Victory - My prayers for my shakabuku answered.

A friend who was jobless, homeless and into non stop parties and drugs. Homeless because his relatives got tired of his nightlife and after many warnings threw him out. I gave him shelter in my house for few months and helped him a great deal with finances too. I then introduced him to our practice. He attended meetings for a while but then things went downhill. He became so erratic and unstable mentally and I can safely say no one in my life has treated me as badly as he did. Then he vanished. I was left with bad debts which he never paid back. I was jobless too so it was a big loss for me. Financially and mentally.

I had a lot to be angry about and hate him for. But anger and hate are 2 evils which consume a person from inside. Instead I stopped calling and started chanting. I barely heard from him since last November. Until this MARCH. He messaged me on whatsapp. Told me he got a job in Dehradun. Which is what I was chanting for. For him to have a settled life have a job.

BUT

Brace yourselves.

He continued to tell me he has started playing Corporate Cricket. For companies like Indigo and Jubilant. He has been the man of the match for a few matches. And while reading this I was soaking my pillow. With tears. So to give you the background here, in school his 1st love was cricket and he played well and got an opportunity to play at the state level but his father did not let him pursue it. His one passion was buried. A part of him with it.

And it was an overwhelming feeling to know the true strength of my prayers. I was just praying for a settled regular life with a regular job for him. Instead HE FOUND TRUE HAPPINESS. This guy who was so lost. Whose family and relatives gave up on him. Who became so evil to me. He was now a happy cricketer. Something neither him nor me nor anyone else would have imagined in our wildest thoughts last year. My prayers surpassed my expectations. I now feel the true strength of "practice for others."

My shaka buku found true happiness.

I now feel that a shaka buku is nothing less than having a baby. You introduce them like a child  to the practice and nurture them towards enlightenment. Then as time goes on and they come into the teen phase of the practice when devils attack and they give in and let go. But like a mother I wont give up and chant for them until they grow up and find TRUE happiness and one day come back to this practice.


I love my practice.

The Significance of March 16th

March 16 is a symbolic day for Soka Gakkai and SGI members, commemorating the occasion on March 16, 1958, when Josei Toda, second president of the Soka Gakkai, then in frail health, made an impassioned speech to 6,000 Soka Gakkai youth, entrusting them with the responsibility for the future of the Soka Gakkai and its efforts to contribute to the creation of a peaceful world and promote understanding of the humanistic philosophy of Nichiren Buddhism.
 

Daisaku Ikeda (current SGI President), took on this responsibility, eventually becoming the third president of the Soka Gakkai in 1960 at the age of 32 and helping to develop the Soka Gakkai as a movement promoting peace, culture and education.

March 16 is now viewed within the Soka Gakkai and the SGI as a day of new departures, "of eternal beginnings and perpetual hope." It is also an occasion for focusing on fostering capable youth.

Mr. Ikeda has stated, "It is a time when people renew their profound resolution to accomplish kosen-rufu, a time when they put their minds together and make a fresh start." The Japanese phrase kosen-rufu is often interpreted as "world peace through individual happiness." It signifies a vision of social peace brought about by the widespread acceptance of core values such as unfailing respect for the dignity of human life.
 

Around the world, SGI members celebrate March 16 by holding commemorative meetings led by youth members. This spirit is also carried on by the youth members of SGI through various peace-related initiatives.

Practice for Others - The 2 fold effects of within and without.

There are very few people on this planet who can truly claim to have biggest problems of all. And more often than not these are the people who never seem to be complianing and are inspirations to the rest of us.

Life for the rest of us is comparatively not so bad as we make it out to look like. We crib about such petty problems at times that when we get a scoop of reality from someone else's life. We whine and moan about things from broken cellphones to broken relationships.

Try visiting a school for blind. Try spending a few hours at a construction site. Try driving around a red light area. Try giving a happy meal to a homeless soul. Try doing something different.

When we are constantly consumed by our own problems we lose sight of our blessings. The tendency to complain eats away our ability to develop true compassion. Compassion and selflessness go hand in hand afterall. How will you ever be compassionate towards others when you constantly seek compassion from the world yourself?

"What our society today needs more than anything is the spiritof empathy - the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of those who are facing hardship and suffering to uinderstand and share what they are going through. When the spirit of compassion becomes the bedrock of society, and is embodied by society's leaders, the future will be bright with hope." - Ikeda Sensei

Nichiren Buddhism stresses on the practice for others more than anything else. To pray for others, recognize their problems and help them rise above them. But practicing for others has 2 fold effect. Besides empowering the other we also empower our self. We build our compassion and realize our human revolution. Do not limit your kind heart only to your family or friends. Be also compassionate towards your foes, towards those who did you wrong and towards animals. When we build our ability for compassion for our environment around us in all its forms, we diminish the tendency of complaining and this leads to peace and serenity. Ultimately, happiness.

Prayers

I was always agnostic when it came to religions and all the numerous deities in the world. Still am. For almost 2 decades my understanding of prayers was that it is a selfish act of begging to the deities for various desires. Bribing gods with promises, rituals and sacrificial presents.

Then enters Nichiren Buddhism.

I discovered that there are 2 kinds of prayers. One which I just described and the 2nd one which is a prayer to our internal and eternal SELF. Our own Buddha-hood. The former is dependent on an external form of deity, the latter is self empowering.

Have you ever seen those meditation charts in yoga centers where they show that every human has 7 spiritual chakras. I believe that chanting Nam myoho renge kyo, gets these chakras in us moving in the direction of the mystic cosmic spiritual energies. It makes our life force stronger by acquiring more of spiritual cosmic energies.

 
Nichiren Buddhism is the key to unlocking that potential





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