Monday, August 17, 2009

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda

"There is nothing more noble than inviting our friends to discussion meetings, gathering together to enable them to establish a connection with Buddhism, to talk about Buddhist teachings, and to deepen our faith. As the Lotus Sutra clearly indicates, through such steady, dedicated efforts to teach others about Buddhism, you are accumulating the good fortune and benefit to be reborn as great leaders and savor a state of unsurpassed freedom in lifetime after lifetime."

Our Daimoku

“Myo ho renge kyo is the common name for both the Buddha Nature that is equally inherent in the lives of all living beings, and for the mystic law to which all Buddhas in the 3 existences are awakened.

Accordingly Nichiren Daishonin says that by chanting this name even once, we are calling forth the law to which all Buddh nature of all living beings; its benefit is therefore infinite and boundless.

Chanting to the Gohonzon calls forth the Buddha nature that exists within our Life. Nichiren Daishonin said (I quote)"All Buddhist gods throughout the universe move in response to our voice. You should understand that one’s life and its environment at a single moment encompass the 3 thousand realms. Therefore when one attains the Buddha Way , one puts onself in accord with this fundamental principle, and one’s body and mind at a single moment pervade the entire realm of Phenomena (WND, 366) "

This passage expresses a completely free state of life in which, by embracing the five characters of Myoho Renge Kyo, we achieve
Observation of the mind; in which the Myoho renge kyo within our lives becomes one with the Myoho renge kyo of the universe, and we freely manifest boundless life force.

In other words one is in total rhythm with Nam Myoho renge kyo, and the mystic law. When we are in such a life state, then we find that everything we need in order to be truly happy can appear. This had been my experience throughout my practice – that when my life was profoundly in rhythm with the universe, what I needed appeared as if from nowhere.”

[Abstracted from Summer Course 2003 - Lecture from SGI UK Robert Samuels]