Wednesday, August 28, 2013
The "I Have A Dream" Speech by Martin Luther King, delivered 50 years ago today
Martin Luther King delivering the "I Have a Dream" speech
50 Years ago today, on a Wednesday just like today, history was made. I know it is STILL the dream of you, and me, and all the world's people, for us to be untied as one family in peace. Today, I pay homage to the great Dr. King...the great, courageous man, by posting the complete speech. Here is a little background first:
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the civil rights movement. King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.[5]
I Have a Dream
August 28, 1963
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
PowerPrayers for Busting Through Obstacles! TWO PowerPrayers today!
Those of us who are challenging our lives through strong Daimoku (the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which means "I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration") are summoning up obstacles in our lives. This is part of the practice and part of life. As I've said many times, we can use these obstacles to FUEL our lives and our happiness, and provide us with the fire to change our karma forever, or we can have these obstacles FOOL us into thinking we are not strong, not capable and not wise, and give up.
The choice is up to us!
Here is a passage from my upcoming book:
The BuddhaZone, PowerPrayers for Chanting Your Way to Absolute Happiness. (The actual PowerPrayer is at the end)
Recognizing Obstacles for What they are!
“When devilish functions are recognized for what they are they lose their power.” Daisaku Ikeda, Living Buddhism June 2013 p 23
In the words of Nichiren Daishonin in his letter to Niike:
“There is definitely something extraordinary in the ebb and flow of the tide,
the rising and setting of the moon,
and the way in which summer, autumn, winter, and spring
give way to each other.
Something uncommon also occurs
when an ordinary person attains Buddhahood.
At such a time, the three obstacles and four devils
will invariably appear,
and the wise will rejoice while the foolish will retreat.
I have long been waiting to tell you this,
either through my own messenger or by some other means.” http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=637
PowerPrayer for Recognizing
and Removing Obstacles
Hello, Sansho Shima,
I was expecting you.
I recognize you for what you are.
Sansho Shima, I see you for what you are!
No way!
Not this time!
Not any more!
I'm in charge now.
I AM Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
and I am roaring like a lion.
You are not real, you have no power here.
On the contrary,
I take your pure energy now, and
through my Daimoku I make you my ally, instead.
I turn Sansho Shima into Shoten Zenjin
(protective functions in life and the environment)
Shoten Zenjin
Get my back!
I now use you to refuel my determination
and I will chant _________number of hours
every day until I have ultimate victory.
I will encourage others with this victory,
and by my strong faith while facing this challenge!
Obstacles:
I transform you now.
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!
PowerPrayer to say,
"No More! Enough is enough!”
I am chanting with
absolute conviction in the power of my life to declare and demand:
No more of this karma
of feeling insecure and doubting myself.
No more of this karma
of being abused by anyone or any thing!
No more doubting my own Buddha Nature!
No more living in fear!
No more feeling unloved or hopeless.
No more struggling in a job I hate, or any other terrible situation.
No more ________________ (you fill in the blank.)
I am the Buddha.
I am roaring with power in my life!
I now determine with all the power vested in me that I will___________________________.
Monday, August 26, 2013
How is Our Practice Different from the "Law of Attraction" or The Secret?
I am very familiar with the law of attraction. I have read the Secret and I attended many talks by Abraham (Esther and Jerry Hicks) and I DO believe that what we focus on is very important.
We need to focus on what is positive, and what we want to bring into our lives. The thing the Secret is missing is any recognition of karma, and a consistent practice to elevate each person's vibration. Every day, by chanting, we elevating our life-condition. We intone the rhythm of the name of the universe itself, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, meaning: I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration.
Let's face it, some things are easier to change than others, right? For some things you can just focus on them, watch how others are accomplishing them and just make the change and make it happen. Other things, well...they could take years; they are more embedded karma, but they CAN be changed with this practice.
Without the tool to tap into the source vibration itself and elevate our life condition, some of the things we want to change may never change. This is why we chant. And we receive actual proof every day that this practice works!
We know that changing our karma is not easy. That's why we chant twice a day - every day! We fight to change our karma. We know that we must not just change our own karma and become happy for ourselves ~ but we also are in the daily process of helping others achieve happiness too, and spreading the word of the mystic law. If the law of attraction by itself really worked for all people, wouldn't everyone who focuses on what they want already have achieved their goals?
As we know, Karma is the sum total of all our past deeds of every lifetime we have ever lived. Karma is not our FAULT, we are not bad people for having karma. We all have karma. SGI Buddhism tells us we don't have to spend lifetime after lifetime paying our karmic debt. We can change it right here, right now by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and challenging ourselves in faith, practice and study.
What does this mean? It means that we get out of chanting what we put into it. The Gohonzon is a mirror of our lives. It is the vast sonic mirror that reflects the highest potential life condition, the life condition of Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddha who was predicted to be born in the Latter Day of the Law and teach us all the correct Buddhist practice for our time. After studying and researching for years, Nichiren realized that the title of Shakyamumi's highest teaching, the Lotus Sutra, was the correct practice and he began chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in the 1200s in Japan. He inscribed the Gohonzon to enable people to bring out the highest state of life within each person.
Even though the Gohonzon, the scroll we face when we chant, is our object of worship, we are not praying TO it. Since the Gohonzon is depicting our highest life condition, it is actually within all of us. We chant to bring forth the wisdom, the energy, the Buddhahood we ALREADY possess.
When we chant we are chanting to our own life, our own essence, our own Buddha nature. We don't chant to Buddha! We chant to our own highest selves...deeper than our subconscious minds...the part of us that is connected to the whole universe. It is, of course, impossible to explain and must be experienced. If you are reading this blog and haven't experienced chanting you need to chant to feel it.
When I started, I chanted 5 minutes every morning and 5 minutes every evening, and I went to SGI meetings to learn more. I had a "seeking spirit" and felt I was onto something. 28 year later I am still "onto something" and live my life to help others tap into the power within themselves. When we live this way life is an incredible joy...and all our problems FUEL our happiness! To find a meeting in your area, click the SGI Portal on the right.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite, by Daisaku Ikeda
This is one of the many speeches of Daisaku Ikeda I read over and over again. We are truly microcosms of the macrocosm of the Universe. This speech resonated for me. It also corresponds with the blog from a few days back comparing the irises of our eyes with the nebulae in the universe. Enjoy!
Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite:
I would like to take the opportunity provided by today’s training session of the youth division to present a succinct and easily comprehensible discussion of the significance of gongyo. Because of the limitations of time I cannot pursue the subject in all its details, so I would like all of you to consider and explore this topic on your own afterwards as well.
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 to the microcosm of each person’s existence with the universe, based on the Gohonzon.
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 are round, 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 major joints signify 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 as 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.
Buddhist scriptures discuss in detail these correspondences i
ncluding each of the internal organs,
teaching that our body is indeed a universe in miniature.
There are clouds in the heavens. The wind blows, the stars twinkle. There are oceans on earth. The rivers flow. Volcanoes erupt. And great quantities of metals and minerals — gold, silver, copper, potassium, calcium — lie in the earth’s depths.
The activities and qualities of all these materials are also incorporated in our bodies.
The infinite elementary particles of the cosmos — atoms, protons, photons, electrons, neutrons, and all the rest — microscopic animals such as bacteria, the activities of good and evil, and the laws of gravity, the conservation of mass and energy, and all other laws of the universe also apply in almost the same fashion to the microcosm of our bodies.
A look at the operation of our bodies suggests that they are great pharmaceutical plants. They have the capability to produce the drugs we need to preserve our health. They take in food and transform it into nourishment and energy.
The human brain has the capability of a giant computer — even though we may not always be able to use it!
The sixty trillion cells of our bodies work together
in their established order in a perfect biorhythm. This is the original order of things.
The Great Law That Pervades Individual Existence and the Universe
Our existence is the universe, and its life processes are sublime. A slight change in the 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 the slightest degree, all living things would be threatened with extinction.
That is how subtle the natural order is. And further, a firm and irrevocable law of the universe exists. This holds true for the microcosm as well.
It is science that pursues this invisible but truly existent law, and technology is the invention of machines and other devices based on the fruits of scientific research.
Nichiren Daishonin discovered and awoke to the great law of all existence that underlies all the partial laws governing all spiritual and physical phenomena, and it was he who revealed that 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 this Mystic Law.
Under certain circumstances, an invisible law takes form as a visible existence. The individual human existence, for example, emerges out of its state of fusion with the rest of the universe by taking shape in the womb and being born in the world.
A ship can be regarded as a tangible representation of the law of buoyancy, just as an airplane is a representation of the laws of aerodynamics, a radio or television program a representation of the law of electromagnetic waves. All of these objects give shape to invisible laws.
The fundamental law of the universe and individual existence is also invisible. The Daishonin inscribed the Gohonzon as a visual representation of that Mystic Law for the people of the world. The Lotus Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures are the instruction manuals for the Gohonzon.
Josei Toda, my teacher and the second president of the Soka Gakkai, explained the Gohonzon in an easily comprehensible way as "a machine to produce happiness."
When we practice gongyo and chant daimoku before the Gohonzon, our individual existence is perfectly harmonized with the universe.
Both the universe and our individual existence are the concrete manifestation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as is the Gohonzon. That is why when we practice gongyo and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the Gohonzon, our existence and the universe mesh as perfectly as two gears, and with an initial creak begin to work together.
The single life-moment (ichinen) of the individual becomes one with the three thousand (sanzen) factors and realms of the universe and begins to produce great value. This is the concrete practice of ichinen sanzen.
Through that practice we can acquire wisdom and good fortune, and glow with the energy to overcome any obstacle throughout the four seasons, three hundred sixty-five days a year; we can enter the way to the eternal happiness and attain eternity, joy, true self and purity (jo raku ga jo).
Gongyo is a practice which calls forth and activates the infinite power that the microcosm inherently possesses. It transforms your fate, breaks through any apparent dead end and converts sufferings into happiness. It creates a transformation, a revolution of the microcosm. It is a diagram in miniature of kosen-rufu 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.
The Practice of Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Which Leads to Eternal Happiness
If you let an automobile or any other machine fall into disuse, it will rust and stop working correctly. You have to use it and maintain it regularly and properly. Why, the same thing is even true of the hair on our heads: If we don’t wash it regularly we’ll be encrusted with dandruff!
Gongyo and chanting daimoku are like starting the automobile’s engine every day and driving in the direction of happiness and truth.
By doing so day after day, you will gradually attain perfect unity with the universe and the Law. That state is the state of the Buddha.
Once that has happened, you will be able to enjoy yourself with complete freedom for all eternity. Your existence will be a diamond that will never perish throughout the three existences.
To attain Buddhahood in this life, the Daishonin warns us with firm concern that we must never retreat in our practice.
Even though we may experience a period of sadness or depression, the principle that earthly desires are enlightenment teaches us that great sufferings are bound to be transformed into equally great joy, progress and value. There is nothing to fear, since the Gohonzon possesses the infinite power of the Law and the Buddha.
We often say that strong faith, valiant and untiring practice and courageous acts are important. This is an expression of the truth that without a strong will and courageous practice it is impossible to achieve great things.
You will not be able to communicate in a discussion with another unless you are clear and direct. If you lack the courage of your convictions and mumble vague things, you won’t make any impression on your listener. Nor can you strike a chord in his heart. And of course you will not be able to move or convince him. To do that you need to be very determined and sure.
Isn’t the same thing true of love?
It’s certainly true in a job interview. Unless you present your thoughts clearly and forcefully, you won’t make any impression on the interviewer. In other words, mental determination and courageous actions can change any situation and they possess a critical capability to produce happiness.
The Victory Song of Life Is to Be Found in Action
To fly, a plane needs the extra push it gets by acceleration down a runway. To get good grades in school, you need the extra push of study before a test.
Whatever you do, to achieve something better, to reach a higher level, you need a push.
Buddhism teaches practice for oneself and practice for others. If either one is lacking, you cannot practice properly.
The Gohonzon is the concrete manifestation of the very existence of Nichiren Daishonin, who taught kosen-rufu. Because of that, if you only practice gongyo and chant the daimoku and don’t take any other action for the sake of kosen rufu or improving your own life, the Gohonzon will not have its true, full effect.
If, however, you take actions to achieve kosen-rufu, they will serve as that extra push for your own life and help you leap to higher and higher states of mind in your gongyo and chanting as well.
And it is only natural that the energy you acquire through the gongyo practice for yourself will be channeled back into your activities for others, for kosen-rufu.
The fact is that the practice of gongyo and your actions in service of kosen-rufu will become one, and together they will unlock the infinite power of the Mystic Law in your life.
In Buddhism, practice is faith. That means action is faith, and without action there can be no true faith. The action I speak of is the way of practice for oneself and for others that is taught in Nichiren Daishonin’s writings.
Action is the source of blessings and merits. In propagating the teachings, for example, whether the person you are presenting the teachings to arouses faith or not is his problem. The effects of our action of propagating will vary, depending on the person’s capacities and other conditions.
There is no need at all to rejoice or lament over each effect. You can be proud that you have practiced the truest, most wonderful law of life in the universe to the best of your ability and go forward with your head held high. One who has acted for the sake of kosen-rufu is already a great victor in life.
The words "the heads of those who cause affliction will be split in seven pieces" are written on the Gohonzon.
This is a warning that it is wrong to seek to harm this law of your own being.
Abandoning the teachings or slandering them are self-destructive actions that are bound to split you apart.
We also find the words "those who make offerings will acquire blessings surpassing the Buddha’s ten names."
This forceful statement tells us that the merits of one who make offerings to the Gohonzon and spreads the teaching will be far greater than the magnificent merits of the one who makes offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a promise that our personal microcosm will absorb the nourishment of all the blessings in the macrocosm, the whole universe, and be elevated to a state of existence of the highest happiness itself.
Thus we know that the children of the Buddha who strive for kosen-rufu are each guaranteed to attain the ultimate degree of happiness. There is no one who will be more blessed.
Faith in Present and Future
"For both the present and the future" is also written on the Gohonzon. For present and future. That is what faith is for, what the Buddhist Law is for.
When we worship the Gohonzon, the eternal life of time without beginning wells up within us. Our faith is that every day, every instant begins from time without beginning.
We are 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.
Gongyo is a Grand and Noble Rite:
I would like to take the opportunity provided by today’s training session of the youth division to present a succinct and easily comprehensible discussion of the significance of gongyo. Because of the limitations of time I cannot pursue the subject in all its details, so I would like all of you to consider and explore this topic on your own afterwards as well.
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 to the microcosm of each person’s existence with the universe, based on the Gohonzon.
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 are round, 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 major joints signify 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 as 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.
Buddhist scriptures discuss in detail these correspondences i
ncluding each of the internal organs,
teaching that our body is indeed a universe in miniature.
There are clouds in the heavens. The wind blows, the stars twinkle. There are oceans on earth. The rivers flow. Volcanoes erupt. And great quantities of metals and minerals — gold, silver, copper, potassium, calcium — lie in the earth’s depths.
The activities and qualities of all these materials are also incorporated in our bodies.
The infinite elementary particles of the cosmos — atoms, protons, photons, electrons, neutrons, and all the rest — microscopic animals such as bacteria, the activities of good and evil, and the laws of gravity, the conservation of mass and energy, and all other laws of the universe also apply in almost the same fashion to the microcosm of our bodies.
A look at the operation of our bodies suggests that they are great pharmaceutical plants. They have the capability to produce the drugs we need to preserve our health. They take in food and transform it into nourishment and energy.
The human brain has the capability of a giant computer — even though we may not always be able to use it!
The sixty trillion cells of our bodies work together
in their established order in a perfect biorhythm. This is the original order of things.
The Great Law That Pervades Individual Existence and the Universe
Our existence is the universe, and its life processes are sublime. A slight change in the 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 the slightest degree, all living things would be threatened with extinction.
That is how subtle the natural order is. And further, a firm and irrevocable law of the universe exists. This holds true for the microcosm as well.
It is science that pursues this invisible but truly existent law, and technology is the invention of machines and other devices based on the fruits of scientific research.
Nichiren Daishonin discovered and awoke to the great law of all existence that underlies all the partial laws governing all spiritual and physical phenomena, and it was he who revealed that 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 this Mystic Law.
Under certain circumstances, an invisible law takes form as a visible existence. The individual human existence, for example, emerges out of its state of fusion with the rest of the universe by taking shape in the womb and being born in the world.
A ship can be regarded as a tangible representation of the law of buoyancy, just as an airplane is a representation of the laws of aerodynamics, a radio or television program a representation of the law of electromagnetic waves. All of these objects give shape to invisible laws.
The fundamental law of the universe and individual existence is also invisible. The Daishonin inscribed the Gohonzon as a visual representation of that Mystic Law for the people of the world. The Lotus Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures are the instruction manuals for the Gohonzon.
Josei Toda, my teacher and the second president of the Soka Gakkai, explained the Gohonzon in an easily comprehensible way as "a machine to produce happiness."
When we practice gongyo and chant daimoku before the Gohonzon, our individual existence is perfectly harmonized with the universe.
Both the universe and our individual existence are the concrete manifestation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as is the Gohonzon. That is why when we practice gongyo and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the Gohonzon, our existence and the universe mesh as perfectly as two gears, and with an initial creak begin to work together.
The single life-moment (ichinen) of the individual becomes one with the three thousand (sanzen) factors and realms of the universe and begins to produce great value. This is the concrete practice of ichinen sanzen.
Through that practice we can acquire wisdom and good fortune, and glow with the energy to overcome any obstacle throughout the four seasons, three hundred sixty-five days a year; we can enter the way to the eternal happiness and attain eternity, joy, true self and purity (jo raku ga jo).
Gongyo is a practice which calls forth and activates the infinite power that the microcosm inherently possesses. It transforms your fate, breaks through any apparent dead end and converts sufferings into happiness. It creates a transformation, a revolution of the microcosm. It is a diagram in miniature of kosen-rufu 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.
The Practice of Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime, Which Leads to Eternal Happiness
If you let an automobile or any other machine fall into disuse, it will rust and stop working correctly. You have to use it and maintain it regularly and properly. Why, the same thing is even true of the hair on our heads: If we don’t wash it regularly we’ll be encrusted with dandruff!
Gongyo and chanting daimoku are like starting the automobile’s engine every day and driving in the direction of happiness and truth.
By doing so day after day, you will gradually attain perfect unity with the universe and the Law. That state is the state of the Buddha.
Once that has happened, you will be able to enjoy yourself with complete freedom for all eternity. Your existence will be a diamond that will never perish throughout the three existences.
To attain Buddhahood in this life, the Daishonin warns us with firm concern that we must never retreat in our practice.
Even though we may experience a period of sadness or depression, the principle that earthly desires are enlightenment teaches us that great sufferings are bound to be transformed into equally great joy, progress and value. There is nothing to fear, since the Gohonzon possesses the infinite power of the Law and the Buddha.
We often say that strong faith, valiant and untiring practice and courageous acts are important. This is an expression of the truth that without a strong will and courageous practice it is impossible to achieve great things.
You will not be able to communicate in a discussion with another unless you are clear and direct. If you lack the courage of your convictions and mumble vague things, you won’t make any impression on your listener. Nor can you strike a chord in his heart. And of course you will not be able to move or convince him. To do that you need to be very determined and sure.
Isn’t the same thing true of love?
It’s certainly true in a job interview. Unless you present your thoughts clearly and forcefully, you won’t make any impression on the interviewer. In other words, mental determination and courageous actions can change any situation and they possess a critical capability to produce happiness.
The Victory Song of Life Is to Be Found in Action
To fly, a plane needs the extra push it gets by acceleration down a runway. To get good grades in school, you need the extra push of study before a test.
Whatever you do, to achieve something better, to reach a higher level, you need a push.
Buddhism teaches practice for oneself and practice for others. If either one is lacking, you cannot practice properly.
The Gohonzon is the concrete manifestation of the very existence of Nichiren Daishonin, who taught kosen-rufu. Because of that, if you only practice gongyo and chant the daimoku and don’t take any other action for the sake of kosen rufu or improving your own life, the Gohonzon will not have its true, full effect.
If, however, you take actions to achieve kosen-rufu, they will serve as that extra push for your own life and help you leap to higher and higher states of mind in your gongyo and chanting as well.
And it is only natural that the energy you acquire through the gongyo practice for yourself will be channeled back into your activities for others, for kosen-rufu.
The fact is that the practice of gongyo and your actions in service of kosen-rufu will become one, and together they will unlock the infinite power of the Mystic Law in your life.
In Buddhism, practice is faith. That means action is faith, and without action there can be no true faith. The action I speak of is the way of practice for oneself and for others that is taught in Nichiren Daishonin’s writings.
Action is the source of blessings and merits. In propagating the teachings, for example, whether the person you are presenting the teachings to arouses faith or not is his problem. The effects of our action of propagating will vary, depending on the person’s capacities and other conditions.
There is no need at all to rejoice or lament over each effect. You can be proud that you have practiced the truest, most wonderful law of life in the universe to the best of your ability and go forward with your head held high. One who has acted for the sake of kosen-rufu is already a great victor in life.
The words "the heads of those who cause affliction will be split in seven pieces" are written on the Gohonzon.
This is a warning that it is wrong to seek to harm this law of your own being.
Abandoning the teachings or slandering them are self-destructive actions that are bound to split you apart.
We also find the words "those who make offerings will acquire blessings surpassing the Buddha’s ten names."
This forceful statement tells us that the merits of one who make offerings to the Gohonzon and spreads the teaching will be far greater than the magnificent merits of the one who makes offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a promise that our personal microcosm will absorb the nourishment of all the blessings in the macrocosm, the whole universe, and be elevated to a state of existence of the highest happiness itself.
Thus we know that the children of the Buddha who strive for kosen-rufu are each guaranteed to attain the ultimate degree of happiness. There is no one who will be more blessed.
Faith in Present and Future
"For both the present and the future" is also written on the Gohonzon. For present and future. That is what faith is for, what the Buddhist Law is for.
When we worship the Gohonzon, the eternal life of time without beginning wells up within us. Our faith is that every day, every instant begins from time without beginning.
We are 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.
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