Saturday 10 August 2013
Friday 9 August 2013
Living the most contributive life
Living the most contributive life -
Luis Nieves forwarded by Vrinda Taneja
Luis Nieves forwarded by Vrinda Taneja
I was so poor when I received the gohonzon in aug 1968 that it seems almost unimaginable today today. I regularly hitch-hiked 50 miles to youth activities, sometimes taking all night to get home.i couldn’t seem to hold a job for more than a week or two- either I would get fired or was too depressed to shop up.
One day my landlord kicked me out of the apartment for failing to pay rent and took away everything except the alter, in lieu of rent. I spent many nights sleeping on the floor, as I tried to work to payback the rent while struggling to attend some days of school. Late night my friend Randy, who had also begun chanting nam myoho renge kyo, would stand guard at the laundrymat, while I huddled behind the machines waiting for my one set of clothing to dry.
I continued to do SGI activities because they gave my life meaning. I remember hitch hiking 35 miles north of Napa California to deliver a gohonzon to a new member. After walking for 10 miles with my thumb out, no one stopped. My clothing was thin, threadbare and then it began to snow.i arrived at the member’s house late next morning , helped enshrine the gohonzon, then hitched a ride back in time for a discussion meeting.
During these years my friend Linda and I did many youth activities together, along with her sister Becky, and my friend Randy. Linda had received the Gohonzon the same day as my mother.
Even though many people in small our town derided us when we shared Buddhism with them, our hearts were filled with joy. We would huddle together in the cold, sometimes very late into the night, reading SGI President Ikeda’s guidance, proud students of Ikeda University. Prez Ikeda’s guidance was so real, so tangible, it gave us inspiration and hope.
Linda eventually got a steady job and bought a very old car which we used mercilessly for youth activities at home and in san Francisco.
Linda and I came to understand that our problems were not revelations of our misery or failure, as people in the town were swift to point out to us. We chose this life to demonstrate the greatness of Nicheren’s Buddhism, the truth of prez Ikeda’s Guidance and the potential innate in ordinary people to become true victors in life.
With the spirit to transform poison to medicine through our Buddhist Practice, our determinations were these-
Because we are so desperately poor, we must become wealthy.
Because we have to walk , hitch hike and drive such battered cars, we must become people who can drive any car we wish
Because school is impossible for us to attend, we must become educational advocates for many young people like us. In other words, we viewed our Karma as our mission for Kosen Rufu/ world peace.
This gets to the heart of why we never ever missed any opportunity to contribute to the SGI, including making Financial Contributions. Don’t ask me how we did it- we were so desperately poor. We chanted a whole lot not to miss any opportunity to contribute and do more than we thought we could. When we had no money, which was the norm, we ‘d find working extra jobs, collect old bottles- anything to make a cause for our happiness.
Linda and I were always of the same mind. We made every financial cause selflessly and without expectations, because doing so made us happy. After about 10 years of friendship, and as comrades in faith, we married, realizing how deeply in love we were.
As we continued to live a Cause-oriented practice, our environment reflected the changes that occurred within ourselves. Over time, we got better jobs, better timings and better bosses.
We had beautiful children, and, in 1990, I started an automobile insurance company from our spare bedroom. With quick and sincere service- traits we had learnt and developed through doing SGI activities in my youth- our business grew. Recently, my company completed construction on a new headquarters in Napa, California.
This year Linda and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniv. We now live in a large beautiful jewel of a home we have built in our own vineyards, complete with an observatory. Our home is always open for SGI members and for faith related activities. We now have 4 holiday homes, including one overlooking the bay and across the ocean in Miami.
Linda’s old car has now changed to a custom-made powerful Italian sculpture on wheels.
Our commitment to kosen- rufu remains the same. In order to get home in time for meetings and activities we now fly on our family jet plane. We are privileged now to do everything we can behind the scene to financially support and further president Ikeda’s vision for Soka University of America, a school fostering the next generation of world leaders and peacemakers
Linda and I are more deeply in love and have more fun together than we could have ever imagined. Most importantly, we feel like we have only begun to fulfill our mission for contributing to the growth of the SGI Peace Movement together with prez Ikeda. The best is ahead, and we determine never to give up, no matter what.
One day my landlord kicked me out of the apartment for failing to pay rent and took away everything except the alter, in lieu of rent. I spent many nights sleeping on the floor, as I tried to work to payback the rent while struggling to attend some days of school. Late night my friend Randy, who had also begun chanting nam myoho renge kyo, would stand guard at the laundrymat, while I huddled behind the machines waiting for my one set of clothing to dry.
I continued to do SGI activities because they gave my life meaning. I remember hitch hiking 35 miles north of Napa California to deliver a gohonzon to a new member. After walking for 10 miles with my thumb out, no one stopped. My clothing was thin, threadbare and then it began to snow.i arrived at the member’s house late next morning , helped enshrine the gohonzon, then hitched a ride back in time for a discussion meeting.
During these years my friend Linda and I did many youth activities together, along with her sister Becky, and my friend Randy. Linda had received the Gohonzon the same day as my mother.
Even though many people in small our town derided us when we shared Buddhism with them, our hearts were filled with joy. We would huddle together in the cold, sometimes very late into the night, reading SGI President Ikeda’s guidance, proud students of Ikeda University. Prez Ikeda’s guidance was so real, so tangible, it gave us inspiration and hope.
Linda eventually got a steady job and bought a very old car which we used mercilessly for youth activities at home and in san Francisco.
Linda and I came to understand that our problems were not revelations of our misery or failure, as people in the town were swift to point out to us. We chose this life to demonstrate the greatness of Nicheren’s Buddhism, the truth of prez Ikeda’s Guidance and the potential innate in ordinary people to become true victors in life.
With the spirit to transform poison to medicine through our Buddhist Practice, our determinations were these-
Because we are so desperately poor, we must become wealthy.
Because we have to walk , hitch hike and drive such battered cars, we must become people who can drive any car we wish
Because school is impossible for us to attend, we must become educational advocates for many young people like us. In other words, we viewed our Karma as our mission for Kosen Rufu/ world peace.
This gets to the heart of why we never ever missed any opportunity to contribute to the SGI, including making Financial Contributions. Don’t ask me how we did it- we were so desperately poor. We chanted a whole lot not to miss any opportunity to contribute and do more than we thought we could. When we had no money, which was the norm, we ‘d find working extra jobs, collect old bottles- anything to make a cause for our happiness.
Linda and I were always of the same mind. We made every financial cause selflessly and without expectations, because doing so made us happy. After about 10 years of friendship, and as comrades in faith, we married, realizing how deeply in love we were.
As we continued to live a Cause-oriented practice, our environment reflected the changes that occurred within ourselves. Over time, we got better jobs, better timings and better bosses.
We had beautiful children, and, in 1990, I started an automobile insurance company from our spare bedroom. With quick and sincere service- traits we had learnt and developed through doing SGI activities in my youth- our business grew. Recently, my company completed construction on a new headquarters in Napa, California.
This year Linda and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniv. We now live in a large beautiful jewel of a home we have built in our own vineyards, complete with an observatory. Our home is always open for SGI members and for faith related activities. We now have 4 holiday homes, including one overlooking the bay and across the ocean in Miami.
Linda’s old car has now changed to a custom-made powerful Italian sculpture on wheels.
Our commitment to kosen- rufu remains the same. In order to get home in time for meetings and activities we now fly on our family jet plane. We are privileged now to do everything we can behind the scene to financially support and further president Ikeda’s vision for Soka University of America, a school fostering the next generation of world leaders and peacemakers
Linda and I are more deeply in love and have more fun together than we could have ever imagined. Most importantly, we feel like we have only begun to fulfill our mission for contributing to the growth of the SGI Peace Movement together with prez Ikeda. The best is ahead, and we determine never to give up, no matter what.
Thursday 8 August 2013
VP Tsuji – Protect
Prayer from Negativity
Once we
have decided to succeed at something because a wonderful occasion has presented
itself to us, we must protect our inner world, which is subjective, against the
subtle attacks of our negative voices: “Nothing will ever change anyway, it is
always the same thing, etc…” If we are subject to hearing these kinds of voices
(which is the case for most of us) well, then, we listen to them. And we let them influence our state of
life. The more we listen to them, the
more they destroy our prayers. So, we slowly start to change the course of our
prayers. And there comes a time when we start to agree with these inner
negative voices, because this is what we have done most of our lives.
When we reach this
point, our prayers have all the chance in the world to FAIL to come true. When
we chant daimoku, it is what we think and what we feel at this particular
moment that gets projected into the universe.
And as the Law is impartial, we are the one who decides what will happen. It is like a mirror. So, if unconsciously, we change the course of our prayers, the
Law accepts this as our desire.
So, our
responsibility, when we truly desire something, is to hold on to our prayers
without letting our negative voices discourage us. If we start to compromise, we have abandoned
our prayers’ goal without even being aware of it. Once a decision is made, no more compromises! Buddhism is
victory or defeat. It is not compromise. Compromising is what we have done
all our life.
So, create the decision and chant daimoku for it. Once
the determination is there, how you will obtain this or that, how things will
happen etc., becomes the responsibility of the Gohonzon (your Buddhahood). Our
responsibility is to hold on to our prayers
without letting ANYTHING destabilize
inside ourselves or in the outside world. (Stop
judging your prayer – it is worthy!!)
It is also of the utmost
importance to practice to manifest our BUDDHAHOOD every day. It is really the essential point because
if we cannot manifest the Buddha state in our life, no big results can be
expected from our prayers anyway. If we do not understand this, let’s say that
we simply pass the time practicing for our desires.
Extremely
important also is the concept explaining that we all have this Buddha nature
inside ourselves. Life itself is
Buddha. Our whole life is Buddha. Everything that lives in this world is Buddha. We must not think that this Buddha nature is
outside us. It is one and inseparable
from ourselves. The Gohonzon is an
exterior object. It is a catalyst that
makes this Buddha state emerge from the depths of our lives. The Buddha nature in us and the one that is
embodied by the Gohonzon are the same reality. They seem two distinct entities
but the eternal truth, unchanging, is Buddha.
It is life itself.
YOU ARE BUDDHA
NOW! When you realize this, you start to recognize and appreciate the power,
the dignity and the unlimited aspects of your life.
This means that
you are the Buddha responsible for your life.
Nobody, but you. You can do
whatever you want with your life. Not
what your environment wants it to be.
When you acknowledge that your life is Buddha…it is ichinen sanzen. And you
can call forward the power to transform or create Buddha’s land wherever
you are. Not somewhere
else or in the future.
The past is only a
dream, no matter if it was good or bad, it is still a dream. As for the future, it is nothing else than
our imagination, be it positive or negative.
In itself and by itself, future does not exist. The essence of life, which is Myo, is eternal
and unchanging. The more you will
acknowledge that your life is Buddha, the more force and conviction will be
found in your daimoku.
The ultimate
ichinen of the Gohonzon is to make anyone from any world equal to it. It is the reason why a Buddha appears – in
order to give each person the key to his palace of enlightenment and to his own
wisdom. If we do not understand this, we
are like beggars who chant daimoku. And
there comes a time when the Gohonzon doesn’t answer our prayers no more because
if we continue in the wrong way, we cannot attain enlightenment. We are completely wrong as to our
objectives. Whatever you feel towards
the Gohonzon, you can experience towards the Gohonzon that lives inside
yourself.
Buddhism is
vertical: the present moment is infinite, unlimited, eternal. There comes a time when we must consciously
start to work at our own awakening. We
cannot just go with the flow. We can
practice all our life in the wrong direction.
But, in cultivating our attention consciously, we can come to see that
our life is Buddha. We must perceive the
nature of our own life. If we do not
acknowledge this, we suffer each time a difficulty arises. We feel desperate and powerless. But when we realize that our life is Buddha,
each time a problem arises, a strong conviction and a big confidence
appear. “Because my life is Buddha, I
can transform this into a huge benefit.”
If we deepen this conviction that our life is the Buddha entity, as we
are – and not after becoming these perfect beings – then things start to
happen, we do not feel anxious or fearful; what is happening is only the
occasion to transform the difficulty into a major benefit and the suffering
into joy.
The ultimate optimist is the one that has no fear for the future and no
regrets of the past. His life is Buddha, he can transform
anything and make the Buddha nature appear in everything. So, even in the state of hell, because he has
this deep conviction that his life is Buddha and that he is its manifestation, the
Buddha nature of ALL THINGS emerges also.
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