Promotion - Consitency is Key!

I got it!! I got it!!! I've been so consistent with my chanting since January. In the past I would be chanting for something for an hour and quit doing it the next few days or so, and then back to chanting for hours. When I didn't get what I wanted, I would doubt the practice. This time, I made a commitment to myself that not only I am chanting to get a kosen-rufu job, but also to show actual proof. Along with that mentality, I was consistent in my chanting. I made sure to do daimoku and Gongyo at least 15 mins in the morning and 15 mins in the evening - Everyday! Oh boy, it really help my day to be in sync. Every activity that I did was right, I made good relationships with my managers and peers. There were rough days here and there, but because of my life condition that I was able to transform them. Everything that I did was an effort that somehow allowed my upper managers to see I am who I really am. I am so thankful for this practice! I don't think I could have come to success this fast without my chanting. It is all about consistency in your practice to raise your life condition to transform problems.

I Will Never Give Up

I will never give up praying for the job that I want. I will chant and believing in my heart that I will not stop chanting about until I get it. I will show others the power of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and prove it through my daily practice!

I will chant for it until I get it and never up on believing in GETTING it!

I'm not giving up. I don't care how long it takes.... All I know is that the moment that you give up, you're already lost! I'm gonna bug the Gohonzon until I get it!!

Challenge to My Dreamed Job

I have been challenging myself to chant and do morning ande vening Gongyo on a daily basis, something that I'm struggling with keeping consistent. I am praying to get my dreamed job. My Kosen-rufu job!

No success comes easily! Struggles don't go so quickly. I don't know how I'm gonna get there but I KNOW I want to get there. A 9-5 job that pays decent is all I need to support our organization. I will continue to practice daily and encourage others to get involve.Nam-myoho-renge-kyo! 

Faith and Action

January 8

PRAYER IS THE FOUNDATION. But at the same time if we fail to make concrete efforts, no matter how much daimoku we chant, our prayers will not be answered. Buddhism is reason. If we just chant without doing any work we cannot succeed in our jobs.

 "If we fail to make concrete efforts, no matter how much daimoku we chant, our prayers will not be answered." Even if you do a million of daimoku, but you don't put anything in action and merely it is a just a "desire" to "get it".... You will not get it!  "If we just chant without doing any work we cannot succeed in our jobs." Besides from striving in hard to get whatever that you are trying to get, you need to also participate in Buddhist activities as well. By doing that, you are enhancing/expanding/strengthening your karma and creating good deeds for your own life. You are sending positive energies to the universe in regards to your wish and desire.

As to put into action for my own life, I will try my best to participate in Buddhist activities and study even more to share with others whether it is to new people or to existing members of the SGI during meetings. You never know how your words can impact their lives!

Faith comes with Patience

January 6

"WE PRACTICE THIS BUDDHISM TO make our prayers and dreams come true and to achieve the greatest possible happiness. The purpose of Nichirent Daishonin's Buddhism is to enable us to realize victory. The fact that our prayers are answered proves the correctness of this teaching."

 January 7

"WHEN WE PLANT THE SEED OF happiness that is faith and carefully tend its growth, it will produce fruit without fail. We have to bear in mind, however, that we cannot plant a seed today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow. That's not reasonable and Buddhism is reason. If we persevere in the practice of "faith equals daily life" in accord with reason, then our prayers will definitely be answered. This is Nichiren Daishonin's promise to us. And his words are true beyond any doubt."

 I have been having a hard time keeping up my faith for the past one year.  From having my prayers not answered, I kind of just slacked off. Well, this is a new year with new determinations and refreshed faith and belief! For the past 2 days, I have been consistently doing my morning and evening Gongyo. The above daily encouragements really stood out to me: Faith - Reason - Perseverance.

"We practice this Buddhism to make our prayers and dreams come true and to achieve the greatest possible happiness." What else could it be? Aren't we practicing this Buddhism is to overcome our own fundamental darkness (our negativity) and to achieve life-long happiness? Our dreams are our motivation to sit in front of the Gohonzon to chant and be consistent with our practice.  "The purpose of Nichirent Daishonin's Buddhism is to enable us to realize victory." This is a confirmation statement to me, assuring that as long as I keep forging on and not giving up my chanting - I WILL no doubt achieve my goals/dreams/happiness!

"We have to bear in mind, however, that we cannot plant a seed today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow. That's not reasonable and Buddhism is reason." It's not only in religions, but realistically even in life when you are planting a tree, you cannot expect to see it grows 10 inches the next day or the next 2 days. You have to give it time to grow and in the meantime take a really good care of it by watering it everyday. Faith or Buddhism, is the same concept - when you set your goals and start chanting about them, you cannot expect to see the results immediately without putting efforts (meaning chanting) into it. In another word, you cannot act like you're taking a good care of the tree for like a month... If you don't see the result, you start to slack off and not water it daily any more.  "If we persevere in the practice of "faith equals daily life" in accord with reason, then our prayers will definitely be answered. This is Nichiren Daishonin's promise to us." You HAVE TO to persevere and be patient! Just like planting a tree, some trees take only a few months to grow tall (i.e. cypress), some take years to grow (bamboo).  Some goals are achievable easily, some aren't and required greater efforts! What is most important is that, you need to keep watering your tree everyday and have patience. Wait to see the results!

I love reading the January 7 encouragement, as it further strengthen my belief in this practice. It reminds me that Buddhism is reasonable and it is goes in accord with every aspect of living beings in life; and that we can relate or apply the same concept of nature to our practice.

The Power To Transform Our Lives

The Nirvana Sutra teaches the principle of lessening one's karmic retribution. If one's heavy karma from the past is not expiated within this lifetime, one must undergo the sufferings of hell in the future, but if one experiences extreme hardship in this life, the sufferings of hell will vanish instantly.

From "Lessing One's Karmic Retribution"

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol.1, p.199

Nichiren Daishonin cites the principle of "lessing one's karmic retribution," which in Chinese characters means "transforming the heavy and receiving it lightly." "The heavy" means the negative results of past bad causes, or "bad karma," and "receiving it lightly" means to experience their ill effects in a much lightened form.

By the time Buddhism emerged in India, people had long believed in karma - the accumulation in one's life of the latent effects of one's past thoughts, words and deeds, But this early view of karma shackled people to their circumstances and destiny.

Shakyamuni Buddha aught a new perspective on karma:  He gave people hope and confidence that, because they are the ones who create their own karma, they have the power to fundamentally transform it and change their lives for the better.

By Nichiren's time, however, this hope-filled message had become obscured. The most revered Buddhist teachers of his day denied the possibility that popel could change their karma in this lifetime. They taught that attaining enlightenment required countless lifetimes of painful practices - a message that, in effect, taught believers to escape reality.

In contrast, Nichiren Buddhism presents a refreshing and empowering view of karma, revealing not only the possibility but also the means for people to transform their karma in this lifetime, no matter how heavy it may be.

Nichiren Buddhism recognizes that negative karma ultimately comes from  "slander of the Law," from disbelief in and disrespect for the Law underlying all life and the universe. Nichiren teaches that one's life itself is the Mystic Law. So to disrespect one's own life or the live of others is equivalent to "slandering the Law."

Conversely, protecting, practicing and spreading this Law, which Nichiren revealed as Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, and supporting, encouraging and working harmoniously with other practitioners, is the fundamental cause for transforming our reality.

In this passage, Nichiren declares, "The sufferings of hell will vanish instantly." This means that we can overcome even the most negative karma and resulting suffering at this very moment. Just as the multiple of stars in the night sky fades with the brightness of the rising sun, our store of negative karma is rendered insignificant when we call forth the brilliant life state of Buddhahood through chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo base don a vow to accomplish kosen-rufu.

We develop our lives to the same extent that we help others develop their lives. The more we strive to encourage others and pray for their happiness, the more vibrant we become, strengthening our Buddha nature, the limitless reservoir of power within us. Changing karma means ending the cycle of suffering caused by deluded thoughts and actions, and entering a new, positive path to happiness. What propels us on this path is the wisdom we bring forth through correct Buddhist practice.

What's more, lessening karmic retribution is not a simple settling of karmic accounts, a zeroing out of a negative balance. Rather, it is a fundamental transformation, where the degree of our karmic "debt" of suffering turns into the magnitude of our "assets" of fortune and happiness. This process is powered by our steady efforts to practice Nichiren Buddhism for our own happiness and that of others. When we do so, the principle of lessening karmic retribution operates naturally within our lives. Then, all difficulties we encounter in our lives and in our Buddhist practice change into fortune and joy. In modern terms, we call this process "human revolution."

SGI President Ikeda says:  "In the Soka Gakkai, an organization that is taking action in accord with the Buddha's will and decree, there are hundreds of thousands of people - no, millions of people - who have battled painful hardships with faith, and who have experienced profound revitalization as their own sufferings have "vanished instantly."  In truth, the power of Nichiren Buddhism to change karma has been proven by the real-life experiences of 10 million people"  (August 2003 Living Bhuddhism, p.37)

Rather than viewing hardships simply as sources of our suffering, Nichiren Buddhists see hardships as signifying opportunities for developing faith and forging a powerful inner state of life. Nichiren teaches that the difficulties we take on for the sake of spreading the Mystic Law and people's happiness equate to experiencing our karma in "lightened form,"  thereby transforming them into sources of deep fulfillment. He also teaches that to experience difficulties when advancing the cause of kosen-rufu is proof that we are practicing Buddhism correctly.

Let us have the conviction that, no matter what obstacles we meet in the course of life, as long as we continue advancing courageously on the path of faith, we can transform our karma into our mission. And jut like the sun, which illuminates all darkness, our lives will come to shin brilliantly with victory and happiness.


(The passage for July from Living Buddhism)