
It means - I fuse my life with the law of cause and effect through sound vibration, or I am one with the flow of life, or I am the Buddha myself! Chanting these words has a profound and practical impact on my life....and it can on anyone's life.
When you chant these words you tap into the eternal universe that's already inside you...the one you know is there, that you've always known is there. Chanting these words allows you to tap the great power you have always had.
On October 20th of 2009 I will have been chanting these words every day...twice a day for 25 years! Between now and October 20th I will be chanting two hours every single day. By October 20th I will have chanted a million daimoku (pron: diemoku, and it means chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo over and over) with a goal to accomplish many dreams:

Here are my determinations:
I wish to inspire others through sharing my heart, my struggles and my successes.
I wish to share the heart of my mentor Daisaku Ikeda (President of the Soka Gakkai International) with the world.
I will release my life from the underlying sadness I have always felt...the sadness that has no name and no real cause. I believe I was born with this sadness, and that it is my mission in this life to free myself from it.
I will have a body that is pain free! I will be able to move in any way I want. For several years I have been battling with a painful right leg. I believe it is arthritis, but I keep thinking I can solve the pain through some other means than surgery. I have never had surgery and never want to have it! (I completed this surgery in 2010 and have been pain-free ever since)
I will be on the way to losing the rest of the weight I've been challenged with my entire life. (I've already lost 50 pounds). 
I will naturally attract opportunities that delight me!
I will make lots of new friends and connections!
I will become a published author!