Prayer in Buddhism

Prayer in this practice is very different than most forms of prayer.
While we are chanting we are busy focusing our thoughts like a laser beam cutting through our karma.
We are not "asking" anyone for anything...
We are instead making a vow or a determination
to accomplish something.
That's so different, isn't it?
We are chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
and at the same time vowing to win in whatever endeavor we desire.

Daisaku Ikeda says it best:

When your determination changes,
everything else will begin to move
in the direction you desire.
The moment you resolve to be victorious,
every nerve and fiber in your being
will immediately orient itself
toward your success.
On the other hand, if you think
"This is never going to work out,"
then at that instant
every cell in your being
will be deflated and give up the fight,
and then,
everything really WILL move
in the direction of failure.

For Today and Tomorrow
Daily Encoragement
for September 20th
Daisaku Ikeda

Delicious Daimoku! Chanting from my heart!

I just finished the most delicious daimoku (chanting of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo)! I have to share it with you quickly before I head off to my wonderful job.

I chanted and hour and a half straight...only stopping to fill my mug of Earl Grey tea and milk!

I could feel the power welling from within my body...chanting from the "bottom of my heart" felt even more like chanting from deep within my body.

I chanted in appreciation for my life, I chanted to fulfill my mission for Kosen Rufu (a world that DIGNIFIES all of life), I chanted to be an inspiration to people...and to somehow strengthen my faith that I can accomplish my goals...I will be healthy, and pain free, I will be able to wear size 8 clothing, I will fulfill my goals, I chanted with faith in my own power to create my own life...in other words...enlightenment! I chanted for all the people I have on the wall by my altar...for all of them to be incredibly happy, I chanted for my family ...for my sons to RUN FREE and be strong and have great Cross Country seasons and create life-long memories. I chanted for the Community I work in, and the town I live in! I chanted for the leaders of our country to have wisdom and make the best decisions. And I chanted for my own sparkling day today...that I be bright and productive and that I appreciate and enjoy every minute. I chanted for this blog to inspire and reach people everywhere! I chanted for you!

You can see why I never wanted this daimoku to end!

I hope you have an exhilarating and magnificent day!

Chanting 5 minutes can be enough for a breakthrough!!!

Would you be interested in knowing that chanting only five minutes has the power to turn your whole life around?
I know, I know...it sounds too good to be true, but I have seen it happen!

The first 5 minute experience happened with a dear friend when I lived in San Francisco. Her daughter had been going through numerous challenges ever since she was quite young. Now she was a troubled teenager. She couldn't seem to fit in anywhere...she couldn't seem to save herself and my friend was really at a loss.

My friend is an intellectual...sometimes the smartest people have the hardest time chanting! Their brains just won't stop telling them that they are too smart for all of this! They want to figure it all out...but you can't figure this out...it's experiential! You have to do it!

However...this one time...at the end of her rope...my friend chanted.

Her daughter was in jail...again...and my friend came over. I said "what do you have to lose?" and she chanted FIVE minutes with me. She was chanting for her daughter to be allowed back into the place she had just been. I'll never forget chanting with her.
After that, she went to visit her daughter in jail and they chanted 20 minutes together!! OMG!

The daughter did not get back into the place they had hoped for...she ended up in a much better place...a place that saved her life. It was a place in Colorado that WOULD NOT kick her out if she ran away...and they had a beauty school, something my friend's daughter really wanted to learn. It set her on the right course. It was life changing.

It all started with 5 minutes.

Whenever you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo it's as if you are reciting the entire Lotus Sutra. You are, in a way...speaking the words of the Buddha that you REALLY are...and accessing the power that has always been yours!

Chanting is a tool to access your own Buddhahood.

Rock and roll!

Buddhist Meetings

Soka Gakkai Buddhist Meetings are so cool.

Many are held just in normal people's homes. Some are held at the many culture centers throughout the world. They are all conducted by lay people like myself. All of us are equals and there are no priests.

They take many forms...discussion meetings...study meetings...tozos (chanting meetings) and other types of lectures etc.

I love hosting them at my house.

They usually last an hour and a half. In a discussion meeting half an hour is chanting, then the rest of the time is made up of study and experiences.
There is also a time where we discuss some aspects of the practice...an overview for guests.
We talk about why we started practicing...and what we have achieved.
Then someone gives an experience. Experiences detail a challenge someone has had...how they've chanted about it...and how they've overcome it and triumphed.

If one of my readers wants to share an experience let me know! I would love to include you in this blog.

Have you aver attended an event that fundamentally changed your life forever? Your eyes were opened and you never saw things the same way again? That's how I chant for every attendee at my meetings.
I chant for the success of the meeting...for every single person to be a different person as they leave the meeting...more inspired than ever...seeing themselves in a whole different light...Ready to take on each adn every challenge they're facing...I chant for each and every person to never be the same after a meeting! In an awe inspiring way. And I chant for all my Buddhist friends and all people chanting every where to really GET how awesome the power is in their own lives!

Remember : Dream Big...chanting is to make the impossible come true!

Great Weekend

What a weekend!
I've had a cold since Friday, but have had some fun this weekend anyway. The weather has been perfect weather for me...bright sun...warm! Yaaay!
Yesterday was such a highlight!

My son Ben ran in the Lake Park meet. I picked up my Mom from her Assisted Living (OPH she calls it "Old People's Home"!) and brought her up to Lake Park by the Medinah Country Club to watch Ben's Cross Country meet. It was an amazing day. There were over 1100 high school runners there, both boys and girls. Ben ran in first place for the entire race...until they came onto the track and he ended up coming in second...but it was still such a victory for him. He PR'd at 13:48 for the three mile race and was in great shape at the end of the race...(not gasping for air or lying on the ground!) he was interviewed by the Daily Herald. It was so exciting!

After dropping my Mom back off in Bolingbrook I stopped at the library and found a fabulous book that I have already finished today. It's called Foreign Tongue...A Novel of Life and Love in Paris and it's written in the first person (my absolute favorite style) about a woman who was raised in LA and in Paris. In the book she moves back to Paris to cure her broken heart and ends up translating a French romantic novel. It had everything, romance, humor, and the fascinating study of words in two languages. I love the idea of untranslatable concepts...it opens a whole world of how Americans and other cultures think. Loved it! Vanina Marsot is the author and it's her first book. Thank you Vanina! You made a weekend with a bad cold fly by! And it brought me back to my french roots. Both my grandparents were French Canadian on my mother's side. I love the language.

I also took out all the CD's of Vaughn Williams, my favorite composer. His music has the power to transport me to magical lands...I am so looking forward to listening...over and over!

Even though I've been sick I've still managed to chant.
Tomorrow night is the first Buddhist meeting at my house in a long time.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

Quote from Daisaku Ikeda

Nothing can match the strength
of those whose lives have been shaped and forged
through challenging and overcoming hardships.
Such people fear nothing.
The purpose of our Buddhist practice
is to develop such strength and fortitude.
To cultivate such an invincible core
is in itself a victory.
It is also the greatest benefit.
Those who can succeed in this endeavor
will savor unsurpassed happiness;
they can manifest the state of Buddhahood.

Daisaku Ikeda
For Today and Tomorrow

Human Revolution

I have told you exactly what I'm chanting for...to free my life from the undercurrent of suffering that has always been within my life and awaken to my true Buddha nature.
I am chanting two hours every day, I am chanting with my friends and encouraging them...I am making every cause every day to have this break through in my life.

What does is feel like?

It feels like the center of my life is some hot volcano...it underlies everything...sometimes it's dormant...sometimes I can quiet it with food or other diversions...and sometimes it just boils up and over!

I'll just bet you know what I mean. I really think we all have this in some form...and all find ways to tamp it down...deal with it...ignore it...and it's probably at the heart of illness itself.

Yesterday I awakened into the reality of the pain all fresh and new.

Now, I know I can summon happiness from within my life...I KNOW this intellectually, and I KNOW the only real love comes from within. Of course, of course.

But the knowledge of this doesn't help when I wake up with tears already in my eyes and a longing and regret that won't just be pushed away. I was thinking about how long I've had this pain...this longing...this insatiable hunger. I've attributed it to many things...in High School it was "caused" by my longing for a boy I couldn't have, in college it was just general sadness, and since then it's been longing for one thing or person after another...just a sense of never having enough.

Don't get me wrong, I have a great life, I have a wonderful career, I have an inspiring and dedicated family, I have many dear, dear friends, and feel great appreciation much of the time...but there has been this sadness under it forever. Probably for many lifetimes.

And among my Buddhist friends there are so many excellent roll models who have conquered their sadness and overcome great obstacles...I know that I can too.

So, I called my friend Kate Randolph, the incredibly talented actress, producer and director...and also the person who introduced me to this practice 25 years ago. She has had this breakthrough for herself. Here is what she said:

First she said that my victory is assured.
I will experience the happiness that comes from accessing my own Buddhahood.
I will bring the love I wish to feel from within my life. I will stop looking for it to come from somewhere else. I will accomplish my goal. I am chanting two hours a day, I am focusing on my happiness and the happiness of others. I am joined in heart with my mentor Daisaku Ikeda.
And I must go through it to the end. As it says in the Gosho "the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat." She said I must realize that I am turning around years...lifetimes...of devaluing my life. I must praise it instead!
I must realize that I'm waging this battle not only for myself, and see it for the noble fight it is. Face it, MOST people think their happiness and suffering lie OUTSIDE of themselves.
That's the world we live in.
If I can break through that illusion in my own life, I can raise the vibration of the whole planet. That is what we mean by the Term Human Revolution...any real change on the planet is affected by each of us being strong and brave enough to do what it takes to break through.
Since we are all interconnected to everything else...all part of the web of life...human revolution MUST effect everything in the environment.

She said Kosen Rufu (world peace) means having a planet that fundamentally dignifies life. Imagine that!

We Buddhas, all of us, everyone, can be deeply, profoundly, limitlessly happy right now, right where we are, just as we are.

Bring it on!

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!!!