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We chant for others.
We chant for this life and this world.
We change our karma
for the sake of changing the whole world's karma.
We are the noble Bodhisattvas of the earth
and Votaries of the Lotus Sutra.
We TELL our lives what we want - in our prayers - while chanting.
We ARE Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!
And....Sometimes it seems like it is taking FOREVER for a benefit to come or an obstacle to go away, doesn't it? Even though we KNOW the answer lies within us - inside our own karma, and in doing our human revolution, sometimes we just have to get mad at our own life and wake those Shoten Zenjin UP! (Shoten Zenjin = protective forces within all life)
In the February 2015 Living Buddhism Magazine
(published by the SGI-USA and available by calling 800-835-4558) one of my favorite Gosho passages appeared. In this Gosho, Nichiren Daishonin has been persecuted by the government and is being taken away to Tatsunokuchi Beach to be beheaded. On the way, he sees a statue of Hachiman.
Nichiren demands they stop at the statue. He looks at Hachiman and shouts:
'Great Boddhisatva Hachiman, are you truly a god?...Now I, Nichiren, am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sutra in all of Japan, and am entirely without guilt...If I am executed tonight and go to the pure land of Eagle Peak, I will dare to report to Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, that the Sun Goddess and Great Boddhisatva Hachiman are the deities who have broken their oath to him. If you feel this will go hard with you, you had better do something about it right away!' (WND - 1, 766-67)
Nichiren yells at the Buddhist God and says "you better protect me RIGHT NOW because that is the pledge you made. If I die I will report you! Get to work!" Of course, after he yells at the statue, a huge orb comes out of the sky lighting up the faces of his would-be assassins, they all run scared, and he is saved from death.
Nichiren's strong attitude when he addresses the statue shows us we can summon the forces within our life. We can all pray in front of our own Gohonzons with fury and with fire.
PowerPrayer to MAKE IT HAPPEN!
These words represent some thoughts we can have in mind while chanting. Our minds will naturally fluctuate as we chant, and that is absolutely fine. I offer these PowerPrayers because they represent the moments I am most connected to my desire...and I offer them to help you. They are my unique contribution based on my Bodhisattva vow to use my life to inspire.
By Jamie Lee Silver of ChantforHappiness.com
"Gohonzon!
Shoten Zenjin!
Life!
SOME KIND OF WAY
this________ HAS TO CHANGE NOW!!!
My life has to move.
I Don't know HOW to make it happen.
And I don't have to know.
I just know it HAS TO!!
Every Daimoku I chant is changing this karma now!
It is time for me to see results in this area.
NOW!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!
We can all summon this fiery attitude at the crucial moment - we are ALL dignified votaries of the Lotus Sutra, we can all command the fundamental forces that are within our lives and represented on the Gohonzon.
When I first wrote this PowerPrayer last year, I was visiting my nephew in St. Petersburg Florida, certain that my life was unfolding JUST as it should. My beloved son Ben had died the summer before, and I was setting out to create my new life...mostly alone, but fortified by this practice and the power of my own life. Through chanting strongly, like THIS, I was able to happily move to this paradise.
As I write this I am looking over the Gulf of Mexico, listening to the waves, and shortly I'll be swimming and walking on the beach. These prayers, this practice made it all happen.
Last year I wrote this: "I am seeing the benefit come from the pain I've been through. Life is getting happier for me, and I have more to look forward to with each passing moment. I will have lots to share with you over the next coming months!" And it was true! By June 30th I was in St. Pete Beach! Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!
Look at the power of YOUR Life!
You can have anything you wish.
You have the power within YOU.
Added bonus: Here's one way to explain the practice for others:
What we Nichiren Buddhists do;
As practitioners of the Lotus Sutra,
we chant the Mystic Law every single day.
Intoning Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
(which means: I fuse my life with the Mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration) is a noble cause.
It brings forth our greatest human potential,
elevates our life condition, and the life condition and vibration of all of life.
Our life undergoes a complete human revolution...and as our life changes...we change everything. We raise the vibration of the planet.
