Perfecting Our Spiritual Workouts (Gongyo!) to Bring Benefit to Our Lives

As I'm sitting here watching the news about hurricane Irma barreling this way.
Please join me in chanting for Irma to veer to the right and north and miss America completely! 
Let's also chant about the flooding in India, the wildfires in the West and continued cleaning up in Texas and all other areas affected by Hurricane Harvey. Oh yes, let's not forget North Korea, and keeping the peace. 
There is so much going on. 

Here are some of my thoughts on how we can continue to leverage our spiritual muscles to change ourselves, and change the world. 

Perfecting our daily recitation of Gongyo and Daimoku is our spiritual work-out for the interior of our lives. This work-out makes our environments 
(our world at every moment, and all the people and things and EVERYTHING in it) 
flow smoothly...and we can accomplish our goals and live fulfilling lives.  

When Shakyamuni was meditating under the Bodhi Tree, he was assailed by many thoughts to make him stop or to throw off his meditation. 
He kept focused. He won. 
Our practice of Gongyo every day is just like this. 
We are the Buddha! 
Every day - twice a day!  
We must win! 

Gongyo is important!

Our concentration will pay off. Doing gongyo with the following guidelines has brought me great benefit. 
(As always ~ these writings are mine, and come from my heart to yours.)

5 Keys to Make Your Gongyo 

and Your Life Sparkle!

Don't just "do" Gongyo. Feel it. Experience it.
by Jamie Lee Silver at chantforhappiness.com

1. Put your phone in another room. 
                 Claim this time as your own! 

2. Pray each silent prayer with all your heart. 

Elevate the moment from reading to praying! 

Read each silent prayer over and over until you can actually feel the appreciation. Read the silent prayers until they sink in...so you are truly praying in appreciation. If you don't know why Nichiren Daishonin and the three presidents deserve your praise, please ask a fellow member and study the history of Nichiren Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai. (Clink the link to the right to find your local SGI group) It took tremendous conviction and courage to bring this practice to us today! 
During these prayers, I bring forth the gratitude I feel for having this practice in my life.   

3. Begin and end Gongyo 
                     with no interruptions. 

You can chant as long as you'd like between gongyo and the silent prayers. 
Sometimes I recite the silent prayers at the end of Gongyo soon after the recitation...not after finishing all my daimoku for the morning. This makes it easier to do a complete gongyo before I get up to do something else, or refresh my drink or whatever. 
I start and complete gongyo. Boom. 
Then I can do as much daimoku as I want, with gongyo done. Complete. With no interruptions. If I get interrupted in the middle of gongyo I begin again! I see this helping me complete things in my life on a much more regular basis. 

4. Chant every morning and evening. 

I know, I know, you've heard this before. The reason I keep repeating this message is that it WORKS! When we do gongyo twice a day our lives get on a roll. You have to experience it to see it! I can't tell you how it feels. I can tell you that one of my YWD (young woman) finally began chanting twice a day (after refusing to do this for two years) she was able to realize a hidden goal, bring it to the surface, chant about it, and now she's living her dream in Colorado. Chanting twice a day WORKS! 

5. Perfect Your Rhythm 
              and Pronunciation of Gongyo

In the early days of my practice, I was fortunate to have a leader who believed that perfecting gongyo was important. Every day I showed up at her house to fine-tune my rhythm and pronunciation. You can do the same, and it will energize your practice and life. 
I suggest finding a mentor in your SGI circle who can work with you. To learn, we can bring a pencil and circle the parts we find difficult, and highlight our mistakes. The next time through we can be aware of the challenging parts because we circled them. We can learn it like a song. 
It is easier to learn it right the first time, but not impossible to fix, if learned wrong. 

Having perfect gongyo gives us confidence. 

I'd like to hear your stories of how perfecting your gongyo changes your life. Everything we do to enhance our practice is reflected in our lives. 

Gongyo and Daimoku are our laboratory 
where we create the lives of our dreams! 

I'm interested in hearing how you are perfecting your gongyo! 
Doing Gongyo is like lifting spiritual weights. how strong can we make our lives? 
That's what we're talking about! 

Email me at chantforhappiness@gmail.com