What Does "Attaining Enlightenment" Mean?

“What does Attaining Buddhahood mean for us?

It does not mean that one day

we suddenly turn into a Buddha

or become magically enlightened.

In a sense, attaining Buddhahood means

that we have securely entered the path,

or orbit, of Buddhahood inherent in the cosmos. Rather than a final static destination

at which we arrive and remain,

achieving enlightenment means

firmly establishing the faith needed

to keep advancing along the path

of absolute happiness, without end."

Daisaku Ikeda, 

From “For Today and Tomorrow,” page 205.

Exactly! That’s how I feel.

I’m sitting here at the pool in St. Pete Beach. In front of me is the magnificent sky and waters of the Gulf of Mexico. St. Pete is on the west side of Florida and my apartment looks over the water. There’s a gentle breeze blowing, soft sunlight and a few light clouds.

It’s warm, sunny, beachy here, and almost every day we have the most magnificent thunderstorms with lightning, dark mysterious clouds and some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard!  Every morning the poofy clouds above the water turn pink with the sunrise, and every night we are treated to a light show of a sunset, one more beautiful than the next. My camera is filled spectacular sunset shots. 

I am living in paradise!

And I am making my way in this world…creating and discovering my new life. My son Aaron is in Phoenix in his first year of internship, impressing everyone in the hospital with his genuine compassionate and wise heart, and my nephew Josh is a brilliant chiropractor here in St. Pete. Ben and I are creating a program I will present through an 501C organization. I’ll tell you more about that as it happens. So right now I am in this highly creative space of writing while I put my roots down here in Florida. Through my own hand, Ben is helping me create the program to teach others how to write to their loved ones, and have their loved ones write back to them. And I have all kinds of support. I have a virtual assistant who is working on my website – at last! I will be able to offer private coaching/EFT sessions and other programs. 

And I have various forms of coaching and support. I am being completely protected as I carve out my new life!

Every day I chant to experience the fullest expression of my life...and for every moment to be an expression of kosen-rufu in action. I chant for every reader of this blog to continue being encouraged to reach for the stars in their lives…as I have in mine…no matter what! And I chant in appreciation for my life and protection.

I chant for the most possible good/value/fulfillment to flow through me and to me and around me. I chant to truly do my mission on this earth. I chant to establish myself financially, socially, all ways here in St. Pete.

For the first time in my life I am truly in a place I know I want to stay for a long, long, time. It’s a different way of living life. For most of my life I had one foot out the door…but not anymore.

I’m even enjoying myself physically in a whole new way. Last week I began drinking a form of perfect Ph balanced water, and suddenly out of the blue I felt like swimming in the pool. I have never done a lap in my life, but I created a backstroke where I feel like an angel. Wow, THIS is what I’d call a miracle. (So would anyone who ever knew me as a child.) I was never a swimmer, always afraid of the water. It reminds me of what I hear James Herrmann say in Chicago once. “We don’t practice Buddhism to say ‘Oh, that’s just the way I AM.’ No, we practice to change the way we are into anything we want.” So, all of a sudden, I’m a swimmer. Who knew?

I’m reading the Human Revolution and watching Josei Toda make one sound business decision after another. He was truly a man of action. I am chanting to get over my perfectionist tendencies!

What did it say in the quote above? Oh yes!

“firmly establishing the faith needed

to keep advancing along the path

of absolute happiness, without end.”

Thank you Sensei!