Q: Do you ever wonder where you would be if you had not begun practicing Nichiren Buddhism?
A: I don't need to wonder. I have a good clue where I would be and it is horrible. Without Buddhism, I would have resumed my comfort eating habits whenever I felt lonely and depressed. I would still be a Music Major, and a miserable and disappointed one at that. See, in Atlanta, there are a lot of musical acts seeking to get a record deal. Now, I would have, in time, gotten a deal, and probably would have become a famous musical act. But I would have been a very lonely old man. When I watch biographies on several famous acts like Janis Joplin, Judy Garland, Cass Elliott, David Ruffin, and how portions of their life mirror my own, and also, the proclivity for addiction runs in my family, I know that I would have turned to drugs. Of course not heroin because I'm scared of needles. Not cocaine because I have a fear of strokes and brain hemorrhages. Nothing smoked because I value my ability to breathe. But definitely alcohol and pills. Without Nichiren Buddhism and nam myoho renge kyo, all of my fears of failure, all of my insecurities, and my pain would have caught up with me and I would have died a forlorn soul.
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