Fabulous Mother's Day ~ Overflowing with Benefits

Baby Buddha (Heather) and her three Buddha Moms at the Chicago SGI Center

 My sweet YWD Shazara 

Ben, Aaron and me at dinner

I had the absolute best Mother's Day and I sincerely hope you did too. My life is overflowing with the benefits I receive through devoting myself to this practice.

I was out the door at 8:00am to go the the Chicago SGI Center and see our USA General Director, Danny Nagashima. It was one of the most beautiful SGI meetings I've ever attended. The Men's Jazz band was incredible, and several of President Ikeda's beautiful poems about mothers and women were read. Danny gave a talk about the SGI, Nichiren Daishonin and Daisaku Ikeda's views of women. The main theme was that world peace will arrive when women are appreciated and respected by all. He also said this November 18th will be a day of incredible significance when the new world headquarters of the SGI is completed in Tokyo and suggested we all keep a count of the days until then, and establish impossible goals for ourselves. 

For the other pictures:

It was Heather's last meeting in Chicago for awhile. She's moving to Colorado Springs. When Danny told us a new SGI center opened YESTERDAY in Colorado Springs Heather and I cried tears of joy. She is going to fulfill her mission for Kosen Rufu there. She's been my sweet "Baby Buddha" (her chosen nickname) for almost three years. She comes from a traditional orthodox Buddhist background that says you shouldn't desire anything. The idea that she could chant for what she wanted was a difficult one for her to grasp...but once she started chanting twice a day she really deepened her undertanding and began to chant sincerely for her desires. I can feel how strong her life is becoming. 

The other picture is me and 17 year-old Shazara. I've written about her amazing successes many times. She found me at a dark time in her life and is the picture of life and happiness right now, despite having some health issues this year. She brought me these beautiful flowers. 

I spent the whole afternoon with my son Ben who just got home from college yesterday, and we had dinner with Aaron who is about to leave for Bolivia as part of his medical school experience. It is my greatest honor and joy to be their mother. We ended the evening doing Gongyo together to Aaron's newly enshrined full-size Gohonzon. Nothing, nothing makes me happier than chanting with my Buddha Boys. 

My heart is overflowing with appreciation this mother's day. My life is overflowing with benefits. 

This practice absolutely works. I am happier than I ever dreamed possible, and you can be too. 

Just keep chanting and don't give up! 

I am sending love to all of you! 

Receiving Your Gohonzon

How do you receive a Gohonzon?

The Gohonzon (scroll we face when we chant) is the reflection of the "Gohonzon" that exists within your very life itself. It as a depiction of the highest possible life condition of happiness, strength and fulfillment. It represents the world of Buddhahood...the highest life consition possible. 

You can't buy it. 
It is bestowed upon you for your life by the Soka Gakkai. 

I can't speak for how it works in other countries, but I can tell you how you get a Gohonzon here in America. 

First of all you begin practicing and you go to meetings regularly. You begin learning Gongyo (the recitation of the Lotus Sutra we recite every morning and evening). And you chant as much as you can. 

Then you decide where you will put your "home within your home". You choose a wall with no window over it, or too close to it. You make sure nothing is above the Gohonzon. You get a Butsudan (box or "house" for your Gohonzon"). You can get this at the local SGI Buddhist Center or at SGI-USA.org. You can also search for one on the web, or you may find a local member who will sell or give you theirs when they upgrade. 

Then you prepare your altar area with fruit, a plant or greens if you wish, and my favorite thing: a bell. I love the sound of the bell.

You fill out your application, get it signed and pay a nominal fee. 

The day you get your Gohonzon will forever be a significant date for you. Every year on the anniversary of that date I chant for as long as I like and rewrite my goals and determinations and honor my life! I usually connect with my mentors in faith on that day too. 

You receive your Gohonzon in a ceremony at a meeting, then  soon after that have an enshrinement ceremony at your home. 

You can make it a party if you wish! It is a glorious day! 

Happy Mother's Day My Dear Friends

Relationships ~ A Simple Solution...

One of the things it is sometimes difficult to grasp about this practice is JUST HOW SIMPLE IT IS. It just seems too easy sometimes...
How can it be that if we just chant for another's happiness we find our entire relationship with them transformed?

Like I said. It is so simple. We are interconnected with everything...including ALL people. No exceptions. There is not this one person in your environment who is there by some fluke, and is not interconnected with you in the web of life. No. Even those people who seem like flukes ~ well, they may be the MOST important people in our environments, because chanting for THEM creates Human Revolution in OUR lives. 

It's easy to chant for the lovable ones. What about the ones who don't readily love us back? What about the ones who disregard us, disappoint us, or are mean to us? We are connected to these people too, and when we chant for their happiness we create a miraculous cause and effect in our own lives. 

For instance, when Aaron was in third grade he encountered his first bully. Since he's a fortune baby and been chanting his whole life, when I told him to chant for the bully he immediately started chanting for the bully's happiness. Of course they became friends and the bully stopped bullying others, right? Of course. 
We are chanting the name of the law of the universe. 
Life is cause and effect. 

I have other young friends who chanted about bullies and the bullies just "happened" to move away. That happened to me in my early days of chanting. I worked with someone who troubled me. I chanted for her happiness and she got engaged and moved away. Wonderful! 

When you think about it, those who are causing others to be unhappy are unhappy themselves. 

If we chant for their happiness we turn poison into medicine. I have done this so many times, and recommended this to others. 
It ALWAYS works 100% of the time. 

One of the keys is to fake it till you make it. At first when you're chanting for a person you may be thinking your prayer is not sincere. But if you keep praying for them, and picture them with a big smile on their face, your prayer will become sincere. Guaranteed. And your compassion will grow. you will grow as a person by chanting for this person. YOU will become happier. No doubt about it. 

Sometimes you have to stand up for your rights too. I am not saying all you need to do is chant. At one point I had a verbally abusive boss. I devoted an hour each morning to changing this karma in my life forever. And I stood up to him and challenged his abusive ways. He did end up changing. It is one of my most memorable examples of turning poison into medicine. 

When we challenge ourselves in these ways we change the world, we change ourselves, and we become happier than we ever dreamed! 

Launching our Lives into the Future ~ from this moment forth

"Hon Nim Myo"
Power Prayer ~ 
From this Moment Forth ~ 
I will believe in my own Buddhahood and experience myself as the Buddha I am! 

Buddhism does not concern itself with the past. No. It focuses on RIGHT NOW, and the the causes that we are making at this moment...leading up to the effects we will create from today's causes. 

That is why we talk about "Hon Nim Myo" - meaning "From this moment forth."

Every time we chant we are making a powerful cause for our lives...we are tuning our lives to the rhythm of the entire universe, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Our chanting affects right now, our near future and our eternal future. Ever time we chant...every single time. 

A Power Prayer from this moment forth:

From this moment forth I focus my energies on becoming the best person I can possibly be. Today I see myself as the glorious Buddha I am. I realize anew, and see anew, my own powerful Buddhahood. I wash away all the illusion that I am not the Buddha. I release my life from complaint, from blame, from guilt and all emotions that do not serve me. Instead I bring in thoughts and feelings of appreciation and hope. I am determined to keep realizing, every single day, that I am the Buddha and my life is up to me. NOW is the time to dig deep. Now I demand results from this prayer. I WILL___________________(fill in your goal here). Today I strengthen my faith. I summon my faith. I pray with all my heart and my life responds! 

Resolving to Take Action, and Never Giving Up

"Resolving to take action
is proof that you are progressing. 
Even if you have the tendency 
to make a determination 
but only stick to it for two or three days, 
just keep renewing that determination. 
Then you will become the kind of person 
who can persevere and reach their goals."

Daisaku Ikeda, Ikedaquotes.org

I remember one of my early Buddhist leaders would always say "How many chances to you get to remake your determination? As many as you want! Just keep remaking that determination again and again and again and again and sooner or later it will stick!" 

This always gave me hope, because sometimes a determination would be strong for a minute, sometimes a week, sometimes almost not at all...but I continually forgave myself and remade the determination again and again...and gradually my life changed just by not giving up.  

Don't give up!

Have Hope ~ Hope Changes Everything

Those of us who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and tap into our highest life condition every single day live lives of HOPE. 

As long as we keep practicing we will never be defeated. With every Nam-myoho-renge-kyo we chant, the sun of hope rises in our lives. 

If, even for a moment we lose hope, we know exactly where to go. We can call a fellow SGI member, we can open the writings of Nichiren Daishonin and be reminded that "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is like the roar of a lion, what sickness can therefore be an obstacle?" (WND). 

We can read the writings of Daisaku Ikeda, and we can, once again, sit down to chant with a refreshed mind and renew our spirit of hope. We are never deadlocked. We are never caught in a storm whose winds will never cease...we will never be alone in an eternal winter. 

Remember that there is no problem bigger than Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and you have the power within you to change any suffering. 

At last night's Gosho Lecture someone asked "What is the world of heaven in the world of Hell? How can the world of hell be imbued with the ten worlds?" And the answer is this: In the world of Hell you can give rise to a FIERCE DETERMINATION to change your life. You can say "This is it life! Time for me to change this life! I know I can do it!" and then set yourself a plan. 

There is no change without action. How much will you devote to changing your life? How much can you chant...

An important key is this:

The more you chant the easier it is to chant. It's like revving the engine of your life, and once it gets going it wants to keep going. Once you get on a roll you'll be thinking "Oh. I can't WAIT to get back in front of my Gohonzon! I can't WAIT to chant about this and change it!" 

You are so powerful.  There is nothing you can't do if you have hope and put that hope into action.