How to Remain Undefeated

Gosho: Happiness in this World

“Never let life’s hardships disturb you.”

If you have the naïve and unrealistic expectation that your Buddhist practice will magically eliminate all difficulties from your path, then even minor hardships will seem overwhelming. Rather than seeking to avoid difficulties, let’s develop the strength and confidence to overcome them, using each one creatively as an opportunity to grow.

When we first begin our Buddhist practice, we naturally do not have firm faith. When confronted with sickness, impending divorce, unemployment, or other major problems, it is hard for us to imagine that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo could indeed enable us to resolve such difficulties. But, encouraged by something we may have read in the gosho or by our seniors in faith, or perhaps simply because we have nowhere else to turn, we decide we have nothing to lose by trying. We pray with a new determination to the Gohonzon, and, to our astonishment, a solution emerges. But that solution is only part of the benefit. The other, more profound part is that our faith in the Gohonzon has also increased. 

Over the years, as we challenge and conquer one difficulty after another through our daimoku, our confidence in the Gohonzon in our own Buddha nature and in our ability to triumph over life’s hardships becomes invincible. That confidence itself will be our ‘peace and security in this life,” for it enables us to meet life with perfect freedom and assurance. 

Source: George M Williams, Vice President SGI