Changing Karma Right Now with TODAY'S Daimoku!

(You can now subscribe to this blog by putting your email in the box to the right)

Wow I have had a lot of challenges lately! 
I must be changing karma BIG TIME because I'm not giving up, no matter what! 
This month marks five years from the time my sweet son Ben first showed signs of the mental illness that would later cause him to take his life at 22 on July 2nd, 2015. 
Since that time, I have lived every day to turn poison into medicine, and create incredible value out of Ben's life and death. I've moved all by myself to St. Pete Florida, and I'm creating my new life, together with my beloved SGI members. Last month my dear, dear friend Deb got her Gohonzon and she encourages me every day. She LOVES this practice and deeply understands and studies. She's such a gift. Now I'm chanting for the youth, and to have at least one new shakubuku who goes to the September 23rd youth meeting in Miami (they are all over the country 50,000 strong!) 

So I'm putting my life to the test. I'm chanting for 50k youth to assemble in America on September 23rd, and I've attached my own goals to this noble goal. I'm already progressing on those goals. More to follow. What can you do to challenge yourself and refresh your practice, while chanting for the youth of the planet? No one can deny we need the youth to become aware of their own incredible potential more than ever!  

What kind of daimoku (the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo)
changes our lives? 
The answer is ALL kinds of daimoku - 
the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the mystic law, changes our lives and changes our karma...

But I have a question. Do you sometimes chant with all the best intentions while thinking "I don't know why I'm doing this...it's just one more time to chant but I don't feel it, and really, I'm feeling kind of hopeless?" 

And the first thing I'll say is "Congratulations for keeping your promise to yourself and showing up to chant. THAT in itself will change your life."

So, I've been thinking about the quality of my own chanting and I have something I want to share with you. (As you know, I do not represent the Soka Gakkai, I belong to it, but this is not a Gakkai publication. I love the organization and have been a member since 1985. And I started this blog in 2009 to overcome my own heartache, and to show, through my own example, that anything is possible when we base our lives on the Gohonzon.)

And lately my daimoku has been very strong, 
because as I chant I am thinking:

NOW! With THIS Daimoku I am changing my karma. 
Now this very Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is THE Nam-myoho-renge-kyo that is changing_____________________________on the inside of my life. 
Whatever you want to change...have the conviction that:
THIS Daimoku!
THIS Daimoku!
THIS Daimoku!
Is the one that does it! 

As the wise Kate Randolph would say "Go Deeper in your prayer" and I've chanted to know what she means by that. Just this week I've had so many challenges I didn't know where to begin my prayer. So I focused on unfolding the beautiful lotus petals inside my own life...accessing my beautiful Buddha Nature...believing in my Buddha nature...and knowing that, NO MATTER WHAT, my prayer is working! 

Whatever you're facing...whatever your karma. Please keep going and don't give up! 

As Daisaku Ikeda says: 

We are not defeated by adversity but by the loss of the will to strive. However devastated you may feel, so long as you have the will to fight on, you can surely triumph.

From Ikedaquotes.org

Here's to YOU and your happiness and success! 
Go Buddha GO! 

PowerPrayers for Busting Through Obstacles! TWO PowerPrayers today!

Those of us who are challenging our lives through strong Daimoku (the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which means "I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration") are summoning up obstacles in our lives. This is part of the practice and part of life. As I've said many times, we can use these obstacles to FUEL our lives and our happiness, and provide us with the fire to change our karma forever, or we can have these obstacles FOOL us into thinking we are not strong, not capable and not wise, and give up. 

The choice is up to us!

Here is a passage from my upcoming book: 

The BuddhaZone, PowerPrayers for Chanting Your Way to Absolute Happiness. (The actual PowerPrayer is at the end)

Recognizing Obstacles for What they are!

“When devilish functions are recognized for what they are they lose their power.” Daisaku Ikeda, Living Buddhism June 2013 p 23

In the words of Nichiren Daishonin in his letter to Niike:

“There is definitely something extraordinary in the ebb and flow of the tide, 

the rising and setting of the moon, 

and the way in which summer, autumn, winter, and spring 

give way to each other. 

Something uncommon also occurs 

when an ordinary person attains Buddhahood. 

At such a time, the three obstacles and four devils 

will invariably appear, 

and the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat. 

I have long been waiting to tell you this, 

either through my own messenger or by some other means.” http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=637

PowerPrayer for Recognizing 

and Removing Obstacles 

Hello, Sansho Shima, 

I was expecting you.

I recognize you for what you are.

Sansho Shima, I see you for what you are! 

No way!

Not this time!

Not any more!

I'm in charge now.

I AM Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

and I am roaring like a lion.

You  are not real, you  have no power here.

On the contrary, 

I take your pure energy now, and 

through my Daimoku I make you my ally, instead. 

I turn Sansho Shima into Shoten Zenjin 

(protective functions in life and the environment)

Shoten Zenjin

Get my back!

I now use you to refuel my determination

and I will chant _________number of hours

every day until I have ultimate victory.

I will encourage others with this victory, 

and by my strong faith while facing this challenge!

Obstacles:

I transform you now. 

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

PowerPrayer to say, 

"No More! Enough is enough!”

I am chanting with 

absolute conviction in the power of my life to declare and demand:

No more of this karma 

of feeling insecure and doubting myself.

No more of this karma 

of being abused by anyone or any thing!

No more doubting my own Buddha Nature!

No more living in fear!

No more feeling unloved or hopeless.

No more struggling in a job I hate, or any other terrible situation.

No more ________________ (you fill in the blank.)

I am the Buddha.

I am roaring with power in my life!

I now determine with all the power vested in me that I will___________________________.

Transforming Difficult Relationships

What do you do when you have a difficult relationship? Maybe there's a family member you don't get along with, maybe it is someone at work. What is the best course of action to take...well, if you are practicing Practical Buddhism the answer is an easy one. 

Chant for their happiness. 

Okay, I know, it's not really easy...but think of it as strengthening that spiritual muscle of compassion and making an excellent, wonderful, life changing and karma changing cause. Sit and think of that person with a huge smile on their face...a huge smile. And chant for their happiness, whether it is a sincere prayer or not. And do you know what will happen. Sooner or later it will turn into a sincere prayer. And you will have changed. And so will the other person!
Remember, you can't always feel it or see it, but all of life is interconnected. Chanting for someone else's happiness is as good as chanting for your own. Maybe even better!

Today I want to remind you that when you want to change a difficult relationship into a great one, determinations and chanting are important, but please remember that your everyday actions make a huge difference. 

If people come to you saying bad things about the person you are focusing on - you must not join the party of people speaking ill of that person! Your everyday actions, thoughts and words are ALL CAUSES that you are making. You want to focus on making good causes at all times. 

If you want to change a troubling relationship into a fabulous one, watch your actions, and refuse to join the folks who are badmouthing the person whose happiness you are chanting for so deeply. 

All of this is up to you. 

Your happiness rests on you doing your own human revolution. You may think that your chanting for the difficult person is about THEM. But NO! It is about your human revolution. It is about YOU creating the flow of energy that will attract only amazingly great things into your life! It is about you changing from the inside so that you can build a solid sense of self that will be strong and happy NO MATTER WHAT your circumstances!!! It is about YOU, and the other person...and YOU are leading the way for the happiness of all humanity. YOU are opening the door to happiness in your life, in the life of the "difficult" person, and in the happiness of us all because, as you know so well...we are all interconnected!!!