A Breath of Fresh Air ~ cold, but Fresh!

Yesterday really lived up to its promise.

The Louis Sullivan exhibit at the Chicago Culture Center was outstanding, and having a private tour from one of the foremost preservationists in the Chicago area...maybe even the world, was just incredible. Vince Michael and I went to high school, but as I mentioned before...I was such a different person back then...I'm sure anyone who meets me now can see it. Anyway, he explained each of the panels and helped us to see the genius behind the actual exhibit itself. It's the first time that such huge panels have been hung to show what the buildings actually look and feel like. It really shows the power of an exhibit like this.

After our personal tour we went up Michigan Avenue in the cold...and saw Second City at night. It was a great Chicago Day.

Today I am back to focusing on chanting in this dreary, dreary Chicago day. I will change my karma for the future. I a doing it right now. I have a job interview that sounds like fun tomorrow and I am absolutely determined to break through. I have vowed inside my life, to President Ikeda, to the members, to my life itself that I will break through in creating a life for myself beyond the one I have know. Ben is ready to launch...Aaron is secure...and it is time for me to have the next phase of my beautiful life unfold. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

Wonderful benefit, wonderful life!

I am about to have such a great day.

My friend Katie is visiting from Montana. She and I became friends freshman year of High School. She walked up to me in the student center of Oak Park River Forest high School in Oak Park, Illinois, and asked me if I liked John Denver. Did I "Like" John Denver? At the time he was my spiritual compass, my light at the end of the tunnel, the spirit that kept my heavy heart hoping for release from my unhappiness. We became instant friends.

Years later, when I was about to fly to Chicago from San Francisco for the tenth anniversary of my graduating class, I chanted to find the person who needed and wanted to learn about chanting.

Katie and I saw each other outside the door to the event, spent the evening together, and she has chanted ever since. Even though she lives in Montana, we are in constant contact.

Today, we are joining another OPRF alumni at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is Vince Michael and I just spent an hour reading his blog. He's a preservationist of architecture and we're getting a personal tour of the Louis Sullivan exhibit from him at the Art Institute.

Check out his blog. I learned so much...I appreciated so much. After the Art Institute we're headed for adventures in Chicago and Second City tonight! Woohoo! I know how to live! But first...on to chant appreciative Daimoku!!

Here's Vince's Blog:

http://vincemichael.wordpress.com/

What I'm chanting for NOW

OK!

We have a big meeting on the 27th of this month at the Chicago Buddhist Center. It is called the Women's Victory Meeting and all are welcome. Linda Johnson, our National Women's Division Leader encouraged all of us to make big goals and determinations towards this date, and I have done just that. My first was for Ben, and we got that benefit already! I already told you that he got an amazing scholarship that he accepted to Miami University of Ohio.

My other determination is towards my finding a new job. Not just any job...but one where I will thrive, and that will allow me to move out of the house and start my new life.

I'm also chanting:

to do my human revolution and permanently raise my life condition...so that the things that come into my life...the job opportunities, the people, are all at a higher level already. I want to attract the man, (OK at the moment, the MEN) who will make me happiest. I'm ready to have some fun!

And, as always I'm chanting to be able to introduce people to this practice...

And for all members to experience countless benefits and be able to realize, within every cell of their beings, the greatness of this practice and the power of their own ability to tap into the source of their being through the incredible chant of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

How to chant for what you want

In response to Hema in India.

(See her comment at the end of the last entry here)

...great question...

Do you chant for everything you want or just one thing?

Make a long list Hema...be specific. Write it down. Say when you want it by and CHANT with the conviction that your life itself has the power to draw forth what you are desiring. Chant for everything!!!

ALL of your desires are GOOD!

Go for it!

You will accomplish your desires or something better.

Let me know how it goes.

Great Benefits Abound!

We've had a wonderful benefit here!

My son Ben, who is 18 and a senior in High School has been looking at colleges for a year or so. he's visited many of them, and gotten calls from numerous running coaches all over the country. He has been chanting and studying hard, and running.

This Sunday he went to Miami of Ohio for a visit. He went alone by bus. He loved it the moment he got there. At some of the colleges he's visited, the runners were isolated and spent a lot of their time playing video games. Ben's not much of a video game player, and wants to be integrated into the whole college experience.

At Miami of Ohio he felt at home right away. He loved the feel of the campus and everything he experienced there. He saw that the runners are really a part of everything...and, on Monday...the coach told him about a great scholarship offer he could extend to Ben. And Ben accepted the offer on the spot.

That's the part that gets me the most...I am so impressed by the fact that Ben was certain...he knew without a doubt that this was the right college for him...and it offered him the biggest scholarship of them all...almost a full ride. isn't that something. That is fortune. That is the kind of fortune you get by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. When Ben chants, he chants so heard he sweats. His whole life flows through his daimoku.

And now he is set.

It was a visual transformation as well. When he came home on Monday he LOOKED like a college boy. And he looked so serene. He has made a major decision. He made it by himself, and he fulfilled a goal he has had for many years of going to school on scholarship...his running efforts have paid off in a big way...all that running in the rain...all that pain...it has all paid off! Go Ben! I am soooo proud of you!!!

About this Blog

I started this blog in July of 2009 when I was at a crossroads and realizing some key things in my life.

Whereas:

I was heading into my 25th year of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, and soon to be entering my 50th year of Life...

Whereas:

I still had some negative karma I was working on changing....

Whereas:

I had an aching heart...and was very aware of the fundamental darkness inside my life...

AND after being a Buddhist for 24 years I knew that I already had the key to changing my life for the better...and it starts with making new determination (goals put into action) ...and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

I decided:

To chant two entire hours every single day with set goals in mind, and blog the two hour a day campaign (daimoku campaign as we call it) so I could inspire others by my certain success.

At the Beginning:

When I started the campaign and blog I was in a marriage that was not happy, and hadn't been for some time. I was employed working for a senior living community and enjoyed my job in sales/marketing and public speaking. I had also been limping for several years with pain in my right leg from the hip to the foot and was trying all sorts of ways to heal the pain. Also, I practiced Buddhism within the Soka Gakkai organization, but I did not currently hold any position of leadership. I was also, as i mentioned above, aching in my heart.

What happened:

Immediately in 2009 I was asked to co-lead the Downers Grove District and embraced it wholeheartedly. There were two or three members coming out to meetings, and I knew my co-leader and I would be able to create a happy thriving district. I chanted every day then, and still do now, for every single member to be so happy that they are overflowing with happiness and telling other people about chanting because it's impossible NOT TO when happiness is coming through every cell! Now we have 15-20 people coming to meetings every single week and new members are joining us every month!

In the fall of 2009 my beautiful, sweet Mommy died, and I know that my chanting for two hours a day carried me through that experience. We held an great life celebration for her. We were very close, my Mom and I, and I miss her every day, but know she is cheering for me still, just like she did when she was alive.

Then I decided that my husband and I had completed our mission together of having and raising two brilliant Buddha Boys, and we decided to split, but remain together in the same house until Ben's graduation in 2011.

Right after that I was laid off, went to California to visit friends and came back to face the realization that the only way out of my leg pain was through a total hip replacement surgery. Yikes! I did that, and I've now recovered and am focusing now on creating my future!

The district is strong...I am strong...and I am still blogging away and invite you to join me! Send me your experiences with chanting and I'll publish them in the blog. Feel free to forward this blog link to anyone you would like to share it with.

The Meaning of Faith

In this unique practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo,

what does it mean to have faith?

What do we have faith in?

Great question!

Since we are ALL Buddhas, and we ALL possess the power of the entire universe within us, we have faith in our ability to tap that vital life force inside us, and make it manifest in the direction we so choose.

There is a famous phrase in the writings of Nichiren Daishonin that states:

"Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is like the roar of a lion. What sickness can therefore be an obstacle?"

Sickness can mean physical ailment, but it also has a much broader meaning...any kind of suffering can be inserted here. The point is, that chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is stronger than any kind of problem one might have. By chanting these words victory is assured.

The point of having strong faith is to summon up, WHILE we are chanting, the conviction that we WILL accomplish whatever it is we are chanting about. While we are chanting we are vowing success in our minds...AS we chant. Chanting with this strong conviction held in our minds fills a person with endless vitality and FAITH.

Right now many Soka Gakkai members are making determinations towards the date of February 27th, 2011. On that date we will be gathering together and sharing our successes from our determinations.

My determination is to get a job to support the next phase of my life...one where I can make enough money to move out, support myself, and one that fulfills my list of requirements. I have several possibilities working now...let's see what I create.

I also will write some query letters about turning this blog into a book. It has such a great story from beginning to end. Every time I sit down to work on a book proposal or query letter I hear all kinds of doubt in my brain. I am determined either to rid my brain of doubt, or to get the query letters done even WITH the doubt in my brain.

How about YOU? Can you summon up determination and faith to make something important happen in your life by the 27th of February?

What could it be?

Around the first of the year I made a determination to get over a sad feeling that was lingering. And by the first of the year I was able to get rid of that feeling!