Chanting Growers Group

[PassTheDoobie]

"Making the world a better place is something that starts in our relationships with our neighbours, in our immediate circumstances."

SGI Newsletter No. 8341, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 24: Chap. 4, Beacon 38,
translated Sep. 29th, 2011

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"If one is determined to encourage people, one can always find a way to do so, no matter how busy one may be.

"...If the wellspring of one’s spirit is brimming with intense commitment and determination, the refreshing waters of creativity and invention will well up powerfully. Continual encouragement is the driving force of the procession of happiness that is kosen-rufu.

"As Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) said: '[Humankind] should always advance, so we should all encourage each other and advance together.'[1]"

SGI Newsletter No. 8345, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 24: Chap. 4, Beacon 44, translated Oct. 4th, 2011

[1] Zhou Enlai, Selected Works of Zhou Enlai (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1989), vol. 2, p. 429.

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbour doubts in our hearts, we will as a matter of course attain Buddhahood. Do not have doubts simply because heaven does not lend you protection. Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life."

(The Opening of the Eyes - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 283) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, October 5th, 2011

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to you Steve Jobs!

(I know he was influenced by Zen, but I get the impression he never practiced it in the way we practice the Daishonin's teachings. None-the-less, as the Buddha that I am, I can respect him as a human being. His death is a reminder that nothing is guaranteed, and each moment is precious. By helping me find even more appreciation for my life, I'm showing my respect and appreciation for his.)

 

[PassTheDoobie]

You've got to find what you love

You've got to find what you love

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

T, I remember this speech when it was done and it was on utube. Jobs was definetely a bodhisatva. Thanks for posting.

 

[SoCal Hippy]

The Daishonin states,
"The daimoku of the Lotus Sutra is like the roar of a lion"*
The sound of the Mystic Law has invincible power.
Let's take on new challenges with our vibrant and resonant gongyo and daimoku
and at the end of the day come out successful and triumphant!

"Now that we have entered the Latter Day of the Law, to chant
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is to be an Awesome Sound King. The reason is that the word
'Sound' stands for the daimoku, or titles, of all various provisional teachings,
while the 'Awesome' stands for the five characters of the title [of the Lotus
Sutra, Myoho-renge-kyo]. And the word 'King' stands for the practitioners of the
Lotus Sutra. The daimoku of the Lotus Sutra is like the roar of a lion, while
the other sutras are like the cries of the other beasts. The Lotus Sutra is
referred to as 'king' because it is 'king of the sutras' (chapter twenty-three,
Medicine King)." - "Ongi kuden", Gosho Zenshu, page 764, The Record of the
Orally Transmitted Teachings, page 152

 

[SoCal Hippy]

In the light of the above points, this shows, my followers, that you had better
cut short your sleep by night and curtail your leisure by day, and ponder this!
You must not spend your lives in vain and regret it for ten thousand years to
come.

(WND, 622)
The Problem to Be Pondered Night and Day
Written to Toki Jonin on August 23, 1275

 

[SoCal Hippy]

We are people of faith, and faith is the ultimate conviction. Nothing could be
sadder nor more shortsighted, therefore, than complaining or giving up when we
encounter some small obstacle in our path. A genuine Buddhist is a person of
wisdom and conviction.

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Faith in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism deepens, strengthens, and enriches our lives, serving as a source of courage and hope that enables us to positively challenge any adversity. The purpose of our Buddhist practice is to achieve a life without regrets—an invincible, fearless life, a life of integrity and principle, following our chosen path with assurance and confidence.

"In the realm of faith of the Mystic Law, the mentor’s cherished wish is for each disciple to actualise their fullest potential based on their Buddhist practice and lead a life of complete fulfillment arising from their dedication to the great vow for kosen-rufu. Whether the disciples achieve this is decided by their own determined efforts to keep challenging hardships and working in earnest to spread the Mystic Law."

SGI Newsletter No. 8347, Learning from the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin: The Teachings for Victory, [31] “The Good Medicine for All Ills.” Turning All Adversity into an Impetus for Unceasing Progress, from the August 2011 issue of the Daibyakurenge, translated Oct. 5th, 2011

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"If a person cannot manage to cross a moat ten feet wide, how can he cross one that is a hundred or two hundred feet?"

(The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 766) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, October 6th, 2011

 

[easyDaimoku]

Yo T! I sent the same speech (steve jobs) out to over 5 people today everywhere. My one friend who was shakubukued by me after my girl is home and not working since graduating from college over a year and half ago. I want to bring him to meet Babba so I could also see babba and we could talk about kosen-rufu/growing... but anyway, he read the speech and then called me crying. He's had his Gohonzon for 5 years in January and doesn't chanting at all these days unless I drive him to a meeting, but this commencement speech at stanford moved him from a comatose state of life to pure emotional respect and appreciation.

I derived so much inspiration from that speech, but more importantly it reinforced my bond with my mentor President Ikeda who is constantly telling me the same themes. Then I come on the thread and bam, PTD laid it out for all the chanting growers. Coincidence? I think not! We are all connected through the Gohonzon and have sincere appreciation and admiration for the entire world.

What I derived from the words "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" was "Keep Chanting Keep doing Shakubuku" All my dreams are going to come true and the fucking wicked shit I've been dealing with in the past week will flow out of my life real soon. I must admit that sometimes I get knocked down, BUT I GET UP AGAIN! I'm not a quitter anymore, I'm a winner. By chanting everyday and doing as much as I can for kosen-rufu I'm winning!

Much love to all!

Socal, thanks for sharing I loved your words and will also do my best to get in front of the Gohonzon more often (like right after I hit Submit reply). After I got back from the YMD conference at FNCC, I had a strong week and half of practice and then when the shit hit the fan I struggled hard chanting as much as I should be.

Much love to all!

 

[easyDaimoku]

Ikeda Kayo-kai Song​

Today with you, Sensei
With eternal brilliance in our hearts
We cast away the winter’s gloom
Bringing spring; a brand new start
Like a father you cheer us on
Undefeated, our hearts are one
True disciples for eternity
Ikeda Kayo-kai
We seek from you, Sensei
In rhythm with your life each day
To give courage to all our friends
We awaken to our vow
Illuminated bright as the sun
Like Kaneko’s embracing smile
True disciples for eternity
Ikeda Kayo-kai
We vow to you, Sensei
With justice burning in our hearts
We stand together, we won’t retreat
Always fighting by your side
Eradicating all misery
With monumental victories
Thank you, Sensei!
We are proud to be
Ikeda Kayo-kai
Born together through eternity​

Always forging on joyfully



SGI-USA Ikeda Kayo-kai

Young Women's Division
The SGI Ikeda Kayo-kai is an international training group for young women founded by SGI President Ikeda.
The group is modeled after the original Kayo-kai, formed by second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda on Oct. 12, 1952. The original group, which included 20 young women, met with President Toda twice monthly until May 1956. During these meetings, they studied literary works and discussed subjects ranging from politics to economics to art. President Toda encouraged the young women at the time to "be as beautiful as flowers and proud as the sun." The word kayo is formed by the Japanese characters for flower and sun, while kai means group. Ikeda represents the significance of the mentor-disciple relationship.
The Ikeda Kayo-kai emphasizes study based on The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. The three eternal guidelines and mottoes for the group are:

• Strive together in friendship as sisters in faith and remain true to the path of faith throughout your lives.
• Base yourselves on The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin and always cherish and protect the SGI.
• Forever advance together with President and Mrs. Ikeda.

From: http://www.sgi-usa.org/youth/ywd/kayokai.php

 

[PassTheDoobie]

You've got to find what you love

I love telling others about Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!!!!!

HEARTFELT LOVE AND DEEPEST RESPECT TO GYPSY AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT FOR ALL THESE YEARS HAVE LET US DO JUST THAT!!!



Thomas

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

Nam myoho renge kyo

I love telling others about Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!!!!!

HEARTFELT LOVE AND DEEPEST RESPECT TO GYPSY AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT FOR ALL THESE YEARS HAVE LET US DO JUST THAT!!!



Thomas

Thanks everyone I, like most of the rest of you,feel the ebb and flow of spending time in front of my Gohonzon... thanks so much for the encouragement I receive from each of you .. It means so much. I am full of joy every morning I open my eyes . Def makes my day!!
Its that time of year ... pretty busy over this way
Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[Forest20]

Just wanted to let everyone know..I am trying everyday to at least chant twice a day...I am now signing up to go to culinary school...and also look for new start away from Computer IT to the Kitchen

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Run Forest, Run!!! Like the wind! Good luck with culinary school! Enhancing your cooking skills will improve the healthy choices you make in your diet! Great Idea!

Much love and deepest respect,

T

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"First the teachings on propriety and music were set forth, and later the true way was introduced."

(The Opening of the Eyes - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 221) Selection source: SGI-Macau leader's encouragement, Seikyo Shimbun, May 16th, 2011

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"'The [Lotus] sutra says, '[They are] unsoiled by worldly things like the lotus flower in the water. Emerging from the earth....' [LSOC15, 263]. Here we see that the Bodhisattvas of the Earth are the lotus of the entity of the Mystic Law, and that the lotus is being used here as a simile. From 'Cover Letter for "The Entity of the Mystic Law"'(WND-1, 431).

"Life is a battle with our problems and karma. However, in the same way that the lotus growing in a muddy swamp brings forth pure and fragrant blossoms, we can bring happiness and victory to bloom in our lives and help others do the same. This is the way of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth whose lives are 'like the lotus flower in the water' (LSOC15, 263).

"Those who sincerely chant and actually spread the Mystic Law in society brim with the great life-force of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Each of you, our noble members, is an entity of the Mystic Law. Please remember that, no matter where you are, that is the place for you to fulfil your mission from time without beginning."

SGI Newsletter No. 8268, LIVING THE GOSHO: WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM SGI PRESIDENT IKEDA, (37) Like the Lotus Flower, translated June 29th, 2011, from the June 25th, 2011, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, the Soka Gakkai daily newspaper.

 

[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, July 1st, 2011