Lighting the Lamp of Hope! The Joy of Fostering Youth!

Ahhhh the brilliance of introducing youth to this practice! Some of my golden memories are of the youth I took under my wing. They are living the lives of their dreams with the ultimate tool for creating happiness and value for themselves and others...this practice!

The other day someone magical...seeking...young and vibrant came happily into my life. I was at a restaurant with  my new friend Mari Beth whom I'd just introduced to chanting. She came up to my apartment and chanted with me for the first time. 

Our server was this delightful, beautiful young woman...she looked like she couldn't possibly have a care in the world. We had some laughs with her and a great time. At the end of the dinner I said "I have something for you!" and took out my card and wrote Nam-myoho-renge-kyo on it and the connection was INSTANT. 

It was as if she had been seeking this her whole life. She said "Oh! I really need this right now, my Mom's in the hospital in pain and I'm all alone caring for her!" I asked her if she wanted to come over to chant after she got off - my apartment was right across the street and she said SURE! 

She said she'd get our by about 10:30, but she got some last minute customers and was able to come around midnight (!!!)...and I was waiting for her and so happy to see her! She told me the story of her young life (she just turned 20), and I could see what a fighter she is, against all odds. She's faced extreme challenges and is intent on fulfilling her dream of helping people with artifical limbs. She is such a Bodhisattva already. 

We sat in front of the Gohonzon. I put the bell in front of her, taught her how to chant, and told her she could ring the bell when she was finished. She chanted almost half and hour!  

Yesterday her Mom was released from the hospital! Last night she came over at 10:30 pm and we chanted and talked. She is so grateful to be embraced into this practice and my life. There is nothing better than having experience, knowledge and HOPE to give someone who is soaking it up! She is my Mother's Day gift! Last night we watched the Ben videos and she got to know and love my boy. What a wonderful life I lead! 

I am dedicated to raising her. I am dedicated to helping her achieve each of her dreams. I see her as a leader of our bright, positive movement that will attract 50,000 youth and more!  

I am grateful for all your Daimoku for the youth. We can feel the groundswell... feel them arising...and RISE to meet them! We all have determination to raise capable, happy, bright beacons of hope. And introducing her has brought ME such happiness...a new vibrancy in my step...a fresh determination to live as a brilliant beacon of hope, to overcome my sufferings and achieve my dreams. 

It is time for our youth to find relief and stop suffering. It is time for them to gain human connection...and hope. It is time to stop losing so many to despair! It is up to us to reach out and be available. And it is the greatest joy to watch them blossom like flowers! 

As Daisaku Ikeda writes in the May 2017 Living Buddhism study material on Fostering Successors, (page 44):

"The right time 

is not something one waits for; 

one creates it!"

Now is the time! We can carry cards everywhere we go. 
Introducing people who work close to where I live is now a focus for me. I live on the beach. There are countless restaurants and stores close by. If I meet someone who is receptive they can pop on over before or after they work to learn to chant! 

So happy to be sharing this journey with YOU! 

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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. 

"Hope Is Life's Magic Wand" by Daisaku Ikeda

When we possess the treasure of hope, 
it gives rise to other treasures, too. 
Hope draws forth our inner potential and strength. 
Hope is a magic weapon 
that enables us to make our dreams come true.

“Hope,” Beethoven cried, 
“you forge the heart into steel.” 
Hope is confidence. 
Hope is determination. 
Hope is courage. 
And faith is the ultimate expression of hope. 
Belief fortifies the heart.

Hope transforms pessimism into optimism. 
Hope is invincible. 
Hope changes everything. 
It changes winter into summer, 
darkness into dawn, 
descent into ascent, 
barrenness into creativity, 
agony into joy.
Hope is the sun. 
It is light. 
It is passion. 
It is the fundamental force for life’s blossoming.

No matter what kind of difficult situation 
one may find oneself in, 
some opening, some opportunity to fight one’s way out, 
can always be found. 
What’s most important is to hold fast to hope, 
to face the future with courage.
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.

By Daisaku Ikeda, from Ikedaquotes.org. 

Today I write this for you and for me. 
Yesterday my speech was fantastic. Everyone was uplifted. I will write more of the content for you soon. 
And I visited my son in the hospital. 
I can't give up hope no matter what. I, like you, and a precious votary of the Lotus Sutra! None of us can give up home! 

DIS-Couraged or EN-Couraged ~ Some Quotes to Inspire

In all of our lives we sometimes experience frustration, right? We all have things we've chanted about for a long time and we think maybe they will never happen...and we face the choice of being discouraged, or encouraged. 
Let's think about those words for a moment: 

DIS-COURAGED. 
Lost courage. 
No more courage. 
Negative courage. 

We do feel this from time to time, I know. It is at exactly this point that we can put our faith to its best use. We have a unique tool. 
We have faith we can use to re-EN-COURAGE us. 

En-Courage
Filled with courage
Inner courage
In the state of courage

Much better, right? 

Daisaku Ikeda's writings always encourage me. 
In Faith in Action he writes in the section Perseverance:

"It is important to take a long range view. 
No great achievement is accomplished overnight 
or without difficulty. 
Should benefit be obtained easily, 
and without making serious efforts in our Buddhist practice, we'd probably easily abandon our faith 
and end up miserable." 
p. 145 

And he continues on the next page: 

"It is important to become strong 
and to not be defeated. 
Don't become the kind of people 
who are always depending or leaning on others 
or who weakly and timidly 
leave hard work and responsibility to others. 
Whatever obstacles you may encounter, 
please use them as a launching pad for your growth 
and keep advancing, 
bravely enduring all hardships, 
telling yourselves, 
"I'll show them what I'm made of!" 
p. 146

And:

"No matter what the circumstances, 
you should never concede defeat. 
Never conclude that you've reached a dead end. 
You possess a glorious future. 
Precisely because of that, 
you must persevere and study. 
Life is eternal. 
We need to focus on the two existences 
of the present and the future 
and not get caught up in worry about the past. 
We must always have the spirit to begin anew 
"from this moment," 
to initiate a new struggle each day." 
p. 146

I was also thinking about the wise words of my own personal mentor and good friend in faith Kate Randolph. She explained the concept of setting deadlines, and what it means to our Buddhist practice and our lives in this wise way:


"We set deadlines to motivate OURSELVES into action. 
A deadline is not for the universe to respond to us. 
We chant. 
We take action. 
The deadline comes. 
We either win or we don't. 
If we don't get the result by the deadline 
we pick ourselves right up again and redetermine. 
The goal is to never be defeated. 
Sensei always says "To win in life is to never be defeated." That does not mean that we will never fail. 
It's our spirit that matters. 
The battle we fight is not with the universe. 
It's with our inner demons...
the ones that say things like 
"obviously chanting doesn't work 
because I did not get my dream by my deadline...or...maybe I should have a different goal...
maybe I wasn't MEANT to have that thing!....
or what am I doing wrong? 
Maybe I wasn't chanting the RIGHT way!" 
It is at that juncture that we must recognize 
the opportunity to deepen our faith and our understanding of the profundity of Buddhism. 
ANYTHING that DRAINS OUR LIFE FORCE 
is the negative function. 
Any inner voice that causes us doubt and hopelessness 
IS the negative function. 
Once we decide we will win no matter what ~ 
we need only to continue. 
We've already won. 
The battle is with the negative function within. 
Ultimately, deadlines are irrelevant. 
Set them if you need them to motivate yourself. 
But decide from the onset that you will win no matter what. And hold YOURSELF accountable. Not the universe. 
If it is a crucial moment and you are in a dire predicament, financially, or health-wise, it is time to DEMAND the protection of the Shoten Zenjin. 

No prayer of a votary of the Lotus Sutra will go unanswered. If your prayer is going unanswered find out what it means to be a votary of the Lotus Sutra. STUDY. And as you are chanting DEMAND the result that you want through your prayer. Awaken to your mission and realize that all your suffering is your opportunity to encourage other people. That is what is meant by turning Karma into Mission."

Hope is Life's Treasure, by Daisaku Ikeda

Hope Is Life's Treasure

Hope is
life's treasure.

Those
who have hope
are always happy.

One can have
all the wealth, power and fame
in the world,
but if one loses hope,
one will falter and stumble
in life.

The ancient Roman orator
Cicero wrote:
"Our capital is invested in hope
rather than in money;
if that hope be abandoned,
all else will be amassed
only to be lost later on."

The arrogant
who ridicule the hopeful
invariably fall in defeat,
left with naught but regret.

On no account
must we ruin
our lives,
which shine with such promise!

Hope is
a jewel that inspires and uplifts.
As long as we have hope,
we will never be deadlocked.

Victory always awaits
and happy smiles spread
where there is hope.

In the words of
the admirable Wangari Maathai,
the Kenyan environmental activist
and friend whom my wife and I
will never forget:
"Hope is like a flower,
which, when it blooms,
does so no matter
what mood it's in
or who is watching.
It always gives its best.
We can too."

Hope is
a flower that blossoms
in effort and perseverance.
Hope is
the noble visible reward
of those who accumulate unseen virtue.

People who live out their lives
with hope
never become jaded
or apathetic.

A contributive life
of giving hope
to those who are suffering
is a source of growth,
fulfillment,
learning,
creativity
and solidarity.

The great Spanish author
Miguel de Cervantes wrote,
"Just as light shines
more brightly in darkness,
so hope should be
more steadfast in trials."

Hope is the hallmark
of invincible fortitude.
Life is a struggle -
hence, our challenge is to live
with optimism and strength,
year after year.

InazoNitobe,
the great Tohoku-born educator,
friend of first Soka Gakkai president
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi,
declared that hope
can be found
even in the darkest gloom.

Such hope, he said,
is "visible only
to the eye of
faith and courage."

Even while imprisones dor his beliefs,
President Makiguchi wrote serenely,
"Depending on one's frame of mind,
even hell can be enjoyable."

Josei Toda later said
in gratitude to his martyred mentor,
"In your vast and boundless compassion,
you let me accompany you
even to prison."

As the third Soka Gakkai president,
I have steadfastly walked
the profoundly solemn
path of selfless dedication
of mentor and disciple.

I have given my life
to realizing all
the cherished hopes of
my mentor.
My heart is clear and bright,
without a cloud of regret.

As Nichiren Daishonin writes,
"The sun breaks through
the pitch-black dark."
Courageous faith is
the sun of limitless hope.

Mentor and disciple
committed to the noblest cause
will rise above all trials and adversity;
the unsurpassed brilliance of their lives
shining on forever.

Infinite hope!
The mystic law is the source.
A boundless state of life!
Faith and practice are the key.

In the Lotus Sutra,
we find these truly generous words:
"We beg that the merit (we have) gained...
may be spread far and wide to everyone,
so that we and other beings
all together may attain the Buddha way."

Kosen-rufu us
the supreme and colossal hope
of elevating
all humanity
to a vast life-state
of peace and happiness.

Ah---
Hope! Hope! Hope!
Hope is life's treasure.

At the start of a new year,
a new day,
let us set forth,
brimming with bright hope,
the sun of time without beginning
brimming in our hearts!

Let us boldly break through
even the deepest turmoil
of these troubled times,
and be the ones to create new hope!

Let us advance in triumph,
imparting the hope
of absolute victory
to one person after another!

The French writer and activist
Romain Rolland said,
"The last hope of our day
lies in youth."

I now wish to declare for all to hear:
"The greatest hope for the future lies in Soka youth."

My young friends,
never be defeated!

No matter what trials and hardships
may befall you,
never lose sight of
the golden light of hope!

Oh my friends,
my beloved friends
whom I trust with all my heart,
live out your lives with hope!
Be victorious without fail!

Daisaku Ikeda
--on my 84th birthday,
January 2nd, 2012

As Long as One Has HOPE

Hope is Life's Treasure

The purpose of this blog is to give you hope and inspiration....to keep that fire burning in you --- even when it seems like everything is rising up against you. Hope is the most important thing. It is important for me. It is important for you. It is important for all those around you that you maintain hope!
I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I do.
I am reading it over and over as I face the challenges in my life!
Enjoy!

Daisaku Ikeda wrote this for us on January 2nd, 2012...his 84th birthday.

Hope Is Life's Treasure

Hope is
life's treasure.

Those
who have hope
are always happy.

One can have
all the wealth, power and fame
in the world,
but if one loses hope,
one will falter and stumble
in life.

The ancient Roman orator
Cicero wrote:
"Our capital is invested in hope
rather than in money;
if that hope be abandoned,
all else will be amassed
only to be lost later on."

The arrogant
who ridicule the hopeful
invariably fall in defeat,
left with naught but regret.

On no account
must we ruin
our lives,
which shine with such promise!

Hope is
a jewel that inspires and uplifts.
As long as we have hope,
we will never be deadlocked.

Victory always awaits
and happy smiles spread
where there is hope.

In the words of
the admirable Wangari Maathai,
the Kenyan environmental activist
and friend whom my wife and I
will never forget:
"Hope is like a flower,
which, when it blooms,
does so no matter
what mood it's in
or who is watching.
It always gives its best.
We can too."

Hope is
a flower that blossoms
in effort and perseverance.
Hope is
the noble visible reward
of those who accumulate unseen virtue.

People who live out their lives
with hope
never become jaded
or apathetic.

A contributive life
of giving hope
to those who are suffering
is a source of growth,
fulfillment,
learning,
creativity
and solidarity.

The great Spanish author
Miguel de Cervantes wrote,
"Just as light shines
more brightly in darkness,
so hope should be
more steadfast in trials."

Hope is the hallmark
of invincible fortitude.
Life is a struggle -
hence, our challenge is to live
with optimism and strength,
year after year.

InazoNitobe,
the great Tohoku-born educator,
friend of first Soka Gakkai president
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi,
declared that hope
can be found
even in the darkest gloom.

Such hope, he said,
is "visible only
to the eye of
faith and courage."

Even while imprisones dor his beliefs,
President Makiguchi wrote serenely,
"Depending on one's frame of mind,
even hell can be enjoyable."

Josei Toda later said
in gratitude to his martyred mentor,
"In your vast and boundless compassion,
you let me accompany you
even to prison."

As the third Soka Gakkai president,
I have steadfastly walked
the profoundly solemn
path of selfless dedication
of mentor and disciple.

I have given my life
to realizing all
the cherished hopes of
my mentor.
My heart is clear and bright,
without a cloud of regret.

As Nichiren Daishonin writes,
"The sun breaks through
the pitch-black dark."
Courageous faith is
the sun of limitless hope.

Mentor and disciple
committed to the noblest cause
will rise above all trials and adversity;
the unsurpassed brilliance of their lives
shining on forever.

Infinite hope!
The mystic law is the source.
A boundless state of life!
Faith and practice are the key.

In the Lotus Sutra,
we find these truly generous words:
"We beg that the merit (we have) gained...
may be spread far and wide to everyone,
so that we and other beings
all together may attain the Buddha way."

Kosen-rufu us
the supreme and colossal hope
of elevating
all humanity
to a vast life-state
of peace and happiness.

Ah---
Hope! Hope! Hope!
Hope is life's treasure.

At the start of a new year,
a new day,
let us set forth,
brimming with bright hope,
the sun of time without beginning
brimming in our hearts!

Let us boldly break through
even the deepest turmoil
of these troubled times,
and be the ones to create new hope!

Let us advance in triumph,
imparting the hope
of absolute victory
to one person after another!

The French writer and activist
Romain Rolland said,
"The last hope of our day
lies in youth."

I now wish to declare for all to hear:
"The greatest hope for the future lies in Soka youth."

My young friends,
never be defeated!

No matter what trials and hardships
may befall you,
never lose sight of
the golden light of hope!

Oh my friends,
my beloved friends
whom I trust with all my heart,
live out your lives with hope!
Be victorious without fail!

Daisaku Ikeda
--on my 84th birthday,
January 2nd, 2012