Mind can defy laws of universe

Remember that your mind can defy the laws of the universe in one crucial way. It can go backward. Time can’t, nor can events – but your mind can. Let’s say you go into your office, and the first thing you notice is that an important report you needed was not written. The incomplete report tends to put in a less than resourceful state. You feel mad. You feel frustrated. You’re ready to go out and scream at your secretary. But screaming won’t produce the result you want. It will only make a bad situation worse. The key is to change your state, to back up and put yourself in a state that will allow you to get things done. That’s what you can do by rearranging your internal representations.

You are a sovereign, being in control, running your own brain. Now you are seeing the way to do it. In just some few exercises one can see that one has the ability to totally control your own state. Think what your life would be like if you remembered all your good experiences as looking bright, close, and colorful as sounding joyous, rhythmic, and melodic; as feelings soft, warm, and nurturing. And what if you stored your bad experiences as fuzzy little framed images with almost inaudible voices and insubstantial forms you could not feel because they were far away from you? Successful people do this unconsciously. They know how to turn up the volume of the things that help them and turn off the sound of the things that don’t.

It is suggested you ignore problems. Some things need to be addressed. We all know people who can go through a day in which ninety-nine things worked out right and come home totally depressed. Why? Well, one thing went wrong. They may have turned the one thing that went wrong into a big, bright, blustery image and turned the others into small, murky, quiet insubstantial ones.

Lot of people spend their whole lives like this. There are people who keep telling, “I’m depressed”. They almost say it with pride, because it’s become so much a part of their world view. Well, many therapists would begin with the long, arduous task of unearthing the causes of that depression. They’d let the patient talk for hours about his depression. They’d rummage through the patient’s mental garbage bin to uncover seminal experiences of gloom and past emotional abuse. Of such techniques are very long and very expensive therapeutic relationship s made.

No one is always depressed. Depression is not a permanent condition like losing a leg. It is a state that people can pop into and out of. In fact, most people who are experiencing depression have had many happy experiences in their lives – may be even as many or more than the average person. They just don’t represent these experiences to themselves in a bright, large, associated way. They may also represent happy times as far away instead of close. Take a moment now and remember an event that happened last week and push it far away. Does it seem as recent an experience to you anymore? What if you bring it closer? Doesn’t it now seem more recent? Some people take their happy experiences of the moment and push them far away so they seem like long ago, and store their problems up close. Haven’t you ever heard a person say I just need to get some distance from my problems? You don’t have to fly to some distant land to do this. Just push them far away from you in your mind and notice the difference. People who feel depressed often have their brains filled to capacity with big, loud, close, heavy, insistent images of the bad times and only thin, gray wafers for the good times. The way to changer isn’t to wallow in the bad memories; it’s to change the sub-modalities, the very structure of the memories themselves. Next, link what used to make you feel bad to new representations that make you feel like taking the challenges of life with vigor, humor, patience, and strength.

I will continue this post with quoting examples and making it simple with the concepts of Buddhism, Watch out this place for ENLIGHTENMENT.

A Must Read Guidance....

A day starts with high energy. After a long chant in the morning, I went to take guidance from one of the leader and I felt it is worth sharing with everyone.
Here I go with my piece...

Me: Why exactly we do this practice?

We practice this faith not for mere exertion, that is, not for the sake of practice, but for change and progress and as quickly as possible.

Many members say, “I’m doing many SGI activities”, but so what? The real question is how much have I changed my life, my environment and my livelihood? How much benefit have I received? There are many members who are doing lots of daimoku, but there is no change in their lives. Something is wrong. Buddhism is not the Law of Cause and Effect in Action. It is the Law of Cause and Effect in Ichinen (determined prayer). For example, faith is not “feeling refreshed” after prayers and activities. Faith exists for us to change our lives. When we wish to travel somewhere, first we decide on the destination, then we plan on the action (route/mode of transport) then we travel and reach that destination. Faith is the same.


Me: What are the things that drive us to sustain into this practice.

In faith, we must first have 1) Clear targets 2) Prayer 3) Action.

It is important to pray strongly and then take action and we will see the results without fail. It is important to determine to change. That is to pray, “I want to change”. And then take the necessary action. There is absolutely no use to ask the Gohonzon, “What should I do?” There will be no answer. You must decide what you want to accomplish, not the Gohonzon. Once we decide / determine on some goal, there may seem no solution. But that precisely why we pray. If it were possible, we would not need the Gohonzon. If there is a way out, then there really is no need to chant. But we pray to make the impossible, possible. Do not engage in “what shall I do...” Daimoku, i.e., while chanting to think of strategies/look for options in your mind. There is absolutely no need to think of methodology, because there is no way out! We should simply pray like this, “I want to accomplish this. I will accomplish this!”

Me: While chanting -ve thoughts, impossible targets and not attinable poisition comes, how can I overcome all this thinking?

If while chanting, we think that our desires are unattainable/impossible, then that is the prayer that will be reflected onto the universe. And that is exactly the answer we will get back from the Gohonzon…”Impossible, no solution!”

We must pray with 100% confidence in the Gohonzon. I believe in the Gohonzon, my prayer will definitely be answered, just as the Gosho states, “No prayer to the Gohonzon will go unanswered.” This is the Buddhist formula, which is 100% correct. It is our doubts that get in the way. While chanting, we always try to find ways out of our problems. Therefore, our ichinen is not directed towards the Gohonzon, but directed elsewhere. Thus it follows, that there is no real joy in daimoku and activities. We just keep doing what we are told to do. There was a young lady (students division) who wanted to go to USA from Japan to study. It was impossible, as she had no money etc. So she prayed, not chanted, but deeply prayed, “I want to go to USA to study - I will go.” One year later, she reported positive results. There seemed no solution, but a “bridge” was formed through her sincere daimoku. This is the Mystic Law. It is beyond our understanding. That is why it is called Mystic. So there is no need to think. Just trust and pray.

There was a WD who came for guidance. Her husband had terminal cancer and doctors said he would no live longer than 3 months. Her question was, “Can he be cured?” The answer was “I do not know.” The leader went onto say that President Toda’s guidance was that when we determine that the only thing we can trust is the Gohonzon then the body begins to recover from sickness.

This means to cure one’s own illness by oneself, through faith. The human body is capable of producing 700 types of medicines. But when our life force is weak, then nothing is produced. When our life philosophy is polluted by slander, and impurities then our life cannot produce its healing power. Buddhism is great. Our life is great. It is supreme. It is divine. It is the life of the Buddha. So, through faith we can always manifest this supreme state of the Buddha, this power of the Gohonzon.

People call Buddhism great, but actually it teaches us that our own lives are great. With determination, great life force and wisdom can be manifested from our lives and bodies to overcome sickness, which is one’s negative karma – the source of which is slander. So, the real question is not whether the illness is curable, rather the question is whether I can determine it is curable. The woman told her husband about this guidance and together both corrected their ichinen and prayed and he was cured.

A woman division leader in Japan could not walk due to pain in her legs caused by rheumatism. She was asked, “Do you think that your disease can be cured?” she replied, “No!” “So, that is your desire. Your state of mind and that is why the answer from the Gohonzon is – No cure!” replied the senior leader. The leader continued by saying that if the medical doctor has given up, if he say that there is no cure for your condition, then that is the time to summon up your determination to change the impossible to possible. The very next day, the woman called the leader to report that when she determined, the pain disappeared from her legs. Two weeks later she was completely cured. Here suffering had been caused by her thinking that it was impossible to be cured, that she would have to live with this life condition. But the moment she determined (ichinen) to overcome her illness through faith in the Gohonzon, the power of the Mystic Law was manifested through her life.

Me: How can I check myself wether I am going in a right direction?

There are 3 kinds of directions

1) Forward ‘gear’
2) Neutral ‘gear’
3) Reverse ‘gear’

Forward Gear Practice consists of:

Having a clear specific target and determination to accomplish it.

Through prayer and action, for example, “I want a white cat. She must be female, Persian species, 3years old, with blue eyes and I want her in two weeks. I will get it!” In other words, doing a lot of activities and daimoku with no targets and clear goals is no use, as it will not produce any changes in your life.

Neutral Gear Practice is:

Chanting out of duty, with no joy. A habitual practice, e.g., “I’m a leader, I have responsibilities, so I’m doing activities.” But there is no effect. It’s like the car analogy-the tank is full, engine running but you don’t drive it anywhere so nothing happens.

Reverse Gear Practice is:

The more activities and daimoku one is doing, one is still going backwards, rather than forward in one’s life. In other words, one may be making a lot of seemingly good causes, but one is also complaining. There is slander and grudges against others. Or one might be complaining about one’s own situation or not seeing immediate results. This is dangerous practice. Just like in automatic transmission cars, there is very little difference between forward and reverse gear. From outward appearance it is difficult to tell where one’s ichinen is, but one’s life will ultimately clearly manifest it.

Slander

Even if you commit slander without realizing it, it is still slander. One should never criticize leaders. Right or wrong, one should not complain at all. Instead, one can chant for them to grow and one will benefit from that too. Similarly, never do “onshitsu” in your family. That is do not complain, criticize or carry a negative feeling towards husband/wife, spouse/partner/children. Chant for their growth. Furthermore, do not depend/rely on others. Do not complain that they don’t do this or that. Criticism will bring no benefit. But it will certainly bring negative effects.

In Conclusion

We must eradicate the following types of prayer:

1) Out of habit or ritual (that is without target or determination)
2) Out of delusion (i.e. while chanting, trying to find solutions to your problems)
3) Out of disbelief (i.e. thinking that this is impossible and will not happen/change) Instead, pray with your entire heart, with your entire being that I’m going to build a bridge towards my happiness and those of others by myself, by using the Supreme wisdom of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.

One needs to have the experience of benefits/breakthroughs, so as to encourage others. “I have so many benefits through this practice…what about you?” Especially, senior members must receive many benefits. Buddhism is reason. Otherwise what is the use of practicing this faith? If they don’t witness changes/benefits then their faith has become habitual.

Experiences

There was a Men’s Division Chapter Chief in Japan, who had a small trading company, which was almost bankrupt. The sales had dropped by half. At that time, he prayed deeply that the sales would climb $3 million and it became so. The next year, his target was $5 million and year later $7 million. So it is important to determine first, then chant. An owner of a barbershop reported a drop in sales due to lack of customers. He was advised to determine and pray concretely and in specific detail e.g. exact number of customers for haircut, for blow dry etc – detailed prayer with a deadline. One member prayed to sell his car. He did. But with no profit at all because he did not pray for it. One woman had severe economic/financial problems. She prayed 3 hours daily in the morning – “I want this amount of benefit today. I need it. And she received it. We need to experience benefits through faith and prayer to show the power of Gohonzon and encourage others.

Causes of no change or benefit

President Toda and President Ikeda said there are 10 reasons why no change or benefit occurs in senior leader’s lives, even though they have been practicing for a long time.

1) Unclear determinations.
2) No concrete targets in faith.
3) Doing irregular Gongyo and no concrete prayer.
4) Passive Gongyo and activities from a sense of obligation.
5) A complaining and begrudging attitude about faith.
6) Seeking spirit for senior leaders/guidance has become weak.
7) Not working hard in the office or home.
8) Depressed because of various sufferings in life.
9) Weak sense of mission for kosen-rufu.
10) Sense of responsibility as a leader is weak.

Even if one of the above is missing then faith has become habitual and there is no benefit. We must have dreams, which lead to hope and finally become reality when we chant! Therefore, we must have big dreams!

Experience

The President of a Fisheries Co. was very concerned about the drop in catch of fish as it was affecting his sales, so he went for guidance. The leader asked him, “You say that you can’t get lot of salmon fish. Does this mean that there are no salmon or are you unable to catch them?” “I can’t get any,” he replied. “Why can’t you call them to your net? Did you pray like that?” the leader encouraged. “No I didn’t”. “There is no natural boundary in the ocean, so why don’t you pray like that? The leader encouraged. So he did. His catch went up from 20 fish to 300 in one day. His company went from deficit to surplus. This is no miracle. This is the Law. This is reason. What is amazing is when you don’t get benefits, even though you do chant.