Falling in Love with the Gohonzon - Our Life Itself!

A few weeks ago I wrote that I got guidance for love, and was told to chant to the Gohonzon as if it's a lover...to fall in love with the Gohonzon. This made so much sense to me. The Gohonzon, the scroll we focus on, is, after all a representation of our own highest life condition. My Gohonzon is my life itself. All my life I have been working towards falling more and more in love with my own life. I know that our lives are a reflection of who we are inside, and doesn't it make sense to focus our energies on deeply, deeply loving ourselves. 

So I have been chanting this way for a few weeks and I feel it reflected everywhere in my life. I am loving myself and taking good care of my self. I am speaking kinder words to myself. I am encouraging myself in my mind, more than ever before. I am talking to myself like I would to my best friend.  

So I feel better than ever. Even as the gloom of November approaches - it is very gloomy here in Chicago today. I feel a bright light burning in my heart...a heart of hopefulness, a heart of love, a bright spark burning brighter and stronger than ever before. 

Yesterday as I was chanting I was just pouring out my love for the Gohonzon. I was thinking as I was chanting "Gohonzon, I love you so much! You have been with me these past 30 years! It is almost our 30th year together. Thank you MY LIFE! I love MY LIFE! I love you Gohonzon. I love you my life." 

It is for each of us to take this journey alone. How deeply can we summon and generate love and appreciation for our own lives? What will change in our lives and in the world when we do? 

Focusing on The Positive Brings Results

Noriyo's Sunset Over Tokyo 

(Noriyo is my friend from YWD days in San Francisco)

My speech yesterday went very well. 

There was an 88 year old man in the audience who had such wise words for us. He said, 

"No matter what's going on in your life 
there is a bright spot in it, 
and as long as you focus on that bright spot 
the brightness will increase 
and take over the darkness." 

What a beautiful way to express what I talk about in my speech - "What we focus on increases." We have the power to bring more joy, and love and light into our lives if we focus on the positive. 
It works the opposite way too, doesn't it? 
I have known people who constantly complain...constantly complain and don't even realize they are doing it. 
I saw a meme yesterday that said 

"If you constantly complain, 
you will always have something to complain about." 

Isn't that the truth? 
We need to steadily focus on the light, on the positive ~ 
and keep chanting to elevate our life condition. 

I chanted strong and focused Daimoku yesterday. I poured my heart into chanting for my mission for kosen-rufu and the light coming through me to touch other's lives, and to not be deterred by anything or anyone. 
And I had a great and uplifting day. 

Sensei's guidance for October 11th is: 

"It is important 
to have a sufficiently elevated life-condition 
so that you will be able 
to calmly accept whatever happens in life, 
striving to put problems into perspective 
and solving them with a positive attitude.
Happiness blossoms forth 
from such a strong and all-encompassing life-condition."


There is light in all our lives, there is a silver lining in every cloud. Just as my 88 year old friend said yesterday, focus on the light and it will grow. Every time we chant we are focusing on the light. We are all making steady, continual progress!  

We Are So Much More Powerful Than We Know~ !

Tomorrow at 10:30am I'm giving a free speech at the Riverside Public Library. (In Riverside Illinois) 
All are welcome! 
The title is:

Growing Bolder
Tools and Techniques for Thriving at Every Age
Presenting the Latest Research that 
PROVES life gets better as we age,  
and our attitudes, actions and language 
all play a part in living with more 
Happiness, Strength and Vigor 
than ever before!

This speech encapsulates what I truly believe, and have researched and lived my entire life ~ that we are responsible for creating our own happiness, and that OUR HAPPINESS IS IMPORTANT. When we thrive ~ when we live fulfilling, happy contributive lives, our energy is contagious. And now there's scientific evidence that this is true. 
Science is really coming a long way to support the things that I have long believed, but had no evidence to support. 

Science now proves that emotions are contagious, and we really ARE as old as we think. People who embrace getting older with a spirit of optimism live longer, happier and healthier lives. I also present my own insights on how our language determines our lives, not just describes our lives. 

Our WORDS MATTER! 

I tell a story about a time when I was in the car with my babies and the car just stopped in the highway...in the cold rain in San Francisco. At that moment I had a decision to make. Were we going to have a "disaster" or an "adventure"? I chose adventure! And me and my two little boys aged 4 and 2 at the time had so much fun that we even got to ride in a tow truck! We laughed and laughed. We have the choice to frame our lives by our language every single day. 

We can be "overwhelmed" and a victim of our lives, or we can be "in demand" and important. The choice is up to us! 

I've been giving this speech quite often lately, and I weave stories about the wonderful senior living community that I represent into the speech. 

I prepare for every speech just like I do every Buddhist meeting. I chant that every single participant will hear something that changes their life and outlook forever...I chant that they leave with their cells rearranged and with more hope and vigor than ever before! 

All my Buddhist training as a youth division member, a meeting Emcee and a District Leader are being put to good use in the world. 

I owe so much to my practice and the SGI!  

PowerPrayer to Demand your Results! You are the Buddha!

Sometimes we have to get mad when we chant! 

Lions ROAR! Lions ROAR! 

When we are chanting we are chanting 
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to our own life, and sometimes we have to chant with this thought:

 "Life! Enough is enough! I am changing this karma NOW."

Some of you have written me that you are feeling hopeless and controlled by others. 

RISE UP to your life in front of the Gohonzon (scroll that reflect our highest life potential) and DEMAND results now. 

We are all noble Boddhisatvas of the earth. 

In The Heart of the Lotus Sutra, Daisaku Ikeda writes:

When we do gongyo "we are in effect vowing to advance kosen-rufu in accord with the spirit of the original Buddha. Every day we pledge to the Daishonin, "Without fail, I will believe in and spread the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin and help lead all people to enlightenment." 
page 150

And to fulfill this vow, we have to win in our lives. 
  
Each of us has some negative tendency that happens over and over, don't we? For me, I struggled for years with a feeling that would just overcome me, and wash over me like a wave. Out of nowhere I would feel unloved, unlovable and hopeless. The voices in my head were penetrating and awful!
And when I got this feeling sometimes I would think it was real...that I really was unloved and hopeless, and then I'd pick up the phone to call Kate (my dear friend in faith) and she would remind me that this was my fundamental darkness arising once again. This feeling was a function of the fundamental darkness within my life and within all of life, and this was AGAIN my time to summon up the power of my faith. 

That's why I say BE FUELED BY YOUR OBSTACLES, not FOOLED BY THEM! 

"Get MAD at the shoten zenjin!" Kate would say. 
(Shoten Zenjin are the protective forces that counterbalance fundamental darkness. We use our practice to increase the shoten zenjin and banish fundamental darkness.) 
And I would generate some angry energy, roar like a lion and use this PowerPrayer inspired by Kate - it totally changed my life:

PowerPrayer to say, 

"No More! Enough is enough!”
I change this negative function NOW! 
By Jamie Lee Silver from ChantforHappiness.com

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 or disrespected 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 ________________ (you fill in the blank.)

I now create _________________________________in my life starting now.

I don't CARE how many times I have to chant about this. I don't CARE how many times you try to bring me down. 

I MUST Win because I am a votary of the Lotus Sutra. I am living my life to prove that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo works and to help others become happy. 

I will win!!!

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___________________________.

The wisdom to take the actions to create this breakthrough comes to me now!

PowerPrayer to Overcome Our BIGGEST Obstacle!

What do we do when we have a problem that looks like it is bigger than Nam-myoho-renge-kyo? 
(The rhythm of life itself - l
earn more about chanting by clicking the SGI-USA link to the right) 

Have you ever had one of those? 
When you think to yourself...
"Oh well, all those other Buddhists, 
they've never seen THIS problem." 
And although you have seen results from your practice, year after year, somehow you think THIS problem is different. THIS problem is too much for the Gohonzon. In your heart you know that nothing is more powerful than your prayer...but also, in your heart, you are struggling to summon absolute faith that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo can overcome THIS one? 

What do you do? 

The answer to this question lies in our SGI organization. It is precisely for this reason, and many others, that we practice together. 

When I was facing a problem that seemed impossible I consulted a friend in faith who said:

"This is just another opportunity for your life to stand up and tell your fundamental darkness who is BOSS. This is just another WAVE, just another WAVE. You MUST stand up to it. You must chant with the conviction that there is no other way than your victory. You must summon that conviction from within your heart." 

Okay.... 

And I chanted with absolute conviction that my prayer...this very moment was EXACTLY the breakthrough I needed to solve the problem and to END MY SUFFERING over the problem. 

And I have felt renewed confidence and vigor ever since. 

Whatever you are facing...It is just another wave. Stand UP to it!

PowerPrayer for 
Overcoming Our BIGGEST Problems
by Jamie Lee SIlver from Chantforhappiness.com

Read this before chanting and summon your inner conviction. These exact words are not important - the strength of your chanting and your heart IS important! 

Life~ !!!
Fundamental Darkness ~ doubt ~ fear ~ 
that exists in my life and in the lives of others
YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO
THIS Daimoku, 
right her, right now  
is obliterating my fundamental darkness and the world's fundamental darkness 
and clearing the path for ______________________. 
I claim my victory
I claim my life
I feel Nam-myoho-renge-kyo 
flowing from within my life 
to all around me. 
I shine like the sun
I show proof of this victory right now
I will win over this problem 
and I use this experience to help others~!!!
RIght here!
Right NOW
I VOW TO WIN~ No Matter what!  

Human Revolution = Loving Ourselves MORE AND MORE!

YES!

Every day, every SINGLE DAY, in the morning and the evening we chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (meaning "I fuse my life with the mystic law of cause and effect through sound vibration"). 

We chant, we focus, we pray. We bring forth the power of the Mystic Law of the entire universe within our lives. It is always there...by chanting we tap into that law. And it responds in complete union with the power and conviction with which we chant, and how we connect with the power within our lives. 

This is what is most important for me. President Ikeda says over and over that we must be natural when we chant, that we must share our heart. Our chanting is communing with the unlimited self we all are...it is our reaching into the vast universe that we are, and summoning forth that power to use however we want to channel it. 

We must chant for exactly what we want! 

We are so fortunate to have this tool, this ultimate tool. 

At this time I am using this tool to bring forth the ultimate, most magnificent, most wise and wonderful self I possibly can. I am chanting to experience the deepest love I have ever felt...for my own life! And I know that this prayer will show up in all ways in my life. 

A few weeks ago I shared that I am chanting to the Gohonzon (Gohonzon = the scroll we chant to that is a reflection of the highest life condition we can possess, and is also our own selves, our own potential) as if I am in love with it. I am falling more and more in love with my own life...the most powerful place to be! 

I have so much else to share with you and I am headed out the door to a conference...I will write more soon. Until then...how much can you summon love for your self...for your own precious life, for your body, your heart, your mind and spirit. How deeply can we love ourselves? 

The Secret to Achieving Your Human Revolution by Daisaku Ikeda:

With the world in such turmoil, it is important for each of us to keep our life conditions sky high. The best way to do this is to follow the formula we all know that will lead us to success:
1. Chant Abundant Daimoku
How much is this? As much as you can do. My minimum is one hour every morning, and whenever I can, I chant much longer. It all depends on my challenges at the moment. If my problems feel overwhelming I summon up conviction and chant as long as I can. 
2. Study the Works of Daisaku Ikeda and the Gosho by Nichiren Daishonin
Study always brings wisdom to light and helps us focus when we're in front of the Gohonzon. 
3. Go to Meetings 
Yes, this is where we connect and magnify our own good fortune and encourage others. 
4. Do shakubuku!
It's easy. I carry around cards I give out at every opportunity...especially when people are helping me in stores, or when I'm just chatting with a stranger about anything. I love in the Midwestern part of the USA. People here are very friendly. It's easy to spark up a conversation any time. 

Below is a very powerful PowerPrayer from our Mentor Daisaku Ikeda: 

The Secret 
to Achieving Your Human Revolution

"Pray that instead of devils 
or negative, destructive forces 
infiltrating your being, 
Brahma ("Bonten"in Japanese),
Shakra ("Taishaku" in Japanese),
and the gods of the Sun and the Moon
~ the positive, protective forces of the universe ~
will enter your life!
Pray that they will enter the lives 
of all members in your region
and the entire membership of the SGI, as well.
If you do this, 
your strength will multiply 
a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
With such prayer,
with such faith, 
you will realize a fundamental transformation
in the depths of your life. 
This is the secret to achieving your human revolution."

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, World Tribune, 9/8/2000