1) When you are troubled, seek guidance!
2) Instead of complaining, chant!
3) Instead of fretting, action!
Value Creation, May 2014
2) Instead of complaining, chant!
3) Instead of fretting, action!
Value Creation, May 2014
Showing posts with label achieving dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label achieving dreams. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2014
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Guidelines on Personal Wishes
I am starting with a 'Guidelines' series. These will basically consist of excerpts from this wonderful book called 'Guidelines in faith' by Mr Satoru Izumi. It is an official Soka Gakkai book that is no longer in print. My mother and I were fortunate enough to get a copy long back when we started practising and found it extremely helpful to develop a correct attitude towards our practice of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. This book has been vetted by Sensei Ikeda.
Personal Wishes
I am sure that each and every one of you has some thing or other which worries you. Worry arises when your wishes are not realized. You feel happy when your wishes are fulfilled, and you find yourselves troubled when they are not.
Some people are concerned only with their own personal wishes and desires. It is important to remind these people that one should pray, not only for personal matters, but also for kosen-rufu. On the other hand, some members take too casual an attitude toward their everyday lives, believing that since they are praying for the realization of kosen-rufu, their own problems will all be solved automatically. Such people often begin to harbour doubts and ask, “I am always praying for kosen-rufu. Why doesn’t my personal situation improve?”
President Toda used to teach us in the following way: “Suppose you put rice and water in a pot, and then chant to the Gohonzon that it will cook. No matter how long you chant, you ‘ll never get boiled rice.” By this he was refuting the mistaken Idea that benefits will come our way of themselves, if we only chant daimoku and make no further effort. We chant in order to gain wisdom- the wisdom which tells us to light the stove first and which helps us adjust the amount of water and the strength of the fire so that we can boil rice which is neither too hard nor too soft.
True, we should sincerely pray for kosen-rufu. However, as long as we take an easy-going attitude, thinking that things will improve automatically, they rarely will. If we are to work for kosen-rufu, our own lives must be established on a firm foundation, which we must do our utmost to construct. It is necessary, then, that we pray both for the attainment of kosen-rufu and for the solution of our own personal problems when we face the Gohonzon.
Source: Guidelines of Faith by Satoru Izumi
I am sure that each and every one of you has some thing or other which worries you. Worry arises when your wishes are not realized. You feel happy when your wishes are fulfilled, and you find yourselves troubled when they are not.
Some people are concerned only with their own personal wishes and desires. It is important to remind these people that one should pray, not only for personal matters, but also for kosen-rufu. On the other hand, some members take too casual an attitude toward their everyday lives, believing that since they are praying for the realization of kosen-rufu, their own problems will all be solved automatically. Such people often begin to harbour doubts and ask, “I am always praying for kosen-rufu. Why doesn’t my personal situation improve?”
President Toda used to teach us in the following way: “Suppose you put rice and water in a pot, and then chant to the Gohonzon that it will cook. No matter how long you chant, you ‘ll never get boiled rice.” By this he was refuting the mistaken Idea that benefits will come our way of themselves, if we only chant daimoku and make no further effort. We chant in order to gain wisdom- the wisdom which tells us to light the stove first and which helps us adjust the amount of water and the strength of the fire so that we can boil rice which is neither too hard nor too soft.
True, we should sincerely pray for kosen-rufu. However, as long as we take an easy-going attitude, thinking that things will improve automatically, they rarely will. If we are to work for kosen-rufu, our own lives must be established on a firm foundation, which we must do our utmost to construct. It is necessary, then, that we pray both for the attainment of kosen-rufu and for the solution of our own personal problems when we face the Gohonzon.
Source: Guidelines of Faith by Satoru Izumi
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
What to Think About When You Chant
Excerpt from 'The Buddha In Daily Life', by Richard Causton:
"People often worry about what they should be thinking about when they chant, but there are no hard and fast rules on this score. Generally it is a good idea when you begin each chanting session to try to concentrate on establishing a precise and clear rhythm and to listen to the sound of your daimoku. Then, quite naturally, any problems you may be facing, or your current preoccupations or desires, will probably come into your mind as prayers, to be bathed, as it were, in your own intuitive buddha wisdom. Gradually, as you repeat this process, you will find that the decisions you start to make (not while you are chanting, but in your daily life) will be based more and more ion this wisdom - an expression of your true self - and you will begin to orientate your life towards the kind of happy future you begin to realize could be yours...
..through chanting at times, you will be able to re-inspire yourself with courage and confidence to keep battling when things look black; at other times you will be able suddenly to see a solution in what seemed like a hopeless situation; or at times you may simply be able to keep fatigue at bay to finish an urgent task. In short, chanting Nam myo ho renge kyo to the Gohonzon is designed for any problem or circumstance, no matter how insignificant it might seem. Finally in the same way as when we began, we should listen to our voice chanting during the last few moments of our daimoku when, quite naturally, we scan feel joy rising up within us; indeed, ideally we should continue to chant until we feel this joy welling up from deep within our lives."
"People often worry about what they should be thinking about when they chant, but there are no hard and fast rules on this score. Generally it is a good idea when you begin each chanting session to try to concentrate on establishing a precise and clear rhythm and to listen to the sound of your daimoku. Then, quite naturally, any problems you may be facing, or your current preoccupations or desires, will probably come into your mind as prayers, to be bathed, as it were, in your own intuitive buddha wisdom. Gradually, as you repeat this process, you will find that the decisions you start to make (not while you are chanting, but in your daily life) will be based more and more ion this wisdom - an expression of your true self - and you will begin to orientate your life towards the kind of happy future you begin to realize could be yours...
..through chanting at times, you will be able to re-inspire yourself with courage and confidence to keep battling when things look black; at other times you will be able suddenly to see a solution in what seemed like a hopeless situation; or at times you may simply be able to keep fatigue at bay to finish an urgent task. In short, chanting Nam myo ho renge kyo to the Gohonzon is designed for any problem or circumstance, no matter how insignificant it might seem. Finally in the same way as when we began, we should listen to our voice chanting during the last few moments of our daimoku when, quite naturally, we scan feel joy rising up within us; indeed, ideally we should continue to chant until we feel this joy welling up from deep within our lives."
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