An Honored Birthday ~ and New Beginnings

Today would have been my sweet Mommy's 81st birthday. 
I know that sounds old to many of you...but to some I'm sure it doesn't. You know I spent many years working in a nursing home. I once heard a 99 year old man call an 83 year old woman a "youngster"

It really seems fitting that I began the day by chanting two hours of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with six of the members in my district. It felt so good!  We all have many challenges and much to chant about. That is our benefit. ALL of us are strengthening our life conditions and turning poison into benefit. 


We have also been celebrating the fact that it has been a full year since my teenage friend Shazara "went missing" from her home in the depths of despair and ended up on my doorstep...a complete stranger... but not for long. I invited her in and invited her to chant. One she started, she didn't want to stop. Today she is a very different young lady...she has solved her lifetime problem of being bullied, she is filled with life and enthusiasm and determined to help other teenagers end their pain like she did. This year will be her senior year in High School. I can't wait to see what she will accomplish! 


And it also was just perfect, that on Mom's birthday, Ben and I helped Aaron move into his new rental house close to the Loyola Medical School Campus. He starts Med school on the 30th of August. 
Wow! He has planned for this for so many years. 
He has chanted so much to prepare his life!


I am inspired! And my Mom...she is thrilled and proud! 

Born in San Francisco, a 49er fan for life!

Aaron's shared rental house

Great Colors!

A Great Quote from a Reader Today

This was sent to us from a reader:


"I am from India . Sensei has quoted this from a poem written by Walt Whitman in the latest Value Creation, a monthly magazine - Just loved it and it gave me lots of strength - thought will share this with you immediately." 


Afoot and light hearted I take to the open road, 
healthy, 
free, 
the world before me.
Henceforth I ask not good fortune,
I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, 
postpone no more, 
need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, 
libraries, 
querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road

Putting Yourself FIRST

As one of my favorite people, Maya Angelou, says 
"A woman who takes care of herself is unstoppable."
A PERSON who takes care of himself/herself is unstoppable! 


What is the best way to take care of yourself? 


Put your PRACTICE first!!! 


I promise you, and I can prove to you by personal example, that if You make sure you have carved out your time and space to chant every day - twice a day - all you have ever wished for will be yours. 


And I know, it is not so easy to say "Now is my time to chant" when others around you are wanting things from you. But THIS IS THE EXACT way that you will STRENGTHEN YOUR LIFE. and when you have a strong life you can be a better person for everyone, including those around you who may be asking you for things at the exact time you want to chant!


Now, I do know there are just times that you have to be flexible. I know there are probably times you have to chant in the car on the way somewhere, but make these time the EXCEPTION and not the rule. 


The more clearly you carve out your chanting time, the stronger you become. It really does work this way. You MAKE your life conform to YOUR wishes. You say "I will chant for ____ amount of time every single morning. towards accomplishing _____goal." If you have not done this  ~ please do! It is the clearest way to accomplish your goal. 


My son did this a few years ago hen he was studying for his MCATS - the Medical School entrance exams. He chanted all summer consistently every day. He chanted more than he'd ever chanted every day. And occasionally he chanted and hour and a half at his leader's house and he went to SGI meetings. His goal was to achieve a certain grade on the MCATS and to get into a medical school that was the BEST school for his life. 


This was not an easy goal for him to achieve. He was working in a research laboratory, he was tutoring others and he was taking the MCAT prep course. But he put chanting first. 


He did not achieve the number goal he wanted on the test, so at first he thought chanting didn't work. But later, when he had stopped chanting as much, he realized that while he was chanting with determination he had the best semester he'd ever had at school. He felt the most "himself". He was able to express himself and accomplish a lot and he was just HAPPY! 


So now, he chants every day and has a much stronger practice. 
Cool huh? And he DID get into the perfect Medical School for his life. The Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. Coincidentally it's also the closest medical school to where I live. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!!! 


Remember this:


When you put yourself first...when you carve out YOUR time to chant...your life will direct itself in the direction of your happiness. It has to. You are chanting the name of the mystic law. You are summoning the life in your life. You WILL achieve your dreams. But sometimes you have to fight for them...you have to fight the internal voices that say "I'm too tired to chant...or I really should do the laundry first." (and then suddenly it's 2;00 and you haven't done morning gongyo yet!)


Put yourself first by putting your practice first! 


Strengthen the core of your life!


Do this and write me and tell me how it's going!!! 


Chanting for you!

True Joy!

True joy comes from solving your own problems, creating the life of your dreams and chanting for others to accomplish their goals and dreams and overcome their problems! 


We have a saying "practice for yourself and for others" and it is at the heart of what we do.  By practicing for others (chanting with them, chanting for them, helping them attend meetings) we build compassion in our lives and bring about the lasting karmic changes we want to make...and it just feels so good to help another person. 


It is so easy to stay enmeshed in our own challenges and problems. That is how most of the world works. But we have the perfect opportunity to create Kosen Rufu in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces and everywhere we go. 


See what you can do today ton help someone who is suffering today! 

Power Prayers!

Our thoughts while chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo are very important!


We can aim them like a laser towards what is really important, and we can use them to raise our life conditions and strengthen the core of our lives - which in turn makes us stronger and more capable of achieving our goals and being truly happy from the inside of your lives - regardless of day-to-day circumstances. 


We can't always control everything that goes on in our lives. This is a fact of life. There are some things we experience that we wish we could just NOT experience. But at the heart of our lives we can have a powerful power prayer. 


Here are some examples of POWER PRAYERS:


LIFE! Right here, right now I am raising my life condition and strengthening my life so that NO MATTER WHAT I will be able to greet each day with appreciation, and have a high enough life condition to overcome anything!


LIFE! I am determined to expand my capacity in every way. Today I expand my capacity for JOY! I expand my capacity for APPRECIATION! I expand my capacity to appreciate each moment as it comes, and to express appreciation as much as I can possibly can all day. I expand my capacity for powerful determination and concentrated thought. I expand my capacity for brain power! I expand my capacity to HELP OTHERS! 


LIFE! I WILL WIN in every aspect of my life! Job, love life, wealth creation, friendships and ability to lead and help others. I MUST be an example that this practice works. I chant to change the inside of my life so that all the things I truly desire can come to me as a reflection of the inner changes I have made through my chanting and strong determination!


LIFE! I chant specifically to achieve this outcome ______________________. (Fill in the blank)
Or something better! I am determined to make these internal changes to activate these results!




Chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with passion and determination activates the law within your life. Remember that you are aligning with the mystic law, and not asking anyone or anything for favors. Chant POWERFUL DAIMOKU! 


Let me hear from you!!!

Chanting is a Grand and Noble Rite

In the early 1990s Daisaku Ikeda wrote a series of incredible articles that perfectly explain the profundity of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 


I'd like to share a few quotes with you today. 


I will never forget the first time I read the essay called 
"Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite." It was written when Daisaku Ikeda was in Calabasas, California on February 19, 1990. 


The word "Gongyo" refers to our twice daily recitation of the lotus sutra, and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. The best place to learn to recite Gongyo is in your local SGI meeting. And I plan on releasing a video and audio helping you to learn. It's fun to recite once you know it. It's like singing. Learning it can be a little challenging, but I have a way of teaching it that makes it easy. If you are only chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo at this point, you can still feel that this essay is for you, because chanting Daimoku is a grand and noble rite too!


"Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism teaches that our existence is identical to the universe as a whole, and the universe as a whole is identical to our existence. Each individual human life is a microcosm."


"The practice of gongyo is a grand and noble rite to achieve the vital communication of the microcosm of each person's existence with the universe, based on the Gohonzon."
 (The Gohonzon is the scroll that we focus on when we chant...I will write more about the Gohonzon later)


This part is really cool:


"The correspondence of each part of our bodies to parts of the universe is proof that our existence is a microcosm. Our heads are round like the heavens above us, and our eyes are like the sun and the moon. We close them and open them, like day and night. our hair shines like the sparkling stars. Our eyebrows are like the seven stars of the big dipper. Our breath is the wind, and the quiet breathing from our nostrils is like the still air of the valleys and dales. There are some 360 joints in the human body, and they stand for the days of the year. The twelve months. The warm, front side of our body  - our abdomen and stomach - is spring and summer. The cold, hard back is fall and winter. Our blood vessels and arteries are streams and rivers. When we suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, it is if a dam or dike has burst. Our bones are stones, and our skin and muscle are like the earth. Our body hair is a forest."


He goes on to further elucidate the correspondences of each part of the universe and how they are all governed under one law ~


"A slight change int he heat of the sun will enormously affect not only the earth but all the other planets. If the Earth's rotation were to stop for the briefest instant, or if its axis were to tilt to the slightest degree, all living things would be threatened with extinction. That is how subtle the natural order is. Furthermore an irrevocable Law of the Universe exists. This hold true for the microcosm as well...
"Nichiren Daishonin discovered and awoke to the great law of all existence that underlies all the partial laws governing spiritual and physical phenomena, and it was he who revealed the Law to humanity as Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This Mystic Law applies equally to the universe as a whole and to each and every individual human existence. The universe and the individual are one in the mystic law."


"When we practice Gongyo and chant Daimoku (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo before the Gohonzon, our individual existence is perfectly harmonized with the universe."


"Through this practice we can acquire wisdom and good fortune and glow with the energy to overcome any obstacle throughout the four seasons, 365 days a year, we can enter the way to eternal happiness and attain eternity, joy, true self and purity."


"Gongyo is a grand and noble rite that calls forth and activates the infinite power that the microcosm inherently possesses. It transforms your fate, breaks through any apparent dead end and converts suffering into happiness. It creates transformation, a revolution of the microcosm. It is a diagram of Kosen Rufu (World Peace) in our lives."


"The Kosen Rufu that is our aim is a movement to transform the universe, the earth and human society into a world of peace, comfort and harmony in accord with the rhythm of the Mystic Law."


However, he also stresses that the actions we take for ourselves and others is very important. If all we do is sit and chant and do nothing to help others, and take no action to improve our lives our practice will not have the full effect. 


He ends with this message:


"Our faith is that every day, every instant begins from time without beginning. 
We re always setting out, full of hope, from today to the future, from this moment to eternal happiness. We are always young, always beginning. My message to you is that you must be absolutely certain of this and live your wonderful lives without regret, with joy and brightness, always moving forward."


Thank you President Ikeda. Thank you. 

Enjoy Your Life!

I hope that whatever you are doing in life, and no matter how busy you are, that you can take a moment to enjoy watching the billowing of the clouds. They move so slowly, and they move my heart.