Off on my Cruise

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post from my cruise~ But I'll be chanting!

I'm back on the 25th.

Have a great, victorious week!

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

You Never Have to chant for a long time

Regarding my last post, of chanting for 8 hours for Japan ~ I want you to understand.

You are never, and never will be required to chant for that long.

This is not a practice of things that you "have" to do.

I chose to take the opportunity to pour daimoku into the planet ~ along with other members on Wednesday...because I wanted to...I urgently felt the need to use my own energy to heal the suffering on the planet, and to pour protection into the reactors...and I knew the chanting would help my life too...because it always does.

But I don't want you to think this kind of chanting is EVER expected of a member. It isn't! People chant as long as they wish, and if they are smart, they chant twice a day, morning and evening because it establishes a rhythm, but no one is ever expected to chant 8 hours in a row!

Chanted 8 hours Today...for Japan...for Earth

There are tozos being held all over the world for Japan right now.

A tozo is when a group of people come together to chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo over and over for many hours.

Usually there is a specific goal in mind. Last summer, I chanted 12 hours for the success of the Rock The Era Youth Festivals. Three of us chanted the entire 12 hours, and a lot of people came and went. And right after that, four incredible young people emerged as glowing Boddhisatvas to help lead our District.

Today while I was chanting I pictured the universe...and called for all the protective forces of the Universe to come Flying straight to earth...like super heros...specifically to Japan...and to all the people suffering, or looking for lost loved ones...and I chanted for all the souls who lost their lives. Of course, I believe that life is eternal, and that the people who died will be reborn, but that doesn't make it any easier for the ones left behind. I know this.

I chanted for "Hondoku Iyaku" that the people of Japan, and all of the world could turn this great poison of suffering suffering into medicine. I can't say HOW exactly, but I chanted for it none the less. I chanted for each of the nuclear reactors to be surrounded by shoten zenjin (Protective Forces) and for the entire Nuclear Worldwide organization to come in and help the few Japanese people who are putting their lives at risk. I chanted for Anderson Cooper and all who are still in Japan.

I chanted for Daisaku Ikeda, and for me to have the deep, deep prayer that he does towards this crisis....and for he and his wife, and ALL the people in Japan and the surrounding areas to experience the power of the protective forces.

I pictured a rainbow of beautiful light running through the country from the atmosphere to deep below the surface, and for healing to take place.

I chanted hard...I sat in front...I led the chanting for some time...I'm not really sure how long...a little less than an hour I think. There were some moments that the harmonies were just transporting me...it was wonderful when some young men came in and we all made the most beautiful music with our prayers.

Aaahhhh

Chanting for the Shoten Zenjin to come out in full force

Chanting for the Shoten Zenjin ~ Protective Functions in the Universe ~ to Surround the nuclear reactors and all of japan and all of this planet!

Look! We were Published in the local epaper today!!!

This article was entitled:

Chant for happiness

The words “nam-myoho-renge-kyo” pass their lips more often perhaps than any other words during the course of a day.

Jamie Silver and Kathy Fisher, both of Downers Grove, are part of the faithful followers of Nichiren Buddhism. In addition to their own chanting, which they both do individually for hours every day, they lead a local group or district, the members of which meet weekly at Silver’s house.

Chanting the words “nam-myoho-renge-kyo"—which translates to the title of the Lotus Sutra—“taps your highest life’s potential," Silver said. "That’s the key to this practice. Everyone has this potential. There’s not anyone who doesn’t.”

Both self-proclaimed seekers, Silver and Fisher discovered Nichiren Buddhism during the 1970s. Silver said she always “knew that there had to be something out there. That if I put my energy into something, it would come back channeled in the direction I wanted it to.”

She researched different types of Buddhism. “But they all said essentially that you had to let go of your attachment to your desires. Most forms of Buddhism say that," Silver said. "I thought to myself, ‘maybe next lifetime I’d like to give up my desires, but this lifetime, I want to keep them.”

Eventually, she found Nichiren Buddhism. “It says that your desires are enlightenment and will lead you to happiness. It will lead you to chant which changes your karma and makes you happy,” she said.

Chanting is “vibrational,” Silver said. “It’s as if you knew the name of the rhythm of life itself. Some people call that God. We call it nam-myoho-renge-kyo. We say it over and over again. It’s like hooking your life up to an electric current. And the interesting thing is that it doesn’t matter if you believe that it’s going to work or not. It’s the law of cause and effect. Chanting is making the cause and you will get the affect. It’s an extremely powerful cause that you make for your life.”

When chanting, Silver sits in front of the altar that she’s erected off of the living room in her home. “Every Buddhist has an altar in their home," she said. "It’s the place where we go every day to bring out our truest and best self. There’s a box with a scroll inside of it. The scroll is the depiction of the highest possible life condition. We keep candles, fruit and incense there.”

There are no rules to dictate how long people chant. Silver said that she typically does so twice daily for an hour or so at a time. “Some chant fifteen minutes a day, some chant hours. When I first started it was for five minutes and I saw huge changes in my life. I had been very depressed, and the minute I started, I started feeling more like myself,” she said.

Fisher said that people chant for changes, direction and wisdom. “The most incredible things happen when you chant. Everyone has things that they want to change. That becomes the focal point for you.

"I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have something that they’d like to change,” she said. “Chanting about a problem or situation that you want to change helps you to know which direction to go. In chanting, you’re fusing with the universe and you develop the wisdom to know what action to take. Prayer and action. It’s important that they go hand in hand.”

“I chant for wisdom to know how to tackle my situations. And I also chant for other peoples’ happiness," Fisher said. "This is a practice for oneself and for other people. I want to see everyone the happiest that they can become in their lives."

About three years ago, Fisher started the district that meets at Silver’s home. “We had a district in Naperville and it became so large that we split. That’s what happens, “she said. Weekly district meetings include sharing stories and support, and group chanting. Each meeting draws approximately a dozen people, of all ages, faiths and ethnicities.

“We have people from all over the world too—from India, China, Japan, Indonesia, and then people who are from around here. It’s a very multicultural group,” said Silver.

Chanting together in a group multiplies the amount of energy, she said. “The rhythm is so strong and you’re so focused.” Congregating gives them the “opportunity to chant for each other," Silver said. "We celebrate each others’ successes and chant for each other in times of need. And we’re an open family. We love more than anything to welcome new members.”

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Dear Vidhu and all Readers! Great Breakthrough!!!!

I got the Job!!!

And now I'm celebrating!

First of all, I got exactly the job I wanted...I was able to raise their offer by almost 5 thousand dollars and today they informed me that I would be getting the three weeks of vacation that I requested!

I start on the 28th of March!

Yaaaayyy!! Daimoku Works! It really Does!!!

AND to really celebrate, I'm doing the thing I love the absolute best in the world...I'm going on a cruise!!!

Woohoo!!!!

And, get this, I'm going ALONE!!! No more sighing because I have no one to go with! Of course none of my friends could go on this short notice.

I feel very brave, I'll tell you! Brave, bold, strong and VICTORIOUS!!!

That's what this practice is all about .... WINNING!

I VOWED that I would win...and I did.

I chanted fiercely that I would achieve this victory through my prayer because I AM A VOTARY OF THE LOTUS SUTRA and I MUST PROVE THE POWER OF THIS PRACTICE!!

Now I'm taking myself on a victory cruise!

I leave from Miami on Saturday, for very little money, and get back on Thursday. I will have sun, music, and more sun!!!

I wish all of you could come with me! Wouldn't that be fun? I'm going to ask the cruise director if I can teach classes in chanting. I ought to meet some interesting people that way! I'm not sure what they will say, but it never hurts to ask!

Thank you for chanting for me!!!

Thank you for reading my blog!!

Good News and Bad News

Good News! I got the Job

Bad News: 8.9 Earthquake, and Tsunami warnings all over.

I'm going to chant right now

for all of the people affected,

and who may be affected in the future!