Which Way Are You Practicing?

Vice President Karwei's Guidance, 1996

Prayers need to have a specific focus. Just chanting daimoku does not constitute prayer with desired results. Prayers equal practice. It means to pray specifically for what you want, by when, and by what means. If you chant for specific results, you will achieve them. If you are putting in half-hearted efforts, it is like taking a walk with no objective or destination in mind and returning home with nothing achieved. Just praying and having aimless actions won’t end in results. You must have specific goals in mind and then take action. This is the correct method. 

The clear objectives of desiring to change one’s self, heart, lifestyle, environment, problems, etc., are important. Nichiren Daishonin says one must reflect to see if he or she is advancing or regressing . If one is not aware, then they are lazy and may be considered taiten (not practicing). You could be exerting yourself but if you are not advancing, then you are considered to be in a non-practicing state (taiten). You are practicing to change yourself, not just to practice hard. If you haven’t experienced much change in yourself, you have not made enough effort to do so. If you just logically study and understand this Buddhism, you will not change. Sensei always says, “The heart is the most important. No one says just try hard. You can make a change, depending on the state of your heart.” Determination is the key. A person with no determination to change will not change.

Progressive Practice- people who are practicing with a strong desire to change.

Lateral-moving practice- people who are practicing out of obligation.

Reverse-moving practice- people who are practicing with suspicion, complaint and negativity.

The people who are moving forward will continue to progress and grow. The people who are moving sideways are moving in circles. The people who are moving backwards will continue to regress and eventually quit the practice.

Don’t take action just for the sake of taking action. Participating in SGI activities is not a substitute for sincere practice. The determination or heart behind the action is the most important (ichinen). The type of determination behind the action determines what type of results you get. 

How can we experience actual proof?
If you yourself have experienced benefits, then you will have no doubts. But if conviction is weak, and a problem occurs, faith wavers. Members who have no experience are weak. If you don’t have actual proof in this faith, you are not practicing this faith.

Having the objective to change yourself is important. Make specific goals and then take actions toward those goals. First, entrust your life to the Gohonzon (Nam). Chant specifically about a certain goal or problem. If you have a way out to resolve the problem, you can try it; for something impossible, you have to chant to the Gohonzon. It has to be a pure and strong prayer. This is the correct attitude in this faith. 

An impossible situation is actually a great opportunity. It is a chance to improve and overcome the situation. If you chant with strong determination you will definitely get results. A weak attitude such as, “as long as I practice, I will be okay”, will not produce benefits, but if your determination is strong, you will experience the benefit. 

It may seem to defy logic, but nothing is impossible for the Gohonzon. We chant to the Gohonzon to change the impossible to possible. Don’t think about it too logically or dwell on it! Just direct your desires and prayers to the Gohonzon. This is what faith is all about.

What does the Gohonzon symbolize? What is Nam myoho renge kyo?
The concept of the Ten Worlds, also known as the Ten Life States, forms one of the fundamental principles of Buddhism. It teaches that everyone possesses the Ten Worlds within their life, and everyone has the ability to perceive, as well as the potential to manifest these states. Our life state changes from moment to moment, depending on our interaction with the environment. In other words, at any given moment one of the Ten Worlds is visible, while the rest of the Ten Worlds remain hidden. From lowest to highest these are: Hell State, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Tranquility, Rapture, learning and Realization, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.

Richard Causton: Buddha in Daily Life

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Winning Over Yourself

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Author unknown 

The expressions "triumph" and "victory" are words that are part of a vocabulary that is often used in Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism as well in SGI activities and in our own vocabulary as practitioners. In general, in society at present we are constantly confronted with these concepts related to a policy of consumerism. To name just a few examples, phrases like "the woman 10", "Bio Bodies", cars, houses, cigarettes, positions at work and even clothes are associated with success in one's life.

However, quoting President Ikeda, the period of "El Senorito Satisfecho" that worried Ortega and Gasset more than 60 years ago, refers exactly to our days. The truth is that although the average person of a modern industrialized country carries on a life that not even the kings and aristocrats from the past would have dreamed of, in relation to material progress, this has not been enough, of course, to determine "triumph" or "victory" in life.

Even practicing Buddhism we can confuse are idea of "actual proof" with fantasy. We shouldn't expect the triumph over ourselves, for example, to be so striking as to leave everybody shocked and hallucinated. In daily life, even when our basic needs to live are satisfied or when the idea of success is measured by our material satisfaction, whether or not imposed by the environment, it is extremely hard to relate it to a true sense of 'triumph". The victory over oneself in Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is related to winning over the fundamental darkness, inherent in human beings themselves.

This fundamental darkness has two aspects: on the one hand it can manifest itself as a feeling of resignation, a low opinion of oneself that leads to seeking happiness in an external power. On the other hand, it manifests itself as a perverse pleasure in controlling others and exerting power over others. This last aspect is what Buddhism calls "the devil of the sixth heaven" 

The Devil of the Sixth Heaven - explains Daisaku Ikeda - can be viewed as lives fundamental tendency to use everything and everybody to attain one's own goals. In a way, this is a natural tendency, common to all human beings, whereas developing our compassion, love for human kind, the spirit of serving others and of improving the environment are great qualities, that are extremely difficult to develop. Whatever the reality of our lives might be at this very moment, as long as we chant Nam-myoho-rengue-kyo in order to find solutions to our problems, we get stronger and are able to see how our own map of the world is.

Little by little we turn the prism and that, which seemed heavy and difficult at the beginning, because we made it dependent on the external world, starts transforming through our own change, into an opportunity to grow in our own life and to create value in our environment. Fundamental darkness is when we do not deeply understand the "inseparability of oneself and the universe". Because of this ignorance about the real nature of life, people try to use any thing and any being in the universe, as a simple tool. This is the function of the "devil of the sixth heaven" of the evil nature of power.

The "me" lacking identification with the "other" is not sensitive to the pain, anguish and suffering of others. In this life state there is a tendency to confine him/herself to his/her own world either by feeling threatened by the smallest provocation and developing violent behavior or by trying to get through situations without taking responsibility or thinking of others. The Lotus Sutra teaches that the "me" equals the universe and its concrete practice is to show compassion, and to respect and honor everybody as if they were the treasure tower, and to make others happy because "me" and the "others" are the same thing.

In the same way that Buddhahood is not a goal but refers to the continuous and daily effort to make our enlightened nature emerge, we should never have a relaxed attitude towards our practice, thinking that we have won definitively over our fundamental darkness because of having many years of practice.

In the final analysis, victory over oneself is to win every day in one's circumstances and in the place where one is and over one's fundamental darkness, one's own negative tendency. The accumulation of each daily victory is what finally will become victory in life, the victory over oneself. 

Gosho Phrase
You must never seek any of Shakyamuni's teachings or the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the universe outside yourself. Your mastery of the Buddhist teachings will not relieve you of mortal sufferings in the least unless you perceive the nature of your own life. If you seek enlightenment outside yourself, any discipline or good deed will be meaningless. (On attaining Buddhahood. Main Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, Page 4 )

The accumulation of each daily victory is what finally will represent the victory in life, the victory over oneself. 

The victory over oneself is to win everyday in one's circumstances in the place where I am and to win over my own fundamental darkness

                    

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