The one and only Kate Randolph
Hello friends,
Recently I spoke at Kate Randolph's Life Celebration in LA. My charge from her daughter Sarah was to encapsulate Kate's guidance. What an honor. Truly. Kate and I spoke almost every other week for 34 years. I took notes.
Here's how Kate introduced me to this glorious
practice:
It was August of 1985 when we met.
Kate told me a story that changed my life. In Kate's work for the Great Peace March Across America, she needed to work with the megastar Paul Newman. The first day she was so flustered in his presence she couldn’t even form sentences. That night she chanted
for one hour, and came back the next day and could talk to him like he was
anyone else on the planet.
I knew right I’d finally found what I’d
been searching for my whole life. A tool that I could use to channel my energy
in the direction I wanted it to go. A practical tool for happiness! And she
told me I did not have to release my attachment to my desires. I could keep
them, and chant for my desires! And my prayers would make the world a better
place, and me happy, too.
DONE. I was hooked.
Kate and I became fast friends. We had our babies around the
same time, First my son Aaron, then Kate and Hal's daughter Sarah, then my Ben. We vacationed
together and raised our children together.
I would call her to get guidance about my challenges and she'd congratulate me for having these problems. She'd assure me that THESE problems were exactly what I needed to get me to the next level of my happiness. They were a benefit.
Kate put my life in
perspective by reminding me that I am a powerful Buddha, by winning in my life others could be inspired by my example and win in theirs. She taught me to turn poison into medicine.
Basing her life on the Gosho by Nichiren Daishonin and the
words of Daisaku Ikeda she taught me victory:
She taught me
to live a life of Victory. The key to Victory
is making a strong determination to win over our
problems
Once we make a determination we may have doubts arise,
but doubts are not
real:
SHe said:
You have to expect doubts to arrive in your
mind. Now is the time to realize they are not real...they are only thoughts
in your mind. They are not reality. They are just thoughts and you just pop
them out with your prayer ~ with your eye on the outcome…do battle in your mind and say No No No that
is not my reality, that is not reality, that will not be my reality.
These
obstacles and doubts are NOT my reality, these negative thoughts are NOT my reality.
Envision your outcome and say YES YES YES YES with each Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. And tell
the Shoten Zenjin: YOU will get my back...you have my back...what I envision...my perfect outcome...THAT
is my reality and then you add to it: For the sake of all people, I will show
actual proof!
Kate says: 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.
All you need to do is make a fresh
determination! Live with hope
One of my favorite quotes of Kate's is:
We Breathe Rarified AIR!
By chanting we can ROOT OUT the causes of our suffering!
Faith is Envisioning
the outcome exactly as you want it to be as if there were no obstacles and then
challenging the doubt in your mind with your Daimoku and send it like arrows
through each obstacle, shooting them down as they arrive in your mind.
That's why I say be FUELED BY
YOUR OBSTACLES, not FOOLED BY THEM!
Battling Depression:
In Kate's own battle over depression, she won by focusing on this thought while chanting: I don’t CARE how many times you rear your ugly head. Depression! I will defeat you. I will root the causes and effects of this depression straight out of my life….and she did just that.
Based on her guidance I wrote this
PowerPrayer to Defeat Despair:
Written by Jamie Lee Silver, from the blog
ChantforHappiness.com
While chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo I would focus on these thoughts and TELL my life who is BOSS:
No way Unhappiness! You will NOT
WIN TODAY!
No way anxiety~I am the Buddha!
I don't CARE how many times I have
to chant to defeat you. I WILL WIN! For Myself and for all!
I am a noble, brilliant
Buddha!
I DEMAND a life free from sadness
and fear!
I root the karmic cause of my
sadness and fear
right out of my life
now!
I DEMAND that my environment reflects who I really am,
not my fears or doubts about who I
am.
I DEMAND that I have the
courage
to do Human Revolution
and to FOREVER break
those ties to my own
unhappiness.
I am determined to stop making causes that bring me pain!
I am determined to make causes that bring me happiness!
Not just for me, but for everyone!
I MUST succeed
LIFE
No matter what!
I choose to be happy!
I choose happiness now!
With every new obstacle think:
"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."
Kate said:
Chant for absolute and total
conviction
in your Buddha Nature
and know that you are changing karma
for your self,
for your family
for your descendants
and for the world by this prayer
Pray that
THIS Daimoku makes the difference!
Pray that
THIS PRAYER changes your karma forever.
Facing
death, Kate said to me:
"NOW
is the time to wake up to joy.
Now, more than ever,
SGI members need to summon
joy,
forget complaining about anything,
and wear a radiant smile on our faces.
She says our smiles must radiate so brightly
that light comes out of our
fingertips
and we glow as beacons
so people can learn of the mystic law,
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo from us,
and be moved to happiness
just by being in our
presence.
Kate said we must have Joy
to show the possibilities of life...
JOY is a REQUIREMENT,
not an afterthought,
and it comes from our determination
to summon it from
within our lives
and express it in our smiles,
the pep in our step,
and our
lives themselves.
We can do this!
We can do this for ourselves,
and by doing
this we change the world."
"Our
smile is a cause, not an effect." we can't sit around waiting for joy to
come into our lives. We must be joyful, and invite more. That's how it
works!
She
said: "Joy's
the leading edge. Wake up and be joyful, smile at the person next to you in
bed, smile at the person next to you at the store, in the elevator, and at
other drivers. BE Kosen rufu in action!"
"It's
gotta be real, but you can also fake it till you make it. Put that smile on
your face and you will spark your happiness. Try to be sad with a huge
grin. It doesn't work so well!
"We have to go deeper into our own lives, and into the Buddha we are
every day. We've gotta do this NOW. This is it. This is our time. We're ALIVE!
whether we are 17 or 95. Grab the moment for all it's got and say "I am
creating the deepest value that's ever been created. NOW. Right this moment.
There's no other moment. There's no other person. How are we influencing the
person next to us...it is our SMILE...beaming with joy...Joy!"
STOP complaining. NOW. It must be replaced, even if it's phony at
first. It may feel phony but it will cause a shift inside your life. And
we have to keep going deeper and deeper into joy. There can't be a place at
which we stop. we need constant movement...constantly going deeper."
Thank you for a lifetime of WISDOM and DETERMINATION Kate. Thank you for showing us Buddhahood by example. Thank you for walking this world as a Buddha with strength and determination alongside your magnificent family, Hal and Sarah. Thank you for always leading the way. Thank you for your grace. And thank you for your poetry and for bringing us closer to Emily Dickinson. (She performed the one-woman-show The Belle of Amherst like none other)
Thank you for always leading with Daimoku and Shakubuku - the spirit and action to lead others.
And, if we want to continue Kate's marvelous legacy, let's all be joyful right now! Beaming JOY from our fingertips!
Thank you, Kate!
