Chanting Growers Group

[PassTheDoobie]

In a work of his final years, Tolstoy wrote: "Each person's task in life is to become an increasingly better person." In essence, this is human revolution. Without this, any social revolution would be incomplete. According to Tolstoy, "If you see that the society is organized badly; and you would like to correct it, you should realize that there is only one way for society to improve. Everyone must improve. To improve everyone, you have only one method under your control-you must become a better person yourself."

SGI Newsletter no. 8092, SGI President Ikeda's Essay, OUR BRILLIANT PATH TO VICTORY, By Shin'ichi Yamamoto, Human Revolution and My Life-Part 2 [of 2], Translated Tuesday, October 19, 2010

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) once wrote of his aunt: 'When she told me on numerous occasions that her life had been a hard one, this was not a lament, rather, she meant to indicate that she had fought a good fight.' These are words that hit home. Those who lead lives of value dedicated to fighting the good fight, without regrets and true to one's convictions, are victors."

SGI Newsletter No. 8090, OUR BRILLIANT PATH TO VICTORY, Human Revolution and My Life--Part 1 [of 2], from the Sep. 20th, 2010, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, translated Oct. 13th, 2010

 

[PassTheDoobie]

i think that we put a premium on enduring pain instead of understanding the mechanism it was designed to be

if you have a pain, its the bodies way of saying something is wrong, if you do not understand the source, hiding from the pain will not reveal it

the source and pain remain thereafter

so this is were i see suffering through pain to see the source as an enlightening suffering

Well said Weird! This is exactly the perspective of pain that Buddhism suggests we perceive it as. One is not only expiating past bad causes, one uses the result of those very same causes to achieve Buddhahood. It's the whole point of the Mutual Possession of the Ten Worlds, the heart of Ichinen Sanzen. Changing poison into medicine!

Much love and deepest respect,

T

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Changing Poison into Medicine"

The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential."

SGI members often speak of "turning poison into medicine" when they describe how their Buddhist practice has enabled them to transform a difficult, negative or painful situation into something positive.

In its most fundamental sense, "changing poison into medicine" refers to the transformation of deluded impulses into enlightenment. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, attributed to the third-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, compares the Lotus Sutra to "a great physician who changes poison into medicine." This is because the Lotus Sutra opens the possibility of enlightenment to people whose arrogance and complacency had caused them to "scorch the seeds of Buddhahood." In earlier sutras such people had been condemned as being incapable of becoming Buddhas. An important implication of this principle, thus, is that there is no one who is beyond redemption.

In his writing, "On First Hearing the Teaching of the Supreme Vehicle," Nichiren develops this idea, stating that by using the power of the Mystic Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, one can transform the three paths of deluded impulses, karma and suffering into the three virtues of the Buddha, i.e., the Dharma body, wisdom and emancipation.

This can be understood to mean that any unfavorable situation can be changed into a source of value. More fundamentally, it is by challenging and overcoming painful circumstances that we grow as human beings.

How we respond to life's inevitable sufferings is the key. Negative, painful experiences are often necessary to motivate us. One Buddhist scripture describes illness as awakening the desire to seek the truth. Likewise, people have been inspired to a lifetime commitment to peace and justice by their experience of war and injustice.

The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. The more we are able to do this, the more we are able to grow in vitality and wisdom and realize a truly expansive state of life.

Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential. However, if we are defeated by suffering or respond to challenging circumstances in negative and destructive ways, the original "poison" is not transformed but remains poison.

Buddhism teaches that suffering derives from karma, the causes that we ourselves have created. The Buddhist teaching of karma is one of personal responsibility. It is therefore our responsibility to transform sufferings into value-creating experiences. The Buddhist view of karma is not fixed or fatalistic--even the most deeply entrenched karmic patterns can be transformed.

By taking a difficult situation--illness, unemployment, bereavement, betrayal--and using it as an opportunity to deepen our sense of personal responsibility, we can gain and develop the kind of self-knowledge from which benefit flows. Buddhism teaches that self-knowledge ultimately is awareness of our own infinite potential, our capacity for inner strength, wisdom and compassion. This infinite potential is referred to as our "Buddha nature."

The original meaning of the phrase "to turn poison into medicine" relates to this level of self-knowledge.

In the "Belief and Understanding" chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Subhuti and others of the Buddha's long-time disciples respond to the prophecy that another disciple, Shariputra, will attain the ultimate enlightenment. The disciples admit that they had long ago given up on becoming Buddhas themselves, but that on hearing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra they renounced their earlier stance of resignation and spiritual laziness: "[T]heir minds were moved as seldom before and danced for joy." Nagarjuna and T'ien-t'ai (538--597) therefore compare the Buddha to a good doctor capable of turning poison (the laziness and resignation of the aged disciples) into medicine (a sincere aspiration for the ultimate enlightenment of Buddhahood).

This teaching of the possibility of profound transformation makes Buddhism a deeply optimistic philosophy. This optimism propels Buddhists as they seek to transform the negative and destructive tendencies within their lives as well as those in society and the world at large.

[Courtesy January 2002 SGI Quarterly]

 

[Weird]

nam myoho renge kyo

nam myoho renge kyo

nam myoho renge kyo

ty thomas

 

[Weird]

Nam myoho renge kyo
I would think my buddies would end up pretty good buds hehe
Nam myoho renge kyo like the roar of the lion !!

P.S. You guys spin ... ill go ahead and roll

:: patiently waits for the mcguiver in the group to make a bongcycle built for a few

 

[unclefishstick]

easy...a rickshaw,take a turn at the pedals,take a turn at the bong,three wheels so hard to tip over!

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

Nam myoho renge kyo

From a quote by Josei Toda, on "Life". www.joseitoda.org

"True greatness means that, even if you forget what you've done for others, you never forget what others have done for you. It means always doing your utmost to repay debts of gratitude. Such people radiate integrity, depth of character, bigheartedness and charm."

Nam myoho renge kyo

Hope everyone makes it a great day !!

 

[TrichyTrichy]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo


imeh

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Buddhism is a humanistic teaching. It enables us to find supreme hope within ourselves--hope that is represented by the infinite nobility of our own lives. When we can find supreme hope in our own lives, we can also find the same luminous hope in the lives of others. We can awaken to our mission of building a new and better world characterised by respect for life and human dignity, based on a fundamental spirit of empathy and caring for others. And we can begin to walk the path of positive transformation and value-creation while dauntlessly confronting even the most difficult realities.

"This is the spirit demonstrated by the Bodhisattvas of the Earth who are described in the Lotus Sutra. An inner transformation in the life of one person can lead to a change in the lives of countless others, and ultimately transfom the entire world. It is the mission of Bodhisattvas of the Earth to set in motion and spread such an ever-expanding current of positive value and hope. Crucially important here is that first person awakening and taking action."

SGI Newsletter No. 8088, LEARNING FROM THE WRITINGS OF NICHIREN DAISHONIN: THE TEACHINGS FOR VICTORY, [19] "The Selection of the Time"--Part 4 [of 4] (WND-1, 578-85), Creating a Great Current of Worldwide Kosen-rufu towards an Age of the People, from the August 2010 issue of the Daibyakurenge, translated October 6th, 2010.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Believe in this mandala with all your heart. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is like the roar of a lion. What sickness can therefore be an obstacle?"

(Reply to Kyo’o - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 412) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", October 7th, 2010

 

[Weird]

I often find my self googling parts of the messages i dnt fully understand

this is regarding the bodhisattva of the earth, which i did not fully understand

from the sgi website

Bodhisattvas of the Earth

An innumerable host of bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth and to whom Shakyamuni Buddha entrusts the propagation of the Mystic Law, or the essence of the Lotus Sutra, in the Latter Day of the Law. They are described in the "Emerging from the Earth" (fifteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the first chapter of the sutra's essential teaching (latter fourteen chapters). In this chapter, countless bodhisattvas from other worlds ask for permission to propagate the sutra in the saha world after the Buddha's death, but Shakyamuni refuses, saying that bodhisattvas who will carry out that task already exist in the saha world. At this point the earth trembles and splits open, and from within it emerges a host of bodhisattvas equal in number to the sands of sixty thousand Ganges Rivers, each with his own retinue of followers. Their bodies are golden and possess the thirty-two features that characterize a Buddha. They are led by four bodhisattvas—Superior Practices, Boundless Practices, Pure Practices, Firmly Established Practices—and Superior Practices is the leader of them all. In the "Supernatural Powers" (twenty-first) chapter, Shakyamuni transfers the essence of the Lotus Sutra to the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, entrusting them with the mission of propagating it in the Latter Day of the Law.As the person who first revealed the Mystic Law, or Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which he described as the essence of the Lotus Sutra, and began its propagation in the Latter Day, Nichiren (1222-1282) identified himself with Bodhisattva Superior Practices, the leader of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. He also regarded his followers who embrace and propagate the teaching of the Mystic Law as the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. In this connection, Nichiren states in his work The True Aspect of All Phenomena: "There should be no discrimination among those who propagate the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo in the Latter Day of the Law, be they men or women. Were they not Bodhisattvas of the Earth, they could not chant the daimoku. At first only Nichiren chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify 'emerging from the earth'?" (385). See also bodhisattvas of the essential teaching.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

In the eighth volume of Great Concentration and Insight and in the eighth volume
of the Annotations on "Great Concentration and Insight" it says, "The stronger
one's faith, the greater the protection of the gods." This means that the
protection of the gods depends on the strength of one's faith. The Lotus Sutra
is a fine sword, but its might depends on the one who wields it.

(WND, 953)
General Stone Tiger
Written to Shijo Kingo on October 22, 1278

 

[SoCal Hippy]

The mighty warrior General Li Kuang, whose mother had been devoured by a tiger,
shot an arrow at the stone he believed was the tiger. The arrow penetrated the
stone all the way up to its feathers. But once he realized it was only a stone,
he was unable to pierce it again. Later he came to be known as General Stone
Tiger. This story applies to you. Though enemies lurk in wait for you, your
resolute faith in the Lotus Sutra has forestalled great dangers before they
could begin. Realizing this, you must strengthen your faith more than ever.

(WND, 953)
General Stone Tiger
Written to Shijo Kingo on October 22, 1278

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Intellect will play a very important role in the coming age. By intellect I mean
refined wisdom, clear reasoning, profound philosophy and broad-ranging
knowledge. We are entering an age when people will develop their intelligence
and wisdom, infusing society with their new outlook.

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[PassTheDoobie]

The Daishonin states, "Even more valuable than reason and documentary proof is the proof of actual fact."* There is nothing that can move people's hearts more than someone's actual experience does. Let's cheerfully and confidently share our own personal experiences with others, expressing how happy we are to practice this Buddhism.

Daisaku Ikeda

*"Three Tripitaka Masters Pray for Rain", WND-I, page 599

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Myo means to revive, that is, to return to life."

(The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 149) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, October 23rd, 2010

 

[PassTheDoobie]

What is it that makes us human? The answer given by Dr. Lou Marinoff, founding president of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA) and a thinker with whom I have engaged in a fruitful dialogue, is clear: "In order for us to become truly human, we have to make efforts to grow through developing our best potential." And he further states: "We need to have a good teacher to help us actualize this goal. We develop these ideal conditions to be human through learning from and practicing with the mentor. Soka Gakkai's movement of human revolution through the practice of mentor and disciple is a good example." I appreciate Dr. Marinoff's understanding of our movement.

SGI Newsletter no. 8092, SGI President Ikeda's Essay, OUR BRILLIANT PATH TO VICTORY, By Shin'ichi Yamamoto, Human Revolution and My Life-Part 2 [of 2], Translated Tuesday, October 19, 2010.

 

[Weird]

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

 

[Weird]

The sutra known as the Lotus Sutra is a scripture that has no match among all the sacred teachings of the Buddha's lifetime. And, as indicated by its words "between Buddhas," it can only be understood between one Buddha and another. Those at the stage of near-perfect enlightenment or below, on down to ordinary mortals, cannot fathom it. This is why Bodhisattva Nagarjuna stated in his Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom that persons below the level of Buddha should simply have faith, and in that way they can attain Buddhahood.


Daily Wisdom From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Sunday, October 24, 2010: