Ultimate PowerPrayer for Human Revolution

When we are determined to change our lives it has to start from within. When we change, our environment changes. It is simply a fact of life. What's a good PowerPrayer for this?

Here's one of my absolute favorites from my upcoming book:

"Life! I am determined to make any changes I need to make in my thoughts, my actions, my chanting, to make continual positive causes that will result in rooting the cause of my negative karma OUT OF MY LIFE!  I am determined to make the changes inside myself...to do my own human revolution and raise my life condition! I am determined to change in any way I need to change to attract the ____________________(you fill in the blank) into my life. Life! I am bringing the determination, wisdom and fire I need to create the life of my dreams. 

I AM NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO! I AM ROARING LIKE A LION IN MY OWN LIFE! I WILL CREATE MY LIFE! 

I do this not only for me, but for everyone who is suffering. I am determined to glow within my own life. I am determined to be a shining light for all who are suffering. I am determined to be the beacon of hope that ANYONE can solve their problems by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I am ready to meet people who are ready to hear about this practice!  I chant to have the most inspiring life. Gohonzon (my life) I need to see these results now!"

The Most Powerful Way to Overcome Your Fundamental Darkness

This says it all. How much do you really want to be happy? You can totally change your life by recognizing and overcoming your fundamental darkness by establishing a rock-hard consistent practice of doing gongyo and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo twice a day - every day.  

Last night was a Gosho study here. We studied "The Workings of Brahma and Shakra", by Nichiren Daishonin. 
The line that stands out the most from President Ikeda's Gosho lecture is this:

"When devilish functions are recognized for what they are, they lose their power."

Daisaku Ikeda, June 2013, Living Buddhism page 23. 

And as I always say, be FUELED by your devilish functions (obstacles) not FOOLED! When you see them for what they are ROAR them out of your life! 

Ok. How CAN we see our fundamental darkness for what is it, and how do we overcome it?

Last night one of our visiting members said he was having trouble doing evening gongyo. As we were discussing this he came to see that whatever was stopping him was a manifestation of his own fundamental darkness...the forces in life that try to hold us back. 
Whatever stops you chanting HAS to be fundamental darkness. And once you see it for what it is you can just make a fierce determination to do gongyo twice a day ~ and do it. Your friends in the SGI will support you. They will come to your house, call or text you. Whatever you want. Just ask for the support and you will get it. You can even get support on Facebook if you want. Reach out and your friends will be there. 

The beautiful thing is this: When you overcome the fundamental darkness that keeps you from practicing consistently you will SIMULTANEOUSLY break through in all areas of your life. Put the effort into your practice and the rest of your life flows more easily. Please don't believe me when I say this. Please experience this phenomenon by DOING it. There is no other way. 

A few other thoughts:

What IS fundamental darkness? It exists within every person. It was in the original Buddha, it was in Nichiren Daishonin and all three Presidents. We ALL have it. We don't have to be scared of it and we can defeat it, over and over and over again! It manifests in different ways in all of us.  

For myself, my fundamental darkness used to appear often as depression. Many times I called my mentor in faith to request guidance and she'd say "It's back! That's just your fundamental darkness!" That freed me. 

I am just like you. When I see fundamental darkness for what it is I get rid of it through Daimoku. Knowing what it is gives me power. And it's easier for me to do this because of my strong practice. I chant at least an hour every single morning...and sometimes much more. I chant evening gongyo consistently, even if I don't particularly feel like doing it! 

And I have overcome the deep depression I used to experience on a regular basis. I've also overcome the extreme longing I lived with every day. These are benefits of practice. This is the promise of this wonderful Buddhism.

So, just like the meme above says - think about what you want MOST. And use your powerful practice to get it! 

PowerPrayer Book Questions for You...

Feelings ARE like waves aren't they? 

Right now I'm feeling pretty darn good. Julia and I are making a lot of progress on the 

The Buddha Zone, 

PowerPrayers

 for Chanting for your Absolute Happiness. 

How do you like the title? Any suggestions? 

Can you send me some questions you would like answered, or that you think people new to this practice should know? 

Are there PowerPrayers that have helped you? have you used the ones from this blog, or have you written your own? I would love to hear from you at chantforhappiness@gmail.com

A Quote to Engrave in Our Lives

The Chicago River at Night ~ 

looking out towards Lake Michigan

Determination

"When your determination changes, 
everything else will begin to move 
in the direction you desire. 
The moment you resolve to be victorious, 
every nerve and fiber in your being 
will immediately orient itself toward your success.
On the other hand, if you think 
"This is never going to work out," 
then at that instant every cell in your being 
will be deflated and give up the fight, 
and then everything really will move in the direction 
of failure."

President Ikeda

Friendship Depends on You

Carl Sagan quote about the Power of the Written Word

Thank you Carl! Well said. 

I'll bet he would have said this 

about the written words in blogs too. 

Take That First Step ~ Strengthening Your Practice and Your Life

I received a letter from a reader this morning. She wrote that she chants consistently for one week, and then stops chanting for a week and her anxiety and depression immediately comes back. Every other week she forces herself to chant again, and then stops. This is a very difficult way to practice. It is much easier to establish a twice a day practice and stick with it. But how do we do this? 

How do we establish and maintain a consistent practice? 

How can we reinforce our determination to practice twice a day every day, strengthen our lives and create unshakable benefit? 
The benefits of consistent practice are many. For one, it's easier. Once you establish the practice you just greet your life twice a day in from of the Gohonzon without having to force yourself to do it. It just becomes part of your life. 

With consistent practice chanting is easier, benefits flow more consistently, and you change your karma, embrace your challenges and win over any challenge you face. With consistent practice we change our lives for the better. This is the way it works. 

Positive Psychologists talk about something called "Activation Energy." 
It is the energy to get something new up and running. 

We can compare the launching our consistent practice to an airplane taking off. Each airplane has to advance down the runway with engines firing. Once the plane gets in the air it switches to a steady maintenance energy, but it HAS to fire those rockets to get off the ground. 

How do you fire your own rockets? 

I think the secret lies in being part of the SGI organization. (You can click on the SGI Portal to the right to find your local SGI, if you're not connected yet. Remember there are no dues or rules or priests. The SGI is an organization of people working together for their own happiness and the sake of others.) 

The friends you make in the SGI are friends who will help you get those engines firing and help you lift into the air. And the beautiful thing is, as another is helping YOU, they are also helping themselves. That is just the way it works. And you can be this friend for others and help them chant too. 

Yesterday I was needing some activation energy. It has been very cloudy and cold here in Chicago, and on Sunday I didn't chant as much as I normally do, so my engines had to be revved up to bring my plane into the air yesterday morning. I did my normal hour of chanting, but it was hard to concentrate and after the hour I still felt sluggish and unenergized. So I called a friend in the SGI and invited her to chant. She had done the exact thing as me...chanted already, but she was also still feeling like she needed a boost. So she came over and we chanted an uninterrupted hour and both got our planes in the air. We went on to have very productive and energetic days, and I awaken today with much more energy and ready to take on a new day. 

Our friends in the SGI are our friends in faith. What are some other ways we can bolster each other to make our practices stronger? When I was first chanting 28 years ago my mentor came to my house every morning for a few weeks to help me generate Activation Energy for my practice. I liked the feeling of doing gongyo consistently, and was able to keep my plane in the air after that. Doing evening gongyo was harder for me. But within a few months I was doing morning and evening gongyo and I saw how my life was "on a roll", I liked the way consistent practice felt, and I've continued for 28 years. 

Why do we sometimes just skip gongyo? We may not even see it, but it is always our fundamental darkness holding us back. The key thing is this: once we see our fundamental darkness for what it is, we can make the choice to defeat it. We must recognize it for what it is. It's not just "being busy" that keeps us from chanting. It's that fundamental darkness within each of us that uses every method to fool us. This is the fundamental struggle in our lives. When we overcome this and establish our consistent practice EVERYTHING becomes easier and we get leverage over our problems. 

This is something that must be experienced to be understood. My dear "Baby Buddha" (the nickname she chose for herself) heard me tell her for two years to chant every morning and evening, and she replied that she doesn't do ANYTHING consistently and wasn't going to do this. No way. I kept chanting for her and inviting her to chant. And one day, she just made the decision to try chanting twice a day to see how it felt. She couldn't believe how different she felt. She also realized a deep desire and began to chant for it to happen. Now she lives in Colorado - she got what she was chanting for! THIS is why we practice. Our desires are worth chanting for! 

How else can we support each other? 

When I began this blog and my two-hour a day chanting campaign, my friend Melissa and I would text each other twice a day when we began chanting. She lived far away so we only chanted together about once a week, but just knowing she and I were chanting at the same time really helped. Sometimes we would call each other before we chanted and tell each other what we were focusing on for that hour so we could chant specifically for each other's desires. 

You may have other ways of creating and maintaining your consistent practice. Please share them with me and I'll share them with the other readers of this blog. Email me at chantforhappiness.com with your ideas, questions, suggestions, victories and challenges.