About Setting Deadlines for Results

I received a note from a reader about deadlines. They were wondering what to do when the deadline has passed, but the result has not happened. What does this mean...and what do you do next?

Kate is my guest blogger for this question:

We set deadlines to motivate OURSELVES into action. A deadline is not for the universe to respond to us. We chant. We take action. The deadline comes. We either win or we don't. If we don't get the result by the deadline we pick ourselves right up again and redetermine. The goal is to never be defeated. Sensei always says "To win in life is to never be defeated." That does not mean that we will never fail. It's our spirit that matters. The battle we fight is not with the universe. It's with our inner demons...the ones that say things like "obviously chanting doesn't work because I did not get my dream by my deadline...or...maybe I should have a different goal...maybe I wasn't MEANT to have that thing!....or what am I doing wrong? Maybe I wasn't chanting the RIGHT way!" It is at that juncture that we must recognize the opportunity to deepen our faith and our understanding of the profundity of Buddhism. ANYTHING that DRAINS OUR LIFE FORCE is the negative function. Any inner voice that causes us doubt and hopelessness IS the negative function. Once we decide we will win no matter what ~ we need only to continue. We've already won. The battle is with the negative function within. 
Ultimately, deadlines are irrelevant. Set them if you need them to motivate yourself. But decide from the onset that you will win no matter what. And hold YOURSELF accountable. Not the universe. If it is a crucial moment and you are in a dire predicament, financially, or health-wise, it is time to DEMAND the protection of the Shoten Zenjin. No prayer of a votary of the Lotus Sutra will go unanswered. If your prayer is going unanswered find out what it means to be a votary of the Lotus Sutra. STUDY. And as you are chanting DEMAND the result that you want through your prayer. Awaken to your mission and realize that all your suffering is your opportunity to encourage other people. That is what is meant by turning Karma into Mission."

Determination for Financial Fortune - a Power Prayer for you...

Here is a power prayer you might want to use. 
It is general, if you wish you can make it more specific ~

When you are chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo have this determination in your head:

"I am determined to never again worry about Money! I am determined to be financially free and financially savvy. I am very comfortable with my money and always have enough to be able to do whatever I want to do...whenever I want to do it! I have enough money to live the life I want to live, to travel, to give gifts, to donate and to plan for the future. I feel secure and happy and know I always have enough money. I am receiving all I ever need all the time. My foundation is solid and I am secure. Every day I learn more about money and enjoy the process. I do wonderful work and am  wonderfully rewarded!" 

Anything is POSSIBLE!

Hello! Good Morning! 

It's my 27th Gohonzon Birthday!! 

Today I enter my 28th year of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 

I am more determined than ever not to limit my life...to go for my dreams and to appreciate each moment along the way. 

The sun is shining and I am sitting down to send Daimoku to YOU to the world, the universe, my country, my family and friends. We are all in this life together for a reason. 

I keep thinking about this month's Gosho. It says that we have all been related as family...literally every person on earth has been a family member of ours, and we all owe EVERYONE a debt of gratitude. Isn't that a beautiful way of looking at life? Yes. I know why I always chant for those in need and do what I can to help them. I DO owe them a debt of gratitude. And I will spend the rest of my life fulfilling the vow for Kosen Rufu...working to share Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and love and excitement and hope and gratitude with as many people as I possibly can. 

Thank you for reading my blog and being here with me! Thank you for passing it on to your friends and fellow members! 

Please remember not to limit your life. We can't always figure out exactly where our future and our happiness will lie...but if we continue chanting and focusing on what we want, we are gradually getting closer and closer to it. And for me, appreciating HERE, just as much as WHERE I WANT TO GO is one of the major reasons I greet each day with a smile and no longer feel the ache of constant hunger and longing in my gut. I have truly changed that aspect of my life...and it is something I thought I would have to live with for life. It was so close to me that I didn't even realize it was changeable. I thought those feelings of hunger and longing were who I was, not an aspect of my life. Through this incredible practice I have changed that fundamental tendency forever...and ridden my life of the deepest pits of sadness forever. Anything is possible through chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 

Please have faith in your own power to tap the deepest resources of life itself through your prayer! 
Let me hear from you!
Enjoy your sweet daimoku!

A Guest Blogger today and a GREAT QUOTE

Today I am posting an email from a reader. It came at the perfect time and says the perfect thing so I hope you will enjoy it! I have been busy reaping the benefits of my hours of chanting last weekend, and been happily running from morning until late at night for the past few days! 

The quote below is a prescription for how ALL of us can live our lives secure in the knowledge that every Daimoku is hitting every mark...every time! Let's all SUMMON our faith more than ever and release all our doubts!!!

Here is our guest blogger's encouragement:

 I am feeling very inspired, the SGI meeting I went to was about courage and faith.  Really it's in times where we feel that we cannot go on where we feel like giving up, that's when we call forward our courage and faith to go on. When we are chanting it is not about thinking through our problems how will this work out, but just deciding  how we want things to be and letting go enjoying our daimoku and allowing the buddha nature within us to come forth. Our strategizing in front of the Gohonzon, blocks the way for our innate wisdom to shine through.  I know that you have said this all before and thank you!  I would like to share a quote from President Ikeda's lectures on The One Essential Phrase, one that has touched me deeply and one which I will use to continue on my daimoku campaign:

Daimoku is like light. As the Daishonin says, "A candle can light up a place that has been dark for billions of years." Similarly, the moment we offer prayers based on daimoku, the darkness in our lives vanishes. This is the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect. At that very instant, in the depths of our lives our prayer has been answered.
The inherent cause (nyo ze in) of a deep prayer simultaneously produces a latent effect (nyo ze ka). While it takes time for this effect to become manifest, in the depths of our lives our prayers are immediately realized. So at that moment light shines forth. The lotus flower (renge), in blooming and seeding at the same time, illustrates this principle of simultaneity of cause and effect.
Therefore, it is important that we offer prayers with great confidence. The powers of the Buddha and the Law are activated in direct proportion to the strength of our faith and practice. Strong faith is like a high voltage-it turns on a brilliant light in our lives.
Prayers are invisible, but if we pray steadfastly they will definitely effect clear results in our lives and surroundings in time. This is the principle of the true entity of all phenomena. Faith means having confidence in this invisible realm. Those who impatiently pursue only visible gains, who put on airs, or who are caught up in vanity and formalism will definitely become deadlocked.
People who base themselves on prayer are sincere. Prayer cleanses and expands the heart, and instills character.
Daimoku is also like fire. When you burn the firewood of earthly desires, then the fire of happiness-that is, of enlightenment-burns brightly. Sufferings thus become the raw material for constructing happiness. For someone who does not have faith in the Mystic Law, sufferings may be only sufferings. But for a person with strong faith, sufferings function to enable him or her to become happier still.
Faith is inextinguishable hope. The practice of faith is a struggle to realize our desires. And the basis of this practice is prayer. Through prayer, hope turns into confidence. This spirit of confidence unfolds in 3,000 ways, finally resulting in the attainment of our hopes. Therefore, we must never give up.
Even places that have been shrouded in darkness for billions of years can be illuminated. Even a stone from the bottom of a river can be used to produce fire. Our present sufferings, no matter how dark, have certainly not continued for billions of years-nor will they linger forever. The sun will definitely rise. In fact, its ascent has already begun.
To put yourself down is to denigrate the world of Buddhahood in your life. It is tantamount to slandering the Gohonzon. The same is true of setting your mind that absolutely nothing can be done about some particular problem or suffering.
Also, we must not decide in advance that a particular person or a particular area is a lost cause. It is precisely when faced with challenging circumstances that we need to pray. The key is to offer concrete prayers and take action-until results are produced.
Prayers based on the Mystic Law are not abstract. They are a concrete reality in our lives. To offer prayers is to conduct a dialogue, an exchange, with the universe. When we pray, we embrace the universe with our lives, our determination. Prayer is a struggle to expand our lives.
So prayer is not a feeble consolation; it is a powerful, unyielding conviction. And prayer must become manifest in action. To put it another way, if our prayers are in earnest, they will definitely give rise to action.
Thank you for your wonderful contributions! You make my day receiving your daily blogs, I love them and will tell more people about them.

And thank YOU friend for sending this incredible quote on this wonderful day!!!!

A Great Quote for you!

The human spirit is as expansive as the cosmos. 
This is why it is so tragic to belittle yourself or to question your worth. 
No matter what happens, 
continue to push back the boundaries of your inner life. 
The confidence to prevail over any problem, 
the strength to overcome adversity and unbounded hope
—all reside within you.

Daisaku Ikeda

Your Comments? 

Beautiful Fall Here in the Midwest!

What is it about fall...such a wonderful feeling is fall...time of change...time of remembering. I have been spending time in my lovely arboretum. It's a wonderful park-like area with roads and paths. There's a part of the Arboretum that turns all golden..like this:

And there is gold on the ground and gold in the trees...so lovely...

I have been reading and re-reading the Gosho from the October Living Buddhism magazine about repaying ones debts of gratitude. "The Four Virtues and the Four Debts of Gratitude". 

Do you know it says that all of us beings...ALL of us beings, have lived so many times that we have all been related to each other at one time or another? I think I have always known this, and it is why I write this blog...to reach out to all of my family members...YOU.. and all of the future readers of this blog. 

I am chanting for the growth of this blog...that it reach more and more and more people.... not because I want fame or fortune...just because I want to reach all who are suffering, or longing for the secret to happiness to come to them. 

You and I, and all those who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo share a great secret. We KNOW that the rhythm of the universe is within US...and accessible to us. 

We can strengthen our lives at every moment through chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, and raise the vibrational level of our lives, and everyone on the planet...and the entire universe through our chanting. We can fulfill our dreams and live lives of happiness, not fearing death...not fearing ANYTHING. All humans long for this.  

It is our honor and birthright to share it with ALL. It is our way of repaying our debt of gratitude to all living beings. 

Thank you for joining me and all of us in this mission!

Thank you so much for attaching the link to this blog to your facebook pages, and your emails. Thank you so much for joining with me to help all people become happy. 

Becoming happy, and spreading happiness is the greatest joy. 

I have decided to write my book along with Julia, my incredible friend in Ukiah California. She is a published author, a therapist, and has an incredible grasp of this practice. We are both chanting for the fulfillment of our shared dream of Kosen Rufu through each person's happiness. She has a unique voice that is a bit different from mine...more scholarly. Our goal is to reach everyone in their own way and in their own place. 

Here is some wonderful guidance from President Ikeda sent through a new friend in the UK:

The way to practise is to have the attitude while we are chanting that we are in no way different or separate from the eternal Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, or the Buddhas who are enlightened to that Law. The key is to praise one’s inherent Buddhahood and then go out into the world and practise as a bodhisattva, treasuring others, encouraging them to experience their Buddhahood too.

This is a gradual process. When we practise to the Gohonzon, Nichiren Daishonin said we are simultaneously in the state of Buddhahood or enlightenment, but we cannot easily discern that life condition with our minds; therefore we do not always act accordingly. However, through our constant relationship with the Gohonzon, we gradually challenge and overcome the influence of negativity arising from our karma. As we open up our hearts we can begin to experience all those qualities of Buddhahood working naturally and vibrantly inside us and affecting everything that we think and say and do.

President Ikeda has recently described the process as this: ‘When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo while practising for ourselves and others, with the Gohonzon of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo manifested by the Buddha as our clear mirror, and with deep confidence in the Gohonzon existing in our own lives, Myoho-renge-kyo within us resonates with the Myoho-renge-kyo outside us, and the world of Buddhahood emerges within us.’ [World of Nichiren Daishonin's Writings Part 12].

Wonderful Benefit! A Poem from my son Ben

My wonderful son is about to turn twenty...and is going through a transformation in how he sees his life...and how he sees his place in life. I've posted about my sons before...Aaron and Ben. I have adored every moment of being their mother. I have loved playing with them, chanting with them, watching them run, and encouraging them with all my heart. I raised my sons as Buddhists...teaching them to chant for everything...to end bad dreams, to solve relationship problems, to stop bullies. We have chanted together since they were babies. I believe in them...I believe in their happiness and their hearts! Here is Ben's heartfelt poem he gave to me on last week in honor of my birthday in September. Oh thank you Ben!!

Mother Oh Mother

I've been wandering around 

Wasting my youth in a stupor

A sheet of incomplete understanding was pulled over my eyes

Only to disguise

What I could not see

Always alone and always right

I searched and searched for people to help legitimize

My feelings of knowing everything

Though I could not see, this was my irrational belief 

I judged and I judged

And I judged the judgers who judged me

I ignored those loving souls

By thinking they were more people that I had to beat

I ignored those around me 

Who loved me 

Despite me closing them off

And mother oh mother I ignored you most of all

I thought I was so separate

In a different world that was untouchable

But now that our worlds have collided I see I am no different at all

Just another soul, searching, sometimes loitering

I thought I had to figure everything out myself

Mother oh mother 

You've always been so warm

You welcomed me to this world 

To you I was a whole world in your arms

You've understood my journey from the very beginning

You created a self-fulfilling prophecy inside of me

You held me so tight that the world was alright

You told me you always knew that I was going to be fine

That despite my mind,

I know I will always have your love

Despite my foolishness you know I am somewhere

Maybe too far away and ignorant at the moment

But you stuck around and waited patiently guiding me from above 

Swooping and watching and loving like a dove

You fed me and clothed me, and made sure I was healthy

In a time where I was too defiant to realize you were always showing your love for me

I thought I was a bad child

But you were too smart

You helped me discover 

That I had a great big heart

You instilled in me a love

As selflessly as anyone can do anything

You opened my eyes to the amazing world of spiritualism

All in all when I look back I picture

That I was a little pup and you were so tender

And that little pup grew an ego, 

Some self-righteousness, insecurities and an agenda,

But when he finally yawned and stretched out his paws,
He awoke to this world sure of nothing but your love.

Mother, oh mother I love you with all my heart
I could cry at how beautiful a person you are.