Chanting Growers Group

[Babbabud]

Hurry up and wait come back in a month..... had to go through the process and then be set free. All a bit of a pain but never worried. I have lots of ppl with lots of mystical power working with me Another month of Daimoku and it should suffer melt down no problem. Some awfully powerful forces at work! Wants details dont be afraid to pm much love to you all !!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[SoCal Hippy]

How To Change The Core of Your Life

How To Change The Core of Your Life

How To Change The Core of Your Life
by Ted Morino

Before you begin- RELAX, CLEAR YOUR HEAD, CLEAR YOUR HEART! But especially,
your head- your mind. Relax emotionally, mentally, physically. It is Important
to be very natural.

When your chant, you really need to use your eyes. FOCUS ON THE GOHONZON.
Then listen to your voice. Focus on the center part of the Gohonzon: "Myoho"
(mystic law). You have to use your eyes. This is extremely important. When you
really use your eyes, your mind stops. Clear your mind by strongly focusing
your eyes. Let your thoughts rest by using your eyes. When your busy thinking
all the time, your brain is sucking energy. This means your brains is getting
stronger (which isn't healthy), but your core isn't changing because the energy
isn't being directed there.

What you really have to do is look powerfully at the Gohonzon and let your
mind relax. The Gohonzon in your life already knows your worries and desires.
Keep everything in your heart-JUST CHANT WITH YOUR EYES LOCKED ON THE GOHONZON.
Then when you chant, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo comes in tune with the core of your
life, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo will melt away and dissolve Karma. Nam Myoho Renge
Kyo will change into strength, so you can become strong and clear minded enough
to accomplish your desires.

In this way you should come to enjoy the act of chanting because you are
feeling the core of your life. You're fusing the highest potentiol in your
life, represented by the Gohonzon (kyochi myogo). WHEN YOU'RE THINKING
STRATEGIES YOU ARE NOT CHANGING YOUR KARMA.

Question- When I chant I often imagine what I want. I picture it in my mind.
I see it happening in my mind. Is that okay?

Answer- Positive imaginations are a good thing, but not strategies. If you
begin imagining how to make it happen, instead of the images of it, then your
are strategizing.

Prayer should come from the heart! The gohonzon knows your worries and
desires, keep them in your heart, focus on the Gohonzon and SIMPLY CHANT. If
you can do simple good daimoku and gongyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo goes more
strongly and more deeply to expand you, to dissove difficult karma, and to
generate positive results. Daimoku should come from your core. If it comes from
the brain, the brain becomes stronger, and so does the confusion.

When you close your eyes or divert them from the Gohonzon, the power to fuse
the core of you life with the Gohonzon weakens and the mind plays around. Chant
clearly, confidently, comfortably. We need to keep checking ourselves. It is easy
to get carred away by forces of old habits and chant emotionally while uptight.

DON'T READ WHILE YOU CHANT! DON'T WRITE NOTES WHILE YOU CHANT! DON'T DO
ANYTHING WHILE YOU CHANT! JUST CHANT!

When you read, read, When you chant, chant. After good daimoku, you may
read, or your schedule may require you to get right to work or do things you
need to do. you may have a busy life, but don't have a busy daimoku. Don't be
busy while you chant- FOCUS! Through focused daimoku, you can melt away
negative karma. Karma will be dissolved. Chanting is a time to cultivate your
life, not think about your strategies. Daimoku is the time to enrich your Buddha
Nature, not the time to have a planning meeting for your day or your life.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Ha!

Ha!

Hurry up and wait come back in a month..... had to go through the process and then be set free. All a bit of a pain but never worried. I have lots of ppl with lots of mystical power working with me Another month of Daimoku and it should suffer melt down no problem. Some awfully powerful forces at work! Wants details dont be afraid to pm much love to you all !!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

WHAT A BENEFIT!!!

MANY THANKS TO THE BABBAS FOR THE GREAT GOOD FORTUNE WE ARE ALL CREATING! Let's evolve as living examples of itai-doshin and show the world what the power of faith can achieve. We are all Buddhas.

Let's do our job!

Much love and deep respect as I bow in obeisance to the continuing growth we are each achieving through our devotion to one another! Compassion is the doorway to wisdom. The more we care, the wiser we become, and the more capable we are in repelling attacks from our own fundamental darkness.

Well done guys!

T (PS: Great posts SoCal! Thank you!!!)

 

[GeorgialouWho]

VICTORY!much to say little keyboard haha perhaps a sign from the universe big victory little victory the key word is victory...we shall keep the momentum going WASHOI! thats old school right there, although i dont know if i spelled it right loving u supporting u chanting by u always Babbas!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
georgialouwho

 

[Hitman]

We can do it!!!!!! Together, one force. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

 

[PassTheDoobie]

VICTORY!much to say little keyboard haha perhaps a sign from the universe big victory little victory the key word is victory...we shall keep the momentum going WASHOI! thats old school right there, although i dont know if i spelled it right loving u supporting u chanting by u always Babbas!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
georgialouwho

WASHOI IS HERE IN THE THREAD MANY TIMES! That's the way I spelled it too. My kids teachers get the bigggest kick out me urging them and all of their classmates on during school events with big Washoi, Washoi, Washoi's!

What's the literal translation? Ask Hitman's mom!

 

[Babbabud]

Thanks so much for the encouragement everyone! Pretty much came home and chanted then passed out in the chair. Was a long tiring day. Woke up feeling great today. Got some early morning Daimoku in and ready to rock the day. Hope everyone wakes feeling great and ready to face the world with a smile
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[DharmaDawg]

Greetings everyone.Glad to hear the news Babbas. more opportunity to build up that daimoku. we will be right there chanting with you. so what does Washoi translate to. I came in at the end of the washoi era and never got the meaning. i was only fortunate enough to get a taste of the old ways before things began to change. Washoi has a nice ring to it. maybe we should bring it back!

 

[SoCal Hippy]

A A OH!!!
A A OH!!!
A A OH!!!

WASHOI!!!......WASHOI!!!.......WAAAAAAAAAAASHOIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

Great to hear Mr n Mrs B and thanks for allowing us to change our karma along with you doing so.

(I don't believe there is a translation for Washoi; the closest equivalent in english I would say is when people are working in unison and they start yelling together ......Heave Hoh! Heave Hoh!....Heave Hoh!)

 

[SoCal Hippy]

It is the way of ordinary people that, even though they spur themselves
on to arouse the aspiration for enlightenment and wish for happiness in
the next life, they exert themselves no more than one or two out of all
the hours of the day, and this only after reminding themselves to do
so. As for myself, I read the Lotus Sutra without having to remember
to, and practice it even when I do not read its words aloud.

(WND, 43)
The Four Debts of Gratitude
Written to Kudo Sakon-no-jo Yoshitaka on January 16, 1262

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"What is defeat in life? It is not merely making mistakes. Defeat means giving up on yourself in the midst of difficulty. What is true success in life? True success means winning your battle with yourself. Those who persist in the pursuit of their dreams, no matter what the hurddles, are winners in life. For they have won over their weaknesses."

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"It is important to take a long-range view. No great achievement is
accomplished overnight or without difficulty. Should benefit be
obtained easily without making any efforts in Buddhist practice, we'd
probably just as easily abandon our faith and end up miserable as a
consequence. Because it isn't easy to get into a highly ranked school,
students study with all their might, gaining an abundance of knowledge
and ability. Faith follows basically the same formula: Practice is
essential to attaining Buddhahood."

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

We are so fortunate to be practicing Nichiren Buddhism

We are so fortunate to be practicing Nichiren Buddhism

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals
(so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of
man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to
renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man
from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the
theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new
and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is com*monly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have sub*jected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. Thus I verified and established each step of my course in its turn before advancing to the next. These
experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered
many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.

Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to
state one or two things which seem to more properly belong in this
place than further along. This, in the interest of clearness. The
massed experiments established to my satisfaction certain gener*
alizations, to wit:

1. That the human race is of one distinct species. It
exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so
on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by
itself, and not to be confounded with any other.

2. That the quadrupeds are a distinct family, also. This fam*
ily exhibits variations (in color, size, food preferences, and so on;
but it is a family by itself).

3. That the other families (the birds, the fishes, the
insects, the reptiles, etc.) are more or less distinct, also. They
are in the procession. They are links in the chain which stretches
down from the higher animals to man at the bottom.

Some of my experiments were quite curious.
In the course of my reading I had come across a case where, many
years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt
for the entertainment of an English earl. They had charming sport.
They killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one
of them and left the seventy-one to rot. In order to determine the
differ*ence between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caused seven
young calves to be turned into the anacondas cage. The grateful
reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay
back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no
disposition to harm them. I tried this experiment with other
anacondas; always with the same result. The fact stood proven that
the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is
cruel and the anaconda isnt; and that the earl wantonly destroys what
he has no use for, but the anaconda doesnt. This seemed to suggest
that the anaconda was not descended from the earl. It also seemed to
suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a
good deal in the transition.

I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money
than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have
not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor
servings in order to partially appease that appetite. I furnished a
hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to
accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The
squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped
when they had gathered a winter s supply, and could not be persuaded
to add to it either honestly or by chicane. In order to bolster up a
tottering reputa*tion the ant pretended to store up supplies, but I
was not de*ceived. I know the ant. These experiments convinced me
that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he
is avaricious and miserly; they are not.

In the course of my experiments I convinced myself that among
the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries,
broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge.
The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.

Roosters keep harems, but it is by consent of their concu*bines;
therefore no wrong is done. Men keep harems but it is by brute
force, privileged by atrocious laws which the other sex were allowed
no hand in making. In this matter man occupies a far lower place
than the rooster.

Cats are loose in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his
descent from the cat, has brought the cats looseness with him but has
left the unconsciousness behind (the saving grace which excuses the
cat). The cat is innocent, man is not.

Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man);
he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of
them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed. Man, with his soiled
mind, covers himself. He will not even enter a drawing room with his
breast and back naked, so alive are he and his mates to indecent
suggestion. Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey,
as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is
called the laughing jackass. No! Man is the Animal that Blushes.
He is the only one that does itor has occasion to.

At the head of this article we see how three monks were burnt to
death a few days ago, and a prior put to death with atrocious
cruelty. Do we inquire into the details? No; or we should find out
that the prior was subjected to unprintable muti*lations. Man (when
he is a North American Indian) gouges out his prisoners eyes; when he
is King John, with a nephew to render untroublesome, he uses a red-
hot iron; when he is a reli*gious zealot dealing with heretics in the
Middle Ages, he skins his captive alive and scatters salt on his
back; in the first Richards time he shuts up a multitude of Jew
families in a tower and sets fire to it; in Columbuss time he
captures a family of Spanish Jews and (but that is not printable; in
our day in England a man is fined ten shillings for beating his
mother nearly to death with a chair, and another man is fined forty
shillings for having four pheasant eggs in his possession without
being able to satisfacto*rily explain how he got them). Of all the
animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that
inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is a trait that is
not known to the higher animals. The cat plays with the frightened
mouse; but she has this excuse, that she does not know that the mouse
is suffering. The cat is moderate (unhumanly moderate: she only
scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesnt dig out its eyes,
or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man-
fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of
it and puts it out of its trouble. Man is the Cruel Animal. He is
alone in that distinction.

The higher animals engage in individual fights, but never in
organized masses. Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity
of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren
about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to
exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages
will march out, as the Hessians did in our Revolu*tion, and as the
boyish Prince Napoleon did in the Zulu war, and help to slaughter
strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom
he has no quarrel.

Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his
countrytakes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys
him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of
ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or
that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after
cycle, by force and bloodshed.

Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who en*slaves. He
has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held
other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day
he is always some mans slave for wages, and does that mans work; and
this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do
his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do
their own work and provide their own living.

Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country,
under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps
multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy ex*pense to grab
slices of other peoples countries, and keep them from grabbing slices
of his. And in the intervals between cam*paigns, he washes the blood
off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with
his mouth.

Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Ani*mal. He is
the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is
the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his
throat if his theology isnt straight. He has made a graveyard of the
globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brothers path to
happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, he
was at it in Mahomets time, he was at it in the time of the
Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of cen*turies, he was at
it in England in Marys day, he has been at it ever since he first saw
the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per the telegrams quoted
above) he will be at it somewhere else tomor*row. The higher animals
have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left
out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.

Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open
to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the
Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems
plain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. His
record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the
strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with that
record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of
the lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one.

In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which
the other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among
my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be
friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be
friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a
fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They
lived together in peace; even affectionately.

Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from
Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch
Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek
Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of
Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a
Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole
days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals
was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds
and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and fleshnot a
specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a
theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.

One is obliged to concede that in true loftiness of
character, Man cannot claim to approach even the meanest of the
Higher Animals. It is plain that he is constitutionally incapable of
ap*proaching that altitude; that he is constitutionally afflicted with
a Defect which must make such approach forever impossible, for it is
manifest that this defect is permanent in him, indestructible,
ineradicable.


I find this Defect to be the Moral Sense. He is the only
animal that has it. It is the secret of his degradation. It is the
quality which enables him to do wrong. It has no other office. It
is in capable of performing any other function. It could never hate
been intended to perform any other. Without it, man could do no
wrong. He would rise at once to the level of the Higher Animals.

Since the Moral Sense has but the one office, the one
capacity (to enable man to do wrong) it is plainly without value to
him. It is as valueless to him as is disease. In fact, it
manifestly is a disease. Rabies is bad, but it is not so bad as this
disease. Rabies enables a man to do a thing, which he could not do
when in a healthy state: kill his neighbor with a poisonous bite.
NC) one is the better man for having rabies: The Moral Sense enables
a man to do wrong. It enables him to do wrong in a thousand ways.
Rabies is an innocent disease, compared to the Moral Sense. No one,
then, can be the better man for having the Moral Sense. What now, do
we find the Primal Curse to have been? Plainly what it was in the
beginning: the infliction upon man of the Moral Sense; the ability to
distinguish good from evil; and with it, necessarily, the ability to
do evil; for there can be no evil act without the presence of
consciousness of it in the doer of it.

And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some
far ancestor (some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between
the mighty horizons of a drop of water perchance) insect by insect,
animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of smirch
less innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development
(namable as the Human Being). Below us, nothing.

Mark Twain

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[SoCal Hippy]

After reading the above, I now know why I really, really love animals. (I know PTD does too!) I have a dog and cat; would love to have more.

The dignity of Human Life is one of the many things that is really captured when practicing this Buddhism.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"True friendship is embodied in the sincerity and commitment of one's empathy for others."

SGI Newsletter No. 7438, The New Human Revolution--Vol. 20: Chap. 3, Ties of Trust 19, translated Dec. 21st, 2007

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"And yet, though one might point at the earth and miss it, though one might bind up the sky, though the tides might cease to ebb and flow and the sun rise in the west, it could never come about that the prayers of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra would go unanswered."

(On Prayer - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 345) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, December 28th, 2007

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"At the start of his Regulations for Students of the Mountain School, the Great Teacher Dengyo of Japan wrote: 'What is a treasure? A mind that seeks the way is a treasure; those who possess this seeking mind are the treasure of the nation.' The real 'national treasures' are not Buddhist images or temples but those who seek the truth of Buddhism and courageously practice it. Quoting the words of a sage of former times, Dengyo further declared that those who exert themselves in a single corner of the land and illuminate a thousand miles are the 'treasure of the nation.' The same can also be said of those who are 'capable in speech and action,' he added. In contrast, he asserted, individuals who fail to speak out and take action for the sake of the people, no matter how much power they may wield, are no more than 'betrayers of the nation.'

"Soka Gakkai members, who strive valiantly to fulfil their precious missions in their own 'corner of the land,' day after day, year after year, illuminating all around them with the light of the Mystic Law, are the supreme treasures of the nation. There is no more noble treasure in the world than a person of strong faith. Those who are striving hard on the front lines of our movement for kosen-rufu are unsurpassed treasures of humankind. I hope each of you will take pride in this as you diligently polish the mirror of your life day and night (cf. WND-1, 4)."

SGI Newsletter No. 7441, SGI President Ikeda’s Editorial, Capable People Dedicated to Kosen-rufu Are the Most Precious Treasures, translated from the January 2008 issue of the Daibyakurenge, the Soka Gakkai monthly study journal, Dec. 27th, 2007

 

[PassTheDoobie]

And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some far ancestor (some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perchance) insect by insect, animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of smirch less innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development (namable as the Human Being). Below us, nothing.

Mark Twain

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

I hope Mark finds the Gohonzon is some lifetime. One can see ichinen sanzen at work in everything he writes. He expresses his innate Buddha Nature but has no way to understand it. I felt empathy for his frustration!

As stupid as it sounds I think I'll chant for Mark Twain!


(along with my continuing daimoku for all of you)

T

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Hey guys! It's only your own fundamental darkness! By now, we knew it was coming! The only way to defeat it is sincere Daimoku! How long we suffer these situations is up to us!

Washoi!

 

[Babbabud]

Well I think Ill continue very sincere Daimoku as I would love to defeat my fundamental darkness asap.
Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo