3 Keys to Regaining Hope!

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"No matter how hopeless or bleak things appear, the moment always comes when suddenly our spirit revives, and hope is reborn. That is why we must never give up."

Daisaku Ikeda, Ikedaquotes.org

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I know I look happy in that picture above, and I was happy when I was there, at Chatham Beach Inn with my son, Aaron. 

And when I got home yesterday from the Cape my heart was breaking. I was mourning my Ben, and my previous life, and Aaron took off for LA for a medical school rotation for a month...and I was really sad. We all have those times, or those moments when we are sad...when we feel hopeless or sad, as Daisaku Ikeda says in the quote above. 

So yesterday I thought to myself "Thank goodness I have my Buddhist practice, and one more day before I go back to work, because I am going to use it to change my karma right now...and raise my life condition sky high. I must continue to inspire myself and inspire others that anything is possible through chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo"

We call it a "Buddhist Practice" because we are always in a state of reviving...of learning...of growing! 

Today, I'm sitting here on my patio, waiting for a few SGI friends to come over to chant with me. And I am applying these three keys to changing my karma:

Three Keys to Regaining Hope

By Jamie lee Silver of Chantforhappiness.com

1. Once again, we must realize "I summoned this storm." It may look like we had nothing to do with it...but somehow, we must know, as a Boddhisattva of the earth that we summoned this storm, and we have the power to change our karma right now. We are not to blame. It is OUR opportunity and right to change it...our fortune to take this poison and change it into medicine. We can take some time to lament, and THEN we need to move - chant - change! 

2. We gather our friends around us to chant with us. 

What if we don't have people to chant with us? 

We chant on our own and make finding these friends one of our goals. 

We make a fierce determination to find them and/or shakubuku them! 

I just connected with a member who is suffering...she has moved...she is not happy with her life...and she has not connected with a member in her area. At the moment, her whole life is like a cork in a tide stream...bobbing away this way and that and not gaining any ground. I encouraged her to CHANT to connect with a person who inspires her in her area. And then...to take action. Make call after call...and make the connection happen. Call the nearest community center...call the list of people she is given. And keep calling until she connects. 

It is always the responsibility of the mentee to connect with the mentor. And doing this, connecting with the mentor, making the determination...steering our life...THIS give us power. 

The world is our mirror...everything around us reflects our internal state of life. So, it is natural that sometimes everything seems hard...even connecting with a mentor. That is when we must make a strong...determined effort. We can see connecting as a way of powering our life forward. We start with daimoku...and continue with action. 

I've talked about how challenging it was for me after I left all my mentors in San Francisco and moved to Chicago.
I had to use the full power of my faith to chant to connect. Now I have many respected mentors in the Chicago area. We need to do these things for ourselves! And of course, we connect in some way with Daisaku Ikeda and the Gosho every day...our ready-made fuel for our lives! 

3. Chant !

and employ the strategy of the Lotus Sutra...

meaning...

we must chant with all our hearts, and not feel we have to "figure everything out." Sometimes we think we have to know what we are chanting about before we chant...and yes, it is good to have clear targets...and we can also chant for the best, best, best things, events, jobs etc. so that we can fulfill our mission for kosen-rufu in the most profound way! Connecting our dreams, and our happiness, to the happiness of all is the way of the Bodhisattva of the Earth.