What is True Success in Life?

The sun is always there - but we can't always see it! 

I've been riding on a high for these last few days, feeling the flow and momentum of the new year, and the excitement of a fun weekend and BOOM, we are hit with freezing cold weather, and I have a speech tomorrow, and suddenly some of the sadness and hopelessness resurfaces...

But, thankfully, my friend in faith came over and we chanted about 45 minutes. Part of that daimoku was "wondering Daimoku." That's what I call the type of chanting where you are not really praying, but just rolling ideas around in your head. I don't like it when I do this, but it is not a reason to stop...it's more a reason to keep going until I break out of it. By the end, I felt more rejuvenated and I'm going to bed early to wake up early for my speech. 

Once again, the importance of having friends in faith, and in never giving up, is crucial. I hope you all have friends in faith, and if you don't - it's a great goal to chant about!

Here are two of my favorite quotes:  

"What is success in life? 
Who are the truly successful? 
There are famous and powerful people 
who become pitiful figures in their old age. 
There are people who die alone, 
feeling empty and desolate. 
Just what is success? 
The English thinker Walter Pater (1839-94) wrote:
"To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life."

The person who lives life fully, glowing with life's energy, is the person who lives a successful life."



"Such things as money, fame and material possessions 
offer fleeting satisfaction 
that can be called relative happiness. 
However, when we transform our lives internally, 
when we develop within ourselves a brilliant inner palace, then we can be said 
to have established absolute happiness."

Daisaku Ikeda

Faith into Action, page 56